9-19-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

OSPI Interested in Thoughts on Late Starts for High Schools

OSPI is apparently interested in your thoughts on a later start for high schools.  I don't believe they have the authority to order this to happen but that they are interested in finding out the depth of interest is a good sign.Weigh in at their Facebook page.

by Melissa Westbrook / 21min 

What is the deal with Spectrum?

Thirteen years ago, when I first became an activist in Seattle Public Schools, there were problems with Spectrum. There were three problems:Qualified students could not gain access to the program because the classes were full.There was lively discussion about the student identification process including issues of under-representation of minority students and students from low-income homes.There we

by Charlie Mas / 15min  

9-18-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Growth Boundaries PlanFirst, the headlines:The big winner is K-5 at Boren, soon to be K-8 STEM at Boren.The big loser is Pinehurst K-8, soon to be closed and clearly treated with bad faith.APP breaks even, getting everything expected, most of it where expected, some of it in difficult spaces but with an extraordinary accommodation that should prove very beneficial

by mike simpson / 22h 

Study: Impact of unaddressed mental health issues on students is severe:

Study: Impact of unaddressed mental health issues on students is severe

By Valerie Strauss, Published: September 19 at 11:47 amE-mail the writer

Mental health is one of those topics that Americans don’t like to talk about much, unless it is forced into public view by tragedies such as Monday’s mass shootingat the Washington Navy Yard by a man who told police that he was hearing voices shortly before he killed 12 people. In the area or school reform, the mental health of students has been ignored too, despite the irrefutable fact that sick kids have a hard, if not impossible, time learning in class. But the consequences of failing to address mental health issues in students goes well beyond academic problems, as a 2013 study reveals.

The 2013 study, called “Blind Spot: The Impact of Missed Early Warning Signs on Children’s Mental Health,” was written by Andrea M. Spencer, dean of the School of Education at Pace University in New York and educational consultant to the Center for Children’s Advocacy.

Spencer looked at data from 102 case studies drawn from school records of  students ages 12 to 16 who had been referred to an area advocacy center because of persistent school failure, truancy, juvenile justice involvement or other court involvement. She sought to find out the types of developmental and social risk factors associated with 

Before tonight’s meeting, several Dallas ISD trustees make clear their feelings about Mike Miles | Dallas Morning News

Before tonight’s meeting, several Dallas ISD trustees make clear their feelings about Mike Miles | Dallas Morning News:

Before tonight’s meeting, several Dallas ISD trustees make clear their feelings about Mike Miles

By Matthew Haag
mhaag@dallasnews.com
11:25 am on September 19, 2013 | Permalink

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Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles will face his bosses tonight and, perhaps, fight for his job after an investigation found he violated district policy and tried to disparage trustees. The meeting at 5:30 tonight is the first time Miles will meet with board members about the investigation and have a chance to give his side.

They will discuss in closed session the investigation by private attorney Paul Coggins, who is scheduled to also discuss his report in public later in the night.

However, before that meeting starts, several trustees have already made clear their feelings about Miles. Mike Morath wrote in an op-ed last week that student achievement gains prove that Miles needs to stay.In a blog post published this morning, Carla Ranger has a different take.

“Some trustees are being pushed to ignore their governance responsibility to hold the superintendent accountable for the numerous serious issues raised in recent internal and external investigations,” she wrote. “Yet, no other Dallas ISD employee would be allowed to obstruct or interfere with an ongoing 

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Thursday, September 19, 2013

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

Jersey Jazzman: @jaredpolis: America's Worst Congressperson

Education Headlines

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Alisal school board adopts credit-card use policy

It's official: Alisal schools Superintendent John Ramirez Jr. is now authorized to use the district credit card.The school board voted 5-0 Wednesday night to approve a policy governing the use of the credit card, a policy that was nonexistent a year ago.

Baron: Future of high school exit exam unclear as California revamps testing requirements

The current overhaul of California’s student testing program is skipping, for now, the California High School Exit Exam, the one test that’s truly high stakes. If students don’t pass, they don’t receive a high school diploma

Chico school test scores good, but gains, losses hard to explain

A report finds the majority of Chico schools are doing better than the state averages on various standardized test measures, but what it means is not entirely clear.

Arts funding declines as schools make push for new technology

The Fountain Valley School District has privatized its after-school arts program in elementary schools, increasing the cost to parents by nearly a third, and cut an after-school vocal music class for K-5 students.

Institute, schools team to tout canyons

Under a proposal that San Diego school trustees unanimously approved Tuesday, more than 30 acres of Manzanita Canyon in City Heights will be transformed into an $8 million living science lab for thousands of students.

California school aid change already enmeshed in controversy

A brand-new overhaul of how state aid is distributed to California schools - focusing more money on districts with large numbers of poor and/or English learner students - is already generating controversy.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Last-minute proposal may keep Tokay Colony open

Lodi Unified will research the possibility of transforming the rural Tokay Colony Elementary School into a technology-themed magnet school, an eleventh-hour effort to try to keep the small school open as enrollment declines.

Local Tea Party activists oppose Common Core standards

They’re promoted as making American students more competitive with their international peers, but some local conservatives say new educational standards set to be fully implemented next school year amount to a federal takeover of local education.

Freedburg: LAUSD board-administrator conflicts underscore challenges of “local control”

Tensions are on the rise between top administrators and the new majority on the Los Angeles Unified School District school board – underscoring the perils inherent in Gov. Jerry Brown’s move to push more control and authority for what happens in schools down to the local level.

When the Shoe Is on the Other Foot: Lessons for Teachers in Misguided Accountability | the becoming radical

When the Shoe Is on the Other Foot: Lessons for Teachers in Misguided Accountability | the becoming radical:

When the Shoe Is on the Other Foot: Lessons for Teachers in Misguided Accountability

Posted on September 19, 2013 by plthomasedd

If we imagined a pictorial representation of the evolution of education accountability, similar to the standard image we associate with human evolution—

—then we’d have to confront that the accountability era begun in the early 1980s focused first on students, requiring them to pass exit exams (regardless of their having taken and passed all of the required courses for graduation) in order to receive their diplomas.

Next, schools were the target of accountability with the advent and distribution of school report cards.

By the end of the first and beginning of the second decades of the twenty-first century, teachers have found their place at the accountability table, with some suggesting that teachers are now being fed their just desserts. Merit pay linked to student test scores and the more recent flurry of implementing value-added methods (VAM) of teacher evaluation and retention in many ways bring teachers into decades-long predicaments faced by students and schools: the misguided 

A Heartbreaking – And Preventable – Death | Taking Note

A Heartbreaking – And Preventable – Death | Taking Note:

A Heartbreaking – And Preventable – Death

by JOHN MERROW on 19. SEP, 2013 in 2013 BLOGS, BULLYING, TECHNOLOGY

The official records note Rebecca Sedwick’s death as a suicide.  There’s no disputing that the 12-year-old jumped to her death from an abandoned cement plant in Lakeland, Florida, on September 9, but what happened to her requires new terminology.  Perhaps we should call it “peer-icide” or “peer-slaughter” to convey what killed Rebecca, who had been “absolutely terrorized on social media” by 15 middle school girls for over a year, according to the Sheriff of Polk County, Grady Judd.

Preventing tragedies like this requires more than vigilance by parents and educators. Anti-bullying campaigns can’t hurt, but unless schools are proactive in their use of technology so that the energies of young people are engaged in meaningful ways, idle hands (and thumbs) will continue to do the devil’s work.

‘Mean girls’ are not a new phenomenon.  What is new and frightening are the weapons at their disposal, an array of apps that allow users to post and send messages anonymously.  Rebecca’s mother singled out ask.fm, Kik Messenger and Voxer as three the girls had used to send messages like “You’re ugly,” “Can U die please?” and “Why are you still alive?”

Rebecca is one of the youngest children to die in what is reported to be a growing number of victims of cyberbullying.  About 20 percent of young people have been victimized, according to the Cyberbullying Research Center, a clearinghouse of information on cyberbullying. About 15 percent of teens admit that they have bullied or ridiculed others on social media, photo-sharing and other websites, according to the Center.

“It’s now 24-7. It’s not just something you can escape after the school day,” Sameer Hinduja, co-director 

Expanding Learning Time – And Opportunities | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

Expanding Learning Time – And Opportunities | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

Expanding Learning Time – And Opportunities

By Anne O'Brien on September 19, 2013

The call to expand learning time to ensure that American students remain competitive with their international peers has become quite popular. While the rationale is perhaps a bit misguided (some evidence suggests that our students already experience as much instructional time as their peers, and other research confirms that teachers in the United States spend more time on instruction than teachers in other nations do), there are certainly reasons to focus on the issue, not least of which is the summer learning loss that disproportionately impacts our nation’s most disadvantaged youth.
But as those in the education community know, it is not necessarily the idea of extending learning time that is appealing – it is the idea of expanding learning opportunities. Partly in response to federal accountability measures, curriculum in many schools – particularly those serving predominantly disadvantaged students – has narrowed to focus on reading and math at the expense of the arts, physical education, civics and other subjects. In addition, the budget cuts of the Great Recession caused schools to further pull back in areas like art, sports and extracurricular activities – and, as a recent surveypoints out, the sequester has had an impact as well.
Yet in all these cuts, wealthier students are less likely to be impacted than their lower-income peers, in large part because their parents ensure they are exposed to enrichment opportunities either at school (perhaps paid for by fundraising efforts) or in private lessons. This discrepancy combines with hunger, illness (and a lack of health insurance), mobility and other issues that impact disadvantaged students at a much greater rate than their wealthier peers to form a 

Ain't It the Truth - Education Research Report: Half of Parents Have Trouble Helping Their Kids with Homework

Education Research Report: Half of Parents Have Trouble Helping Their Kids with Homework:

Half of Parents Have Trouble Helping Their Kids with Homework

As kids nationwide are getting back into the homework routine, the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) teamed up with Google to ask parents the question many silently dread each fall – are you ever unable to help your kids with their homework?
The new survey revealed that not only do nearly 50 percent of parents (49.1 percent)* admit to struggling with providing kids the homework help they need, but also nearly half (46.5 percent)** of parents with children in grades one through 12 who feel unable to lend a helping hand struggle because they themselves don’t understand the subject matter.
A deeper look at why so many parents are having such a tough time helping their kids with schoolwork paints a compelling picture of the many challenges involved in raising a family today, including:

• Nearly one in three of those parents who have trouble has difficulty connecting with their child, with 31.6 percent agreeing “my child doesn’t want my help”
• More than one in five parents who felt unable to help is too overwhelmed juggling everyday demands to devote the time required, with 21.9 percent agreeing, “I’m too busy”

“The most alienating and scary moments in any parent’s life come when we feel powerless to give our kids what they need,” said Emily Kirkpatrick, vice president of NCFL. “Our goal is to give families of all backgrounds and means the tools to take control of their own learning together – and the