Seattle Schools Community Forum: Opt Out Form

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Opt Out Form:

Opt Out Form

From Seattle Opt Out:

SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS* Seattle Schools Community Forum: Opt Out Form:

Decision to Support the Whole Child Form
The unofficial form for opting out of high stakes testing*

Please clearly print the following information and return to your school’s principal.


Student’s Name _________________________________________________________
Parent/Guardian’s Name __________________________________________________
School _________________________________________ Student’s Grade Level _____
As the parent/guardian of the above named student, I have made an educated decision to support my child by opting him/her out of participating in the following:

____ all portions of Smarter Balanced
____ end-of course exams in ___ Algebra ___ Geometry ____ Biology
____ certain subtests (please name subtest – ELA, MSP science)
____ MAP

My reason for this decision is: __________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I have read and understand that:

• This decision is a permanent record to document my decision about my child’s educational and emotional well-being without fear of harassment, intimidation, bullying and retaliation by Seattle Public Schools.
• Students who do not participate will receive positive reinforcement in knowing they are more than a number and will not experience unnecessary anxiety. 
• Students who do not participate are free to engage in creative endeavors during the test time
• Opting out may positively impact our school by relieving the pressure on staffing and physical space.
• Teachers will not have to spend time reviewing test scores that are not reliable in measuring all student’s academic growth in the core academic areas of reading, writing, math and/or science. Instead, teachers will be able to rely on their training and professional judgment to evaluate each child as an individual with multiple strengths and challenges. 
• Families will not receive unreliable results and will be better able to chart their student’s growth over time by partnering with their teachers. 
• Smarter Balanced should not be used as the achievement for Highly Capable eligible as there is no proven correlation between achievement on this particular test and advanced learning abilities Smarter Balanced was not intended for this purpose and doing will likely to lead to more racial and socio-economic disparity to advanced learning opportunities.

Signature of Parent/Guardian ______________________________
Date _______________________________


* This form is not published or approved by Seattle Public Schools. You are not required to use the District’s “Refusal to Participate in Assessments Form,” state the reasons for your decision, or agree to any of the assertions stated therein.

Opting out is as simple as emailing your principal.Seattle Schools Community Forum: Opt Out Form:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: On Option Schools and Class Sizes - http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2017/04/on-option-schools-and-class-sizes.html

Teacher Makes Touching Video With Her Students To Reaffirm 'Black Is Beautiful' | The Huffington Post

Teacher Makes Touching Video With Her Students To Reaffirm 'Black Is Beautiful' | The Huffington Post:

Teacher Makes Touching Video With Her Students To Reaffirm ‘Black Is Beautiful’

After hearing girls in her class complain about their looks, this teacher made a music video to boost their confidence.

 

Massachusetts teacher and singer Lovely Hoffman heard some of the female students at her predominantly black middle school bemoan their appearance. Aware of the damaging impact of constantly trying to measure up to European beauty standards, Hoffman created a music video titled “My Black Is Beautiful.”

Hoffman made the song as a testament to the beauty of young girls of color, who are sometimes insecure about their hair, weight and skin tone. 

The video, which includes Hoffman and her actual students from Helen Y. Davis Leadership Academy in Dorchester, follows a young girl who doubts her beauty as Hoffman sings words of affirmation:

Who are you to say that I’m not beautiful

It’s your own insecurity

Because I know and believe

My black is beautiful

In one of the video’s most poignant scenes, the young girl is seen looking at an OK! Magazine cover with mostly white celebrities. But a thoughtful peer hands her an issue ofTeacher Makes Touching Video With Her Students To Reaffirm 'Black Is Beautiful' | The Huffington Post: 

As-Salaam-Alaikum - No Common Core Does Not Require Teaching Islam | Truth in American Education

No Common Core Does Not Require Teaching Islam | Truth in American Education:

As-Salaam-Alaikum - No Common Core Does Not Require Teaching Islam

“Common Core requires teaching kids about Islam!”

This idea has been out for some time, and I don’t think I’ve ever addressed it directly. I had a friend share an article with me this morning that made this assertion and had seen it floated around on social media before.

I don’t think people who make these statements realize how much damage they do to our cause when they spout stuff like this. It degrades our credibility. It gives the media and Common Core advocates something to focus on rather than on our substantive arguments. Some policy-makers, unfortunately, dismiss us as a bunch of kooks.

It ticks me off because I have worked since 2010 to develop or highlight reasonable arguments and legitimate critiques of the standards and all claims like these do is take us off message.

First, the Common Core State Standards are math, ELA and literacy standards. I have read them, and I can assure you they say absolutely nothing about Islam, let alone require schools to teach about it.

Second, textbook publishers have an agenda. Progressive publishers have had an agenda before Common Core, and they will continue to have an agenda long after Common Core is gone. When publishers include it in curriculum that has a “Common Core-aligned” label on it does not mean Common Core requires it.

Third, if we can assign any blame to Common Core at all, we can thank the misguided focus on “informational text” which has driven the glut of “Common Core-aligned” curriculum in various subjects.

So just because some publishers promote Islam does not mean Common Core requires it, and just because some Common Core advocates push Islam does not mean it is the standards. So can we please drop this argument once and for all?No Common Core Does Not Require Teaching Islam | Truth in American Education:

Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers. Episode #10. | Fred Klonsky

Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers. Episode #10. | Fred Klonsky:

Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers. Episode #10.

Camille Williams, me, Matt Blizek and my brother.

On this week’s show we give a shout out to our honorary Klonsky brother, Logan Bay. Logan has been our producer and major force behind Lumpen Radio.

A fund raising site has been set up. Consider helping Logan out.

We have a conversation about my trip to Memphis to honor Dr. Martin Luther King on the 49th year since his murder.

As a prophet of non-violence and social justice, what would King say about the missile attack on Syria by Donald Trump.

One year before his assassination, Dr. King gave a speech called Beyond Vietnam.

As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they ask — and rightly so — what about Vietnam? They ask if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government….

In the second half hour we are joined by Camille Williams of Chicago Votes and Matt Blizek of MoveOn.

Racism, schools and progressive electoral strategies are the topics. It is lively and free-wheeling.

Another great show.

The MixCloud version.

The podcast download version.

Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers. Episode #10. | Fred Klonsky:

What's The Future Of Corporate School Reform During The Trump Administration? | The Huffington Post

What's The Future Of Corporate School Reform During The Trump Administration? | The Huffington Post:

What’s The Future Of Corporate School Reform During The Trump Administration?

How will the technocrats who have driven school reform respond to this new environment?

Accountability-driven, competition-driven school reformers, and we educators who oppose them, owe it to our students to take stock in the situation we all face during a Trump presidency. Regardless of the wisdom of their hunches about school improvement, should reformers keep up their campaign to use disruptive innovation to transform traditional public schools? If so, will they collaborate with the ultimate disruptors, Betsy DeVos and Trump, to advance their agenda?

In other words, how will the technocrats who have driven school reform respond to this new environment?

Not surprisingly, the best place to start an evaluation of contemporary school reform is with Professor Emeritus Larry Cuban. Cuban’s “Where Is the US in School Reform in 2017?” reaches three conclusions, the first being, “School reformers have overstated defects in the existing system and made gloomy predictions of disaster. Then they have understated difficulties of changing the system by proposing rose-colored solutions.”

Reformers committed unflinchingly to high academic standards, with state and national tests to determine whether all students meet those standards. Those test scores became the primary metric to hold districts, schools, students, and teachers accountable and to determine the success of their policies. Two of the main drivers of reform were teacher and administrator evaluation and compensation on the basis of student test scores, and expanded parental choice, mainly through charter schools. Great faith also was placed on technology.

Cuban concludes that despite the disappointing results of test-driven, market-driven reform, “the economic aim of preparing students for a market-based democracy continues to dominate public schools in the 21st century.” Moreover, he further explains that, “Most reformers, the general public, and educators have yet to distinguish between cycles of policy talk and action from what actually happens to policies when they are put into practice in schools.”

Cuban has long argued that school improvement is a linear process that “is a world apart from the hyperbole and gloom accompanying cyclical policy talk and action.” Cuban identifies trends that appear over time as he warns, “Because of school culture and organizational realities, change is gradual and episodic.”

On the other hand, recent posts by Cuban indicate that technology enthusiasts may be asking better questions. In a few cases, Cuban sees grounds for hope that technology will be integrated holistically into meaningful classroom instruction. If, as I believe is true,What's The Future Of Corporate School Reform During The Trump Administration? | The Huffington Post: 

Ms. Katie's Ramblings: CPS targets Special Education Teacher Sarah Chambers

Ms. Katie's Ramblings: CPS targets Special Education Teacher Sarah Chambers:

CPS targets Special Education Teacher Sarah Chambers

Here are the remarks from an action we did today at River Point Plaza, a new development that used over $30 million in TIF funds. CPS claims we are broke, and yet school money continues to get handed over to these wealthy developers. And on top of all that, CPS retaliates against activists who speak out.


 The leaders of the Chicago Public Schools constantly do outrageous, shameful things. They viciously close schools, they starve the neediest kids of funding, they create chaos wherever they go.

And now, we have a new shameful, unforgivable act. Yesterday, the leaders of the Chicago Public Schools FIRED a beloved, dedicated, outstanding special education teacher, Sarah Chambers. In true CPS fashion, they performed this cowardly act the afternoon before they furloughed us and as we start our Spring Vacation. But that will stop us from calling out their evil actions.

"Special Ed Need over Corporate Greed!"

Sarah Chambers has faithfully taught students with special needs at Saucedo Academy, an elementary school in Little Village, for nearly a decade, in a community our Mayor pretends he wants to give sanctuary to. She is an award-winning teacher who always received top, distinguished ratings. Her students, the staff at the school, and the parents and community speak glowingly of her. She also supports LGTBQ students by running a Gay Straight Alliance club. She protected her students when administrators tried to illegally cut special education services. She encourages her Ms. Katie's Ramblings: CPS targets Special Education Teacher Sarah Chambers:

What international test scores reveal about American education | Brookings Institution

What international test scores reveal about American education | Brookings Institution:

What international test scores reveal about American education

as U.S. school performance been improving over the past two decades? The results of two international tests—the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Assessment (TIMSS)—shed some light on this question. Both were administered in 2015, an event that only occurs every 12 years. Inside the 2017 Brown Center Report on American Education, report author Tom Loveless takes advantage of this rare opportunity to illuminate trends in American students’ aptitude compared to previous years and to their international counterparts.

WHAT ARE THE PISA AND TIMSS TESTS?

PISA, which was first administered in 2000, covers 15-year-old students’ literacy levels in three disciplines: reading, mathematics (first tested in 2003), and science (first tested in 2006). The test, given every three years, attempts to measure how well students can take concepts taught in the classroom and apply them to find solutions to real-world problems. TIMSS, which dates back to 1995, tests fourth and eighth graders every four years on how well they have learned math and science curricula. Both tests are scored on a scale of 0-1,000, with a mean of 500 and a standard deviation of 100; however, the true range of values lies between the 300s and the 600s.

Although the two tests are different in what they test, they are highly correlated. Any PISA section score and any TIMSS section score are strongly related, but correlations are not as strong when comparing a country’s gains on each test over time.

HOW DID THE U.S. PERFORM ON THESE TESTS IN 2015?

The PISA test scores did not bring great news about the American education system, as the United States continues to hover around the international mean for reading and science literacy. On the mathematics literacy section, the U.S. even notched its lowest score to date at 470; this represents a decline from the previous two tests, but it is not statistically significantly different from its first-ever score in 2003. Overall, American PISA scores on all sections have been relatively flat over the test’s history, with no statistically significant change between the score on each section’s first year and the 2015 scores.

However, the U.S. has consistently performed better on TIMSS. Fourth grade scores have largely stayed above the international mean, with math results improving significantly over time—518 in 1995 grew to 539 in 2015—and science scores remaining steady around 540. Eighth grade TIMSS scores show statistically significant gains in both math and science over the test’s What international test scores reveal about American education | Brookings Institution: 

Common Core And The Ongoing Battle for America’s Schools

Common Core And The Ongoing Battle for America’s Schools:

Common Core And The Ongoing Battle for America’s Schools

In 'Education Invasion,' the new book by The Federalist's Joy Pullmann, she warns that the federal government may soon control almost every academic aspect of your child's education. Be afraid. Very afraid.

Former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Louisiana Superintendent of Education John White were once allies in the fight for school choice, as well as unified in leading the New Orleans Public Schools to be the largest charter school district in America. But a once-great partnership spiraled downward to the point where the two men could barely tolerate one another. Meetings of the state board of education became proxy wars where the governor’s appointees vigorously opposed White’s every advance and policy maneuver. The issue? The initiative to establish national educational standards known as Common Core.

Initially, Jindal supported the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), as did a majority of the nation’s governors, thinking it provided an opportunity to strengthen academic standards for the state in the ongoing quest for what education reformers reference as “standards based reform.” Jindal reversed course when public pressure mounted against the initiative. John White, one of the nation’s most prominent education reform leaders and strongest supporters of Common Core, prepared for a fight.

The impasse between Jindal and White grew vicious and personal. Routine board meetings lasted for hours as parents would testify against Common Core by exposing embarrassing examples of questions taken from Common Core-aligned tests. Their impassioned pleas to free children from the tyranny of government sponsored standards was catnip for the news media.

Chas Roemer, then president of the board (once a Jindal ally as well) refused to comply with Jindal’s demands, and the state legislature got involved in the fight. Jindal remained undaunted in his pursuit to rid the state of Common Core. The governor brought a lawsuit against President Obama and the United States Department of Education. After months of legal wrangling, the state of Louisiana dropped the case against President Obama over Common Core after Jindal left office. The entire saga left a residue of distrust between parents, teachers, school leaders, and politicians.

Louisiana was not alone in its Common Core saga. As Federalist Managing Editor Joy Pullmann reveals in the book, The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American Kids, the year 2013 began a wave of Common Core repeal bills in state legislatures that swelled to more than seven hundred across the nation. Common Core grabbed attention in the 2016 presidential campaign resulting in Common Core And The Ongoing Battle for America’s Schools:

John Thompson: Three keys to understanding the school board election - NonDoc

Three keys to understanding the school board election - NonDoc:

Three keys to understanding the school board election

As a retired teacher, my policy and political choices are based on three decades of struggles with the problems in the inner city and 25 years of work within the OKCPS. We’ve reached a point where many or most school administrators’ issues stem from the perspective of the test-driven, competition-driven reforms of the last 15 to 20 years. The time is coming when a new generation of educators, who grew up in a post-No Child Left Behind world, will take charge. We are getting plenty of indications that a new, humane, dynamic vision of schools and society is emerging.

Rejection of charter expansion

The first key to understanding this week’s OKCPS School Board election is that a grassroots uprising shouted “No!” to charter school expansion.

Oklahoma City adds to the evidence that the national corporate-reform campaign to expand school choice has produced an unsustainable bubble. In fact, charter applications have declined 48 percent nationally since 2012. Charter school advocates may recognize that venture philanthropists and federal and state governments have subsidized an oversupply of charters, which could cause them to retrench. Or, the bubble will burst as they join the Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump push for unregulated vouchers and private charters.

I supported Stanley Hupfeld for board chair, in part, because I believe that local school choice advocates (as opposed to many of their national funders) would be open to de-escalating charter wars and pursuing a new collaborative effort along the lines of MAPS for Kids. The voters disagreed. They sent a clear message: Patrons will do whatever it takes to stop charter expansion.

Paula Lewis rises to the occasion

Just as important, newly-elected board chairwoman Paula Lewis burst on the scene and played a major role in stopping last year’s KIPP takeover of Martin Luther King Elementary School. She also welcomed community input, worked with parents, organized and led an amazing campaign.

Lewis accomplished what OKC Councilman Ed Shadid did when he challenged the city establishment. She rose to the occasion as an unexpected leader, personifying American democracy’s vitality despite an era of Trumpism. Lewis and her supporters will invigorate Three keys to understanding the school board election - NonDoc:

The cost of Betsy DeVos’s security detail: $1 million per month - The Washington Post

The cost of Betsy DeVos’s security detail: $1 million per month - The Washington Post:

The cost of Betsy DeVos’s security detail: $1 million per month

Federal marshals are protecting Education Secretary Betsy DeVos at a cost to her agency of $1 million per month, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

The Education Department has agreed to reimburse the marshals $7.78 million for their services from mid-February to the end of September of this year, according to a spokeswoman for the Marshals Service — an amount that works out to about $1 million per month. Marshals will continue providing security for the education secretary for the next four years, or until either agency decides to terminate the arrangement, under an agreement signed last week.

While the department is spending the additional money on DeVos’s security, members of the in-house security team that guarded previous secretaries remain on the payroll. But they are not guarding DeVos and have not been assigned new duties, according to a department employee who was not authorized to speak to a reporter and asked for anonymity.

A department spokesman, who declined to be identified, said he could not comment on personnel decisions. He said the agency deferred to the federal marshals’ threat assessment and determination about what would be necessary to keep the secretary safe and able to do her job.

The new outlay is a tiny fraction of the department’s budget, but comes as the Trump administration has proposed slashing the spending plan by $9 billion, or 13.5 percent.

[Betsy DeVos is being guarded by U.S. Marshals Service]

DeVos is the the only Cabinet secretary under the protection of the marshals, law enforcement officers who are generally responsible for protecting federal judges, transporting prisoners, apprehending fugitives and protecting witnesses. They also guard the deputy attorney general and Supreme Court justices when they travel.

The last Cabinet member protected by marshals was a director of the Office of National Drug The cost of Betsy DeVos’s security detail: $1 million per month - The Washington Post:

Student activists crash Newark Board of Ed meeting. Watch. | Blue Jersey

Student activists crash Newark Board of Ed meeting. Watch. | Blue Jersey:

Student activists crash Newark Board of Ed meeting. Watch.

Last night a group of students crashed a Board of Education candidate forum to demand a halt to charter expansion in Newark. The forum was hosted by the Newark Trust for Education, which gets funding from the Mark Zuckerberg Foundation for Newark’s Future and has a board member who is Director of the Newark Charter School Fund. The students – allied with NJ Communities United – disrupted the event with a mic check demanding the candidates running for Newark Public Schools Board of Education support two student demands: (1) Enact a moratorium on charter school expansion in the city (2) End the controversial One Newark Universal Enrollment program which prioritizes charter school assignments over public school assignment. Seven school board candidates immediately signed: Patricia Bradford, Denise Cole, Josephine Garcia, Jameel Ibrahim, Sheila Montegue, Philip Seelinger, and Charles Love. Good on them.

These kids give are giving me LIFE tonight. Incomprehensible that Newarkers still have to make the case against the destructive influence of privatized education, given how publicly both the influx of well-meaning philanthropy money from people like Facebook’s Zuckerberg and the people Christie sent to run Newark’s schools have failed students. But the student activists keep coming, as seniors graduate and go on to start their lives and more gutsy, informed and articulate students rise to take their place. A beautiful crop of young leaders is emerging in New Jersey’s largest city. Watch this; the kids backing each other up, community members whipping out their phones to catch it, people rising out of their seats in solidarity. BOOM.

city. Watch this; the kids backing each other up, community members whipping out their phones to catch it, people rising out of their seats in solidarity. BOOM.

Student activists crash Newark Board of Ed meeting. Watch. | Blue Jersey:

Local control formula closing funding gap but not equity gap, report says | EdSource

Local control formula closing funding gap but not equity gap, report says | EdSource:

Local control formula closing funding gap but not equity gap, report says

 Partners - The Education Trust - West - https://west.edtrust.org/?p=19020

Four years after its passage, the Local Control Funding Formula has narrowed and, by some measures, reversed the funding gap between the lowest- and highest-poverty districts in California.

But an infusion of funding hasn’t translated yet into improved opportunities for low-income students and English learners ­– and may not achieve that goal without tighter disclosure rules and more innovative approaches to distributing districts’ resources, a student advocacy organization said in a report published Thursday.

“We need more clarity on where money is going. Without transparency, community stakeholders, policymakers and the broader public are left to wonder whether this massive public experiment and investment is paying off,” said the Education Trust–West in “The Steep Road to Resource Equity in California Education.”Local control formula closing funding gap but not equity gap, report says | EdSource: