Last Day to Contact Legislators about HCC Bill SB-5354

We are glad to share the tremendous news that in addition to the Seattle Public Schools Highly Capable Services Advisory Committee we now have a new advocacy group - HiCap Seattle. Please read about this group and about the pending legislation requiring your action by tomorrow, Friday - January 24th. 

Robert Njegovan

HiCap Seattle is a parent group forming in Seattle to build city-wide community among HC/2e families, perform outreach to underserved communities, create safe spaces to share information about HC/2e parenting and education (whether in public, private, or homeschool), and advocate for best practices in equitable identification and service delivery in SPS. We’ll have information about HiCap Seattle and other topics available if interested. We are always looking for volunteers, so contact or join us here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hicapseattle/

Dear HiCap Seattle Community,

Hicap equity bill update:

Please contact your state senator BY FRIDAY asking them to support the bipartisan senate bill SB 5354-2019/2020. A companion house bill is forthcoming, and we will send out an update on it when it drops. (Si usted necesita la ayuda en traducciones, por favor póngase en contacto con Erik, y haremos arreglos para ayudarle.)

This senate bill includes provisions that will address certain key equity-related issues in all of the state's hicap programs, not just in Seattle, but it needs to get a hearing to advance in the legislature. This bill does not address all equity-related reforms, but it is our starting point this session, and it is crucial for the bill to advance. Please spread the word. We've included some talking points in the attached document -- but also write about the specific issues that are important to you. Sincere discussion of your family's experiences can be highly effective, but try to keep the length on the short side (under about 500 words).

Current full text of bill: http://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2019-20/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Bills/5354.pdf

Find your state senator: https://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/

HCS AC Survey Summary

Thanks to each and every one of you who provided direction and feedback in our October survey about the state of HCS in SPS. We greatly appreciate the time you took to express your opinions and support. After reviewing roughly 140 respondents' text comments, the summary breakdown follows (a complete set of responses will be provided upon request). It is worth noting, many respondents shared concerns about the direction of the HC services with the numerous cohort splits and unsupportive administrators. In addition, we have included the summary results from the 239 non-text queries that showed the majority of respondents were not confident that the District is prepared to offer equitable rigorous curriculum,  cohesive cohorts and appropriate building sites and that 44% who contacted the District or Board regarding concerns received no response. Please let us know your thoughts after you've looked over these materials - we would like to include you in upcoming updates and planning efforts for advocacy.

Top-line takeaways

9 Percent of the respondents stated support for continuing the cohort model.

12 Percent of the respondents stated concerns about the disparity of services delivery (especially north versus south of the ship canal).  

17 Percent of the respondents stated concerns about Washington Middle School administration.

25 Percent of the respondents stated concerns about systematic HC services dismantling.

Other common themes were:

Support for single domain “HC” services.

Support for universal testing across all schools.

Concerns about continuing cohort splits.

Need for neighborhood schools to offer meaningful HC services.

Need for more racial diversity.

Concerns about Fairmount Elementary services being discontinued.

Concern that the current Advanced Learning Task Force does not have enough HCC families/staff represented.

Concerns about services being delivered  without necessary rigor and an established curriculum.

Concerns with the lack of District engagement while making wholesale changes.

Notable quotes (extracted and redacted):

“My daughter has graduated 201X was not super affected by the changes luckily. She was one of the students from underrepresented  population. I am vocal about more inclusion for sure. I have noticing that SPS has been breaking up the cohorts. The resources do not seem to be the same at north and south. It almost look like they want to dismantle the program.  From my experience, my child needed the academic challenges at HCP. Without it, she would been bored and not been prepared for selective colleges. This is an important program especially for underrepresented students to be more competitive to get into good colleges and receive scholarships/ financial aid from colleges. I am not sure if SPS understands the importance of this program.”

“SPS appears to be slowly dismantling HCC. There is an apparent attitude, that I heard directly from a school board member, that HCC kids don’t have needs beyond the basic education classes. No one would dare say that about any other population, whether it’s a minority population, a Special Ed population, or any other population with exceptional needs. Every kid deserves a classroom environment that meets their needs…”

“The changes have been confusing, and as a parent, hard to understand. It seems that the district wants to do away with the HC cohort, but doesn't have a good plan what to do after. Superintendent Juneau needs to get out of the JSCEE bubble/dogma and talk to a diverse range of AL/HC families about how best to meet our kids's needs.  Equity is not just about race. The HCC program at Washington Middle School is seriously comprised this year. I do not think my daughter is receiving anything near acceptable instruction in math and science in particular followed by ElA.”

Happy holidays!

The Highly Capable Services Advisory Committee (HCS AC)

Link to PDF with the data: http://bit.ly/2G7Eesk

Highly Capable Services Advisory Committee Survey

Members of the HCSAC are trying to continue advocacy efforts independently despite the official pause.  I'm very much in favor of parents organizing so please take some time to fill out their survey.

The members of the HCS AC seek your input about key topics that face our students and families now and in the future. Please complete this 2-minute survey to shape unified advocacy efforts for service delivery. 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HCS-AC-Delivery-Survey

Your voice matters! Thank you for taking time to offer your quick input. 

Respectfully,

The HCS AC

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

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

-- 

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.

HCS Advisory Committee is looking for volunteers

Welcome to the 2017/18 school year!

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 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 attached Nomination Form Form Link 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. Additional details about the meeting times and places with be coming soon.

Also, please note that High School Boundaries are a priority in the District this fall.

If you received an email from the District regarding the High School Boundaries, please register with Thought Exchange and provide your feedback concerning Advanced Learning opportunities. The deadline is next week.

We will share dates and times for upcoming boundary meetings as they become available.

Lincoln High School will open in 2019 and the first community meeting will take place in October:

Tuesday, Oct 3rd, 6:30-8:00 pm, Hamilton International Middle School, 1610 N. 41st Street

In addition, the HCC Race and Equity Advocacy Group will have its first meeting next week:

Thurs Oct 5th, 6:00-8:00 pm, Thurgood Marshall Elementary School Library (2nd floor), 2401 S Irving St, Seattle, WA 98144

Please stay tuned for additional meeting information.

Jeanne Thompson

HCS AC Chair

New Initiatives out of the AL Office

There was some interesting news out of the HCS AC meeting tonight.

• The referral window for the program will open on May 15th this year. Current teachers will be invited to submit students.
• The teacher rating scale has been simplified.
• Parents can schedule their own date, time and location for testing in the fall. Sites will include Thurgood Marshall, Whitman, Decatur, Pathfind and Muir.

• Universal Testing of 2nd grader students in Title 1 schools (29% or higher) is going on this week.
• No summer testing will be needed and the students will be tested on site in their schools

• Data (presumably SBAC or MAP) will be analyzed and letters sent out to families in under represented groups inviting them to test to enter the program.

[Update: I now have copies of the handouts]

• Updates Advanced Learning Task Force Recommendations
• New Initiatives

5/3 HCS AC meeting (Thurgood Marshall, Race and Equity)

Thurgood Marshall / Social Studies

Most of the meeting revolved around a discussion of minority representation in the program. The staff rep from Thurgood Marshall volunteered to extemporaneously talk about what's going on in the building and in addition a parent who participated in the Race and Equity Committee came and added some thoughts. There have been a series of race and equity conversations that have been ongoing since last year among the TM community.  First, kids in the 4th/5th grade student council complained about being labeled. In addition, during what was described as an uncomfortable meeting, parents from the building also expressed dissatisfaction that HCC was elitist/racist. Side Note: if you were following the recent  Blanford/Peters exchange see: http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2016/04/highly-capable-work-session.html#more this is very relevant.  So the Race and Equity Committee was formed to explore how to better integrate the student body and also to explore the HCC qualification process.   Apparently, PCP's i.e. gym/arts/music were too logistically complicated to joint schedule and so the proposal moved to Social Studies which has a non-differentiated curriculum i.e. the 4th graders study the same material in gen-ed and HCC classes.  There are still several practical issues here. Social Studies becomes much more academic in nature in 4th-5th grade moving from exploring the local community  to WA state history. The HCC kids outnumber the gen-ed ones in the building 3:1 and Social Studies is the most short-changed of all the core subjects in terms of actual time devoted to it.  Interestingly, already the 5th graders are doing a UW Philosophy department led class in a blended environment.  The teacher mentioned that the principal was very committed to making a blended class happen so he thought this was likely to occur.

At this point, Janine Madaffari the AL representative present pointed out that the policy governing HCC 2190SP explicitly states that all the core academic subjects including Social Studies will be self-contained. I'm not sure on review if I can find this particular language. The closest I see is the "service model is self-contained in Grades 1-5"

Then the parent who was active on the committee by coincidence arrived and spoke a bit. She reiterated the harsh impression of the program from the other members of the building. They apparently are very interested in out reach to minority communities to increase participation in HCC. She explicitly mentioned trying to get parents to the kindergarten orientations at individual schools to give out information and trying to have members of minority communities reaching out to prospective families who have been identified to encourage them to opt in. Most of the speakers present were sympathetic to these goals. There are various restrictions on who can talk to parents and under what conditions. But I see this as the least controversial element of the evening.  One interesting statistics mentioned by the staff. Apparently: White/Asian and all other minorities are all admitted at almost the same rates in the initial process ~8% but the appeals process which has an over 50% success rate skews the numbers towards the White/Asian students. It was fairly easy to infer this is driving part of their push to limit them.

Editorial Note: I'm still reserving judgement on whether this affects the integrity of the curriculum or not until I find out more. This along with whether a heterogeneous environment would serve all students well forms the crux of the issue for me. The program's weakness in terms of defining a distinct curriculum particularly in the humanities sadly make these discussions harder to have. 

IB Programs

There was also a discussion of the future of the IB program at Ingraham. The recent grant to Rainier Beach (Seattle Times Story) to help out their IB program does not provide a systemic funding solution for the program as a whole.  The Ingraham staff rep pointed out all the surrounding districts directly fund their programs and don't rely on parents to raise several hundred thousand dollars or short change the whole school several staff-positions to run the program. 

There was some confusion why enrollment was being capped this year even among the staff present. So at this point two issues are still outstanding:

1. If a spot Ingraham is not guaranteed there is no clarity on the default pathway if you don't get a spot. AL feels this is governed by enrollment. There needs to be clarity here before the next open enrollment.
2. Secondly, We don't have any insight into what is driving enrollment caps.

I believe both functions fall under the heading of the Operations Committee. If you're interested in advocacy this along with the sorry state of the funding would be something to lobby the school board members to improve.

Cascadia

I did a little bit of personal lobbying to see if the HCS advisory committee would send a letter advocating for a minimum cohort size if any splits occur. The response was that a previous task force had already made recommendations. I'm hoping that the committee will still send a letter referencing the previous recommendations during this current decision making process. If you agree you might also talk to your building representative on the committee and make the same request.

5/2 HCS Advisory Meeting

This week's meeting occurred at Hamilton Middle School and the principal Tipton Blish attended and gave a talk.  I arrived a few minutes early and was able to ask him about the annex discussion which has gone on all year. As I mentioned in the open thread, he indicated there was no update on any Annex possibilities for next year and that  Lincoln did not have space so it was not very likely to be used.  Since there really isn't anything obvious besides Lincoln near by that means its likely that the building will have to work one more year until Eagle Staff M.S. opens. He also indicated that he is still working on the issue so that does leave the window open for late changes.

During the formal talk Tip indicated that 2/3's of the students at HIMS are advanced learners either in Spectrum or HCC. From his perspective the teachers are doing an amazing job. After the split in a year, he expects that the program will stay at the building and in the north end roughly even groups of HCC students will go to all 3 middle schools (JAMS, HIMS REMS).  He also has no part in the feeder patterns and offered no updates on how the split is going to work out.

One nice part of having him there is that it was mentioned in the intro that the LA/SS alignment meetings were going on with participation from all middle schools except Hamilton.  That was news to Tip and he indicated he would follow up on it. So we'll see if something develops here. He then took a series of questions:

• On Spectrum vs. HCC he feels the differences are mostly seen in skills i.e. more complex writing and higher expectations while the content can be similar.  In a followup he stressed that Middle School was also more about building skills versus specific content and that he expected differentiation to occur in each room.
• He directly called out the narrative from Garfield parents that HIMS students are less prepared than WMS ones "I think its false"
• Currently the district is projecting 1176 students next year.  That up about 80 students.
• There was a secondary discussion about capacity where the fire code was brought up. Basically, the assertion is that the fire safety limits are way beyond the buildings current students and the fire department will not prevent overcrowding. 
• There was also an interesting question about Spectrum Science which is not currently offered. The science teachers present mentioned that HCC science is 2 years ahead rather than advanced so there is no concept of honors science to do currently.

At the very end there was a quick update from the Ingraham representative. I asked a few questions here. They have decided to go with a honors physics option  for 10th grade rather than an AP one. One question which I asked but this was probably the wrong audience was whether there had been any though about how the Lincoln H.S. rollout would affect IB students. Hopefully, students will not be assigned out of their program but this is an issue to keep an eye on.

1/5 HCS Advisory Committee meeting

There are a few things the advisory committee meetings accomplish. The most important of those is the exchange of information especially the direct report from Stephen Martin about what the AL office has been up to for the preceding month, The committee can then provide direct feedback from the parent perspective to the staff (which is totally nonbinding) and ask further questions.

So it was disappointing tonight that Stephen Martin had to cancel at the last minute due to some unfortunate circumstances. I had planned to ask some clarifying questions about the test process which I couldn't do. As a result,  I'll be waiting to hear from everyone if the K-2 followup appointments to finish the CogAt testing happen tomorrow.  My read of the recent status mail and the office's pattern of mass emailing on Wed. nights is that it's reasonably likely.

However, on the flip side Paula Montgomery, the principal of JAMS attended the meeting and gave a long and interesting talk on the current state of the middle school.  Some of the points she mentioned:

• Enrollment is rising rapidly. It will go from 850 to 930 students next year and all the grades will most likely be over 300 students. This will require the final mass hiring of new teachers over the summer.  Interestingly. Spectrum enrollment continues to be very small 20-30 students per grade.  While they are still evaluating the model, the blended classes provide the best option for scheduling these students.
• She was very proud of the quality of last year's new hires. They averaged 10+ years of experience.
• Math is a special focus at the school.
• Scheduling at JAMS revolves around Math classes.
• Math Classes are grouped by grade and subject. There are no mixed grade classes.
• For those coming in from neighborhood elementary schools but HCC qualified, the preferred pathway is to do Math 7 and then skip Math 8 and go directly to Algebra. 
• This is also the main use of Professional development in the building. A consultant from the UW comes 2 days a month and conducts studio model classes and coaches individual teachers.
• Beyond HCC/Spectrum, they try to identify via Amplify tests students who are above level and place them in the most challenging classes.
• Potentially (this is not firm yet) there will be screening tests for incoming sixth graders this spring to further aid in Math placement. The focus here is on the gen-ed population.
• So far they find the unblocked LA/SS are working well. When asked for details, Paula mentioned it made hitting the writing standards more precise.
• JAMS has been piloting the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards. 

Overall, I was impressed with the presentation. I'd love to hear from other parent's particularly on the subject of Science and how its playing out from your perspective. Also I'll put another plug in here for the http://discussapp.blogspot.com/p/middle-school-curriculum-project.html.  If you're interested, please add objective details on the Winter curriculum.

11/3 HCS Advisory Meeeting

Originally I had not been sure if I would attend this meeting but in light of recent events it seemed prudent to go. For those not on their mailing list, the Advisory Committee put out a general message urging parents to contact the board about the assignment plan a day or two ago and have been active already on the issue.  The most substantive section of the meeting concerned these changes. But there were a lot of interesting tidbits mentioned during the whole time.

First as one member noted the assignment plan changes have been delayed two week before being considered by the board. So it appears the pressure from parents is having some effect. Secondly, the representatives from Advanced Learning, Stephen Martin etc. have no voice in this general process and only found out about it on Saturday via parent emails.  His take on the plan was that the only intention was to change the school wait list date to dissolve at the end of May (rather than October) and to remove the distance tie breaker from school choice decisions.  The general opinion in the room was that if that was the case then only those parts of the policy should have been altered.  More interestingly, the committee will be sending a letter with their opinion on the current action to the superintendent in the next few days.  Perhaps by the time the BAR is resubmitted a more limited set of changes will be included.

There followed a discussion on the testing process. The interesting news is that the AL office is moving towards an online registration system that will solve most of the current communication issues. Unfortunately this is at least one year out. At this point, several parents voiced their dissatisfaction with the status quo.  My personal opinion is that if the AL Office forwarded the testing list to the individual school principals, the school secretaries could do a more efficient distributed version of providing information for parents who had questions while respecting privacy laws.  Stephen also mentioned that the long term plan is to do the CogAT testing fully online and in the individual school buildings again.  As well it looks like the state norms are going to be used for determining the percentiles on the SBAC test for older students. This has been recently published on the OSPI website and you can check on them here:(percentile spreadsheet). Also the new appeal process is going to be discussed next week at the Curriculum and Instruction board meeting. The draft should be released this Friday. I will be checking for this and will post when its available.

Next there was an interesting side discussion about the pilot program that screened roughly 800 second graders in the south east quadrant. According to Stephen this identified ~100 advanced learners although he didn't know offhand how many were HCC qualified or how many then applied for services. Hopefully more data on this experiment will be forthcoming. He also indicated that the AL office had requested money in last year's budget for after school enrichment programs for those identified but not yet at the necessary achievement levels. Unfortunately this was not approved. If you're concerned with social justice issue this might be an area to become active in.

The last major area discussed was the  new middle school social studies textbooks. Representatives from JAMS, WMS and Madison but not HIMS are going to be meeting soon to discuss humanities curriculum alignment.  Unfortunately there were no details on what the alignment will mean but its a positive sign that this process is underway. Again if you're at HIMS this might be an opportunity to advocate to participate with the other middle schools. And careful readers will note the presence of Madison Middle school. It was casually mentioned that the intention is to get it up and running next year and to make it the default pathway for West Seattle by the year afterwards.  So these plans seem to be moving forward.

Looking forward the Jeanne Thompson suggested the committee invite Flip Herndon to discuss Middle School pathways in a future meeting.  I hope this comes to pass. Also the yearly report on the HCC program is still in the first draft phase.

10/6 HCS Advisory Meeting

I attended the advisory committee meeting tonight so I could publish some notes for the wider community. There were maybe 20 odd folks in attendance in the library at WMS.

Agenda

1. A talk from Stephen Martin head of Advanced Learning which touched on enrollment, the new testing procedure for screening this year and the West Seattle Pathway focus group.

2. The beginning of the planning process for the report to the superintendent for this year.

3. A call for unfilled positions on the committee.

Links

Note from Advanced Learning on the Saturday Testing (look on the  middle of the page)

Key Takeaways

1. Garfield may max out of capacity next year and there are some early meetings going on at JSIS about this.  Note: none of the decision making on pathways etc. is controlled by advanced learning.

2.  Spectrum is going to be renamed to the more straight forward Advanced Learning over time. This is solely a nomenclature issue. Note single domain Advanced Learner qualification is starting this year.

3. Prior to the WAC requirements the district didn't even track how many HCC students there were past Middle School. They are now doing so.

4. Screening for qualification is being moved to Thurgood Marshall and Cascadia because of difficulties booking the space in JSIS. They expect to screen 650 kids a day over a series of Saturdays. It is possible to arrange special arrangements if that schedule is not possible. For the younger children the screen process will be used to keep the testing time around hour and there will be  a callback for the rest of the test if  the screen is passed. Interestingly AL is directly consulting with the CogAt test author (David Bowman?) on the proper use of the instrument.  The result percentiles will probably be normed to either regional or national standards and not local ones which are considered too high.

5. Advanced Learning is moving forward on setting up West Seattle High School pathway. "Eventually this will not be a choice." There is no timeline associated with this effort yet.  Its possible an equivalent to Ingraham's program will be established at Sealth as well. This as I mentioned before sounds like its still in the early discussion phase.

6. Staff at Ingraham are contemplating changes in the 2020 class timeframe or later to the IBx program. Essentially based on the current cohorts feedback they want to delay entry into IB until junior and senior year and have the cohort do a tracked set of classes in ninth together and then in tenth take pre-IB and honors classes  This was motivated by the feeling that an extra year of maturity leads to better outcomes and among other things this would solve the difficulties in creating a workable senior year. There was talk at the meeting about letting students accelerate on an individual basis. This is also still in the discussion phase.

7. If you're interested in volunteering on the committee there are open positions for Secretary, Washington MS rep and Diversity rep.