Seattle Schools Community Forum:
Seattle Council PTSA Meeting on Monday
Seattle Schools Community Forum
Seattle Council PTSA Meeting on Monday
"Seattle Council PTSA General Meeting April 7th from 7-9 pm at JSCEE auditoriaum. Superintendent Banda will be attending the first part!We will also be voting in our new executive board Ken Gotsch, CFO, will provide a short presentation on the SPS budget process, and there will be round table discussions with SPS leaders from the following departments: • Pegi McEvoy (bell times)• Flip Herndon
More Insights from Common Core Testing in NYC
This is truly a fascinating article from the New York Times as they interviewed students about testing.I love the way it opens:William Summitt and Simon Sanders said they were ready. Their fourth-grade class at the Children’s School, near Park Slope in Brooklyn, had prepared for the state reading tests by going over sample passages beforehand, including a challenging excerpt from “King Lear” in wh
Seattle Schools Math Adoption Materials Available for Review
From SPS Communications: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 committ
Friday Open Thread
There is just ONE community meeting tomorrow. Director Carr said at the Board meeting that the district calendar had been in err and she is NOT having hers tomorrow, the 5th.Director McLaren is having a community meeting tomorrow from 10 am to noon at the Common House of Puget Ridge Cohousing Association, 7020 18th Ave. SW.You may have heard about the earthquakes in California this week. I urge
APR 03
Seattle Schools Work Session Wrap-up - Transportation
Update: from the Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio, an article about the costs of busing charter school students costs 44% more than regular district students.In part, the extra cost comes from having to bus charter school students longer distances, sometimes with fewer students on the route, the journalists found. Around the state, school buses traveled an extra 15,600 miles every day in 2012 to accom
Seattle Schools Work Sessions Wrap-Up - Athletics
I attended three Work Sessions last week and here are highlightsAthleticsI have to say this one seemed to be one of the less dry and more animated Work Sessions that I have attended in years.It had been two years since the last update from the Athletics department. It was reported that SPS has the highest academic standards for its athletes in the state. However, when asked about participation r
Common Core Testing: How's that Going?
For some, not well.There's a new site, Testing Talk, that allows teachers and principals to talk about how it went and what they observed. (No, they don't give away any deep, dark test questions or secrets.)From the NYC Public School Parents blog:Liz Phillips, principal of PS 321 in Brooklyn, who was scathing about the 2012 exam as well, but says this one was as bad or worse. PS 321 PARENTS--Our 3
APR 02
Student Data Privacy for Washington State Public School Students
My big focus for the foreseeable future is student data privacy. Data collection is the future of our nation and nowhere else is that more clear than public education. My goal is a student data privacy bill passed in the Washington State Legislature. In a future thread, I will outline what SPS is doing versus what it should be doing but really, I don't have time to wait for the Board to wake up
Is There Money in Public Education? Yes, There Is
Do hedge funder managers and big investors like the Koch brothers and others invest just for the heck of it? No, they want to make money and lots of it. Public education is just that mother lode.From Education Week:It's already been a banner year for ed-tech startups, and we've only closed the first quarter.Ninety-nine startups in education have raised more than $500 million, a record in the pas
Seattle School Board Meeting Tonight
In advance of the Board meeting, I wanted to point out a couple of things, some of which Charlie and I have pointed out in the past.One, just to let you know, the speaker list is NOT full so you can call up and still get on. Two, staff has a bad habit of waiting until the very last minute - particularly on Intro items on capital issues - to fill in the blanks. They like to leave "placeholder
Following Thru, NY State Ed Department Severs Ties to inBloom
Update: the state of Kansas has suspended their state testing after its testing vendor was cyber-attacked and hard. From Ed Week:While the cyber strikes scuttled the testing schedules of hundreds of schools across the state and left state officials scrambling to upgrade their security infrastructure, the full fallout is not yet known. "We're still in 'fix-it mode' right now," said Maria
APR 01
Portables; Here to Stay (and Preschool, What about That?)
A hilarious article about portables in NYC by the NY Times. We're not alone.But eight years later, Mr. Cosby, 46, is busier than ever as an all-around handyman for the seven timeworn trailers that house 283 students outside the crowded main school building.He has chased opossums, raccoons and turtles from the alleys around the corrugated metal structures, which were installed in the 1990s and now
New York State Parents Say No to Common Core Testing
From the blog, NYC Public School Parents:Will one teacher please copy the whole test and post it anonymously on the internet for all to see? We need to dismantle this by the best Edward Snowden means possible. From Fox News, New York:Indelecato, a member of the parent group NYS Allies for Public Education, said she has been picking up her son at the beginning of the testing sessions and going to
Shelter in Place at Three Seattle Schools
From the West Seattle Blog:"12:51 PM: We just checked out a report that Chief Sealth International High School students were asked to “shelter in place” – and here’s what Seattle Police spokesperson Det. Mark Jamieson tells us:There was a report of “somebody with a weapon at Roxhill Park area – someone on the walking path that ends at the bus stop on SW Barton, and 10 males in a group, allege
MAP and Advanced Learning
There was a reader comment about wanting to opt an APP student out of MAP testing but the parent seemed to think that the child would lose eligibility if he/she did not take the MAP. Here's what I learned from speaking with Stephen Martin, head of the Advanced Learning department.The MAP is the gatekeeper to finding out if your child is eligible for AL testing. However, once you are enrolled, you
App Day at Rainier Beach High School
From SPS Communications:"Students attending high school or middle school throughout the Puget Sound region are invited to get a taste of computer science and basic programming at Puget Sound App Day 2014, set for Friday, May 23 at Rainier Beach High School.Everyone is welcome to attend from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 23, regardless of prior computer science knowledge or experience, although regist
Tuesday Open Thread
Update: testing has started in NY state. Parents reporting from Long Island "Opt Outs w/ 80 of the 122 districts giving numbers: 12,131 known Opt Outs. One district, at 70% Opt Out."I am gathering info on the Federal Reserve building. I have to say, based on descriptions of the inside, that it is likely not the best place for a school.But there does seem to be some confusion over timi
Seattle Schools Odds and Ends - Meetings
I went to the Board meeting two weeks ago and a couple of Work Sessions/Committee meetings. This thread is the Board meeting and Operations Ctm. meeting. Here are the highlights:Board MeetingThis was the one where the high school basketball teams were honored. Very fun to be there (although the Garfield boys wanted to look as serious as possible). Paul Apostle of HR said they were making "
MAR 30
Seattle Schools This Week
Monday, March 31stThe final Strategic Plan Community Meeting from 6:30-8:30 pm in West Seattle at Roxhill Elementary.Tuesday, April 1stSpecial Education Advisory and Advocacy Council meeting at 6:30 p.m. , JSCEE, Room 2700Wednesday, April 2ndSchool Board meeting starting at 4:15 p.m. Agenda.- a rather large Consent agenda as part of a very long agenda. - One item I note is the construction contr
Refusal Movement Growing in New York
FYI, the correct legal term that districts and states use is "refusal" and not "opt-out." From the Mrs Mom Blog (in case you didn't know what the Supreme Court has to say on this subject):Until last year, I, along with most parents, did not realize that parents have the right to refuse state testing on behalf of their children. Parents have the right to refuse. There is no prov
MAR 29
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
MAR 28
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