Open thread

What's on your mind? Graduations and longing for the sunshine to start here in Seattle? Anything else?

Two year stability for north elementary APP

Melissa Westbrook reports:

For the 2012-13 school year, the District will:

Separate the two Lowell schools. The Lincoln site will now be “APP at Lincoln,” much like our other programs housed at interim sites, such as K-5 STEM at Boren. This means that Rina Geoghagan and Gregory King will no longer be co-principals, but instead serve as principals of their own buildings. The two schools will also have a separate budget structure.

Keep APP at Lincoln for the next two school years. Given our capacity issues in the north end of Seattle, we will house the program at Lincoln for the next two years. This gives District staff time to continue working on the larger picture of program placement and capacity.

Good news, I think. What do you think?

ALTF and its recommendations

The Advanced Learning Task Force came out with its recommendations (PDF) and Melissa Westbook has a post with her thoughts on meetings of the ALTF.  What do you think of the recommendations, the  Advanced Learning Task Force, and what might help improve the future of Advanced Learning programs in Seattle Public Schools?

Open thread

Summer is almost here!  What's on your mind, APP parents?

Update: Charlie Mas started a thread on the School Board's policy on "Highly Capable Student Programs", which has been suspended since 2009.  Very worthwhile topic, please comment on it over there.

Update: Two major topics in the comments, one on MAP test scores being used to determine when APP 5th graders can take Algebra in 6th grade, another on an incident at Hamilton where a teacher videotapes one class misbehaving and then showed it to another class.