Seattle Schools Community Forum

 Here's coverage of this story from GeekWire: Five teams from the school — including seven girls and one boy — are competing in a science showdown that will draw about 150 teams from across the 52,000-student district.

I mentioned this before but Director Harris sent this video as a reminder.  The City's Youth Voice, Youth Choice program is giving young Seattle citizens (from 11-25) a say in how the $700,00 for this program is being spent. Here's the link for your child or young adult to vote. Voting closes this Sunday, May 29th. Seattle youth will come together to brainstorm ideas, vet those ideas, develop proposals, and finally vote on how to spend the budget. City of Seattle departments will then implement the winning projects. Big, big opportunity (this also via Director Harris who is a big arts supporter) for kids who like hip-hop and rap.

About testing, I heard this from a parent (verified with e-mail from school): 1) No math this week because of SBAC testing.  All the kids in the school miss math instruction for a week because testing is going on?  That should tell you something about this test.  2) The school has run out of paper for the students so they are recycling paper and are not assigning homework. No paper and there's still about a month left of school?

Good morning on the start of this Memorial Day weekend.  Please consider taking a little time to explain to your children why they have Monday off from school and the sacrifices that have been made for all of us by service members in our armed forces. Interesting article on the growth of Montessori-based public schools (both traditional and charter.) As a complete opposite to the Washington State Supreme Court, the Texas Supreme Court is taking a decidedly hands-off approach to school funding in that state.  From NPR:

It's been a while, but I've been feeling an Advanced Learning rant building in me. It got pushed over the edge today when I got thinking about the District's inability to implement MTSS. For those who prefer to skip rants - and especially rants on this topic - please do skip it.

The Alliance for Education is looking for a new president/CEO .  The notice for the job has interesting reading.

In an op-ed in the Times, State Superintendent Randy Dorn again points out what is (seemingly) obvious to everyone but some members of the legislature.