Can We Duplicate These Teachers' Methods?
Via ABC News:
This Florida Special Ed teacher, Chris Ulmer, starts the school day with uplifting words to his students.
This Florida Special Ed teacher, Chris Ulmer, starts the school day with uplifting words to his students.
Title IX work left undone
As soon as the Title IX news moved off the headlines, the Title IX work in Seattle Public Schools moved off the agenda.
The annual report required by Board Policy 3208 has never been submitted. Never. The Board has never asked for it and the superintendent has never offered it.
There is no Title IX coordinator. There was an interim person, then another interim person. There's no one doing the work right now.
There was a report by the interim Title IX coordinator. No action is planned in response to that report.
Despite promises to revise the sexual harassment policy and procedure, that work remains incomplete.
Title IX training has come to a stop.
The Board has lost all interest in completing the Title IX work that they made such a show of starting. They do not respond to emails about the stalled work on Title IX.
The annual report required by Board Policy 3208 has never been submitted. Never. The Board has never asked for it and the superintendent has never offered it.
There is no Title IX coordinator. There was an interim person, then another interim person. There's no one doing the work right now.
There was a report by the interim Title IX coordinator. No action is planned in response to that report.
Despite promises to revise the sexual harassment policy and procedure, that work remains incomplete.
Title IX training has come to a stop.
The Board has lost all interest in completing the Title IX work that they made such a show of starting. They do not respond to emails about the stalled work on Title IX.
Advanced Learning and CSIPs
I have said, over and over again, that having an ALO in a school is usually no different from not having an ALO in a school.
Schools typically don't define their ALO in any meaningful way. They cannot and do not describe the ALO for families or tell families what the ALO provides that is any different from the norm for good teaching practices.
There are typically no practices specific to school ALOs. Schools cannot identify anything they do differently for students in ALOs than they do for students who are not in ALOs. Often the school cannot even say which students are participating in the ALO.
There is no assessment of school ALOs. The District has never made any assessment of their quality or efficacy (or even their existence) and the schools make no assessment of their quality or efficacy.
The bulk of ALOs are a fiction. They exist exclusively in marketing materials.
I recognize that this is a pretty harsh characterization of ALOs and, let's face it, Spectrum since Spectrum is, in most schools, no different from an ALO. You might wonder what evidence I can show to support this complete discredit of ALOs. Here is the best proof of that claim: school CSIPs.
Normally I would say that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but in this case it is. If something doesn't show up in the school CSIP, it doesn't show up at the school.
Schools typically don't define their ALO in any meaningful way. They cannot and do not describe the ALO for families or tell families what the ALO provides that is any different from the norm for good teaching practices.
There are typically no practices specific to school ALOs. Schools cannot identify anything they do differently for students in ALOs than they do for students who are not in ALOs. Often the school cannot even say which students are participating in the ALO.
There is no assessment of school ALOs. The District has never made any assessment of their quality or efficacy (or even their existence) and the schools make no assessment of their quality or efficacy.
The bulk of ALOs are a fiction. They exist exclusively in marketing materials.
I recognize that this is a pretty harsh characterization of ALOs and, let's face it, Spectrum since Spectrum is, in most schools, no different from an ALO. You might wonder what evidence I can show to support this complete discredit of ALOs. Here is the best proof of that claim: school CSIPs.
Normally I would say that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but in this case it is. If something doesn't show up in the school CSIP, it doesn't show up at the school.
Dorn Asks AG Ferguson for an Opinion on Local Levies
State Superintendent Randy Dorn's letter to Attorney General Bob Ferguson. The letter is much more in the weeds than the press release below. Dorn ends the letter saying (partial):
In the meantime, many school districts have already begun the process of planning future levies.
Without clarity on this question, school districts cannot adequately plan how they intend to deliver - or pay for - basic education services.
Given the longstanding - and ongoing - legal uncertainly regarding school districts' authority to use local levy funding to pay district personnel for basic education services, I believe it is essential that your response to this request be expedited.
Press Release
Nearly 40 years ago, the state Supreme Court ruled that the state’s education funding system relied too much on local levies. That reliance, the Court said, was unconstitutional.
In the meantime, many school districts have already begun the process of planning future levies.
Without clarity on this question, school districts cannot adequately plan how they intend to deliver - or pay for - basic education services.
Given the longstanding - and ongoing - legal uncertainly regarding school districts' authority to use local levy funding to pay district personnel for basic education services, I believe it is essential that your response to this request be expedited.
Press Release
Nearly 40 years ago, the state Supreme Court ruled that the state’s education funding system relied too much on local levies. That reliance, the Court said, was unconstitutional.