Seattle Schools Community Forum

Teachers Eric Muhs (Ballard High School) and Jennifer Hall (West Seattle High School), candidates for Seattle Education Association president and vice president, respectively, will hold the first of several citywide coffee conversations this Monday, January 16th. Cafe Apassionato, Fisherman's terminal,  4001 21st Avenue West,  Seattle, WA 98199.  9 to 10:30 am. We are especially interested in meeting other like-minded Seattle Public Schools educators, but are also intent on opening new lines of communication between teachers, parents and other supporters of public education. Our website: www.socialequalityeducators.org

What is happening in our country? In Wisconsin it has gotten really ugly.  The governor there is determined to make his point and, I guess, show himself to be some kind of GOP superstar.  The teachers have agreed to take big cuts in their health care as the Governor wants.  Not enough.  If collective bargaining is the problem, Governor, why single out teachers?  Why not police or firefighters or state troopers?  Oh right, they supported your campaign and teachers didn't.  (Luckily some of those groups have come to their senses because if you break one union, then buddy, yours is next.) Honestly, let's set aside whether we think unions are a good idea or have morphed into self-serving adult groups who are totally selfish.  Let's talk fairness. It was one thing when teachers were named as the number one reason that some think education in our country is failing (it's not).  It's another thing when teachers' contracts are named as the ...

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 attended the School Reports meeting on Monday night at Roosevelt. There were about 45 people in attendance. All the principals of the NE schools were there as well as Phil Brockman, the Executive Director for the NE region, Susan Enfield, CAO, Jessica de Barros, Ramona Hattendorf and Lauren McGuire of the SCPTSA and Olga Addae, president of the SEA. They had the individual school reports for all the NE schools. (I learned that Jessica de Barros has a different title/job now but I don't know what it is.) It was structured so that staff gave a presentation and then there were small table groups (4-6) where these questions were to be discussed: 2 areas at your school to focus on and 2 to celebrate what do you want your principal to do to improve your school areas the district needs to focus on to improve your school areas you feel the district needs to have better communications what can family members do to help your school I wasn't sure how well this would work if there w...

From Riya Bhattacharjee at the Stranger Slog, a story on the interview with Dr. Goodloe-Johnson on KING 5's Upfront with Robert Mak. (The story has the video.) He asked about school reports. He asked her if, say, 4th grade math scores were down who should parents hold accountable? Everyone, she says, teachers, principals, herself (if only we could ask how to hold her accountable). Teach for America was also a topic. From the Slog: When King 5 reporter Robert Mak asked her if she was willing to fight to bring Teach For America to Seattle, given the hefty opposition from the teachers union, Goodloe-Johnson replied that she was a "little surprised" by the concern. "It's an innovative idea," she said. "It's not an idea to fight about" because TFA candidates will follow the exact same hiring process as any other teacher in the district. How important is this program to you? It's very important she said and " there's no...

(Update: ack! I know it's Tracy Record at WSB, not Read. Apologies to Tracy and thanks to Mark A. for correcting me.) I wanted to report back on the press conference. I attended with Dorothy Neville and I think we were possibly the only real members of the public there. I asked again if I could have a press credential because I asked why Tracy Record of the West Seattle blog (who wasn't there but sometimes is) gets a press pass. I was told that (1) I'm not a real journalist and (2) I don't write more broadly (meaning, I only write about public education). Also, I write for a blog which is commentary and not reporting. More on this in a minute. There was a grand total of ONE news organization (there might have been more but no one I recognized). It was a guy from KING-TV shooting B roll footage for the station. So basically, I will be the only person in all of Seattle reporting what happened at the press conference that the district put together because they ...

The SEA has responded to the District's effort to communicate directly with the teachers about the contract negotiations with this message for the teachers: August 3, 2010 The TRUTH about SERVE Seattle (Please read and pass on) Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson and Board Member Steve Sundquist sent all certificated staff an email tonight. The email contains and describes what they are calling SERVE Seattle. It is the district's bargaining proposal that ties student growth based on test scores to certificated evaluations. The SEA held five focus group meetings last week to get input on the district’s proposal. We had over 200 certificated employees present at the focus group meetings, representing 57 schools and programs. Now the superintendent believes that if she just emails each of you; maybe you will put pressure on SEA and the bargaining team to go the way the district wants us to. The truth of the matter is that the email they sent you leaves out important details. Base...

The District's contract negotiators are trying an end-run around the SEA bargaining team to appeal to the teachers directly. They have sent the teachers this letter by email, by regular post, and they have posted it on the web . Introducing SERVE Seattle: Support, Empower, Recognize & Value Educators in Seattle August 3, 2010 Dear Seattle Public Schools Teachers and Other Certificated Staff: All of us who are part of Seattle Public Schools are committed to providing an excellent education for each child. As we know from our own experience and from national research, nothing matters more to student achievement than good teachers. Our teachers deserve a system that supports them as professionals, recognizes their excellence, and encourages collaboration to strengthen instruction. That is why we are working together with your SEA representatives to make sure that every teacher gets the tools, time, support, and opportunity needed to help students succeed. We are writing to you to ...

Here are some articles/ideas I've been reading about this week; these on teacher performance. (I note that some of these have been previously mentioned by other readers here and thanks for that; I tend to collect all the articles to go over at one time.) Denver schools are trying a new teacher pay system called Pro Comp . I find it to be a fairly complex system of extra pay for different measures like working in hard to staff schools, exceeding expectations, advanced degrees. It started in 2008 and about half of Denver's teachers are enrolled. This system came about thru an agreement with Denver Public Schools and their teachers union and is funded by a levy. There was also a link at the Pro Comp site to the Center for Educator Compensation Reform, a clearing house for performance based compensation. There's just a ton of information there but I haven't had time to read it yet. A map at the site indicates that about two-thirds of the states have some form of...