Denny Has a Small (very) Fire Today
From Principal Jeff Clark at Denny Middle School:This afternoon at 11:30 we had a small fire in a garbage can in a 2nd floor bathroom. The resulting smoke caused the evacuation alarm to sound. As we were clearing the smoke, the evacuation alarm sounded several more times. Today is an early-release day for Seattle Public Schools — all students were released as planned at 12:10. All students and sta
Advisory Committees need volunteers
The deadline has been extended to Friday, October 11 for nominations to the School Family Partnerships Advisory Committee.The District is also seeking nominations for the Positive Climate and Discipline Advisory Committee.For more information, follow the links.
Common Core; Hitting Massive Roadblocks
The big question; will Common Core survive and, if it does, will it be so beaten down that it's unrecognizable?Story One:Huge Common Core supporter, Governor Rick Scott of Florida, on Monday withdrew Florida from the group known as PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) consortium that is creating Common Core assessments. From the American Enterprise Institute blog
The Back-to-School edition of the Seattle Times
I don't know why, but there are a whole lot of education-related stories in the Seattle Times today.Federal Way School Board president indicted in alleged tire-theft schemeNorth End school plan draws a crowdLA students breach school iPads' securityGuest: Transforming school discipline key to better educationEditorial: Rigorous process ahead for charter schoolsMissed opportunities in Seattle teache
Seattle Home Value Increases by Nearest School
From the Puget Sound Business Journal:Seattle-based online real estate company Redfin undertook a study to find out about the correlation between highly-ranked schools and local real estate prices and found out in Seattle, a highly-ranked school nearby can add to a home's value by more than $40,000."When accounting for size, on average, people pay $50 more per square foot for homes in top-ran
A Compassionate Teacher's Note to Students
A teacher in Indiana wrote this note to his students as they started testing.On behalf of critically thinking educators everywhere, I would like to apologize to you for having to participate in this absurd ritual.And I would like to remind you that whatever score the ACT labels you with, consciousness is not quantified and this test does not determine your intelligence, capacity for critical thoug
Seattle Schools' Growth Boundary Meeting at Hale
It was a full house but frankly, not as full as I thought it would be (and certainly not the crowd that Charlie had - Tracy Libros said there were at least 250 people at Monday's event). There were three legislators there - Rep. Jamie Pedersen, Rep. Gerry Pollet and Senator David Frockt. I saw just two Board members - Director DeBell and Director Peaslee (odd that Martin-Morris wasn't there - th
9-24-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Tuesday Open ThreadI assume you heard Congress cut food stamps to thousands of poor families. Interesting stats regarding children and food stamps:- 72% of SNAP recipients are in households with children- 210,000 students could lose free lunch at schoolNot good. Election ballots may be winging their way to you by the weekend. I'll have some thoughts on that later