Seattle Schools Community Forum

What's your education wish for 2015?   Let's go with three wishes; one for Seattle Schools, one for the state, and one national. 1) For this district, a perennial favorite of mine, a School Board that does its REAL job.  Providing oversight and accountability. Examining the "priorities" of the district vis a vis school-based needs/parent desires.  Not accepting excuses from upper management on serious issues.  But this will not come from the majority of the current Board (clearly) so we have the work to find, support and elect four new people for the Board.  (I know - it's a big job but it has been done before.)  2) You might have thought I would say "enact McCleary" but honestly, that's the Legislature's job and it's the constitutional mandate.  There shouldn't even be any discussion that drags on for months and months. Nope, my wish is for the Washington State Supreme Court to overturn the charter school law.  I think the law...

From Town Hall : Seattle’s recently-passed universal pre-k measure included a stipulation of standardized testing, but according to NPR’s Anya Kamenetz ( Generation Debt ), today’s schools are sacrificing learning by enacting such regulations. The Test: Why Our Schools are Obsessed with Standardized Testing–But You Don’t Have to Be is her insightful look at the world of standardized testing in the era of No Child Left Behind, increased college expectations, and overachievers. She’ll outline the pressures these tests place on students, their families, and school districts, ultimately offering a wake up call for educators–and parents–to move beyond numbers, and refocus on the child. Kamenetz is the author of several books and NPR’s lead digital education reporter. 7:30PM, Tuesday, January 20, 2015 , Downstairs at Town Hall , 1119 Eighth Avenue, $5

The Onion takes a look at how to fix our nation's schools.  It's barely tongue-in-cheek but takes a fairly good swipe at corporate ed reform. The Times had an article about how Seattle is first in the nation for kids living with both parents.  This is not altogether surprising to me.  I recall (and this was more than a decade ago) that my son's elementary class (this was a Spectrum class) had 32 students and yet there were only two divorced parents.  That seemed an anomaly to me at the time but perhaps not.  It was also a bit of an odd article as it seemed to define intact families with conservatism (and how did liberal Seattle end up this way) via a non-traditional bridal blogger.    But I also looked up the cities with the lowest kid population because I had been quoting San Francisco as having the lowest, then Seattle.  Turns out that has changed according to Forbes in Feb. 2014.  Pittsburgh has the lowest "youth population" follo...

With the district being effectively closed, here are some items of interest. SPS Family Connectors University , starts Jan. 12th.  The Family Connectors University program is a ten-week series of adult workshops that is designed to empower families with information on how to navigate the school system, how to create a college-going culture at home, and how to support their child’s, and other children’s, academic succes s. New School Lunch Menus -  Link . Over the past three years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has put in place many guidelines to help students make healthier choices in the school cafeteria, based on the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This year, in addition to further changes to the meal standards for breakfast and lunch, students will see changes outside of the school cafeteria as well. Food and beverages sold from vending machines, student stores and fundraisers will be affected by the new "Smart Snack" regulations....

As several readers have noted, more information has come out about the suspended View Ridge teacher and how he came to this time and place.  Q13 had the story . Apparently the teacher had reached out to a 16-year girl that he knew had attended View Ridge to ask if she would like to volunteer in his classroom (it is unclear if she had been in his class when she was at View Ridge).  How he knew how to contact her is also unclear but he then allegedly sent her texts and anonymous comments in chat rooms.  The girl felt uncomfortable and did the right thing and told her parents. I report this because, as another reader suggested, parents (and teachers and school staff) should know what " grooming" behavior by an adult to a child looks like.  It is important to know that if you see inappropriate behavior, you report it.  School staff have been trained in how they should interact with children.  Sometimes an action can be innocent or even accidental but on-go...

You can visit the District's Title IX web page for the latest news about Seattle Public Schools Title IX compliance efforts. The latest developments include the hiring of an interim Title IX Compliance Officer, Barbara Nahouraii, her addition to the Title IX Task Force (in place of Michael Tolley), and the adoption, on December 9th, of a new superintendent procedure, 3208SP, on sexual harassment . On that same day, December 9th, I sent an email to Ms Nahouraii with eleven questions about the current status of the District's Title IX compliance efforts. They were all questions that I presumed she would be able to answer off the top of her head. She replied with a brief email promising a response "shortly". I have yet to receive that response. It's only been about two weeks. I guess it still qualifies as "shortly". Here were the eleven questions:

From  UW 's  School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, a unit within the College of the Environment: