Seattle Schools Community Forum

 Update: I stayed about an hour (of the hour and a half allotted for the Work Session).  It was mostly a complete waste of time for all involved.  (I'll check and see if anything definitive finally came out but I doubt it.) Here's the upshot - later start times for secondary schools is NOT going to happen for next school year, 2014-15.  It will likely not happen for 2015-16.  The issue is that no staff person can give any real idea of how much time it would take for all this "research and community engagement" they believe to be necessary.  It is clear staff does not want to do this.  I do not believe they think it worth the time and effort (Banda's early statement notwithstanding that no one disputes the merits of changing bell times).  I'm not even sure they believe there are good academic outcomes to be had.  Now, Mr. Wright was once again quite diplomatic and careful to state that it is not that they DON'T want to do this but th...

An event perhaps of interest to you when we think about privacy and data - Town Hall is hosting Joshua Klein and his talk, Reputation and Your Online Footprint .  It's this Thursday the 9th at 7:30 pm.  Cost is $5.  Got old electronics?  Windermere in Ballard is having an electronics recylcing day on Saturday the 11th from 10 am to 2 pm.  A good time to get those old items cleared out of your garage/basement.  I read the transcript of our new mayor's inaugural speech from yesterday.  Not a word about public education.  Interesting. What's on your mind?

I doubt it. I'm reading the presentation for tomorrow's Work Session on Transportation and School Start Times.   Staff is explaining why they could not implement any change to high school start times in 2014-2015.  There are valid reasons, of course, but then there are several references to "all stakeholders who will be affected need to be consulted and kept informed."   You read that and think, "Is the district finally getting the message on that kind of transparency and consultation?"  I would not hold my breath.  I think it's just a fairly convenient reason to NOT make the effort this year.  (And by effort, I don't mean change the start times for 2014-2015 - I mean actually start the process that they say is needed.) I think the Next Steps/Questions is something of a throwdown to the Board but frankly, one the Board should consider.   Did they really get the right information to decide on district priorities?  It's unclear ...

I am urging you to speak out - either via e-mail or via public testimony - to the Board about two subjects. One, student data privacy.  We see from the agenda the RTTT item, some of which is about helping PreK-3rd grade students.  It's a fine idea but again, that's exactly the starting age that many entities want to start data tracking.  Will their parents be told this is happening (or asked if they consent)? Two, later start times for high school.  As I reported, staff is not saying no but basically, we have enough work and the Board didn't make it priority.  President Peaslee said that they could not include everything into the Strategic Plan but that the Board has been talking about this and asking for feasibility information for quite a few years.  Help the Board get there to that nuts and bolts discussion. Write to them at schoolboard@seattleschools.org.   Tell them you want a student data privacy policy with real teeth and protections and/o...

Tuesday, January 7th Work Session: Transportation Service Standards and School Start Times from 5-6:30 p.m.  No agenda/presentation available. Should be interesting given that many want a discussion on school start times and staff seems to be pushing back mightily.   However, President Peaslee is not moving an inch on waiting to have that discussion. Special Education Advisory and Advocacy Council Meeting from 6:30 pm to 9:00 p.m., JSCEE Room 2700. Wednesday, January 8th Executive Committee Meeting , 8:30-10 am, Update- agenda School Board Meeting starting at 4:15 pm.  Agenda . Please sign up to speak on student data privacy.   The district is NOT happy over the unilateral move by OPSI in their agreement with the Seattle Times for Seattle student data.  Let them know you want a robust policy with teeth (currently none exists).   Need talking points?  Contact me.

It will soon be the start of a new legislative session in Olympia, which, of course, means that the Legislature will take another run at doing the absolute minimum they can do and still claim to be making progress towards their obligation under the McCleary decision. It also means that there will be a bunch of people - all of the usual suspects - claiming that the McCleary decision isn't just about money. Let's stop that nonsense right now. The McCleary decision was about money, not reform. Anyone who tells you different is lying. They will claim that McCleary is as much about reform as it is about money. That's simply not true. McCleary is about reform like Moby Dick is about the second mate, Stubb. Yes, he's in there, but he's not central to the narrative. The book would be the same without him. Don't let anyone deceive you: McCleary is about money, not reform. Yes, there was some mention of reform in the decision, but it wasn't central to the decisio...

Here are some stories from around the country that will have more and more bearing on what we are doing in Washington State. From Ed Week, a top 12 list of stories from the past year.  The majority of them are about Common Core as the fight goes on.  Linked to Common Core (and you see this in story after story elsewhere) is student data privacy.  I also note the presence of a story on grading schools A-F which I predict will show up in this session of the Legislature. Here's one from Bill Moyers about the "Snowden Effect" or we could just call it the canary in the coal mine.  For some reason the media chooses to listen to established (or paid for by, establishment) groups.  There are a lot of people out there, including this blog, going into the dark corners looking around.  That we only have a flashlight and not a spotlight doesn't mean we are wrong.   These days, the establishment media all too often adopts an indifferent attitude tow...