Thursday, January 6, 2011

Another open thread

It's a new year! Discuss what you like!

Update: There is a good discussion starting in the comments of the impact of losing Highly Capable state funding.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please tell us how a budget elimination for the Highly Gifted program affects our kids. Does it just cut Dr. Vaughn's (and staff's) salary? Does it reduce $$ available to Lowell/TM, Hamilton/Washington, Garfield? Don't give me c*** about going down to Olympia to lobby our senators ... the budget cut will happen.

kanne said...

Yes, I would also like to know what eliminating state funding for gifted programs means for APP and Spectrum. I understand that there would be no money for the testing or the Advanced Learning staff. Is the handwriting on the wall?

Lori said...

The principal at Lowell told parents at yesterday's coffee chat that the money that is slated to be cut goes entirely to the Advanced Learning Office and will not directly affect APP classrooms next year. A parent added that the Transportation office has also said that the money does not affect transportation, so if you use the bus to get to APP, you will still have a bus.

Now, this is my own take on things, but I suspect that in the future, if the money for district-wide, opt-in CogAT testing is eliminated, the district will begin to rely solely on MAP for access to Spectrum and APP. I have not heard anyone from the district say this; I'm just offering what seems obvious to me. They started using MAP as a screen this year. Perhaps by next year, it won't only be a screen - it will be the actual test for eligibility, whether there are data that show high concordance with CogAT results or not. If parents have concerns about this possibility, it might be something to be on the watch for in the months ahead.

Anonymous said...

I was on the Source looking at my childs grades and noticed that for Language Arts extra credit is being given for MAPS Reading. Specifically it says:

MAP assessment (Reading - EXTRA CREDIT)

Anybody know anything about this? Is this a district-wide thing or just by teacher? And what is the extra credit for, encourage students to take the test?

Anonymous said...

I just read that MacDonald is slated to be an international school, and part of the reasoning is to create a strong pathway for this program for K-12. So, both JSIS and MacDonald will feed into Hamilton, and then to Ingraham.

Curious to know how this will affect APP; e.g., is there enough room at Hamilton to accomodate this new stream of students?

lendlees said...

McDonald is in the Hamilton attendance area already so no greater burden than already exists.

Anonymous said...

Except that McDonald is not fully enrolled at the moment, what happes when it is?

lendlees said...

Ugh didn't even think about that.

Yep, Hamilton will be even more overenrolled than it is today. Evidently that should have been planned for in the NSAP, but, like Garfield, not really thought out.

Bird said...

I think by the time the kids in McDonald are of middle school age the whole north end will need more middle school capacity.

I expect every thing will be reshuffled.

Shannon said...

Anyone else read the article on the appeals process for Gifted Program access in Seattle's Child magazine? It compares Seattle and Shoreline appeal procedures, claiming Shoreline has done away with independent IQ testing because of claims it does not allow equal access.

Maureen said...

Here's a link to the article Shannon referenced. No comments posted on it as yet.

Anonymous said...

I received an letter today in the mail from Chief Sealth International School inviting my prospective student to their open house. We live in West Seattle, but are in the West Seattle High School reference area, not in the Chief Sealth reference area. Did I miss something saying that West Seattle students would be accepted at either school regardless of which reference area they live in? If this is not the case, then why would Chief Sealth try to encourage students out of their reference area to attend their school? Is it because my student is in APP and they are trying to further relieve the overcrowding at Garfield by inviting students to consider Chief Sealth?

suep. said...

Heads-up! Last minute changes to the transition plan that may affect APP

The district's agenda for today's school board meeting has a number of last-minute changes, some of which affect APP.

It looks like they are proposing to eliminate the Lowell APP walk-zone option. I'm guessing they want to direct more kids to Thurgood and fewer to the already crowded Lowell.

Also, someone on the SSS blog who's read the updated agenda more closely than I, says the district is NOT proposing to allow incoming 9th graders to test into the APP/IB program at Ingraham. If that is true, this contradicts what many of us were told about a month ago when they first pitched the Ingraham idea to us all.

It's also shortsighted, because they may need to help boost the initial enrollment in the APP/IB program and that would have been a good way to do it. (A couple of us spoke up in favor of this at Sherry Carr's community meeting before the holidays.)

Maybe the district thinks it simply doesn't have the money to do more testing, which may be true, but still.

And it looks like the district is talking about Ingraham as an option -- not an assignment -- for APP kids, which I believe is the best way to go.

Anyway, we should all pay attention to these changes. I think the board may vote on them tonight.

Details here: Many Changes in Tonight's Board Agenda

Here's the link to tonight's school board meeting agenda (PDF).

--sue p.

Stephanie Bower said...

Hi Sue,
my understanding is that the testing for current non-APP students for spots in the Ingraham APP/IB program has to do with lack of resources, time and money (remember, funding cuts for the district are slated to be retroactive to September 2010, this academic year,
so the district will already be in the hole by nearly $400,000, and that is without assessing kids for Ingraham!)--it is not from lack of desire to fill any empty spots in the APP/IB program. Also, to enter the APP/IB program at 9th grade, students will need to be comparably accelerated when they arrive in order to participate (for example, 9th graders would need to be ready to take the rest of AP World History, and what about Biology and the science sequence?) There would be a lot to work out in very short order. Maybe for next year.

From my perspective, the fact that the district is still supporting Ingraham as an option, even with what might be a somewhat smaller cohort (we don't know numbers yet), is truly remarkable!
Stephanie