Director McLaren Op-Ed
Recently I learned that Director Marty McLaren had written an op-ed for the Seattle Times about the good things and hard work happening in Seattle Schools. According to McLaren, the Times encouraged her to edit her op-ed and resubmit it (which she did) but then the Times declined to print it.They then published the editorial about SPS and its leadership (and egging on the Mayor and the City Counci
Florida drops test after kindergarten teacher took public stand against it
Last week I published a highly popular post that included a letter that kindergarten teacher Susan Bowles of Lawton Chiles Elementary School in Gainesville, Fla., posted on Facebook telling parents that she was refusing to administer the Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading, or FAIR. She explained what she said were serious problems with administering […]
Seattle Schools This Week
Tuesday, September 16thAudit&Finance Committee Quarterly Audit Meeting, 4:30-6:30 pm. Agenda not yet available.As Charlie noted elsewhere, this is the meeting where staff has to report back on various issues raised. I am hoping to see Director Carr hold some feet to the fire but we'll just have to see.Wednesday, September 17thSchool Board Meeting starting at 4:15 pm. Agenda I am aware that
Title IX Work List from SPS
Here's a link to the current status of Title IX work as presented to the Board Audit and Finance Committee on August 19.A number of the action items on this list are familiar to those of us who have read lists of action items before. Of course the expected completion dates have all been pushed out later. I can't help noticing that a number of the "next action" dates fall before the meeti
Monday! Let Senator Murray know you value Student Data Privacy
The Senate HELP (Health Education Labor and Pensions committee) is negotiating over the re-authorization of the Education Sciences Reform Act. We were told that there are Democrats on the committee who are pushing for relaxing limits on access to personal student data, and are saying that researchers should be able to obtain open-ended access to complete student data sets– and that they shouldn’t
9-14-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools UpdatesTweet from the district about priorities for 2014-2015:During a retreat today, the School Board picked its top governance priorities for the 2014-15 school year: bell times analysis, multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), special education and stewardship of resources/internal controls.First, shouldn't these "priorities" have been