Seattle Schools Community Forum:
Seattle Schools Community Forum
Seattle Schools This Week
As a heads up, the district is offering (at nearly every elementary and K-8), Jump Start for kindergarteners. Sounds like a great program. From the flyer: It is a weeklong experience for new kindergarteners and their families to learn about their new school. Children will become familiar with the school building, staff, and typical school-day activities and practices. This summer, over 50 eleme
Updates and Pondering the Issues of Capital Building in Seattle Schools
Went to the BEX Oversight Committee meeting this morning. In terms of notable people at the meeting, Director Sharon Peaslee was there, Lead Counsel Ron English was not.Issues mentioned/discussed- Seems to be some kind of portable placement issue for Blaine and Laurelhurst. No specifics given.- Only $1M for technology left in BEX IV. Head of Technology, Carmen Rahm, gave a presentation where he
Special Ed Update
The district has sent out a letter to "principals, teachers and staff." It does not include parents but I'm supposing that is not an omission but rather, a separate letter to be sent.I think there will be a few readers here who will say, "I told you so." I myself have told various Board members, through the years, that in Seattle Schools, if there is smoke, there IS a fire so
Friday Open Thread
I'm at the BEX Oversight Committee meeting this morning; I'll let you know if anything news-worthy gets said.What's on your mind?
AUG 07
C & I Meeting on Monday, August 11
The agenda for the 8/11 Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee meeting has already been posted.There's a lot there for folks interested in Special Education along with a couple of tasty items for those interested in high school graduation requirements, creative approach schools, Native American education, and discipline.By the numbers:a. Creative Approach Schools Update (Michael/Misa)The last
Gates to ConnectEDU: Where's Our Dough?
When we last left this story, ConnectEDU, a company that had an interactive program to try to connect middle school students with info on college/career. From the story in the Wall Street Journal yesterday:In July 2013, the well-known foundation awarded a nearly $500,000 grant to ConnectEDU to develop an interactive program to help students master literacy under the Common Core standards that man
AUG 06
Vermont's NCLB Letter
Update: as Charlie points out, Arne Duncan has really decided - without real authority backing his actions - to be large and in charge of public education in this country. (I suspect this is one reason so many conservatives, not just in the Tea Party, don't like the DOE.) One conservative education writer, Michael Petrilli, advocates for Washington State to go to court over the NCLB waiver issue
The Coming Presidential Election: Public Education and the GOP
It is becoming very clear that both Democrats and Republicans are going to have public education as a major talking point in the 2016 Presidential election. This is good and bad. Good because those voters who are paying attention will be able to clearly see who values what and, hopefully, why.It's bad because it may fracture one or both parties. It may make or break candidates (see Chris Christi
Common Core Math; From a Math Professor's View
Thanks to S Parent for bringing this to our attention. From the Wall Street Journal and UC Berkeley math professor, Marina Ratner, I think it is one swell piece of writing that - in a straight-forward manner - explains why Common Core is deeply flawed. Ms. Ratner is professor emerita of mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley. She was awarded the international Ostrowski Prize in 19
AUG 05
Interesting Job Opportunities
Update: know who else has jobs? Teach for America (on Craigslist, no less). The first thing they say you get out of TFA? "Leadership abilities." They single out Garfield as a problem for African-American students. Teacher is the only job available in Seattle at the jobs section of the TFA site. When you don't have traction, you don't need a lot of staff, I suppose.I'll be interested
Tuesday Open Thread
Hard to believe at this late date that this is news but the company Land's End is producing - by popular demand- shirts for girls that are science-themed.Still on the clothing theme, there's a new campaign by a group, Too Small To Fail, to impress upon parents to teach their pre-school children news words by talking to them more. How? The cute kid-sized shirts list conversation topics that paren
AUG 04
Update on McCleary and Fully-Funding K-12 Education in Washington State
From Washington State Budget&Policy Center: Today, Pacifica Law Group filed an amicus brief with the Washington State Supreme Court on our behalf that makes it clear that legislators cannot responsibly address the requirements of the McCleary decision to fully fund education without raising new revenue.Joining us as co-signers on the brief are Centerstone, Equity in Education Coalition, Elderc
Washington State Gets "Mixed" Review in Rankings for States for K-12 Education
From the Huffington Post, a report about a ranking list from a personal finance site, Wallethub, for K-12 education in the 50 states. Washington state ranks 15th overall (kind of surprising) but 29th in spending, giving our state their "mixed" ranking. They give our state a 50 for "Education output and safety."Education Output & SafetySafest Schools (Percentage of Public
Seattle Schools and Title IX
I asked the Department of Education spokeperson about issues around Title IX and Seattle Schools and here was their statement:We can confirm that OCR is currently investigating a Title IX sexual violence case involving the Seattle Public Schools. As this is an open investigation, we cannot share any additional information. For more on how OCR handles civil rights complaints, please see our Web sit
PE at Your Neighborhood Community Center?
This was in the Northgate Community Center activities schedule. Apparently, you can get a high school (maybe middle school) PE credit for this class. Have you seen this elsewhere? (Credit to Carolyn Leith for pointing this out.)
AUG 03
Seattle Schools This Week
Friday, August 8thBEX Oversight Committee Meeting, 8:30 am-10:30 am, JSCEE, Room 2750Minutes from June.It will be interesting to see if the downtown school issue will be discussed. (Yes, I know that BEX money is spoken for but it might come up as a topic.)No Community Meetings with Board directors on Saturday the 9th.To note: next week, the schedule starts picking up again with two Board committe
Overkill Leads to...what the U.S. System Looks Like Today
Remember when I said. let's go back to basics? This might be a good start.
A Reminder to Our Readers
This is a community forum blog. To me and Charlie, that means anyone can come and discuss anything relevant to public education from national right down to specific Seattle schools/programs. We try to guide the conversation but not define it. You can opine/inform on topics on just about anything in public education. We provide open threads for topics that Charlie and I might have missed.We try
AUG 02
Another Perspective on Seattle Superintendent/School Board Relationship
A thoughtful piece from Northwest Progressive Institute by Robert Cruickshank about the ever-popular issue of departing superintendents. The real story, the one the Seattle Times does not want to tell for fear of undermining their anti-democratic agenda, is one of repeated mismanagement by a succession of superintendents and of a central staff that is unresponsive or overtly hostile to the board
Education Reform vs. education reform
The back and forth in the comments section of a Seattle Times story about Teachers United got me thinking about the difference between Education Reform and education reform. I don't know if I have written this out before, but I feel a need to write it out now.The goals of many of the millionaire- and billionaire-funded Education Reform Organizations are focused on either reducing the cost of educa
Garfield Field Trip Rape; More Troubling Info
I myself have not spoken with the family of the victim but Charlie has and believes the sincerity of their story. I see now at their Facebook page -Stop Sexual Assault in High School - that the district is trying to shape the narrative of this incident.Here's what the family says has happened recently:- Yesterday, the District wrote it was sending out the parents' Oct. 18, '13 response to the Di