Seattle Schools Community Forum

Frank Bruni, who used to be a food critic at the New York Times but now writes op-eds, has a piece in the Times about Common Core.  Or is it the Department of Education. Or teacher evaluations.  Well, it's about public education.  It's daringly called, The Education Assassins   (that actually brings to mind Sarah Vowell's hugely funny,  Assassination Vacation , which is probably not want Bruni wanted). Over at the Curmudgucation blog , the very funny Peter Greene takes Bruni's arguments apart, line for line. What's interesting is that Greene points out the half-truths to what Bruni says.  This is a major irritant for me - just tell the WHOLE story, not just part of it if you have the courage of your convictions.  I'm just going to pull out some great comebacks from Greene but do go read both pieces.

As further proof that WA State PTA (and National) seem to be moving further and further into the ed reform camp, comes a message from WSPTA urging members to support HB 2214. The first thing to know about HB 2114 is that one of its authors is Chad Magandez, ed reformer thru and thru.  He loves charters, is connected to LEV The second item to note is that this bill is pretty much a wolf in sheep's clothing.   While it says it reduces the number of tests for graduation, it really does this: If you read the bill, you will see it accelerates the SBAC test monopoly from 2019 to 2016 and it will severely harm the Opt Out Movement by imposing a fourth year of advanced math on anyone who opts out of the test in high school - giving Washington state the most draconian graduation requirements in the nation. So not only does it speed up SBAC, it will NOT preserve a parent's right to refuse their student from taking test (and I see that in the House of Representatives, ther...

A parent of an incoming kindergarten student wrote to me about issue she was having with Enrollment. Based on reading the Enrollment policy and speaking with different Enrollment staff, she believed that the only tiebreaker for the lottery into neighborhood schools is siblings. (It seems she wanted to put her child into a non-attendance area school.   The lottery was held and she was told that she was #4, and then, #3 on the waitlist.  Now, weeks later, she finds that her child moved down the list and another child moved up the list.  She is baffled how that happened. I have a query into the District but... Did this happen to anyone else? Any thoughts on why this might have happened? FYI, here the waitlist by school .  There are some interesting numbers.

I am trying to get an update on the Cleveland students involved in that two-car crash yesterday on I-5S.  The Times is reporting that two of the six are in critical condition and the other four are in satisfactory condition. Director Betty Patu has a Community meeting tomorrow from 10 am to 11:30 am at Cafe Vita. From SPS Technology: Seattle Public Schools will begin changing to a new website at 10 p.m., Sunday, May 31. The new site will look slightly different. Thank you for your patience during the transition. Should you experience any concerns, please email webmaster@seattleschools.org . More information can be found here: webinfo.www.seattleschools.org .

From the University of Washington Computer Science and Engineering Department: Each summer, UW CSE welcomes middle school and high school teachers from around the state at our computer science education workshop, CS4HS . Math and science teachers are invited to participate in an action-packed, three-day program designed to give them the knowledge and resources to integrate computer science into their classrooms and to build student interest in our exciting and rapidly growing field. The 2015 workshop will take place July 15th – 17th at UW’s Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering. Thanks to the generous donors who support CSE’s K-12 outreach programs, the registration fee for teachers is just $50. CS4HS participants will enjoy breakfast and lunch each day, an evening networking reception, parking or transit reimbursement, dorm accommodations for out-of-town participants, and 20 clock hours from the Washington Science Teachers ...

After three long days, the National Spelling Bee ended in...a tie...for the second year in a row.  The judges ran out of words on their list.   In a fun twist, both contestants have last names that might be a challenge to spell - Gokul Venkatachalam and Vanya Shivashankar.  Vanya correctly spelled the word "scherenschnitte" and Gokul correctly spelled the word "nunatak."  The story from CNN is great and the recoiling of one contestant who lost from his mother's sympathetic kiss is priceless (we've all been there if you have boys).  Show the kids the story from CNN - many great moments. Work Party at Hamilton Middle School on Sunday, May 31st from 10 am-noon.

At least that's how KUOW frames it in reporting that the current Special Session of the Washington State Legislature will end tomorrow.  Without a budget.  And needing another session.  That costs taxpayers dollars. Additionally, the bill that made it out of the House, overwhelmingly, in order to pause the use of passage of a high school science test for graduation, didn't make it out of the Senate Education committee.  Their chair says they'll work on this topic at another time.  Oh. I would hope that the Republican and Democratic House and Senate leaders would understand how this looks to the public.  It looks childish and ridiculous and like maybe some of you need to be voted out.