Seattle Schools Community Forum

Yesterday's media event about opting out in Seattle Schools at the NAACP headquarters was quite the happening.  All the media outlets showed up for a very lengthy press conference.  At first, I worried about how many speakers there were - community leaders, parents, and, most of all, teachers on the front lines - but each had an important story to tell. Basically, from what I can draw from various sources, the majority of opting out is happening in high schools.   This figures as high school parents have been around longer than younger parents AND high school students are savvy and more likely to stand up to authority and say no. My belief is that after the first year is done - and the scores come out - then next year even more parents will say no.  This is exactly what is happening in NY and NJ with thousands of kids being opted out. Apparently, State Superintendent Randy Dorn is falling back on the old standard "change is hard" and says the test will improve ...

From Publicola , the most recent Elway poll:  "Voters "aren't having" the fact that both the Democratic and Republican proposals don't fully fund I-1351, last year's $1.4 billion (when you account for the overlap with the McCleary mandate) smaller class size initiative . The poll also found that 48 percent of voters (versus 43 percent) would take a second vote on the initiative with a funding source—and 60 percent of those people would vote yes. No specific tax proposal got polled, though."

This is strange.  Here's the description of the survey currently being taken by OSPI: Working conditions in schools are very important. 

The Work Session today is going to be wide-ranging and vital to the work of the district (well, part of it). The first part - the useless part - is about whether the district should become a charter school authorizer.  This should be the quickest part of the entire Work Session because the Board should say NO.  There is NO good reason and many reasons why not.  See my letter to the Board below. The second part is around the Strategic Plan.  Here's the huge presentation .  Here's what staff says they heard at the Jan. 14, 2015 Work Session on this topic: Fix the infrastructure before building improvements – System has been broken for a long time – The Superintendent can propose course corrections to the strategic plan Identify highest value work – “Think Big... Get it right ” – We need to explicitly prioritize and sequence work – We need to identify what will be pushed out to later dates or stopped – Directors need to be able to clearly justify why we may...

From the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (bold mine): WASHINGTON, D.C., April 7  – Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) today announced a bipartisan agreement on fixing “No Child Left Behind.” They scheduled committee action on their agreement and any amendments to begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 14 . Alexander said: “Senator Murray and I have worked together to produce bipartisan legislation to fix ‘No Child Left Behind.’ Basically, our agreement continues important measurements of the academic progress of students but restores to states, local school districts, teachers, and parents the responsibility for deciding what to do about improving student achievement. This should produce fewer and more appropriate tests. It is the most effective way to advance higher standards and better teaching in our 100,000 public schools. We have found remarkable consensus about the ur...

Update:   the shelter-in-place was lifted about 1 pm.

Looks like three people have filed to start campaigns for School Board , each in a different region. Ruben Van Kempen, a 35-year teacher and head of the drama program at Roosevelt High School , is retiring.  I can't say enough about this man, his energy, his hard work to build a stellar drama program and, most of all, his belief in students.  A fund has been set up to raise money to name RHS' theater the " Ruben Van Kempen Theatre ."   Who got the Federal Reserve building?  Long-time developer Martin Selig.  No word on what he'll do with it. I had been waiting to see what tomorrow's Work Session on Charters/Strategic Plan was about and now I know. The Board is actually considering being an charter school authorizer.   The Presentation reads like a campaign ad for 1240 and includes "best interests" of the District and discussion of continuum of partnership and collaboration .   And guess what?  Not a single Director or staff ...