Seattle Schools Community Forum

The Huffington Post has a whole education section and,as well, many guest bloggers. One of these is "freelance writer, humorist and educator, Brock Cohen, who wrote a funny, biting assessment of ed reform called " The Fairy Tale of School Reform ." He has a section called " Once Upon a time... " that starts like this: There lived a group of altruists known as the public school reformists . These munificent spirits selflessly set aside their unfathomably important lives in addressing such a dire issue. What this rarefied collection of heaven-sent do-gooders lacked in basic knowledge of classroom pedagogy and actual firsthand contact with nanny-less human schoolchildren, they more than compensated for in name recognition; soaring rhetoric; and the blind, unwavering conviction that nothing less than a systemic upheaval of the current school system could salvage public education. Yup, that's pretty much the story. Here's his second part , "...

This story off the AP wire. I bring this up because a man at last week's Board meeting had to be escorted away by 3 security people. I saw them talking firmly with him off in a corner (near the Board dais) but then, after the last speaker, he walked up and said he wanted to talk to the Board. They escorted him away as he shouted he wanted to speak to the Board. Michael said sorry, we've had our 20 speakers. Please sign up next time. It was odd but didn't register much with me as I didn't recognize the man.

There are two interesting stories on education issues recently posted on Crosscut. One , by Kent Kammerer, questions the focus on K-12 education leading to the one path of college. The other , by Craig Parsley, is about innovators working under the radar to evade the bureaucracy in Seattle Public Schools.

There will be some statement about two of the misleading statistics on the school reports (students making gains and advanced learners) at the quarterly Strategic Plan Update tomorrow. For some reason, my hopes are not high. Let's review the language from the superintendent's [cough] apology [cough]. Do you see anything here that suggests that they will: Ensure Definitions Are Clear ‐ We need to be crystal clear around the definitions of the performance measures in our district scorecard and school reports and make adjustments in language as necessary. But they are in no hurry to make those changes. They can wait until Wednesday. Proactively Communicate with Stakeholders – It is our responsibility to ensure the community understands our district scorecard and school reports. Again, this can wait. There's no hurry. We are responding to community feedback and sharing what we learn together about how to improve the way we measure and report on our progress. Examples inclu...

There has been a lot of confusion over the years about Spectrum - What is it, Whom does it serve, and Why do we need it. This confusion has been entirely the District's fault. The District created Spectrum. The District defined Spectrum. The District is responsible for the placement of Spectrum programs. But the District has been completely irresponsible when it comes to monitoring the quality and efficacy of Spectrum programs and the District has been completely irresponsible when it comes to enforcing the elements of Spectrum that define it. These failures by the District have recently come to a head at Lawton Elementary. All of this trouble - at Lawton and elsewhere - is entirely the District's fault. First, let's be clear about what Spectrum is. Spectrum is a program designed to meet the special academic, social, and emotional needs of academically gifted students. These students are identified by the District when they demonstrate that they have quantitative and ...

( Update: one important part of the issue that I failed to note in my first post is that the Legislature rarely cuts funding in mid-year . This will happen in Feb. for districts and it leaves them struggling mightily. They will have to dip into reserves - and in SPS's case, possibly the just-passed supplemental levy - to get through the year. Next school year, that's going to be where we see the axe fall.) I am sorry, truly, for the parents who have students in SPS. Not because we don't have some good things happening, we do, but because between the continuing district mismanagement AND the poor economy AND more budget cuts from the Legislature, it is going to likely be a terrible couple of years. I have some links here to recapping what did and didn't happen in the Legislature. One thing that didn't happen is that the state did not take levy equalization away from poorer districts. From the Horsesass blog (a very profane and funny take from a liberal who a...

The Wednesday Work Session is to be about the Strategic Plan and not Integrated Planning (which would include the NSAP Transition Plan). I cannot urge you strongly enough that if you, your friends or your school have specific concerns or issues about the Transition Plan and how it may affect your neighborhood/school community, let the Board know by the end of this week. Go to the Wednesday drop-in session with Tracy Libros and let her know. No one will be working or paying attention to this huge issue over the holiday break. The Board will be seeing the staff's plan on January 5th and that will leave only 2 weeks until the next Board meeting where they will vote on it. The Board doesn't like to back-load staff recommendations with amendments so really, the time is now .