Seattle Schools Community Forum

Not content to wait a couple of weeks until their endorsements, the Times' editorial board has come out with yet another piece bewailing our current board. They promise "this page will parse the roles and qualifications of elected boards through a series of editorials." Oh boy. They claim that with this Board that Raj was "just a vote or two" away from firing. Brita could weigh in but I do not believe that was ever the case. At a couple of points they might have thought about not renewing his contract but that's different from firing. I think the Board thought the time had come to move on when Phase 2 of closures and consolidations was so badly botched. But I don't think there was strife or animosity between the Board and Raj and the Times seems to make it sound like there was. And, once again, they try to compare the Board of Regents at UW with the School Board. I'll bet they are very different in their goals and processes but it just mi...

This article , in the NY Times last Friday, certainly does raise a lot of questions about the federally mandated voucher program in Washington, D.C. Here's an overview in quotes from the article: "A Republican-controlled Congress established the voucher program, for Grades K through 12, in 2004. Over the last three years it has provided scholarships of up to $7,500 annually to cover tuition, fees and transportation expenses for each of about 1,800 poor children to attend private school. About 90 percent of the participating students have been African-American, and an additional 9 percent Hispanic, according to the Congressionally mandated study. The results were eagerly awaited, because studies of similar programs elsewhere, in cities including Cleveland, Milwaukee and Dayton, had not produced definitive conclusions about whether vouchers significantly increased the academic achievement of students who previously attended public schools." However: "Students who part...

This lengthy article appeared in today's Seattle Times. It's a discussion about uniform lesson plans, teaching order of subjects, etc. Many quotes from Carla Santorno and Mike Riley (Superintendent in Bellevue). Among them, "Locally, the Bellevue School District appears to manage its lessons the most. In some subjects it has a long list of required lessons, one for nearly every day. Other districts, to varying degrees, are standardizing instruction as well. In Seattle, for example, Chief Academic Officer Carla Santorno hopes that a U.S. government or calculus class at Ballard High eventually will use the same syllabus as one at Franklin or Roosevelt or Sealth. The goal is to provide students with the same academic experiences, regardless of their teacher or school." And later on, "Locally, the Bellevue School District appears to manage its lessons the most. In some subjects it has a long list of required lessons, one for nearly every day. Other districts,...

On Tuesday from 9-10 am KUOW's Weekday show will air a program about graduation requirements. 9 - 10 AM: What Should A High School Graduate Know? "The state board of education is grappling with new high school graduation requirements. They are looking at what makes for a meaningful diploma. Among their criteria - they believe that a high school graduate should meet or exceed the standard on core subject areas; be able to think critically and logically; know how to learn continuously; and be able to apply learning in practical and work settings. But how do you turn these ideas into actions? What should students have to know to graduate? What would make the diploma a student receives more meaningful?" They normally list their guests but didn't here; I assume they are not set yet. You can always listen to the show after it airs by going to their website at kuow.org.

Roy Smith brought up an interesting issue on the tail of another thread but I thought it deserved its own. What is the capacity size at any given building? Would we want schools full to capacity? In my work on the CAC (and later on), I found that Facilities uses different capacity numbers. It's quite puzzling. There are different factors in determing capacity like teaching stations (actual classrooms), special ed rooms, a teachers' area, etc. What I saw on the CAC is that when a school was underenrolled, many schools found uses for their extra space and were loath to give it up. I get that (especially in older buildings that weren't designed to have an art room as many new buildings do have) but the extra rooms have to do more than be storage or extra room for art projects. The district doesn't help by publishing/stating different capacity numbers (depending on the issue they are speaking on). We need realistic numbers that do not change (unless a new program...

Today was the final day for Linda Thomas' fun and interesting education blog at the Seattle PI. Thanks to Linda for a great forum and her charming off-the-cuff takes on life. This leaves an opening there if someone might want to continue an education blog at the PI. Anyone? This being the last day of school (and as Linda has alerted us to in our kids' yearbooks), HAGS to all. (Have a Great Summer.)

Well, according to this study first-borns are smarter than their sibs. "The study of 240,000 Norwegian men in the journal Science found the IQs of firstborns were two to three points higher than those of younger siblings. While that may not sound like much, experts said even a few IQ points can make a big difference over a lifetime and set firstborns on a trajectory for success. University of California, Berkeley, researcher Frank Sulloway, who wrote a commentary accompanying the study, said two to three IQ points could translate to an added 20 to 30 points on an SAT college-entrance exam." and this, "The findings suggested the mechanism behind the birth-order effect is not biological but related to social interactions within families. He surmised older children are showered with attention early in life and treated as leaders within the family. They are handed more responsibility after siblings are born and live with higher expectations from their parents. Spaci...