Seattle Schools Community Forum:
Seattle Schools' Basketball Teams Advance to Championships
Seattle Schools Community Forum
Seattle Schools' Basketball Teams Advance to Championships
All three Seattle schools won their basketball game last night and are playing in championship games today.Good job and best wishes to the Cleveland girls basketball team, the Rainier Beach HS boys basketball team and the Garfield boys basketball team!(The Garfield game went off without any incident from either side. There had been concern about the issue of racially-charged tweets by a few ignor
Seattle School District Seeks Input on Math Selections
From SPS:Elementary math instructional materials - We want your feedback!The elementary math adoption committee work has reached a critical stage. In looking to partner with parents and community to find the best possible math program for Seattle Public School students for the 2014-15 school year and beyond, the committee invites you to give us your thoughts and opinions. The committee is excited
Reactions to New SAT
To note: college success is better verified by GPA than SAT or ACT.From the president of Bard College via Time:The SAT needs to be abandoned and replaced. The SAT has a status as a reliable measure of college readiness it does not deserve. The blunt fact is that the SAT has never been a good predictor of academic achievement in college. High school grades adjusted to account for the curriculum an
Music Org for Music Education
Just learned about the National Association for Music Education's Broader Minded: think beyond the bubbles program. Music not only impacts academic achievement, it also shapes the way our students understand themselves and the world around them. Let's think beyond the bubbles and educate the whole student.They have good insights and arguments for supporting music in our schools. Consider this go
Education News Updates
Legislature:The Washington Senate voted unanimously for a bill to make it easier for minors to seal their records (for minor crimes). I'll have to read the bill but I doubt it will protect your child if the incident happened at school and it is now part of a school record. The FERPA changes would allow that kind of data to go out to vendors of all kinds (and even our friends at the Seattle Times
Friday Open Thread
Documentary Brunch this Sunday with the film, Girl Rising. It's a documentary about 9 girls in Nepal, India, Cambodia, Haiti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Peru, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan. Go be inspired. And free mini-cupcakes. SIFF Cinema Uptown, all ages.Fun fact for the kids - apparently crocodiles can climb trees...up to thirty feet. (Somewhere a bird is saying, "You've got to be kidding me.&qu
MAR 06
What We Don't Measure By Testing (Tell Me Big Data-Where is this Listed?)
From the Maria Montessori page:
Garfield High Basketball Players/Cheerleaders Abused in Tweets
Garfield High School's basketball team is on its way to start playing at the state finals. (So is Cleveland's girls basketball team.) My Northwest is reporting that after the school's third meet-up with Issaquah's basketball team, things took a nasty turn after tweets were sent saying racially disrespectful things about team members and cheerleaders.From the report:Senior Mikayla Brooks has been
Teacher Evaluation Bill in Trouble in Legislature?
UPDATE: There's a 5 p.m. deadline today for all non-budget-related bills to be voted off the floor. So we will know by the end of the day the outcome for the teacher evaluation bill.end of update.That's the chatter from Twitter mostly via Times' reporter, Brian Rosenthal. Hmmm.Inslee deflecting larger Qs on testing. Says this is all about $: "I don't have the luxury...to opine about situa
Updates on People and Organizations
A couple of readers asked about some people and organizations that they feel have been perhaps too quiet.First is director Sue Peters. I'm not sure exactly what people were expecting from Sue but I think she is doing exactly what she should do as a new director. She's behaving like the new director that she is - i.e. learning respectfully from her peers on the Board with more longevity and list
MAR 05
SAT Changes (in a Big Way)
Update: listening to the NPR story this morning, I heard a few interesting things about this story like:- David Coleman, the head of the SAT, says it will be better aligned to what is being taught in high school. Fair enough, until you learn that he helped write the CC standards. Oh.- also, apparently historically, the SAT was NOT supposed to follow high school curriculum End of update.For one t
TFA Decides to Try Something New
Me and my hero, Diane Ravitch I plan to go to the Board soon and ask that the district's contract with TFA be ended. There are two reasons. One, it seems like a lack of real support for the district's own fledgling Seattle Teacher Residency to support another teacher training program. All SPS' attention and efforts should be towards STR.Second, TFA has just not been popular here in the least. O
An SPS Parent Weighs in on her Unhappiness
Update: where's this story at Crosscut? My link still works but somehow - after just one day - the story has disappeared from Crosscut's main page. There are many older stories still there. Hmmm.End of update.Over at Crosscut, the director of the (mostly)charter think tank that is the Center on Reinventing Public Education, Robin Lake, weighs in on customer service at SPS.She doesn't directly
Petition Against Cuts in SPS School Budgets
There is a petition against cuts in school clerical staff - which will primarily affect high schools where, frankly, they can least take it - to send a message to the district. There is a minute-and-a-half video of the issue by Mary Smith who works in the office at Ingraham. Mary is a long-time SPS school employee and I have been acquainted with her and her work now for over 10 years. Mary has s
MAR 04
The Alliance for Education - Big Plans for SPS
The Alliance For Education released their own strategic plan today. On the plus side, not so much ed jargon. Good job. On the down side, well, there's a lot.- Their foundational beliefs statement doesn't include teachers. Seems like something of a "whoops." (Unless they are calling teachers "leadership" which is not exactly where most people's thoughts would go when you were
Here's Some Homework - Common Core Style
From a mom in NY State: My son's KINDERGARTEN homework. I hold a Master's Degree and have won multiple Emmy Awards and my husband is a Lieutenant in the NYPD. We couldn't figure it out. It's a SAD SAD SAD state when two well educated parents can't help their child with their KINDERGARTEN homework. This is what you have to look forward to in the future. Data walls and homework you may not be ab
Tuesday Open Thread
A heartbreaking story about the Greenwood shooting by the Ballard student via the Times. The student was not homeless (he came from a two-parent household) but had chosen not to live at home. Both his mother and the victim's wife seem to have deep sympathy for the situation of the other. From SXSW from Microsoft's CTO - "anonymity going to be more valuable than gold in near future."
Teacher Evaluation Bill - Yay or Nay?
After Inslee caved to Duncan's demand that Washington State law reflect a "must" use test scores for teacher evaluation, rather than "can" as it currently does, the Legislature is moving a bill around. I'm going on the record - I don't have a problem with using test scores for teacher evaluation (even though there is virtually no proof they really show anything about how well a
MAR 03
Testing Time? Time to Think about Opting-Out
One fascinating thing I learned at the Network for Public Education conference in Austin was that Washington State is one of the luckier states in terms of ed reform. Being behind (or slow to go) the ed reform curve has many benefits.For example, did you know that there is large (and growing) opt-out of testing movement nationwide? Indeed there is and I met many parents at the conference who sa
Ballard High Student Charged in Greenwood Murder
Bryon White, a senior at Ballard High school, was arrested and charged with the murder of David Peterson, 54, who was killed in the Greenwood area on Feb. 23rd. White is to be charged as an adult for the killing. White was apparently homeless. Apparently right before Peterson's robbery and subsequent murder, three suspects had taken money from a nearby restaurant and had tried to rob another
Seattle Schools This Week
Had a great time at the Network for Public Education conference in Austin this weekend. Very inspirational and got to talk with two education heroes - Diane Ravitch and Karen Lewis, the head of the Chicago Teachers Union. More on this later especially about Common Core.To note, the district and bus drivers have reached a tentative agreement so there should be no bus drivers strike.Also to rememb