Happy Holidays

What's Next (officially)

This is the official statement from the district on the HCC High School Pathway process:
https://www.seattleschools.org/district/calendars/news/what_s_new/satp_and_high_school_boundaries

Note: Its not mentioned but given these proposals are brand new and the extremely tight timeline, its very possible the dates will be pushed back to allow better community engagement despite the start of open enrollment for next year.

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Student Assignment Transition Plan and High School Boundaries

Posted on 12/12/2017

Student Assignment Transition Plan and High School Boundaries

The Seattle School Board voted not to adopt the 2018-19 Student Assignment Transition Plan (SATP) at the Dec. 6, 2017 board meeting. The 2018-19 Student Assignment Transition Plan included recommendations on new high school highly capable pathways for 2019-20. (Watch a recording of the board meeting.)

This means that options for programs and enrollment outlined in the 2017-18 Student Assignment Transition Plan will carry forward through next school year.

Next Steps

In 2019-20, new high school boundaries will be implemented with the opening of Lincoln High School in North Seattle. Our intention is to integrate any changes to high school highly capable pathways with the new high school boundaries. Any anticipated changes to highly capable pathways would occur at the same time as boundary implementation in 2019-20.

At the Dec. 7, 2017, Operation Committee meeting, School Board Directors requested staff present the following highly capable pathway and boundary scenarios to the High School Boundary Task Force for feedback:

• Four regional pathways with Ballard, Roosevelt, Garfield and West Seattle as pathways;
• Two guaranteed pathways with Lincoln as the north end highly capable pathway (with Ingraham continuing to be an optional site), and Garfield as the south end highly capable pathway;
• Two guaranteed pathways with Ingraham as the north end highly capable pathway, and Garfield as the south end highly capable pathway;
• Complete decentralization in 2021-22 with every attendance area high school offering highly capable services.

A public meeting of the High School Boundary task force will be held from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., on Thursday, Dec 14 at the John Stanford Center (2445 3rd Ave S) in room 2750. You are invited to attend and listen as staff presents possible related high school boundaries and highly capable pathways. Read more about the High School Boundary task force.

The School Board will deliberate and vote on 2019-20 high school boundaries and any new high school highly capable pathways in January.

Timeline

• Dec.14: Various highly capable pathway scenarios and related boundaries will be presented to the High School Boundary Task Force. View the event entry.
• Jan. 3: Recommended high school boundaries and related highly capable pathways will be introduced to the Board. View the board meeting event entry.
• Jan. 10: A high school boundaries work session with the full board. See the board meeting event entry.
• Jan. 17: Anticipate that the Board will take action on the new high school boundaries and any changes to the high school highly capable pathways. This action would ensure families are aware of new high school boundaries before open enrollment, which is February 5-16. See the board meeting event entry.
• Jan. 20: Option School Choice Fair

If you have questions about next steps for high school boundaries or high school highly capable pathways, please send them to growthboundaries@seattleschools.org opens an email client applicationopens an email client application.

You may also contact School Board Directors at SchoolBoard@seattleschools.org opens an email client applicationopens an email client application(all board directors and cabinet level staff) or SPSDirectors@seattleschools.org opens an email client applicationopens an email client application(only school board directors).

2017-2018 Cohort Demographics

I finally have a complete picture of what happened this year across the cohort. Hopefully this will help inform the discussion.

First there is an overall backdrop of cohort growth.  The 9th grade cohort is beginning of the bubble with the number of kids jumping  30% in a single year.  This can make individual increases at a school look a little deceptive. Numbers were up everywhere except Ingraham which is capped because the pool increased so much.

[Note: the data below has only IHS / Garfield #s in 9-12]

[2016-2017 cohort size data]

So where do the kids originate from now?

Things vary a bit year to year but the largest two draw zones  are Roosevelt and Ballard which are more than half of the entire cohort by themselves.   The north end of  Seattle actually has half the city's population anyway but if you add it up it makes up 68% of the kids in HC cohort.  This is key: if the north end stopped feeding Garfield entirely you'd be left with a pool of around 100-140 kids per year (depending on W. Seattle). This would be a shrinkage from recent years. [I need to find the historical numbers but I think within the last 10 the program was once about this size.]

So what's happening at each school:

First oddly the number of kids actually rose in the total cohort since last year's report. There is no evidence of private school flight.

As you can see Roosevelt had a dramatic shift +43, Ballard +13 but Garfield still was up +62.  This is the root of the alarm at the district level. Although the north end is pulling more kids than initially projected this is still not a sustainable level at Garfield.

Secondly: looking at 9th grade as a whole about  22% went to Ingraham 43% to Garfield and the rest stayed in their neighborhood. The pathways as a whole remained the majority choice. In the north end in specific, the retention rate rose to about 50% which is a new trend versus the previous years.

What's Next?

After the recent student assignment plan votes where the the board eventually voted no to the entire plan the path forward has become murky.

One potential and likely possibility is that the next version of the plan moves forward with no reference to HCC pathways in it at all. That would be a reversion to the staff's first plan and there was one vote during the process where the directors almost all expressed support for that view. Dir Geary would very much like that to happen.

However, the further discussion at the end of the meeting and the Operations Meeting the next day gives a bit of hope. At that meeting, Dir. Mack asked the staff to come up with boundary plans linked to program placement evaluating:

• A 4 pathway option: Garfield/Ballard/Roosevelt/West Seattle
• A 2 pathway option Garfield/Lincoln.

Dir. Burke asked in addition for: 

HC Pathways:
N: Ingraham
SE: Garfield
SW: West Seattle

( Note: a pathway doesn't presume programming. Sending an additional several hundred students to Ingraham doesn't necessarily mean they would need to be IB.)

IB Pathways:
N: Ingraham
SE: Rainier Beach
SW: Sealth

(IBX as option based on local demand and student readiness)

Dual Language Pathway:
N: HIMS to Lincoln

Timelines:

The new maps will be discussed at a meeting of the high school boundaries task force on December 14th.  

The BAR on boundaries will be introduced at the January 3rd board meeting,
There will be a work session on January 10th
The final vote is scheduled for January 13th.
Open enrollment begins on February 5th and runs through the 16th.

Looking at the previous votes there is barely a 4 directory majority to be had for these alternatives. The key swing vote is probably Betty Patu. Now that Franklin is off the table she may be more amenable to arguments for continuation.

Given these time frames, the holidays and the completely new scenarios there is no way to do adequate community outreach. So another potential possibility is the dates are pushed back even if that means beyond open enrollment.

Nevertheless. Its key in the next few weeks that folks who are concerned reach out to the board and make their case.

Late Fall Math Thread

This is my annual thread for all things math related.  (or alternatively this is what happens when you have a math-junkie moderating the blog.)   (Last year's discussion)

In positive news I am aware of Math Clubs running at Hamilton, Jane Addams and Eagle Staff this year. I'm hoping this is the start of a trend.

Sixth grade placement is usually a popular topic. I never followed up on last year to see what happened in the various buildings if folks want to add some details.

I'm also willing to answer any math partial home schooling questions folks have based on my experiences trying it out for the first time. 

So how is Math going for you in your building?

December '17 Open Thread

There were a couple interesting threads over on the saveseattleschools blog recently about High School and changes to the science curriculum and overall scheduling to deal with 24 credits. I personally haven't decided yet what the potential impact might be of some of these shifts.

HCS AC meeting tomorrow 12/5

The next meeting of the  Highly Capable Services Advisory Committee will be on Tuesday, December 5, JSCEE, Auditorium, 6:30 to 8 pm (2445 3rd Ave S, Seattle, WA 98134).

 The agenda will include:

- An update from Advanced Learning

• Changes to appeals process

- Updates from new sites

• Decatur, Eagle Staff and Madison

- High School Boundaries/Student Assignment Plan Discussion

NWGCA Annual Workshop

Annual Parent & Educator Workshop Risdon Middle School in Newcastle/Renton, WA Saturday December 9, 1 PM - 4:30 PM Enjoy two insightful presentations back-to-back, in the longer workshop format, with opportunities to discuss with fellow parents and educators.  What Parents & Educators Need to Know About Smart Kids, presented by Austina De Bonte, President NWGCA.org Teaching your Gifted Child Social-Emotional Resilience, presented by Tracy Moncrief, M.A., ABD PhD, M.Ed Registration Link Math Camp / Competition Talk 12/21 Dr. Titu Andreescu, professor of mathematics at UT Dallas, former Head Coach of the USA International Mathematics Olympiad team (and the first team ever to get a perfect score in IMO), former director of AMC (American Mathematics Competitions), chairman of the USAMO, founder of AwesomeMath, and author of large number of Mathematics Olympiads books will be visiting Microsoft in Seattle for a talk on the topic of math competitions for middle school and high school students. The session is free and open to everyone, so please come join this rare opportunity to listen for tips from the best in the world!  The presentation will be at Building 30/1087 on Thursday 12/21 at 2-3pm.  Register using this link: https://goo.gl/forms/DKabzoChvng2BvPX2

What's on your minds?

Latest Board Agenda

The agenda for the November 29th board meeting contains some more updates on the High School Boundaries.

http://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/School%20Board/17-18%20agendas/20171129/20171129_Agenda_Packet.pdf

There are four alternatives listed now (although the 5 pathway option is still preferred) showing some evidence of the pushback from parents.

Second HCS Advisory Committee email re:boundaries

Dear HCC community,

Last month the HCS AC sent an email to the District and Board of Directors regarding the high school boundaries as part of the Student Assignment Plan for the 2019-20 school year. The District then shared its proposal to create five pathway schools for the Highly Capable Students.

In response, following discussion at our November 7th HCS AC meeting and subsequent feedback, we revised our statement and sent it to the Superintendent and the Directors today in advance of any Board discussion (please see below). Final votes by the Board continue to be slated for January 2018 with implementation in Fall 2019.

We strongly encourage the HC community to participate in the Boundary Meetings and provide immediate feedback to the District regarding any potential changes to the HC pathways. Emails can be sent to schoolboard@seattleschools.org - superintendent@seattleschools.org and growthboundaries@seattleschools.org.

To: Superintendent Nyland and Directors

From: Highly Capable Services Advisory Committee

Date: November 15, 2017

Re: Proposed Highly Capable High School Pathways/Student Assignment Plan for 2019-20

Dear Superintendent Nyland and Directors Blanford, Burke, Geary, Harris, Pinkham, Patu, and Peters,

In light of the recent District proposal regarding highly capable pathways for high school and the upcoming Board vote on the Student Assignment Plan, the Highly Capable Services Advisory Committee (HCS AC) would like to voice its concerns and support for aspects of the proposed increase of the number of pathway schools to five. In particular, we:

• Understand the rationale for the selection of Ballard and Roosevelt as HC pathways schools;
  
  
• Are concerned about the selection of Lincoln attendance area students being assigned to Garfield as their pathway school;
  
  
• Recommend that Garfield remain the only pathway school for the Central, Southeast and Southwest in 2019;
  
  
• Suggest that the District first build up the AP and rigorous course offerings at Franklin and West Seattle first, then revisit the idea of making those schools HC pathway sites; and
  
  
• Urge the District to grandfather current high school students and eighth graders into their current high school or pathway.

The HCS AC is comprised of teachers and parents at the elementary, middle and high school levels whose collective experience with highly capable students in our District spans several decades. We have reviewed the numbers of HC students in each of the proposed pathways (see attached) and considered the equity issues that currently and could potentially exist. Please consider our recommendations on the District proposals, rooted in the following analysis and supporting rationale.

Proposal for North End

• Support: The redirection of Northeast and Northwest area HC students to north-end high schools alone would dramatically reduce the number of HC students at Garfield, easing Garfield’s capacity issue and providing an equitable experience closer to home for north-end students. Selecting Ballard and Roosevelt as pathway schools makes sense and aligns with trends: Many HC eligible students already choose their neighborhood school over Garfield (129 at Ballard, 155 at Roosevelt). Pathway changes diverting north-end HC students from Garfield would add about 300 HC students to both Ballard and Roosevelt, creating cohorts of 400-500 HC students at each. This would allow for effective delivery of counseling, meet their social emotional needs, and provide robust AP and elective offerings beyond the already-robust selection of courses (16 and 18 respectively) at both high schools.
  
  
• Concern: We struggle with directing Lincoln-area students to Garfield for two reasons: commute challenges and prioritizing services closer to home. 1) The trip to the Central District is much more difficult than the trip to Ballard, particularly taking public transportation (Metro) in our city’s geography. In fact, this drives many families from Wallingford, Magnolia and Queen Anne to choose Ballard or Roosevelt over Garfield. 2) Lincoln-area families should have a north-end HC option. Under the current plan, if area HC students choose not to attend Garfield, they would be limited to a neighborhood school (Lincoln) which lacks access to the higher-level HC math and science classes they need, because Lincoln is a roll-up school with limited grades and associated classes in its first years of operation.

Proposal for Central, Southeast and Southwest

• Concern: We strongly stand by our recommendation that Garfield remain the single HC pathway school for students in the Central, South and Southwest areas and not split for several reasons: resulting disparity in number of students, as well as impacts to course offerings, cohort size, and finances.
  
  
  • The splits would create a significant imbalance between the north and the south. Garfield has 428 HC students total, very similar to the potential number of HC students at Ballard or Roosevelt. Here is the current breakdown: 184 students from the Garfield area, 95 from Franklin, 41 from Rainier Beach, 32 from Chief Sealth, and 76 from West Seattle, totaling 428 students. The proposed splits would distribute HC students as such: Garfield, 184, Franklin, 146, and West Seattle, 145. This creates significantly smaller HC cohorts at these three high schools than at the two high schools in the north end, where Garfield, Franklin and West Seattle would have HC populations of 15% or less, compared to north-end HC populations of 30%.
    
    
  • No guarantee of course offering parity at Franklin and West Seattle. Currently, Franklin offers 10 AP classes and West Seattle offers 12. These schools would need to significantly increase their offerings before 2019 to align with Garfield, Ballard and Roosevelt. Despite District assurances--and we do support increased advanced learning options at all high schools--limited District resources and fewer Advanced Learners at Franklin and West Seattle would not be sufficient to drive a master schedule for these courses. West Seattle parents have voiced these concerns, and Franklin faces problematic programming of repetitious Physical Science and Biology courses in 9th grade when HC students would already have taken those classes in 7th and 8th grades. This raises many questions about whether the District could guarantee that HC students at Franklin and West Seattle have the same (or similar) offerings as students at Ballard, Roosevelt and at Garfield now, as well as what the process would be to address the scenario if parity did not come to fruition:
    
    
    • Would honors LA and SS options be offered in 9th grade as now at Garfield? Would Franklin require HC students to repeat Science as at Nathan Hale? Would Franklin adopt a new model, and would it be desired? What would the reduced number of HC students at Garfield mean for their ability to sustain current advanced learning offerings?
      
      
  • West Seattle parents have expressed a variety of opinions about a local high school pathway. Some support a HC pathway closer to home, while others are concerned that the smaller cohort size would make it challenging to expand the number of AP offerings at West Seattle High School.
    
    
  • Significant demographic changes could affect financing of Garfield activities. Currently 42% of Garfield are HC students and 38% of the school are Free-Reduced Lunch (FRL); this proposal would reduce the Garfield HC population to about 10%. For better or worse, the number of affluent students would drop significantly, thus affecting PTSA fundraising and music, drama and science fundraising that happens at Garfield. Whether the Garfield community regards these as positive changes is something that should be factored into the equation as well.

Another important consideration is the issue of underrepresentation in the Highly Capable Cohort. For decades, the District and this Committee have wrestled with the highly problematic fact that the Highly Capable Cohort does not reflect the demographic makeup of our district either racially or socio-economically. We believe that the place to address these problems is with testing and identification and with talent development for those students who show potential but do not yet have the achievement piece. Finding solutions at the pre-K and elementary levels is expected to bring results over time. It is important that we serve the needs of every child, including the highly capable cohort. Splintering current HC south-end students into three high schools would not solve the disproportionality problem.

For these reasons, we strongly urge the District to pause with the idea of splitting the HC students up among five high schools. The two schools in the North--Ballard and Roosevelt--already offer an array of AP courses along with robust arts programs, and the addition of more HC students at these schools would have negative impacts only if there is not capacity to accommodate them. Conversely, splitting HC students in the south across three high schools raises many questions and concerns about implementation and equity while only creating a fraction more capacity at Garfield (244 seats).

We strongly support the increase in AP offerings at Franklin and West Seattle. The District should commit the resources and work with those schools to create those opportunities first, then, in two more years (2019) look at whether the split of SE and SW HC students to those schools in 2020 makes sense. Changes of this magnitude to the HC model should be part of a larger plan for these students. We should not be looking at High School separately from the program as a whole.

Finally, we would like to reiterate our request for grandfathering of HC students at any of their current schools. Changes at the high-school level have significant implications for college entrance and any student or family who has committed to a particular high school should be allowed to continue down that road until graduation.

Thank you for your consideration.

Respectfully,

Highly Capable Services Advisory Committee

High School Pathway Demographics

By request, this is a thread to discuss demographic and enrollment issues with the proposed High School Pathways. I'll try to collect data here as well.


Data from the recent HCS AC email:  This is not at all consistent with the previous district data below.  The only explanation for the count change was a huge shift in the 9th grade cohort and inaccuracies in prev. counts.

That's visible in the P223 reports for Roosevelt (up 70+ in 9th) but less so in Garfield/Ballard (both up 25+ in 9th) .

Current Cohort Data

Ballard:

9^th 46

10^th 33

11^th 28

12^th 22

Roosevelt: 

9^th: 73

10^th: 31

11^th: 27

12^th: 22

Ingraham:

9th 101

10th 120

11th 86

12th 83

Garfield:

9th: 211
10th: 149
11th:  156
12th: 136

Overall HC cohorts from 2016-2017.  Note: the huge jump in the now 9th grade cohort.

See:
http://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/Enrollment%20Planning/Reports/Annual%20Enrollment/2016-17/Section%209.pdf  for more interesting numbers.


Updated district data: Note discrepancies with the earlier chart.

Data from the board retreat this year:

Sudden Change in Appeals Policy

Without any outreach, announcement, and in the middle of the identification process the AL office has changed its appeal process.  Unlike previously, any private test scores will need to be 3 standards of deviation about average i.e. 99th percentile as compared to 95th percentile from the district administered test. 

https://www.seattleschools.org/cms/one.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=8631501

"It is important to note that a successful appeal for HC eligibility will need to include supporting evidence that the student qualifies as “Most Highly Capable” or “Highly Gifted”.  Those qualifications usually indicate that the student’s scores are 3 standard deviations above the norm on standardized intelligence and achievement tests. This does represent a higher threshold than for the initial eligibility process because the student has been given the benefit of individually administered assessments. Students who meet the published cognitive and achievement test threshold scores are not guaranteed a successful appeal.  All documents submitted for the appeal will be considered in conjunction with all other academic performance data, including, but not limited to: recent achievement assessments, classroom performance, and teacher input.

Appeals decisions are final; there are no appeals of appeals. Also please note that if your student is deemed ineligible, you may refer the student again for retesting the next year."

This is all governed by the existing procedure: https://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/School%20Board/Procedures/Series%202000/2190SP.pdf  which has not been modified since last year.

While procedure changes don't require board approval, I'd argue this change is badly done on a process front. Any changes should occur before the testing season occurs and be vetted in public. We already went through this last year, when the office attempted to change rules midstream and was forced to back down.

[Thanks to several readers for bringing this to my attention.]

November '17 Open Thread

Advocacy

The pathway plan made it out of the operations committee yesterday. If I read the timeline correctly, there are now a few weeks before the real vote (assuming this is considered part of the transitional plan). So now is the time to contact Director's with your concerns.  

Interesting Math Story

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/22/impossible-new-zealand-maths-exam-even-flummoxes-teachers

"A New Zealand maths exam for high school students has been criticised as “impossible” with even the brightest students left despondent and in tears at the difficulty of the questions."

I had fun looking at it and maybe others would appreciate showing it to their geometry students.

Budget

Here's a deeper dive from JoLynn Berge at the district on the HCC budget:

"1. How much HCS money is expected this year, compared to previous years? 

$1.1m in FY17-18 (which includes the increased funding from the 2017 legislative session of about $600k); prior year was $524k.

2. What is the state HCS money being used for, exactly? (Parents hear it goes to buses and testing, and nothing else!) 

Here is an object summary for program 74 – HC for the 17-18 budget:
0 Debit Transfer 3,100
-
2 Cert. Salaries 546,549
3 Class. Salaries 228,515
4 Staff Benefits 272,002
5 Supplies/Materials 166,525
7 Purchased Services 55,000
8 Travel 10,200
9 Capital Outlay -
Total 1,281,891
Most of the expenses within our Advanced Learning department surround testing students for eligibility as Advanced Learners or Highly Capable (e.g. materials, proctors, contracts for grading, etc.) and supporting professional development for teachers on accelerated or differentiated curriculum (e.g. Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate teachers).


3. Does the SPS master budget show HCS line items (personnel, curriculum development, transportation, etc.)? I recognize that the Advanced Learning office is responsible for more than HCS, and so I’d guess that some salaries and expenses accrue to more than one purpose.

Yes, the budget book on page 44 shows revenues (without the increased state revenue which came out too late for us to include in this) and budgeted expenditures are shown on page 54. We will still be subsidizing the program out of our M&O levy, but to a smaller amount in 17-18.

In the Buildings

Finally how are things going on the ground? On that topic, I thought I'd share a picture of my personal triumph for the season: the first Math Club Bulletin Board at Jane Addams.

HCC Pathway decisions in the latest board materials

This is from a draft of the agenda and so may change.   but there are a couple of  decisions here that  I think are concerning :

• Franklin as a pathway for the SE.
• The lack of capacity impact analysis.

Note: yesterday I assumed this was also up somewhere in the Board Agenda. I have not found it there  yet so that's another reason to treat this as a draft like I originally wrote. In any case I would be surprised if this is the end state.

HCC Advisory Committee Position on the High School Boundaries

Dear HCC community,

As you are probably aware, the District is considering changes to the high school boundaries as part of the Student Assignment Plan that will go into effect for the 2019/20 school year.

Meetings are happening and feedback is being collected, and the HCS AC has sent the email below to make clear our position and recommendations regarding the highly capable and high school pathways.

Today the HCS AC sent an email to the Superintendent and the Directors expressing our position (see below) in advance of staff preparing their recommendations to the Board in November. Final votes by the Board are slated for January 2018 with implementation in Fall 2019.

We strongly encourage the HC community to participate in the Boundary Meetings and provide immediate feedback to the District regarding any potential changes to the HC pathways. Emails can be sent to schoolboard@seattleschools.org - superintendent@seattleschools.org and growthboundaries@seattleschools.org

The three most recent proposals can be found here:

http://www.seattleschools.org/cms/one.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=28262696

Remaining meetings include:

• Monday, October 30, 6:30 to 8 pm, McClure Middle School, gym, 1915 1st Ave W. Interpreters: Spanish, Somali, Chinese and Vietnamese.
• Wednesday, November 8, 6:30 to 8 pm, Cleveland High School, lunchroom, 5511 15th Ave S. Interpreters: Spanish, Somali, Chinese and Vietnamese.
• Thursday, Nov. 9, 6:30 to 8 pm, West Seattle High School, lunchroom, 3000 California Ave. SW.  Interpreters: Spanish, Somali, Chinese and Vietnamese.

Email sent 10/30:

Dear Superintendent Nyland and Directors Blanford, Burke, Geary, Harris, Pinkham, Patu, and Peters,

As you consider changes to the Student Assignment Plan and specifically to the High School Boundaries, the Highly Capable Services Advisory Committee would like to make its voice heard on potential pathways for HC students.

Right now, Highly Capable students have a guaranteed pathway to Garfield High School with an option to attend Ingraham IBX. The HCS AC recognizes that Garfield High School is significantly over capacity at nearly 2,000 students this year. With the recent expansion of HC sites to three middle schools in the north end of Seattle (Hamilton, Jane Addams, and Robert Eagle Staff) and one in West Seattle (Madison), we also recognize that an expansion of the HC pathways for high school is a pragmatic option.

HCS AC strongly recommends that the Superintendent and Board consider adding no more than one new pathway for HC high school students in the north. Furthermore, there should not be an expansion of pathways in the south, and Garfield should remain the HC pathway for students in the south end. We strongly support and encourage the expansion of Advanced Placement courses at additional high schools, but that should not mean dispersing HC students into all high schools. We further recommend that all HC identified students be grandfathered in at their current school.

This committee has long held the position that decisions regarding program placement should not be driven by capacity issues. The integrity of the program at all levels is contingent on having a cohort size that can sustain robust and rigorous offerings. This is also the case at the high-school level.

In our District, the highly capable service delivery model is a combination of acceleration together with increased depth. This means that HC students have experienced this style of learning with a group of their peers for years (perhaps even since first grade). For this reason, there should continue to be options for accelerated study at the high-school level. The most common incarnation of this in high school is Advanced Placement classes. Garfield as a pathway school has a robust offering of AP classes in the arts, math, science, literature, social sciences, computer science and foreign languages together with additional offerings in theater, music, visual art, and journalism.

If an additional pathway were to be created in the north for high school, it is critical that a site be selected that can offer a comparable array of classes as those offered at Garfield and that any site allow students to continue on with their learning without needing to repeat any coursework already completed.

As the District opened new HC sites at the elementary and middle school levels, this Committee--along with the Advanced Learning Task Force in 2015--recommended that cohort sizes remain strong in order to maintain the critical mass necessary to provide the academic and social emotional supports to meet the needs of this population of students. A robust cohort size helps enable efficient use of the limited resources available for the social emotional needs of this population.

Over the course of several decades, the parents and teachers of HC students in Seattle have advocated for the same set of principles for the service and program delivery to HC students. Those that specifically relate to program placement include:

1. Provide consistent and appropriate curriculum across all sites
2. A critical mass cohort at each site
3. Principals, teachers and counselors that are truly committed to and experienced in supporting highly capable and 2e students and their education
4. Sites with welcoming and supportive communities
5. Providing a continuum of strong and rigorous programs for highly capable students

We strongly urge the Superintendent and Board to take these points into consideration as they consider any changes to the pathways. Rapid proliferation--or even elimination--of pathways through high school would cause too much inconsistency across the District for HC students and it would create a lack of opportunity for many students who have been accelerated in their learning for many years.

Sincerely,

Highly Capable Services Advisory Committee

More Assignment Plan / High School Pathways Updates

First this document was put out by the district:

http://www.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=28460293

"One area of this work under review is how we serve our high school advanced learners. Given the opening of Lincoln High School in 2019, development of new boundaries, and the upward trend in the number of students who are eligible for Advanced Learning services, we have been seeking input on how to improve access to high school Advanced Learning programs and courses across the district.

Additionally, as part of this review we have been examining the projected Highly Capable (HC) enrollment at Garfield High School. Currently, HC seats at Garfield are reserved for any student who has participated in the Highly Capable Cohort (HCC) in eighth grade. Within a few years, the majority of Garfield’s student body will be students who have participated in the HCC program, limiting neighborhood student enrollment and access. Garfield will struggle to meet HC capacity needs while also maintaining strong neighborhood student enrollment."

Current Draft Plan:
http://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/Enrollment%20Planning/Student%20Assignment%20Plan/SAP%20revisions%202018-19/STUDENT_ASSIGNMENT_TRANSITION_PLAN_2018-19_OperationsTrackedChanges_ada.pdf


The main new piece here is a stronger guarantee of grandfathering for current Garfield students.

Still extremely problematic:

• There is no plan for how to serve students at their reference schools. There really isn't any budget to compensate for low numbers of kids who need  particular classes. Deferring the planning process such as it is will not lead to good outcomes.  

• The outreach process is literally occurring after the votes about the decision have happened. 

Two Updates from the HC Advisory Committee

Calendar

The 2017-18 meeting schedule for the Highly Capable Services Advisory Committee is listed below. All meetings are on Tuesdays and run from 6:30 until 8 p.m.

Meeting Schedule

November 7, JSCEE, Auditorium

December 5, JSCEE, Room TBD

January 9, Garfield High School Library 

February 6, JSCEE, Room TBD

March 6, Robert Eagle Staff Middle School, Library

April 3, JSCEE, Room TBD

May 1, JSCEE, Room TBD

June 5, Madison Middle School, Library

Also, they are posted on the District site here:  

http://www.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=15314710

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Nominations for Positions Still being Accepted

The Highly Capable Services Advisory Committee is gearing up for the year and we have a number of open positions to be filled. The committee includes parent representatives from each school that houses the Highly Capable Cohort. Reps attend monthly meetings during the course of the school year and meeting this year are held the first Tuesday of the month, beginning in November.

Nominations are now being accepted for the following parent representative positions:

Cascadia Elementary

Decatur Elementary

Fairmount Park Elementary

Eagle Staff Middle School

Hamilton International Middle School

Madison Middle School

Garfield High School

Ingraham High School

Please use the Link to the Form to apply and send to the HCS AC Chair, Jeanne Thompson at jeanne_thompson@hotmail.com. Priority will be given to applications received by Friday, October 20.

The first Advisory Committee meeting will be Tuesday, November 7 at JSCEE Auditorium. Additional details about the meeting times and places will be coming soon.