Saturday, December 29, 2012

Open thread

Almost a new year. Thoughts on APP in Seattle Public Schools in 2013?

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

What will happen to Lincoln APP 5th grade?

A watchful parent points to slide 29 of a recent SPS capacity planning presentation (PDF) which says that the solution to overcapacity at Hamilton is to either keep current 5th graders at Lincoln APP for another year (so, 6th grade would be at Lincoln APP) or move them to John Marshall (instead of having them go to Hamilton).

Either way, looks like APP 5th graders in the north might be getting some disruption, and not sure this has been discussed much publicly yet.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Open thread

What's on your mind, APP parents?

Science in APP

Lots of discussion about problems at Hamilton middle school with how science is taught in APP.

We've talked a lot about math here on this blog, but not much about science. Let's broaden the discussion beyond Hamilton APP too.

How do you like how science is taught in APP? Are there grades in which it is done particularly well? Others where it is done poorly? Where it is done well or poorly, do you think what is responsible is the curriculum, principal, or teachers?

School start times and teenagers

By request, a thread to discuss whether school start times should be later, especially in high school. Not an APP-specific topic, but let's do a thread on it anyway.

To get the discussion started, let me point to an article, "Do Later School Start Times Really Help High School Students?". The article summarizes several studies that showed higher grades, better test scores, and fewer traffic accidents when teens had later start times, and also summarizes the negatives (impact on after school sports and work schedules).