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Issues brief - 11/10/09
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1. Parents Have Good Questions About School Closures
Linda Shaw has an excellent article in the Seattle Times detailing some of the concerns parents have about school closures
Pointed questions about school quality dominated a meeting Saturday at Rainier Beach High School, the second-to-last public meeting on the boundaries that soon will govern where Seattle students go to school.
The quality questions started as soon as Seattle Public Schools staff members started answering questions that parents submitted on index cards, and continued even after the meeting ended.
Parents wanted to know when high schools in the South End will have as many college-level courses as schools in the North End of the city, and when southeast schools of all levels will have the same number of extracurricular activities.
A few questioned whether the district should adopt the new boundaries before it lives up to its promise of providing a quality school in every neighborhood.
"It seems like all the schools should be excellent before they force you to go to a particular school," said parent Deeann Partlow, who has a 7-year-old at Graham Hill Elementary and a 4-year-old.
The Seattle School Board is scheduled to vote Nov. 18 on the new boundaries, one of the last steps in putting a new student-assignment system in place. After the boundary vote, the board then will turn to how to phase in the plan over the next few years
Related Articles
a. Nina Shapiro’s article in the Seattle Weekly about school closures
b. Dick Lilly’s article at Crosscut on budget reform
c. Dick Lilly’s article at Crosscut on reopening schools
2. Upgrades to the Teacher Workforce
Lesli A. Maxwell is reporting in Education Week about a national panel’s recommendation to upgrade the teaching force
A report from a high-powered education task force that calls for states and school districts to overhaul how they recruit, prepare, evaluate, and compensate teachers has raised the hackles of the American Federation of Teachers, which dismissed many of its recommendations as “top-down” and disrespectful of the profession.
AFT President Randi Weingarten’s sharp criticism of the report
“There weren’t many of us on the task force speaking for teachers, and I think the report reflects that, especially in the lack of emphasis on principal effectiveness,” said Francine Lawrence, the president of the Toledo Federation of Teachers, an AFT affiliate, and a member of the panel. “It doesn’t speak to the professionalization of teaching at all, which is a real disappointment.”
The task force had a total of four teachers’ union representatives, including one from the National Education Association.
Strategic Management of Human Capital is a project of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education and is supported by funding from foundations. It is headed by Allan R. Odden, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and James A. Kelly, the founding president of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who chaired the task force over the course of the past year, said the panel had a “consensus on much of what’s in the report,” but explained that there had been no formal vote of its members to endorse the report because of some disagreements.
“We wanted the recommendations we put forth to be significant and specific, so we did not water it down in order to get agreement from everyone,” said Mr. Pawlenty, a Republican.
Other high-profile members of the task force included District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, who served as a vice chair of the panel, and New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein.
The ‘People Side’
In its recommendations to states, the task force calls for several sweeping changes in teacher policy.
It said raising the bar for who can enter undergraduate-level teacher education programs—perhaps by requiring a minimum score on the SAT or the ACT—is necessary to improve the talent that enters the profession. States also should require a rigorous content test before prospective teachers can earn an initial teaching license, it says. In addition, states should support, with policy and funding, more alternative pathways into teaching, such as Teach For America and the New Teacher Project, and should require all new teachers to go through an intensive induction or an internship experience that resembles a medical residency.
The report recommends that states adopt a multi-tiered licensing system; require evidence of effectiveness before granting tenure; and use performance-based evaluation systems to drive professional development and help reset teachers’ salary schedules. The task force’s final recommendation to states is to create performance-based evaluation and pay systems for principals.
I hate to sound like a broken record, but isn’t the point to have teachers in every classroom capable of producing academic achievement in their population of students? To get to this point, some strong parties are going to have to anger some stakeholders or nothing will get done.
3. Policies on Electronic Communications between Teachers and Students
Katie Ash is reporting in Education Week about policies regarding electronic communications between teachers and students
Teachers in Louisiana may soon think twice before sending a text message or e-mail to a student from a personal electronic device.
A new state law
Similar policies exist in many school districts across the country, and at least one other state has considered such legislation in recent years. But critics question the measures, saying they will likely restrict appropriate communication between teachers and students and discourage the use of new technologies.
“The motivation for the bill was growing problems with [interactions] that started relatively innocently and escalated from there,” said state Rep. Frank A. Hoffman, the Republican who wrote the bill, which Gov. Bobby Jindal signed into law in June. “It’s to head something off before it ever gets started.
“We’re not saying don’t use [electronic devices], just that there should be a system of documentation,” he said.
are appropriate, especially in the emerging fields of electronic devices and social-networking Web sites, is an issue that districts nationwide are navigating, with policies ranging from fairly permissive to more restrictive.
I suppose that there have been too many cases of improper contact between teachers and students and this was bound to happen.
4. States Want Stimulus $$$ for Schools
Sam Dillion has an article in the New York Times which shows how states are adapting to new economic realities
DENVER — Colorado’s lieutenant governor, Barbara O’Brien, has been parsing every public statement by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for nuances that could help her position the state as a winner in the $4 billion competition for federal school dollars known as Race to the Top.
And officials in dozens of other states have been doing the same, said Gene Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, a nonpartisan association of state superintendents of education.
“Whenever we have a conversation about any issue these days, Race to the Top is the gorilla in the room,” Mr. Wilhoit said.
The last time education officials were reading tea leaves so obsessively was after the 2001 No Child Left Behind law reshaped America’s public school landscape. Now Race to the Top is again redefining what Washington calls reform, setting in motion a new cycle of federal school improvement efforts.
States’ hunger for details should be sated when final rules are released this week, a Department of Education official said.
The $4 billion is the most money Washington has ever given to overhaul schools. It is to be awarded in two rounds, in April and September, to about a dozen states that propose bold schemes to shake up how they evaluate and compensate teachers, use data to raise achievement, and intervene in failing schools. With $16 billion in school budget shortfalls projected for next year, states are hungry.
Experts say the process is like watching dozens of states bid for the Olympics.
And some critics question whether the competition will bring the sweeping changes to America’s public schools that the administration hopes for.
“I’m hugely concerned about unintended consequences,” said Frederick Hess, an education director at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research policy group. “States are rushing to stitch together grant proposals that will win points, but many could just turn out to be short-term political plays.”
Everyone knows that it takes money to run schools and there are some states, California and Michigan, for example, facing extreme crisis in education funding and staffing. Still, the focus should be on those efforts that will produce academic achievement and which are sustainable without federal dollars. Who knows how long the federal money will be there.
Alerts
1. Where’s the Math General Meeting
Where's the Math? General Meeting
Meeting Date: November 14, 2009
Time: 10:30-12:30 The room is reserved until 1:30.
Location: Northgate Branch Library--Seattle Public Library
10548 5th Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98125 206-386-1980
Mark your calendar and plan to attend. Invite friends, concerned parents,
community members, and other citizens.
This will be an informational meeting. Background information will be
presented, reports of local school district textbook adoption activity
will be provided, and updates on current WTM efforts will be presented..
Looking forward to seeing everyone there.
Directions to the Library:
http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=branch_open_directions&branchID=21
2. Community Meetings for Early Learning Standards
Dear Key Communicators,
This is a reminder that several community meetings are scheduled this week to gather public input to inform the draft Early Learning Plan. This will wrap up the first phase of community input. The second phase will take place after the draft plan and recommendations are delivered to the Governor on Dec. 1. The final plan is expected to be complete in March 2010.
Please encourage members of your community to attend one of these meetings if possible. They can also go online to provide input via surveys about the draft vision, principles, outcomes and strategies, and the draft recommendations for near-term or first-phase priorities for implementation of the plan.
Monday, November 9
5 to 7 p.m.
Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Center
1033 Old Blyn Highway, Sequim
Hosted by Olympic Kitsap Early Learning Partnership
Tuesday, November 10
6:30 to 8 p.m.
Educational Service District Buildings via the K-20 Network
Hosted by the Educational Service Districts and the Washington State Child Care Resource & Referral Network
To find the ESD building closest to you, visit http://www.k12.wa.us/maps/ESDmap.aspx
Thursday, November 11
7:30 to 9 p.m.
YWCA of the Inland Northwest
930 N. Monroe St., Comstock Room
Hosted by Spokane County United Way, Community-Minded Enterprises and Inland Northwest Alliance for Early Learning
Thank you for being part of this effort. Together, we can ensure all Washington children have early learning opportunities that help them start school ready to succeed!
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Information about Swine Flu
The Seattle Times links to Seattle Local Health Guide which provides information about swine flu.
Washington State Department of Health has a number of online and traditional tools to provide you with up-to-date information about H1N1 “swine” flu.
Web site is updated regularly and features flu prevention information, including guides for businesses and schools, tip for parents and caregivers, and downloadable outreach materials.
· Department of Health H1N1 Web site: www.doh.wa.gov/h1n1/default.htm
· Recorded telephone helpline: 1-888-703-4364
· To find where vaccine can be found use the “locater”: www.doh.wa.gov/h1n1/h1n1_getvaccine.htm
· Questions? Send them to: prepare@doh.wa.gov
· And follow the Department of Health on Twitter: http://twitter.com/WA_DeptofHealth
For H1N1 resources and information in Seattle and King County:
· Go to our H1N1 local resources page.
Dr. Wilda says this about that ©
