Seattle Schools Community Forum

 From SPS Communications: Earlier this month, Seattle Public Schools sought applicants for a newly formed Native American Advisory Committee.  A number of applicants have been received but SPS encourages more to apply. The extended deadline is Monday, April 22. The initial committee term is April 2013 to June 2015. Nomination forms are available here  and can be mailed to: P.O. Box 34164 Mailstop 32156 Seattle, WA, 98124 Nominations can also be emailed to naeac@seattleschools.org . From KPLU: Seattle Public Schools wants to add a half-hour to the school day for elementary students by as early as the next school year. But the district must first align a number of variables, including funding and union support.

Danny Westneat had a column in the Times last week about summer vacation for K-12 public schools students.  He boos the new initiatives for a longer school year (or even year-round) school on the premise that kids need the "value" of freedom?  He says: Doesn't that value, of freedom, count anymore? Or is it all now about prepping for the 21st-century global economy. I know, not everyone can go to the San Juans. But we could try to spread summer's spirit, instead of giving up on it. Give more kids a chance to run free. It may not be "expanded learning time." It can expand you just the same. Here's the thing.  If our schools had direct interventions during the school year for struggling students and enrichment for all and summer school for both remedial and enrichment, I'd say keep summer vacation.  But that is not happening or is happening in a piecemeal fashion.  Not good enough. I know a couple of people (out of state) who had kids i...

Seattle Public Schools is hosting several workshops Saturday, May 14 that will provide families with tools and information to support their children's learning during the summer. The " Building Bridges: Workshops Connecting Families and Schools " will run from 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. at Garfield High School. For more information, please read this news release .

I wrote an article for Crosscut (the on-line e-zine of the Northwest) about the upcoming Families and Education levy . I talked to both people on both sides of the issue, read all the supporting materials and did research on what the levy has done in the past. I wholeheartedly support this levy . It covers so much ground from pre-K thru high school. New to this levy are programs that the district has eliminated like college counseling and summer learning. In addition, it will have a program the district doesn't have but is working in other schools districts - direct interventions for struggling students. Unfortunately these programs will only be available at the high poverty middle and high schools but better it is there then not having it at all. Most of all this levy has oversight, accountability and transparency. For me, those are the ding-ding-ding "we have a winner" words for a levy. I want to know exactly where the money is going. I want to know that on...

I am desperately trying to catch up on a number of stories. (This one is long but I found it fascinating so get something cool to drink.) One that caught my eye was this one from the NY Times about a study that found was asking this question: How much do your kindergarten teacher and classmates affect the rest of your life? The effect was thought to be short-term even for students who had great teachers. By junior high and high school, children who had excellent early schooling do little better on tests than similar children who did not — which raises the demoralizing question of how much of a difference schools and teachers can make. There has always been one major caveat, however, to the research on the fade-out effect . It was based mainly on test scores, not on a broader set of measures, like a child’s health or eventual earnings. As Raj Chetty , a Harvard economist, says: “We don’t really care about test scores. We care about adult outcomes.” Early this year,...