Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

3-11-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:





Duncan Blinks....for California
From the Washington Post:The U.S. Department of Education is allowing California to bypass federal requirements by giving standardized tests in math and reading to millions of public school students this spring without publicly reporting results or using them to hold schools or teachers accountable.This is for this year only.Duncan had been threatening to hold on to up to $3.5B in federal funding
Homework - Is it Worth It?
In what is probably one of THE longest running discussions in the history of US public education, comes yet another study on the outcomes for student doing homework.From Stanford University News (Stanford is where the study was conducted):A Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matt


States Starting to Grasp the Realities of Common Core
Two major stories have come across the wire in the last 24 hours about Common Core. One school district in Massachusetts, Worcester, says that parents can opt out of field testing for the Common Core assessment.  (There are two groups creating assessments.  One is PARCC and the other is Smarter Balanced; Washington State belongs to the latter.)From MASS Live:Thursday night, the Worcester School Co


Reality Check about the "Powerful Teachers Union" and Elections
 From the Rachel Maddow blog. 

Tuesday Open Thread

A reader let me know that his/her home got a call from Universal Survey (according to their phone message they do "marketing and political opinion" surveys.  The caller said they were doing a survey for SPS.  The reader did not continue the call.  Anyone else?  As well, the APP blog had a comment that one person had not received their scores and e-mailed AL.  They received a prompt reply
3-10-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools This WeekMonday, March 10thCurriculum&Instruction Policy Meeting, 4:30-6:30 pm, AgendaOf interest:- an ask for a waiver for one school day for Lawton- update on Creative Approach schools- Math Adoption Progress reportThis week has two of the five Community Meetings for the Strategic Plan for each region.  I would take this opportunity to ask ANY