Seattle Schools Community Forum

The last "first day" of school for my house, sniff. Oh well, they have to grow up sometime. How was it for you?

I hadn't heard much about how the first year of AP Human Geography at RHS (a required class for all sophomores) had gone. Here's a blurb from the Rider Record (parent newsletter) which I assume was written by a teacher: "RHS Social Studies teachers are proud to share that our first year of the 10th grade AP Human Geography course was a great success. Students were talking about, writingabout, and filming important issues in the world around them, near and far. ―235 students took the test with an average score of 3.234 (162 students scoring a 3 or higher). That is worth a major kudos to the staff and the students, said Principal Brian Vance. We are gearing up for another year of viewing the ever changing, complex world around us through the lenses of population, cultural, economic, environmental and political geography. Once again, we will host two evening family book seminars, one in fall and one in spring. Watch for the date of our first seminar on the book Three Cups ...

Seattle does care about public education. Thank you Seattle Times. From the Seattle Times editorial page: "Labor Day ends The Seattle Times Fund for the Needy school-supply drive that began on July 4. Reader contributions pay for the pencils, pens, notebooks and other tools of learning that help students begin a new year with optimism and confidence. Three excellent agencies screen applicants, and buy, organize and distribute the supplies: Hopelink, the Seattle-King County Coalition on Homelessness and the YWCA of Seattle-King County-Snohomish County. We are grateful for all they do. In the midst of economic uncertainty, a record 551 donors have given more than $50,000 , which is nearing another record. In our 10th school-supply drive, total contributions exceed $308,000. Thank you. We continue to look to the words and spirit of President Thomas Jefferson as our guide. He believed educated citizens were necessary to sustain democracy. He also understood the consequences of ...

From the Candidate Scorecard thread, this discussion started: On 9/8/09 at 1:11 PM, tg wrote... As a new parent in the south end, I'm curious how the board will make an effort to keep families like mine in the public system if the assignment plan seems to be moving more towards keeping kids going to the schools located closest to their home. If my choices come down to sending the kid to a school with less programs and support, moving, or finding a way to pay for private school, I'll probably pick one of the latter two choices if Seattle's south end schools continue to lag behind the north. I never thought I'd send my kid to private school, but the more I read this blog and other things on Seattle's schools, the less inclined I am to stay in them, at least down here in south Seattle. At 3:04 PM, Charlie Mas asked... tg, I hope you're still around and can answer an open-ended question. What would it take for you to choose your neighborhood school? What would the...

(Update: here is a link to the original story I found on this district that mentions the Gates Foundation grant.) Looking around here and there, I happened on this school district in Boulder, Colorado. Mapleton is a district of just under 6,000 students that had found itself floundering. In 2006, their superintendent held a series of public meetings to talk revamping the schools - all of them. With the help of the Gates Foundation, they created 17 new schools up from 7. They attract teachers who are excited about this new and more diverse (at least in teaching approaches) district. What do they have? -a PK-6 Montessori - a K-6 elementary with hands-on learning and same teacher for 2 years - a traditional K-6 - a K-6 that is "gifted and talented learning for all" - a K-12 school for IB - another K-12 - a 7-12 arts school - 9-12 college prep with optional 13th year to gain an AA degree - an 18-20 young adult school to help those students finish high school and work ...

Long time readers of this blog will be familiar with two recurring rants of mine. One is all about the need for an extended, intensive, and enriched program designed to accelerate the education of students working below grade level, quickly bring them up to grade level, and then return them to their general education classroom. The other is about a scheme by which the City of Seattle takes over the property management duties and expenses for the District. An article in today's Seattle Times reminds me of the latter. It also raises the possibility of a private interest doing the same job. I'm not as interested in the private option as the public one, but it does demonstrate a new potential benefit - a cash infusion.

(Update on Bellevue schools below.) Shocking, I tell you, just shocking. Stay in school and listen to the grown-ups in your life. Realize that even if you have challenges, teachers are there to help you and you can achieve. That's what Obama is going to tell American school children tomorrow. Gosh, you should read it for yourself what terrible and abusive things Obama will be saying tomorrow at schools across the nation. From the LA Times story: "On Thursday, Jim Greer, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, accused the president of attempting to "indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda." According to Greer, "the idea that schoolchildren across our nation will be forced to watch the president justify his plans for government-run healthcare, banks and automobile companies, increasing taxes on those who create jobs, and racking up more debt than any other president, is not only infuriating but goes against the beliefs of the majority ...