Seattle Schools Community Forum:
Senior Project Going Away?
Downtown Seattle Association Has a Great Idea for Where to Put a School
Seattle Schools Community Forum
Senior Project Going Away?
In something of an irony, a senior doing her senior project did it on...getting rid of the senior proejct.From the News Tribune:If Gov. Jay Inslee signs Senate Bill 6552 into law next week, and if school districts decide to use their new option to eliminate the project, seniors in the class of 2015 would be the first to avoid the extra work.“The bill goes into effect in 2015, so if everything goes
Downtown Seattle Association Has a Great Idea for Where to Put a School
Update: according to the Times some non-profits are already circling the building but I suspect that if the district got an application together, they might move up that list given they are a public entity. Apparently, though, (and this is just what I thought the district would say), the Times is reporting Flip Herndon as saying that it would take a lot of work as a school and at what cost. He's
New York has the Most Segregated Schools in the Nation (and guess where it's the worst?)
In a devastating report from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, New York State's Extreme School Segregation: Inequality, Inaction and a Damaged Future, the conclusion is that NY State has the segregated schools in the nation, both by race and poverty. They looked at patterns from 1989 to 2010, both at the state and regional levels.From Education Writers Association: “The children who most depend o
Seattle Schools Updates/Good News
From SPS Communications:Ingraham High hosting Seattle Unified Soccer League kickoff Saturday On Saturday, March 29, Ingraham High School will host opening ceremonies to officially kick off the 2014 Unified Soccer Seattle season. Unified Soccer is an inclusive sports program for ages 8-21 that combines athletes (individuals with intellectual disabilities) and partners (those without intellectual di
Washington State Mudslide Victims
There are truly sad and tragic stories coming out about all the victims of the recent mudslide in Oso, near Darrington. The youngest victim, a four-month old baby, was found yesterday. She had been killed as well as her grandmother who was babysitting her. They don't need any more volunteers to show up or need more clothing so probably the best way to help is through:Red Cross - call 1-800-RED
Seattle Schools and Technology
Someone asked a question in the Friday Open Thread about a Special Ed program and that led to SpedPTA president, Mary Griffin, to say this (and she calls it a rant alert and warning but really, it's a huge district-wide issue):I am not a fan of data sharing, but I am a fan of useful data collection and accessibility within the district. The district right now is suffering greatly from the lack of
Friday Open Thread
I have many threads to write - student surveys about teachers, Charter Commission meeting, Work Session on data privacy, transportation and athletics (all had very interesting parts).It appears that LEV has joined forces with the City for the universal pre-school initiative. This is fine except that LEV has been tweeting that people should send e-mails to the Board, urging them to support early c
MAR 27
Wilson-Pacific Meeting
It fell off my radar that there was a meeting at Wilson-Pacific last night (I believe it was a SEPA meeting). Did anyone attend and if so, could you describe the discussion? Reports here.Thanks.In a related story, here's what was said at last week's Operations Committee meeting where there was some discussion about Wilson-Pacific.- there were schematics of the buildings. It was an odd discussi
College Degrees and ROI
Not sure that ROI (return on investment) is really the best way to look at what college/university you pick but for some degrees, it could make a difference. The Atlantic has a comparison. Look at where UW is. It's important to be clear about what this study is telling us and what it's not telling us. The fact that the most valuable colleges here seem so predictable is an interesting data point,
MAR 26
Internal Communications Specialist required
Seattle Public Schools has an interesting job posting. Here is a Facebook post about it:Here is a link to the actual job posting.I particularly like the part about "two-way conversation (not just top-down messaging)"
Bumbershoot Goes Back to Memorial Stadium
From The Slog, news that Memorial Stadium will be used all three-days of Bumbershoot. Here's hoping between allowing a women's soccer team, Reign FC, to use the field and Bumbershoot, it's a shot of money that can be used to update that stadium. Seattle's annual Labor Day arts festival Bumbershoot is moving its Mainstage from KeyArena to Memorial Stadium. Key had served that function for the la
Seattle Schools' Advanced Learning Updates
Many updates on Advanced Learning via the Superintendent's Friday update (thanks to Mirmac 1 for finding this). It is a litany of woes about many issues affecting AL (some of their own making and some the district. One of them, lack of cooperation from schools, needs some attention from someone.) Emphasis mine:From Advanced Learning: The most important update continues to be the changes that
MAR 25
Things That Make You Go, Hmmm
When Common Core supporters call Common Core opponents "enemies", I think, hmmm.This appeared in a NY Times op-ed (that I thought was fairly pedantic) and Ready Washington, a mystery public/private WA state cheerleading group for Common Core, retweeted the link as though it's a good thing to divide people who want a transparent discussion about Common Core. And really, the op-ed isn't e
Let's See If We Can Get the President's Attention
There's a petition going to direct the Department of Education and Congress to remove annual standardized testing mandates of NCLB and RttT. It needs 97,350 signatures and needs to get to 100,000 to get attention from the White House. (Update: I had this backwards previously.)Meanwhile the Today show on NBC has a Facebook poll going on about testing:Do you think standardized tests are the best w
Tuesday Open Thread
Parents, Teens and Sex: The Talk, Part 2Tuesday, March 25th at the SW Branch Library (9010 35th Ave SW) from 6:00pm- 7:30pm Presented by Katie Acker, MPH, Health Educator with the Neighborcare Health School-Based Health Centers at Chief Sealth and West Seattle High Schools We will reiterate the critical role parents play in teens’ lives, decision making and health-seeking behaviors. The presentat
MAR 24
Seattle Schools and "Refusal" to Take Tests
I asked SPS for a comment on what the policies are for parents who want to opt their students out of standardized testing. (Although MAP is not mentioned, these answers probably apply.) Here is the reply (and I'm happy to see this district not being punitive):Currently for the MSP, we do not have “opt out” but rather parent or student refusal. (The language from the Washington State Assessment C
Common Core and What is Coming
I remember from talking to a teacher in Pittsburgh (where coincidentally, this photo was taken), that she told me her school had a "data room" where any teacher in any class could see how every single student was doing AND look up all the data on them - discipline records, F/RL, etc. This appears to be such a room. She said the door was not locked and any adult could wander in there.
MAR 23
Seattle Schools This Week
Monday, March 24thSeattle Special Education PTSA Meeting, at 7 pm, Rm 2700, JSCEETopic is Secondary Transition and plans in SPS to to bring the District into compliance with IDEA on secondary transition. Wednesday, March 26th Oversight Work Session on Athletics/Transportation from 4-6 p.m. I'm assuming from the length of it that these are two sessions in one. Agenda.Athletic (sic) Presentation-
Race in our Public Schools
More news on race and children in America.I offer this information as news. I have tried not to editorialize much here but to listen to what others are saying. Somewhere in this country, people are suspending preschoolers and most of them are children of color or Special Education students. (I didn't even know you could suspend a pre-schooler.) This story from the Huffington Post. It's a wide
MAR 22
The White House Wants Your Input on Big Data and Privacy
Please go to this White House site and give the President your opinion on data privacy. There is a message from John Podesta, who is aide and counselor to the President, in a short video where he states that he is the Chair of the "Big Data and Privacy Working Group" at the White House.Here are the two big questions that are being asked by the White House:1) Which technologies or use of