Seattle Schools Community Forum

This article in last week's NY Times has a good chart with basic stats on U.S. education. Among them: more than 95,000 (students in) public elementary and secondary schools, 3,200 charter schools and nearly 4,300 degree-granting colleges, as well as 1.1 million who are home-schooled 55.8M students, pre-k-12 11% of elementary/high school students are in private schools The two most interesting to me were: 10.5M students ages 5-17 speak a language other than English at home (huge repercussions for educating these students and the differences between students' abilities to learn in English) 24% of students 12-17 are in a gifted program and/or take higher level classes like AP (I wouldn't have thought it to be so high. I wonder how this measures against the number of SPS students in the Advanced Learning programs and/or taking honors or AP classes or IB.)

This article appeared in the PI on Thursday about work from the math committee from the State Board of Education. From the article: "The report, written by Linda Plattner of the Maryland-based educational research firm Strategic Teaching, which was hired by the state to assess its math expectations, also emphasizes the need to simplify grade level expectations and to set priorities for the state's math standards. "That should help teachers as well as kids," Harding said. The focus groups also taught the math committee that they need to include a math educator in their review committee so they can hear from a teacher if the standards will work in the classroom. Harding said the full Board of Education is expected to approve the math review report at its Sept. 18-19 meeting in Wenatchee and hand it off to the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, which has already begun to work on the next step: rewriting grade level expectations and learning guidel...

This article appeared in today's PI. The principals have tabled the idea of SPS joining Metro until 2010. I get the reasoning which includes: "Specialization remains all the rage these days in the city, and Garfield and Franklin are considered basketball schools." "An obstacle to reverting to one huge Metro League remains open enrollment, which has been tilting football participation levels across the city. With recently remodeled schools, interest is up at Roosevelt, which has 106 players turning out, and remains steady at Ballard, where 81 are in uniform. Garfield, undergoing a building renovation, has just 45 players." But on the other side: "In the suburbs, schools such as Eastlake and Bothell have extensive youth and junior high feeder programs, creating interest and building skills. City teams have no such help." "Yet dynamic coaches like him can't be expected to stick around long, forever battling inequities." "They call a...

The September Seattle Council PTA newsletter had these important news items: Seattle Council PTSA General Meeting – Sept. 24, 7pm, JSCEE (3rd & Lander) Special Guest: Maria Goodloe-Johnson School Board Candidates Forum October 11 6:30-8:30 pm at the Stanford Center New School Funding Model to Replace Weighted Student Formula: Guiding Principles measure set for introduction at Sept 5 SB Meeting Seattle Public Schools is taking the next step in moving from the Weighted Student Formula model to a new “core standard” funding model for allocating resources to Seattle schools. On Sept. 5, the School Board will introduce a set of guiding principles for this new model with a vote proposed for Sept. 19. To see a copy of the DRAFT Policy Guidelines and more about opportunities for public input check out http://www.seattlecouncilptsa.org/ The Sept. 5 agenda with supporting documents should be posted by Friday afternoon. Community Drop-in Meetings to Continue Discussion of Studen...

Hello This article was in the P-I today about the WASL results. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/329675_wasl31.html Here is a quote from the article: Despite the delay and "mixed messages" from the Legislature, Bergeson said, just over 60 percent of the class of 2008 who took the WASL passed in all three subjects. "The train wreck everybody has been imagining isn't going to happen," she said. I will have to respectfully disagree with Superintendent Bergeson. The possibility that 40% of the students in the class of 2008 may not graduate is a train wreck of unprecedented proportions. Another quote from the article: For now, students who fail the math exam will have to complete a state-approved alternative assessment or take additional math courses. This kind of glosses over what the requirements are. The students will need to do a Collection of Evidence that is very difficult (I know because I have taken the training and have done the problems). If the stu...

In the thread about the Times editorial, I wrote something that I want to bring forward for discussion. I wrote that despite all of the talk around restoring or building public confidence in the District, I'm not sure what people mean when they say "confidence", but that I thought they meant "trust". I wrote about four types of trust that are missing: 1) People don't trust the District to provide their child with a quality education. a) Large WASL failure rates for poor and minority students b) No apparent plan for closing the academic achievement gap c) A math curriculum that doesn't appear effective or coherent d) Perceived lack of support for students working beyond Standards 2) People don't trust the District to protect their child's safety. a) Inaction and stonewalling on water quality issues b) Inaction and stonewalling on mold/air quality issues c) Inaction and non-reporting on sexual assualt at Rainier Beach d) Inaction on student behavio...

I caught the end of the Student Learning Committee this evening and heard a bit of the discussion on the Program Placement Policy that is in development. The Policy may be teamed with a procedure, but it might not. The Board may simply leave the details to the Superintendent. The Policy will require that programs be equitably distributed across the district, the programs be placed close to the students' homes, that communities and stakeholders be engaged regarding program placements, that there be some analysis of impacts, and that the placement serve District-wide academic goals. Every program placement proposal - regardless of source - must meet the same criteria for acceptance. The struggle here is between the need for central control to provide equitable access and the history of local control. For example, if the District decides that a school should have a Spectrum program is it okay for the principal at the school to reject it? On the other hand, if a school wants a Spectrum...