The Seattle School Board and the district are poised to change the Advanced Learning program in a major way. Interestingly, the BAR (Board Action Report) on this change has a fairly bland title - Rename and Amend Highly Capable Services and Advanced Learning.
I am NOT advocating for anyone to write to the Board because this was a done deal a long time ago.
The district is going to have a new enactment of Highly Capable Services (kicking out the wording “Advanced Learning”) and having “building-based services” in General Education classrooms rather than separate cohort groupings. There may or may not be other eligible students in the class. There is a carve-out for “upper edge” students. (See below.)
To note, the wording “highly capable” comes from the state and it is a state mandate that comes to districts complete with funding for transportation.
The district plans to enact this new programming over the next six years, to school year 2026-2027. They are currently piloting the program at one elementary school. Students in the current program will stay with their cohort until then 2026-2027.
The district is paying at least three consultants to plan how to enact the new HCC.
The district claims that the current program is “inaccessible” without explaining why. In the past, some schools with minority majority CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: Advanced Learning to Change