Seattle Schools Community Forum

A story in today's Seattle Times reports that the math textbook adoption committee for Belleveue School District has recommended Holt materials. Here are some critical lines from the story: " Teachers and parents on the committee said they feared students struggling with math, and those who speak English as a second language, would not fare as well with the Discovering series. " " district teachers could do well with either textbook series. But he said the district should select textbooks that are best for students when they aren't in class. 'We need to get off the issue that the book has to fit the teacher' " " Several teachers Thursday night argued that the Discovering textbooks would do a better job if taught in small classrooms, but because classes are large, and expected to grow because of budget cuts, they considered Holt the better option. "

Here's a story in the Seattle Times about lay-offs announced in Seattle Public Schools' central office. It says that the District is laying off 90 people, including the education directors. It also says that the education director jobs will be re-defined and re-posted and, let's face it, the education directors will be hired back. How many others among the 90 will be hired back? The story reports that 18 teacher coaches will be let go. Hmmm. But I thought that they were announcing cuts in the central office? Apparently when they are retained, the teacher coaches work in the schools, but when they are laid off, they work in the central office. 18 is a good start. The only ones they need to keep are those few curriculum experts in each subject who are needed for curricular alignment and maybe a couple who can go out to address crises. The use of coaches as the primary professional development technique is a failed experiment. Now when will they cancel the expensive contracts...

So I had followed up on Dr. Enfield's e-mail to Charlie and me about the NTN contract. She did answer several questions (but ignored some others). Hence, the follow-up. Now here was my most burning question: "So there is an signed "agreement" between SPS and NTN but not a contract. This seems quite odd. The Board voted on NTN two Board meetings ago; was that to agree to NTN being the provider of these services but not what specific services? So then the big question: When will there be a signed contract?" And here is her answer given today: "Thank you for your comments/questions related to Seattle Public Schools’ contract with NTN. A lawsuit has been filed related to this contract. Given that litigation is pending, we are not able to answer specific questions. Dr. Susan Enfield" I doubt that she will be able to stave off anyone seeing the final contract when it is signed. So I'll let the Board know that. You can't hide behind a l...

A couple of previous posts had mentioned a link to a document about enrolling for the new SAP created by Elizabeth Walkup, a Seattle schools parent (and yet another smart person who knows how to analyze data). I had looked at it myself and it seems like a big help for parents who are new to the both SPS and the new SAP. There have been many questions about the Barnhart-Waldman amendment that has been and is being used (likely for the last time) in the SAP. Elizabeth explains it quite clearly in her document.

This was a comment posted on the APP Blog by Meg Diaz. People need to read this, so I'm just stealing it. Hey, it's on a blog, it's in the public domain, there's no copyright protection and information wants to be free. Thurgood Marshall is getting eviscerated. The ALO program will take the worst of it. The ALO program is somewhere over 85% FRL. The influx of the APP program has reduced the "school" FRL to 44%. SPS, starting in 2009-10, said that 1) schools can receive EITHER Title or LAP money, not both, and 2) that a school needs to be above 55% FRL to receive Title money (side note: both Title and LAP funds are intended to help kids who are living in poverty, performing below grade level or both). As a result of this brilliant policy change, Thurgood Marshall will lose nearly $200K in Title money, and yet the ALO population that was there before APP flooded into the building does not need the resources any less than they did before. The loss of title money...

I don't know what job the members of the school board came to do. I don't know what job they think they are doing. But I do know what job they aren't doing: they aren't doing the Board job. The Board job begins with serving as the elected representatives of the public. But the Board members aren't representing the public's voice in Seattle Public Schools. They certainly aren't advocating for the public's perspective. We know that they aren't because if they were, we would hear them begin their sentences with the words: "My constituents want... " and they don't. We don't hear them say "My constituents want equitable access to language immersion programs." or "My constituents want equitable access to Montessori programs." or "My constituents want access to a real Spectrum program for their Spectrum-eligible children." or "My constituents want reduced class sizes." We aren't hearing that. And...

Lots of stories in the news about public education and Seattle Public Schools. Here are some links: A thoughtful article in Crosscut about Writer's Workshop by Judy Lightfoot. A quick story in the Weekly about the NTN contract by Nina Shapiro. A heart-rending guest column in the Times about school budget cuts by Janet Pelz. A discussion of school reform by Sable Verity on her blog.