Seattle Schools Community Forum

The State Board of Education is holding a board meeting July 7-9 in Seattle . Please join board members for an open discussion July 8 at the Rainier Community Center on important topics such as strategies for closing the achievement gap, standards, and assessment. Please note that the regular meeting will be held at the Museum of Flight. Rainier Community Center, Seattle, WA 4600 38th Ave S Seattle, WA 98118 From 6:30-8:00 pm    Might want to come and give them a cheerful earful on Common Core and SBAC. From the Times: The forum is part of the board’s regular meeting, which begins today at the Museum of Flight. The three-day  agenda includes a review of of experiences districts had giving the new Smarter Balanced state math and reading tests this spring on July 9 from 10-11:30 a.m. The meetings on July 8 and July 9 both have times scheduled for publi...

Please forgive me, but I'm old, and old people like to natter on about the past. It's just what we do. We like to imagine that our experience has value. We see things and we think "Hey, I've seen this before!" That's bad enough, but then we feel compelled to tell you about it. Back in 2000 Seattle Public Schools was on fire with a revolutionary idea. It was a change in perspective that would reform public education. We were going to become a Standards-Based Learning System. Once implemented, Standards would fix all our woes. It would get all struggling students to learn at grade level. It would support advanced learners without those politically disturbing self-contained programs. It would integrate our students with disabilities and our English Language Learners. Once we became a Standards-based Learning System we would enter a new education paradise. The District headquarters spoke of little else. They did pilot projects with big announcements and then mad...

The Times reports on new state standards for Science which sound great (except they left out Computer Science and I think that's a mistake).  But the story really misses one huge thing: Common Core which is likely to come out with its own standards.  What happens then?   Hmm. No director community meetings for Saturday but there is a candidate debate on Sunday the 6th sponsored by the Rainier Chamber of Commerce and First Thursday at the Ark Lodge Cinemas.  The debate includes one between Sue Peters and Suzanne Dale Estey.  Space is limited so you need to register.  (I note the endorsement of the Times to Dale Estey and Blanchard.  Their reasoning on Dale Estey has changed somewhat since their early one.  (For parents who HAVE been in the district for longer than say, a couple of years, it's kind of puzzling to have the Times say Dale Estey's work in an SPS school is a reason to elect her.) Congratulations are in order for President Kay Smith...

Inspired by Gen Ed Mom I am starting a conversation about increasing the rigor, challenge, opportunity and support for students working beyond the Standards in our general education classrooms. As I have written numerous times before, the Standards, intended in theory as a floor - the minimum that students should achieve - function in practice as a ceiling - the maximum that students can achieve. The reasons are multiple, but the primary one is that the focus is on supporting all students to reach the standards rather than supporting each student to achieve as much as they can. All of the focus is on getting students to the standard and there is no focus left for teaching them beyond the standards. In addition to that faulty frame, there are bureaucratic practices that cap student achievement. They include horizontal alignment, vertical articulation, fidelity of implementation, and a gross misunderstanding of how Standards are supposed to work. There is also political opposition to s...

So says the Times .  Eleven teachers and instructional assistants at ORCA K-8 have decided that they, too, will boycott district-required tests known as the MAP, according to ORCA teacher Matt Carter. In the letter to district administrators, the Garfield staff members listed nine reasons why they oppose the test, which range from how few students take it seriously to how much time it takes away from class instruction and whether it measures what teachers are supposed to be teaching.  The middle school teachers at ORCA will not refuse to give the tests because they hope to get a grant from the city that requires that they give them, Carter said.  But 11 of the 16 teachers and instructional assistants in kindergarten through grade 5 have decided to do so, Carter said.   The principal apparently will find others to proctor the tests and give them anyway.  (I have heard about issues using non-staff proctors so it's not a...

From Concerned Teacher: The last OSPI Public Forum on the Common Core Standards and SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) is being held tomorrow night (Monday)18560 1st Avenue NE, in Shoreline. The forum will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Mount Rainier Room at Shoreline Center. OSPI is also seeking public input at the forums and through an online survey (available to take until Oct 31 ) because it is required to deliver a detailed report on the common core standards in January 2011 to the state Legislature. Formal adoption and implementation of the new standards may not occur until after the 2011 legislative session, which will provide an opportunity for legislative review. The forum will include information on how the new common core K-12 standards for English language arts and mathematics were created and how they build toward college and career readiness. In addition, the forum will contain information about: * The SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortiu...

In yet another speech, more opining from Bill Gates; we need better data. From an article in the AP: "The U.S. must improve its educational standing in the world by rewarding effective teaching and by developing better, universal measures of performance for students and teachers, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said Tuesday. Speaking at the National Conference of State Legislatures' annual legislative summit, Gates told hundreds of lawmakers how federal stimulus money should be used to spark educational innovation, spread best practices and improve accountability." Sadly, I don't believe any stimulus money will be used for innovation but likely to backfill sagging budgets. Best practices? How come we know things that work and don't replicate them? "It's not possible." "They have a different district." Okay, so which best practices? That's what I wish the Gates Foundation would help with; not creating new things but spreading exis...