Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Teacher Strike

As of this morning there is still no agreed upon contract and one day left until school starts.






News Stories:

http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/seattle/2015/09/07/seattle-teachers-strike-no-deal-wednesday/71856746/

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Seattle-teachers-prep-for-strike-amid-last-minute-negotiations-325377371.html

http://mynorthwest.com/11/2807278/Seattle-school-board-preps-for-legal-action-over-teacher-strike

Just in:

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/seattle-school-board-to-consider-legal-action-if-teachers-strike/ which contains the following info:

"The district hopes to decide by the end of the day Tuesday whether to cancel school on Wednesday, said district spokeswoman Stacy Howard."

Several news outlets are now reporting that there will be a strike tomorrow via twitter.

https://twitter.com/KING5Seattle Also there are several threads on http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/


Since the teachers have announced a strike schedule through Friday it doesn't look like
any settlement is possible until at least next week.

Please share your thoughts and what backup activities you're setting up for you kids.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

The strike is on. I for one will be taking off work and supporting the teachers. Any rigor in the HCC program has originated from the individual teachers and been undermined by the central administration. This is one area where the HCC/APP parents could begin to make a difference for advanced learning.

Support the teachers!

-HCC parent

Benjamin Leis said...

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Seattle-teachers-school-officials-to-resume-talks-Saturday-326852881.html

"In a tweet Friday afternoon, the Seattle Education Association said productive talks with mediators earlier in the day led to the development.

Seattle Public Schools spokesman Stacy Howard confirmed the Saturday talks by phone and by tweet Friday afternoon saying officials are pleased to be officially resuming negotiations.

"Hopeful to get kids back to school soon," Howard tweeted from the Seattle Public Schools account."

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile, the District has started the application process for HCC/Advanced learning and it is very different than in years past.

Deadline is still Oct 8.

Check it all out here: http://www.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=14554

shockednotshocked

Anonymous said...

Wow. Did you watched the videos? It appears that minority students are the vast majority of the Advanced Learners! Way to go, SPS! You wouldn't try to be misleading about that, right?

disappointed

SPS Mom said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

That is how you do outreach, though, disappointed. You show people who look like who you want to be in a program, so they feel like they could do belong too. White families already think they could belong there. We don't need more white people advanced learning outreach.

sleeper

Anonymous said...

Out of 600 kids at Lincoln APP in May 2014 (most recent stats available at OSPI) there were 2 kids identified as African American and 9 kids qualifying for free and reduced lunch. Hats off to the Advanced Learning department for at least recognizing the need to do more outreach to families that don't look like us!

Tired

Anonymous said...

…well its a start. but its been looooong time coming.. I can just imagined what it feels like to be the only 2 African American amongst 600 APP kids. I think there a a lot of kids of color that are bright and would qualify for APP. its just that the families would feel more comfortable around their own peers.

Anonymous said...

Did the criteria change for CogAT? For highly capable: 98% in one CogAT category and 95% in reading and math (SBAC or MAP).

Benjamin Leis said...

Very good news!

http://q13fox.com/2015/09/15/strike-over-tentative-agreement-between-seattle-teachers-district-reached/

hschinske said...

Well, it's not necessarily over, but school on Thursday looks reasonably likely.

Helen Schinske

Anonymous said...

For 2014-2015, HCC required 2 out of 7 CogAT scores to be 98 or higher (Verbal, Quant, Non Verbal, or the VQ, VN, QN, VQN composite scores). For 2015-2016, students must attain 98 on one of the VQ, QN, OR VQN composites. But to score a 98 on a composite, from the examples I’ve seen, you pretty much also have to score a 98+ on one of the individual scores, which in effect means two scores of 98+. Interestingly, all of the acceptable composites now include Quant, which I think is reasonable. So as far as I can tell the most recent change is probably not really much of a change or is possibly even tighter.

I believe the real change occurred in 2013-2014. Prior to that, a student was required to score 98 on both the verbal and 98 on the quant. The district didn’t use to report a composite, but if they had anyone scoring a 98 on both individual tests I believe would have scored 99 on the composite because it’s rare to do well on both tests. So when the district changed the requirement in 2013-2014 to any two tests of seven, including the composites, the HCC requirement effectively went from a 99 composite to a 98 composite. For example, a 99 Quant and a 95 Verbal results in a 99 VQ composite. I’m guessing that even a 99 Quant and a 90 Verbal would result in a 98+ composite and HCC eligibility. The district also introduced the Non Verbal at the same time, so It should be no surprise enrollment has gone up.

It would be interesting to know what Advanced Learning's projected regarding enrollment with the changes, compared to how things have actually played out.

HCC Parent