Seattle Schools Community Forum

Rep. Reuven Carlyle has come out on his blog with a post that firmly aligns him in the ed reform camp.  This is his choice to make but it is not what I have heard from him in the past.   He also says some very unfair things and uses straight-out-of-the-book ed reform jargon.  (Seems he's starting getting the daily faxes from Stand on talking points.) I predict this divide is going to really be sharply felt next legislative session.  I think it is going to make for some really hard feelings (and hard choices) for many Democrats, both voters and elected officials.  But frankly, so be it.  I just wish that the ed reform side had the courage and courtesy to make some real acknowledgments about the other side - the "there are plenty of other things we can do" side. But I just want to go through Carlyle's piece and point out a few things: He completely echoes Nick Haneur on many points and I suspect these are the new talking points that are being passed ar...

A new Gates Foundation report (with Scholastic) has just come out called Primary Sources: 2012 - America's Teachers on the Teaching Profession. They surveyed about 10,000 teachers via e-mail and in person about schools, their classrooms, student and teacher performance and assessment, tenure, family involvement, job satisfaction and digital content.  It was not revealed to the teachers who was sponsoring the survey.  One chart that jumped out at me is on page 12 called "I mpact that various effects would have on improving academic achievement". Will you look at that - Family involvement and support was picked to be "very strong" or "strong" by 98% of the teachers.   High expectations was second at 96%.  Principals was the third choice at 91%.  And coming in fourth (Earth to Bill) - lower class sizes at 90%. Interestingly, lower class size was more important to teachers of older students.  What came in low on the scale for teachers?  A longe...

There's an article in today's NY Times entitled, "States Try to Fix Quirks in Teacher Evaluations."  I invite you to peruse the article - I'm not sure anyone would call them "quirks". It opens with a scene probably familiar to all - a high-school LA teacher explaining what irony means.  The principal was there to assess this veteran teacher's abilities.  He says it was a "good lesson."  BUT he had to give her a 1 (lowest score out of 1-5) because she didn't break the students into groups.  He had seen her do it in the past but in her professional wisdom, she didn't feel the need to do it for this lesson.  But the principal had to follow the rubric guidelines.  He said: “It’s not an accurate reflection of her as a teacher,” Mr. Ball said. That's just one assessment of what sounds like a perfectly fine teacher.  And yet, she got dinged.  But it's not just the teachers: Principals in rural Chester County, Tenn., are st...

Because of time constraints,  I confess to not following the various teacher evaluation bills in the Legislature.  In this morning's Times, Brian Rosenthal does a good job in laying out who is offering what.  All of the systems involve moving from a two-level rating — satisfactory or unsatisfactory — to a four-level rating system that would give teachers more feedback and thus help them improve. Under the earlier system, almost all teachers were rated satisfactory. The current law leaves the specifics up to individual districts, while the bill supported by the union would fill in some details and provide training. The reform-minded bill, on the other hand, would require student test scores to be used in evaluations and evaluations to be used in hiring decisions. The proposals from Gregoire and Dorn are similar to the bill backed by the union but have not generated much discussion this session. What is interesting to me is that, just like the charter bills...

Publicola had an interview with Governor Gregoire and she had some interesting things to say about education: PubliCola:  It seems more aggressive than the one you laid out.  [Gregoire announced a reform proposal last week—AP report here — that will put a pilot project of 4-tiered teacher evaluations in play statewide] . It ties teacher evaluations to student test scores, calls for charter schools, and allows the state to step in and take over failing schools. It’s in sync with President Obama’s education reform agenda. The proposal you came out with last week seems like a “lite” version of that to education reformers [because the evaluations aren't tied explicitly to "student academic growth"]. Gregoire:  I don’t really think so. I think what it is is a  Washington  reform. The most recent studies on charter schools come out of Stanford. And there’s no guarantee of anything there. As many as there are doing OK, there are an equal number that ar...

I read these two articles and thought, "What are we doing?" and "How did we get here?" The first is a blog entry from the Washington Post blog, The Answer Sheet, by Valerie Strauss who, in turn, had a guest blogger, Marion Brady.   It's called, Revealed: The School Board Member Who Took a Standardized Test.    The board member failed the test.  But that's not really the story.  Here's what he had to say:

This is a guest post from Jack Whelan who ran for School Board in District II in the primary. “I have a button that reads: "Those who CAN teach. Those who CAN'T become education policymakers." Well, not all teachers can teach, and not all policymakers can't, but ... it's mostly true.” –Deborah Meier It’s mostly true of school administrators, too. And that’s why it’s just wrong to have a teacher evaluation system that depends on one person—the principal. It only makes sense in a world where you accept that schools are like businesses where you get your performance evaluation from your boss. That’s frequently problematic even in corporate settings if you have a jerk for a boss (like that never happens) or a boss who, for whatever reason, doesn’t know your job because he or she never did it. (Ask any special ed teacher how many principals she’s had who have even the remotest clue about what she is doing.) A boss who doesn't understand what you're doing...

By request by a reader: Indeed, today I met a teacher friend that theoretically now confirms 3 local districts supposedly practicing the technique of giving negative evaluations to older (read "non-reform" and/or expensive) teachers to help force them out as a combo cost-saving/pro-reform move. What I am hearing is that while some schools are not having RIFs, many first-year teachers are not getting their contracts renewed.  (If they get an unsatisfactory in just one area, they're out.)  I have also heard that the teacher assessments are having a rough first implementation with some older teachers only getting one visit to review their performance and even stellar teachers are getting an "overall proficient" rating.   Teachers? Parents, ask at your school about RIFs.  I'd like to develop a list of them.

Only one Director community meeting this Saturday .  That would be with Betty Patu from 10am-noon at Tully's, 4400 Rainier Avenue South.

The stars aligned last night and Charlie and I were once again in the same place - the CPPS event on parent engagement at Lincoln High.  This event was great because there was evidence that the work CPPS is doing around parent engagement is reaching the right people. Also, I feel this may be a signal or a golden moment for parents to seize upon; this based on what the Superintendent had to say about parent input AND the CPPS idea of "training" parents to be advocates for their child.   I only wish this wasn't coming at the end of the school year when people are starting to dial back. Credit goes to all the CPPS staff but especially Stephanie Jones .

There were a couple of new op-eds in Crosscut this week.

Recently, Arne Duncan, the Department of Education Secretary, said that under the current NCLB law, almost 80% of our schools would be labeled failing.  From the AP via the Times today, here's what President Obama said: "That's an astonishing number," he said. "We know that four out of five schools in this country aren't failing. So what we're doing to measure success and failure is out of line."

State Senator Lisa Brown has introduced a bill that the Times labeled, " Older Teachers Would Get Help to Retire Early under Senate Measure ." From the article: Senate Bill 5846 would allow teachers who want to retire before age 65 to get $250 a month over the next three years to help pay for health-insurance coverage until they can qualify for Medicare. "Looming health-care costs for retiring teachers not only keep the highest paid teachers on the payroll who would otherwise exit the system, they create roadblocks for younger teachers eager to get their start in the classroom," Brown, D-Spokane, said in a statement. Health care costs for ALL older workers generally go up so why teachers? Brown said the measure is aimed at teachers within three years of retirement. She expects some, if not all, of the cost would be offset because the teachers leaving would be among the higher paid in the state due to their education and experience. A full analysis has...

Tomorrow is a big day in Olympia as House Bill 1609 (the so-called "Great Schools" legislation) will hold a public hearing. LEV and Stand for Children are all for this bill which would overturn the teachers contract issue of using seniority for RIFs. Let me go on the record as saying I see both sides. I can see why, in the face of the lack of any known method of assessing teachers fairly, teachers would go with seniority. On the other hand, it does seem wrong that being a teacher longer than another teacher would necessarily be the game changer. It says absolutely nothing about your abilities (except that in all your years of being a teacher, you had done nothing to get kicked out). It's quite the dilemma. I also want to point out that in Seattle, the SEA signed their contract for 3 more years of continuing the use of seniority in RIFs. But I also want to point out that the School Board agreed to this and the district signed off on it. So don't put it all ...

I haven't been keeping up as much as it seems that things change daily but here is what I believe the latest is. The Senate now has put out their proposal for trying to close the state budget gap (although still haven't closed it). In terms of education, they would protect more of what most of us would want protected. They would cut about $16M less than the House for K-4. They would transfer $25 from the State Need Grant (which would have to come from somewhat and I think higher ed has a big bullseye on it). Neither the House nor the Senate would make cuts to levy equalization or highly capable education. Also, I got a heads up on a real Lallapalooza of a bill ( HB 1025 ) that is being put forth by about 15 legislators led by Rep. Crouse. It is all loosely about education issues and includes highly capable, asthma/anaphylaxis, PE, drivers ed, school safety and civics classes. It also includes a passage about storm water drainage. (I'm guessing they all got in ...

KUOW's The Conversation will be featuring a segment called " Teacher Seniority versus Skill ." That sets the tone right away. Here's the blurb: When schools lay off teachers, it's last hired, first fired. But should seniority be more important than skill when it comes to the tough choices? We'll hear about a proposed change in state practice. Plus, what makes a great teacher, anyway? Who's the best teacher you ever had? What made them great? Call us and share your stories. You can e-mail a comment to conversation@kuow.org Or call in during the show - 543-KUOW or to leave a comment on their feedback line - 221.3663

Here we go. Is it inevitable that we will be RIFing teachers? Good question. In SPS, maybe. In other districts, probably. In this morning's Seattle Times is a story about Rep. Rodney Tom who is sponsoring a bill that would make teacher effectiveness the main factor in RIFs. Okay, so first of all, someone who is a lawyer, help me out. If they pass this law, it overcomes the teachers contracts that have already been signed? That seems wrong to me. What is weird to me is that we know the SEA contract has a new evaluation process in it so the district is getting there. We also know that the district and Board negotiated the contract WITH seniority being the main criteria. So they knew very well what they were signing even though parents told them they didn't like seniority as the first criteria. From the article: Mary Lindquist of the Washington Education Association said lawmakers started last year to move toward a new teacher-evaluation system. About 17 school district...

From Publicola : The Republicans convinced the Democrats to add two more spots to the state senate education committee, expanding it from eight to 10 seats. Last time we checked in , the committee was evenly split —four-to-four— between pro-teachers’ union votes and the (Secretary of Education) Arne Duncan crowd that wants to tie teacher evaluations to student assessment. (They’d also like charters if they had their druthers.) The two new members, Sens. Steve Hobbs (D-44, Lake Stevens) and Joe Fain (R-47, Auburn) side with the Duncan bloc; shorthand—they’re fans of the Waiting for Superman movie. That math puts the union bloc in the minority, six to four. You’ll remember, Hobbs had initially tried to get on the committee, but had been left off. Score one for Stand for Children—the activist group that’s promoting Waiting for Superman — which spent $21,000 on Hobbs’ election in November (the union spent $5,000 against him). And while SFC didn’t spend money on Fain, the...

I think many ed reformers rightly say, "Kids can't wait." I agree. There is nothing more depressing than realizing that any change that might be good will likely come AFTER your child ages out of elementary, middle or high school. Not to say that we don't do things for the greater good or the future greater good but as a parent, you want for your child now. Of course, we are told that change needs to happen now but the reality is what it might or might not produce in results is years off. (Which matters not to Bill Gates or President Obama because their children are in private schools.) All this leads to wonder about our teachers and what this change will mean. A reader, Lendlees, passed on a link to a story that appeared in the LA Times about their teacher ratings. (You may recall that the LA Times got the classroom test scores for every single teacher in Los Angeles and published them in ranked order.) This teacher in the story, Faye Ireland, retired after 45...

So most of you may have heard that the LA Times is doing a huge multi-part story about teacher evaluation. One of the biggest parts is a listing of every single public school teacher and their classroom test scores (and the teachers are called out by name). From the article: Though the government spends billions of dollars every year on education, relatively little of the money has gone to figuring out which teachers are effective and why. Seeking to shed light on the problem, The Times obtained seven years of math and English test scores from the Los Angeles Unified School District and used the information to estimate the effectiveness of L.A. teachers — something the district could do but has not. The Times used a statistical approach known as value-added analysis, which rates teachers based on their students' progress on standardized tests from year to year. Each student's performance is compared with his or her own in past years, which largely controls for outs...