Seattle Schools Community Forum:
Student Data Privacy - PAY ATTENTION
Seattle Schools Community Forum
Student Data Privacy - PAY ATTENTION
Sorry to be blunt but NOW is the time to pay attention to what is coming.There's a front-page story in the NY Times today on this issue. I, along with several other activists, have several irons in the fire on this issue.I tell you - as parents - this should be the SINGLE issue to most concern you. Why?There is NO ONE but you to protect your child's data. Truly.Your child cannot just be anothe
Seattle Schools Family Symposium Rescheduled
From SPS:The fall Family Symposium originally scheduled for Oct. 12 has been rescheduled for Saturday, Nov. 23 because of conflicts in scheduling and availability.Seattle Public Schools is committed to preparing all of our students to graduate ready for college, careers and life. The goal of the Family Symposium is to support our families as critical partners in their students' academic success. A
Growth Boundaries Work Session Announced
Coming just one day after the Introduction of the new boundaries to the Board, the Work Session on on the Growth Boundaries will be Thursday, Oct. 17th from 4:30-6:00 pm in the JSCEE auditorium.There is an Operations Committee meeting right before the Work Session in the Board conference room from 4-6 p.m.
Split Classes - What's Your Experience?
From reader Seeking Feedback: I'd love to see a thread sometime on split classes (2 or more grades in one classroom) in elementary school. What are parents opinions? Do they work? Are they better, and if so what are the advantages? Or- is the teacher having to cover too much ground and are kids missing some content? With the capacity crunch and the SEA contract on overages, it seems that SPS is pu
Friday Open Thread
The Times reports on new state standards for Science which sound great (except they left out Computer Science and I think that's a mistake). But the story really misses one huge thing: Common Core which is likely to come out with its own standards. What happens then? Hmm.No director community meetings for Saturday but there is a candidate debate on Sunday the 6th sponsored by the Rainier Chamb
OCT 03
Seattle Mayoral Candidate, Ed Murray, Delivers Vision for City
Here's what he said in his speech about public education:As mayor, I will make education at every level the foundation of the city’s work. We need to move from being an educated city to becoming an education city. As Mayor, I will use every possible tool in my toolbox to make sure that our education system is delivering the education and skills that our kids need and our economy demands. I’ll work
Seattle School Board Meeting for October 2, 2013
From the Board meeting last night:Native American ProgramThe Superintendent announced the following:- there is a tribal history curriculum via a bill that was in the Legislature. This school year that curriculum will be provided to 4th graders in the SW region (and other unnamed schools). Later it will be in 4th,8th and 11th grades across the district.- Gail Morris is the new director of the Nati
Director McLaren Announces Health Issue
Via her blog, Director McLaren has this statement:I am writing to let you know that, due to a health issue, I will be less available than usual for the next several weeks. I will be monitoring email periodically. Please bear with me if I do not respond in a timely fashion.We wish Director McLaren all the best during this time.
Growth Boundary Updates
I learned some new things at last night's Board meeting about the growth boundaries and decided to pull them out as a separate thread.1) There is to be an added Work Session on growth boundaries in the next couple of weeks. President Smith-Blum stated this but no date was given. She also stated that a big concern for the Board is that "we don't compromise instructional quality" in thes
OCT 02
Seattle Schools seeks members for Math Adoption Committee
From SPS:Seattle Public Schools (SPS) is accepting applications from SPS families and community members interested in serving on the District’s Math Adoption Committee.The committee will advise SPS on the selection of mathematics instructional materials for kindergarten through Grade 5 students that meet the new Common Core State Standards for mathematics. The goal is to have materials adopted in
Garfield Incident Updates
From the Seattle Times, SPD are talking to six GHS students about the Garfield hazing event. No arrests have been made and SPD will contact the parents of the students. In the comments section, there were some more details (wild ones) about this incident. It is clear that like Rashomon, it depends on who you are, where you were and what you saw.I have requested the SPD police report on this inc
From The Onion: Civics Lesson for Congress
With lawmakers still at an impasse over increasing the debt ceiling, a special team of 40 eighth-grade civics teachers was air-dropped into Washington earlier today in a last-ditch effort to teach congressional leaders how the government’s legislative process works. “We started them off with the basics, like the difference between a senator and a representative, and then moved on to more complex c
Education News Roundup
Dual-language in Washington State - a view from Seattle Globalist.A MacArthur Genius award went to an educational researcher, Angela Duckworth. From Ed Week:Educational research psychologist and former teacher Angela Duckworth has devoted her career to understanding traits beyond IQ or test-taking abilities that predict a student's success— including grit and self-control. It is perhaps her own p
OCT 01
Wilson-Pacific; a New Wrinkle
I recently wrote to the Board with some of the bigger ideas that I have heard here and percolated up from the Growth Boundary meetings. Here's what I told them about Wilson-Pacific:What I hear from parents is that they do NOT want to share their valuable neighborhood space with any program if they don't have to. APP is NOT a beloved program and it will not be welcomed with open arms anywhere in
Class Size Count for Washington Kids
Class size matters so let them know YOUR child's class size(s). Do it today.As it says at the Class Size Counts webpage; Washington State's class size is ranked 47th out of 50 states.
Garfield Hazing Has Principal Upset
Update 2: From SPS:We have zero tolerance for bullying, hazing and intimidation, and we take it very seriously. · We are continuing to investigate this incident.· We are in the process of determining what type of disciplinary action is warranted for those students who were involved.Update 1: Text of information on hazing on the front page of the Garfield webpage. 1.In addition to
Tuesday Open Thread
Interesting six-part series on math in the NY Times, Me, Myself and Math.Oh those kids! Looks like LA high school students found it quite easy to hack into their new school-issued iPads.One week after students started receiving their iPads, students attending at least three Los Angeles high schools had figured out how to disarm a built-in security lock that was supposed to limit what they could do
SEP 30
Live Blogging from Meany
Updates:- there were full tables and most were about one school or area. There was a Coe table, a Beacon Hill table (with some hard facts about the changes for that area), a TT Minor table, Montlake, etc. - I found these to be people who knew their facts and, if they didn't, wanted to find out more. One man pushed back against the format, asking why staff couldn't explain who thought up the bou
Seattle School Board Debate
Finally here's one because I was getting worried.This event, Oct-Voter-Fest has several debates. It's this Sunday, October 6th at the Columbia City Ark Lodge Cinemas, 4816 Rainier Avenue S. from 2 pm to 6 pm. It is sponsored by the Rainier Chamber of Commerce and First Thursday Seattle.2:00-3:00: Doors Open for Exhibit Hall & Voter Registration3:00-3:45: School Board: Sue Peters vs. Suzanne D
Parents and Public Education
As we grapple with the minutia of boundaries and enrollment, here's some higher level thinking on education to challenge you.From Ed Week, "What the Goal of Public Education?", author Tom Segal offers his and others' ideas:Reform, however, has more to do with the learning experience itself. What should we be teaching? How do we think about accountability? How do we balance standards with
FACMAC Response to Growth Boundaries draft
The FACMAC made a response to the Growth Boundaries plan. You can read the summary of the response here.Here's the short version:Include high schools now. They take the longest to address, there isn't that much time, and the system is integrated.Instead of messing with nearly all of the elementary school attendance areas and middle school assignments, leave most of them essentially unchanged and p
SEP 29
Seattle Schools This Week
Monday, September 30thGrowth Boundaries meeting at Meany from 6:30-8:00 pmTuesday, Oct 1stSpecial Education Advisory and Advocacy Council Meeting from 6:30-9:30 pm at JSCEE, room 2700Growth Boundaries meeting at Ballard High School Commons from 6:30-8:00 pmWednesday, Oct. 2nd School Board Meeting from 4:15 pm to 8:00 pm. Agenda.It's quite a light agenda and this should be a fairly short meeting.
South Shore PreK-8: What's the Mystery?
Almost a year ago I did a thread on South Shore and compared it to the other K-8s. I found in reading, SS is about the same as most K-8s but the math is worse. So I did a comparison today with South Shore, Roxhill and Maple from 2009 to today and there seems to be two issues. One, something seems amiss from 3rd to 4th grade at South Shore. The children in third grade do really well only to see t
While We Worry about our District, Congress Twiddles its Thumbs
I'm sure most children have no idea what is happening in Congress but I expect that they will feel the ramifications - short and long-term - in their lives. And who gets hit the hardest if the government shuts down? You better believe it's those who need the most help.Update: From The Answer Sheet at the Washington Post, here's what happens to public education if the government shuts down. Fro