Seattle Schools Community Forum

Yesterday staff presented an update to the Board during a Work Session on the Strategic Plan.  I did not attended but just read thru the presentation .  It includes survey results of both parents and staff. Here's what I wrote the Board: Dear Directors, Looking at the Strategic Plan Presentation, I see this notation: At this stage, we are highlighting data but do not yet have root cause analyses or proposed solutions. I can help.

I found something interesting on the SPS website this morning.   It's an SPS communication called "Data Confidentiality: How Seattle Public Schools Protects Student Information."  Interesting that it was released while the district is on Spring Break. I think this deserves more investigation (and indeed is on my reading/writing list as I have piled up some articles).  This is becoming almost as big an issue as opting out of assessments.  I'm putting this up now to get it on your radar but there will be a part two to this thread. It's a fairly carefully worded piece but it does seem to dodge/leave out a few things. First, they say: As a District, we strictly adhere to the Superintendent Procedure on Student Records and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) requirements to protect the confidentiality of student information.   Then they say: The Superintendent’s Procedure builds upon the FERPA law with detail regarding how ed...

From the "Hmmm" category (an SPS announcement): Each spring, Seattle Public Schools administers a survey to all families, school staff and students about instruction, leadership, and family engagement. Teachers, families and community members are invited to join school leaders 5:30-7 p.m., Feb. 2 at the John Stanford Center for a meeting that will include an overview of last year’s survey results, small group discussions to gather feedback on improving the surveys and Q&A. For questions, comments, and accommodation requests, please contact research@seattleschools.org . This could be very interesting and probably worth going to if only to listen.