Differentiation Discussion

There was an ask to setup a dedicated thread to talk about differentiation.  Currently the trend in the district is towards in classroom differentiation rather than self contained classrooms for advanced learners. This is most clearly visible in the reworkings of Spectrum. but it also is occurring at the Middle School level as well.  If you look through the official advanced learning policy the phrase "appropriate differentiation, flexible grouping and/or acceleration" often shows up.

Here's some articles I've looked at recently discussing the issue:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/01/07/differentiation-doesnt-work.html

"The biggest reason differentiation doesn't work, and never will, is the way students are deployed in most of our nation's classrooms. Toss together several students who struggle to learn, along with a smattering of gifted kids, while adding a few English-language learners and a bunch of academically average students and expect a single teacher to differentiate for each of them. That is a recipe for academic disaster if ever I saw one. Such an admixture of students with varying abilities in one classroom causes even the most experienced and conscientious teachers to flinch, as they know the task of reaching each child is an impossible one."

http://www.nsgt.org/differentiating-learning-for-gifted-students/

"Differentiation is a term that is widely used in educational circles these days. There has been a noticeable increase in recent years in staff development offerings on differentiation strategies; schools’ goals and missions often use this concept in their statements; a great variety of educational literature addresses this topic. Yet, effective differentiation for the gifted student remains elusive and in too many cases, nonexistent. This article will explore some of the reasons for the current status of differentiation and offer some solutions as well." 

http://educationnorthwest.org/sites/default/files/12.99.pdf

"IN THE PROCESS OF IMPLEMENTING STANDARDS-BASED reform, it is important to remember that the charge to provide all students with challenging mathematics and science requires consideration of high ability students. Today’s heterogeneous classrooms will include students who have advanced abilities and talents. It is essential that the needs of these gifted students not be overlooked or neglected as teachers strive to help others reach high standards

Key Components of Mathematics Curriculum for the Gifted 

■ Content with greater depth and higher levels of complexity 

■ A discovery approach that encourages students to explore concepts 

■ Focus on solving complex, open-ended problems

■ Opportunities for interdisciplinary connections (Johnson, 1993)

Key Components of Science Curriculum for the Gifted

■ Significant and deep content 

■ Emphasis on understanding concepts rather than memorizing facts 

■ An inquiry approach with students as active investigators 

■ Opportunities for interdisciplinary connections 

■ Investigating real problems and situations 

■ Guiding students toward scientific habits of mind (Van Tassel-Baska, 1994)" 

A quick skim of any of the comments here shows a lot of skepticism about the effectiveness of differentiation. On the other hand those parents who are satisfied with how things are going don't often speak up on the blog.

Questions

So with that introduction:

• How is differentiation actually working for your student?  (Please include which school you're at)
• What do you think would improve the implementation?
• Is this the right strategy for the district to pursue? 

Choosing a Middle School

We've done a High School and Elementary School Thread. By request of a parent, this is a thread for Middle School for those still struggling to make a decision.

We are trying to decide where to send our daughter for Middle School . She qualified for HCC in Kindergarten but we have kept her at Wedgwood. We live walking distance to Eckstein and many of her friends will go there. However, two of her closest friends will be at JAMS and the teachers seem to be universally great there. I have not heard the same of Eckstein. She may do music but that is not certain. She is very into reading, writing and drama.

Any advice for the parent from those who know either or both of the schools? Feel free to add any other MS questions here as well.

Hamilton Capacity Issues 2016-2017

We were already discussing  Hamilton on the the http://discussapp.blogspot.com/2016/03/52-hcs-advisory-meeting.html thread. As indicated there the principal Tipton Blish was still looking for ways to deal with next year. Events have moved forward and the following update was in the most recent HIMS newsletter.

Update on Hamilton Capacity Planning for 2016-2017
As previously discussed in our newsletter, Hamilton will be pushing to upwards of 1,200 kids this fall. Although it’s not much consolation in the near-term, the numbers will decrease the following year with the opening of Robert Eagle Staff Middle School.
To handle the overload, Seattle Public Schools is looking at two options:

Putting portables on the outside playtop. 

Adding a Highly Capable Cohort (HCC) to one of the North Seattle middle schools, like Whitman, as a precursor to the opening of Eagle Staff. Seattle Public Schools has stated that this option is unlikely given the expense of setting up an HCC cohort

Update for Hamilton Highly Capable Cohort (HCC) Students
For the 2017-18 school year, Seattle Public Schools has indicated that HCC students who live in the Robert Eagle Staff and Whitman service areas will move to Robert Eagle Staff when it opens in the fall of 2017. Grandfathering for students may be possible subject to space availability at the middle schools they are attending, however, there will probably be no room at Hamilton.

District Info on Capacity:

Hamilton capacity on page 8: http://bta.seattleschools.org/assets/Uploads/documents/20150701-2016LeviesReport.pdf

110% rule on page 6:
http://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/Migration/Departments/Capital%20Projects%20and%20Planning/itcmfaq10242011.pdf

City Permitting Status:

http://web6.seattle.gov/DPD/permitstatus/Project.aspx?id=6147629

This does seem to confirm the final occupancy inspection never was finished.  Following up with the city I've been told.

• The record shows a gymnasium with an allowable occupant load of 1149, a commons/dining hall of 957 and a fitness center or 56. These are the only areas which carry a limit.

I still have a followup question to see if there are any other fire safety related limits.  Interestingly I seem to have triggered an inquiry in the planning department. The inspector said he would be contacting the district and would email back any more info.

Cohort Size

According to  district estimates this year's 5th grade cohort is approximately 189 students at Cascadia. The 6th grade cohort is ~325 at HIMS and JAMS together. That shows how the cohort roughly doubles in size going into middle school as HC students join from neighborhood schools.  A rough estimate for the number of REMS 6th graders for next year would be in the 180 student ballpark.

2016 Testing Results Thread Part 3

Due to the large number of comments and to make it easier on mobile readers, I'm starting a 3rd part to this thread to continue the discussion on the test results for this year. 

Thread Part 1

Thread Part 2


Update: One parent  reports 3/10 that "AL office replied: "We mailed over 2,000 eligibility decision letters yesterday afternoon and continue to make eligibility decisions."

Results seem to be going out finally. So I expect we'll move into the appeal process soon.

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.

March Open Thread

We're almost out of the testing season.  Hopefully the final updates will be arriving for everyone shortly.  Please keep discussing them on the test results thread and thanks again for all the updates everyone has given. I'm also hoping many of you will keep reading and commenting afterwards (although under less stress).

Part of the slight delay for this thread was that I attended HCS advisory meeting last night at HIMS and will with any luck put up a longer posting soon. There were no representatives from the AL office present so I unfortunately have no news from there. The most interesting point I took away from the meeting occurred while chatting with Tipton Blish.  I asked about an annex for next year at Hamilton.  His response was that while he had and continued to pursue any options that it looked very unlikely at Lincoln due to the lack of the space.

Also on other fronts, there was the recent Madison Middle School HCC startup outreach meeting. If anyone has any further impressions of what occurred I'm sure everyone would be interested to hear about it.


There's a thread on the Save Seattle Schools blog about the current HCC testing season: https://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2016/03/about-highly-capable-dear-directors.html
I generally think its good to express your opinion and more individual letters would make a more powerful statement. That said, a group letter on the testing process if people would be willing to sign their full name might also serve a purpose. I could see setting something up on change.org.

What's on your minds?

2016 Testing Results Thread Part 2

Due to the large number of comments and to make it easier on mobile readers, I'm starting a new thread to continue the discussion on the test results for this year.

Thread Part 1

I'll repeat my main advice for for those waiting on results to try not to panic. While this is clearly frustrating for many:

1. You will not lose a spot at the HCC school regardless of how late the district processes the scores. Just make sure to follow the procedures and register for it during enrollment (which is ongoing until March 1st). On top of that, you actually have until May 31st to reconsider and still go to the pathway school. 


2. There is no point trying to send in appeals prior to receiving the initial decision. I would recommend emailing after posted deadlines for decisions and following up until they are answered. I don't believe the office has the capacity to manage out of order paperwork and I'd worry that it would be more likely to get messed up.

And thank you to everyone who has posted updates as they've received communication from the district.

Update: latest schedule is mid March for all the letters.

"While we expected to have all eligibility decisions communicated by Feb. 29, technology-related obstacles have delayed the process. We are working diligently to make and notify families of eligibility decisions. We anticipate that nearly all families will be notified (by at least one means) by mid-March. For quicker results, some families will receive an email with their students’ eligibility decisions (without names or scores) prior to their letters being printed and mailed. We appreciate your patience as we continue this work at a pace that allows us to make the appropriate and careful decisions that our students deserve."

Update:  this is the latest mailing from 3/4 

Thank you for referring your student for Advanced Learning or Highly Capable eligibility. We have completed the testing schedule and are in the process of mailing eligibility letters to families. If you have not yet received your eligibility letter, we anticipate that you will receive it by mid-March. 

The Open Enrollment for School Choice window closed March 1, and we noted in a previous email that you could enroll your child during that window even if Advanced Learning/Highly Capable eligibility had not yet been confirmed. If, however, you did not enroll during this time, we want to provide the following information: 

ALO/Spectrum for Families of Students in K-4 All students deemed eligible for Advanced Learning are eligible to participate in Advanced Learning Opportunities (ALO) at their attendance-area elementary school. No Choice form is required, and ALOs vary by building. If you would like your child to participate in a Spectrum program at a Spectrum-designated elementary school, you will need to fill out a School Choice form. You have until May 31 to submit the form. Assignment is based on space availability and tiebreakers, and it is not guaranteed even if your form was submitted by March 1. 

ALO/Spectrum for Families of Students in 5-7 All middle school students deemed eligible for Advanced Learning will automatically be assigned to Spectrum at their attendance-area middle school, although a seat is not guaranteed. No Choice form is required. You only need to fill out a School Choice form as an “opt-out” – if you wish your child to attend a different middle school or K-8 for Spectrum, for example. You have until May 31 to submit the form. Assignment is based on space availability and tiebreakers and is not guaranteed.

• Exception: Newly eligible students in grades 6 or 7 who have chosen to attend a middle school outside of their attendance area must submit a Choice form to return to their attendance-area middle school for Spectrum. Assignment is based on space availability and tiebreakers and is not guaranteed.

Highly Capable Cohort for Families of Students in K-7 All K-7 students deemed eligible for Highly Capable services are guaranteed a spot in the Highly Capable Cohort (HCC) in their pathway elementary/middle school. You will still need to complete a School Choice form in order to enroll them in the cohort at the pathway school, but it is not due until May 31. You also have until May 31 to enroll them in the cohort in a different cohort school (not in your pathway), but that assignment is not guaranteed. It is based on space available and tiebreakers.The School Choice forms posted to the School Choice page provide more details on the enrollment process: http://www.seattleschools.org/admissions/school_choice 

2016 Testing Results Thread

This notice showed up on the SPS website today:

"Mailing Error Halts Advanced Learning Test Result Distribution 

Due to a mailing error, 348 letters of student test results were mailed to wrong addresses. The error, identified and reported by a Seattle Public Schools staff member, occurred at the beginning of a mailing of an estimated 1,200 letters from Advanced Learning.
The letters contained the following information: student name, school district student identification number, and the student’s test results and eligibility status. No other personal information was released. The district is conducting a full review of systems used to sort and mail letters with student information."

At this point at my workplace we would probably schedule a post-mortem meeting to analyze the string of mistakes, look for commonalities and see what process could be improved for next time.

At any rate, we were overdue for a thread discussing the testing results and perhaps questions about appeals. Right now, its very helpful for the other families to know when the  letters start arriving.  So if you're comfortable, please post when you receive any notice and include when your child was tested.

Robert Eagle Staff Middle School Principal Hiring Meetings

Here's an update from a parent on the new middle school. Note: there are still 2 more meetings coming up next week on the hiring process as well.  I expect enrollment choices i.e. rollup vs geosplit to be made about 12 months prior to opening.

"Long story short, the Robert Eagle Staff Middle School (opening Fall 2017) is expected to serve

      1)     ALL students who live in the newly established Robert Eagle Staff service area (Greenwood, Olympic View, Northgate, Broadview-Thomson, Daniel Bagley).  This includes students who want to take part in the HCC program as middle schoolers.

      2)     And ALSO all students who live in the Whitman Service area who want to take part in the HCC program as middle schoolers.

All families of students grades 4, 5 and 6 who might meet this description are welcome to attend the Principal Planning meetings.

Robert Eagle Staff Middle School Principal Hiring Meetings - UPDATED!

In September 2017, a new middle school will open in the NW Region.

Robert Eagle Staff Middle School will serve all students from Greenwood, Olympic View, Northgate, Broadview-Thomson, Daniel Bagley attendance areas as well as middle school students who are enrolled in the HCC program and who live in the Whitman service area.

Meetings to discuss the hiring of the planning principal for this new middle school will be held at four sites. Parents of current 4th and 5th grade students are invited to attend to hear more about the hiring process and the planning that the new principal will lead during 2016-2017 to ensure a successful launch of the new school. These meetings are intended to address the hiring of a new principal and will not address questions regarding enrollment, boundary questions, and so forth. Those issues will be addressed at meeting to be scheduled at a later time.

Parents of 6th grade middle school students who live in the areas served by the elementary schools listed above are invited to attend, as are parents of 6th grade HCC students who live in the Whitman service area.

Meetings are scheduled on the following dates and times:

Thursday, Feb. 18 at Northgate Elementary (7 PM to 8 PM)

Wednesday, Feb. 24 at Greenwood Elementary (7 PM to 8 PM)

Thursday, Feb. 25 at Cascadia Elementary Auditorium (6:30 PM to 7:30 PM)

All meetings will take place in the lunchroom unless otherwise noted at the school site. Spanish language services will be provided at Northgate and Greenwood. These meetings will be hosted by Jon Halfaker, the Executive Director for Schools in the NW Region.

Learn more about the new school on the Seattle Public Schools' Building Excellence Program website"

Making a decision about HCC Elementary School (Cascadia, Thurgood Marshall, Fairmount Park)

Now that tours are starting up, its time for many new families to make decisions about whether to choose their HCC pathway school. To start things off  I have a request from a parent for opinions about the program at Cascadia.

"Specifically, I want to learn more about experiences with the project-based learning model and environmental stewardship (at Cascadia)."

Tours

Cascadia

2016 Cascadia Information Evenings will be on Wednesday, February 24 and Thursday, April 7 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in Cascadia's Auditorium.

Advance reservations for the Information Evenings are required and are for adults only. Please sign up for an evening if you have kindergarten through 4th grade students who you think will qualify for HCC.Tours are extremely large, so we ask that you not attend tours if your students are younger than kindergarten age. This program will only be in the Lincoln building until June 2017. The District Open Enrollment is Wednesday, February 17 - Tuesday, March 1, 2016.

Thurgood Marshall

Principal Katie May and the Thurgood Marshall PTA will be hosting school information sessions and tours on five days this winter and spring, including one session specially focused on the HCC program. No RSVP is needed, but you must check in at the Main Office upon arrival. Please email pta@tmlink.org if a family member needs a tour in a language other than English, such as Spanish or Vietnamese. We will do our best to accommodate you.See tour dates in the Calendar section.

Fairmount Park

February 11th :
9:00am-11:00am – kindergarten tour.


February 17th :
9:00am-11:00am – kindergarten tour.


February 24th :
9:00am-11:00am - school tour for all grades


February 25th :
9:00am-11:00am - HCC tour

General school orientation for families unable to attend during regular school hours:

February 25th:
5:30-6:30pm meeting in the library


Please call the office at 252-9300 to reserve your place on a tour.

Keep the questions comings and hopefully the rest of us can offer some useful advice.

Flip Herndon talk at Ballard High School on Capacity Issues

Another evening, another adventure in a Seattle Public Schools building I haven't been inside yet. I found myself tonight in the packed library at Ballard High School.  At first the evening started with a normal PTSA meeting. There were minutes to be approved and budget items to discuss. You could sense the anticipation in the room through all of this. The principal Keven Wynkoop even joked that while usually his speech was the highlight of the night, he knew the everyone was really waiting for Flip Herndon to speak, While Flip, the assistant superintendent in charge of facilities  was being introduced, the PTSA officer mentioned that Flip's own children attend Ingraham which I hadn't realized. It always makes me feel a bit better to find out the central staff are also parents.

His talk started with a brief mention of the general capacity issues and how all the high schools are full with the exception of Rainier Beach. For those in the SE Quadrant, he also gave a shout out to the IB program there and its successes which one could interpret as an official sign of administration support.

Onto the real meat of the talk:

• Assuming the current BTA and Operations levies pass, we will build the 500 seat addition to Ingraham High School.
• Lincoln will have an additional 1600 seats which when completed in combination with the above space will just meet the immediate needs in the next few years for the north end.
• The district actually still needs one more comprehensive high school which they really want to place near Queen Anne. The current first choice is to build on the Memorial Stadium site in the Seattle Center. However, this is governed by a covenant with the city that will have to be renegotiated. (And the city really wants the land back)
• There are no decisions yet on the boundaries or a rolling start vs. an immediate geo-split. This was probably the most emotional topic for the crowd since many were worried about having to move their kids potentially even in the Senior year to the new high school.  The district wants to have these decision made 18 months prior to opening and will start planning this 10-11 months from now.
• Interestingly Flip has gone back to the 1970's boundary maps as a starting point back when the district still had 12 high schools and ~75000 students vs. our current ~54000.
• The total cost of the renovation of the Lincoln building is now around 75 million dollars.
• In the meantime all the overcrowded schools including Ballard, HIMS, Garfield are just going to have deal with being overcrowded. There's no interim plans to help out at least for now.
• There was also a discussion about the fields spaces. The district is renegotiating its master agreement with the park department. That includes discussion on the use of lower Woodland Park for Lincoln High School. For those worried about crumb rubber fields the district has heard parent concerns but is apparently waiting on more definitive research, They also have not put out bids yet for the work on various sites and so may still change their ultimate decision. Unfortunately, I didn't find out if that included the Wilson Pacific site.
• Flip gave the first official confirmation that I've heard that Cascadia may be split due it being too large to fit on the new site. This decision will be made sometime this Spring and there is no idea about what other sites could be used (mostly because everywhere is full).
• I also asked at the very end about the Decatur Building. Currently there is no plan yet for how it is to be used.

On a lighter side before the meeting started I was able to see some video from the recent Ballard High School production of Carmina Burana. It was very impressive.  I definitely encourage you to take a look at:  https://vimeo.com/149092851


Note: The capacity crunch tend to produce the most heated discussions. Please keep the conversation constructive. 

Questions about Spectrum

There's a lot of discussion of Spectrum on the Open Thread so I though it would be worth breaking it out into a separate post.

Some General Points:

• Spectrum is a building by building program and can vary quite widely in implementation.
• One thing to bear in mind when asking about Spectrum on this forum is I assume most parents have moved to HCC instead because they found it wanting and you therefore are less likely to get a balanced picture.
• If you're a prospective parent, definitely take advantage of the upcoming tours at the Spectrum sites and ask your questions there. Yes many schools are full but you never know what will happen in the open enrollment lottery so I wouldn't rule anything out based on that.

Some Larger Questions:

• There's a lot of uncertainty about the future of the program.
• I personally have questions despite having a Spectrum qualified child myself about whether 3 tiers of education is the best model for how to do things.
• I've thought in the past and this recent conversation has made me consider it again whether this blog should more directly focus on all advanced learners including Spectrum.  I'm not sure if that would dilute focus and if it would be too much work but I'm curious as always what others think.

The conversation thus far ....

Many of the comments I've read on this site are quite negative about the Spectrum program.

Is it pointless to put a Spectrum qualified child into the designated Spectrum school? (Lawton, in our case). My Kindergarten daughter isn't getting a great education where she is as the curriculum is moving too slowly for her, but from reading the comments on this site I'm not sure moving her will make much of a difference?

Thanks --

Coe parent

 Lynn said...

The first problem is that Lawton is over capacity - so your child will not be able to transfer. In a school where Spectrum students aren't in a self-contained class, seats are offered to students from outside the attendance area only when space is available.

The quality of a cluster-grouped Spectrum program is dependent on the ability and willingness of your child's teacher to differentiate instruction and the make-up of the classroom that year. This is exactly what you'll get in your neighborhood school. I don't think it's worth moving even if you had the opportunity.

Might she qualify for APP?

  Anonymous said...

Does Coe have walk to math? Isn't that kind of all you get from Lawton in Spectrum these days? It's been awhile for us so I hope someone with more recent experience will comment.

asdf

February 2, 2016 at 12:42 PM

 

 Anonymous said...

What type of advanced work have Bryant ALO students received?

- New to Bryant

  Anonymous said...

So are there any Spectrum or ALO schools that anyone thinks IS doing a good job meeting the Advanced Learners needs?

NB Parent

 Anonymous said...

NB Parent - My son is at Lafayette Elementary, which still has self-contained Spectrum (although who knows how long that will continue). He's only in first grade, so we don't have a lot of experience with Spectrum yet, but this year they are covering both first and second grade curriculum so they will be ready for third grade work next year. If they decide to get rid of self-contained classes, we'll be first in line to switch to Fairmount Park.

-Lafayette Mom

 Anonymous said...

My HCC qualified child has attended both Coe and Lawtom. Coe has an excellent ALO program. There is a math specialist doing dMany of the comments I've read on this site are quite negative about the Spectrum program. 

Is it pointless to put a Spectrum qualified child into the designated Spectrum school? (Lawton, in our case). My Kindergarten daughter isn't getting a great education where she is as the curriculum is moving too slowly for her, but from reading the comments on this site I'm not sure moving her will make much of a difference?

Thanks --

Coe parent

 Anonymous said...

@Former Coe parent. Thanks for your comment. That's interesting. Do you mind if I ask why you didn't put your child into Cascadia? Are you going to as you are unhappy with Lawton?
--Coe parent

 Anonymous said...

It used to be that Bryant was one size fit all and the ALO program meant an occasional extra worksheet in the homework. This year they're trying to differentiate a little more seriously. There's talk of a year of growth for every student. My second grader has an embryonic walk to math once a week (but not for 3rd grade math) and they do a walk-to reading group by level as well. There's been some experiments with blended math learning earlier this fall. Overall, most advanced learners leave Bryant over the math and that still is not as good as options at other schools. We'll see if they add more next year.

 Anonymous said...

There is more talk about advanced learning lately at Bryant but for whatever reason it doesn't seem that they are able to implement any meaningful changes. They had attempted to fund a staff position that would take on some of the administration of walk to math and other extensions but without it, the staff has not moved beyond a very skeletal version of basic programs that other schools (see Coe above) are able to implement without extra staff. My feeling is that there is something about the building and staff philosophy that is contrary to implementing a meaningful structure for work above grade level and that isn't likely to change. They do have both the resources and the student capabilities despite their protests.

 Anonymous said...

NB parent-- You will find that parents all have differing opinions about how well their child's needs were met in spectrum & ALO schools. My child attended Loyal Heights, an ALO school. It was awesome for her, not one bad teacher or experience. But you will hear from others who will complain their child was not challenged. Granted my kid is highly self motivated. She was a stand out student, but it built her confidence and identity as a "smart" kid. Solid walk to math program. Great to be at a neighborhood school, great kids. I felt she was very well prepared for HCC in middle school. She did stellar on the private school admission test, which affirmed our confidence that she received a solid education. We have never done any tutoring or subject supplementing outside school. She was offered admittance to Lakeside for 6th, but we chose HCC instead.

February Open Thread

Its February and we're in the midst of the final phases of testing and the beginning of open enrollment.

Articles

I saw this interesting article two days back in the NYTimes on whether we're stifling creativity with the values we choose to accentuate: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/opinion/sunday/how-to-raise-a-creative-child-step-one-back-off.html?_r=0

"The gifted learn to play magnificent Mozart melodies, but rarely compose their own original scores. They focus their energy on consuming existing scientific knowledge, not producing new insights. They conform to codified rules, rather than inventing their own."

I just found a followup interview with the column's author: http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/02/wharton-professor-adam-grant-on-creativity-and-the-first-mover-myth/?ncid=rss

On a totally different note, this piece on extra curricular math just came out. I'm familiar with most of the groups mentioned and its a great read if you didn't know about some of them already. I wish we had a version the Proof School in Seattle (that didn't cost an arm and a leg to attend).

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/03/the-math-revolution/426855/

West Seattle HCC Pathway Information Night

    Thursday, February 25th, 7-8:30
    at Madison Middle School Library

    Next year Madison Middle School will become an HCC (Highly Capable Cohort formerly known as APP) pathway option school, an exciting next step in West Seattle’s advanced learning options that began with the opening of Fairmount Park Elementary last year.

    This event provides an opportunity to learn more about the new middle school pathway in West Seattle and the preparations underway for its successful launch in the fall. Topics include course offerings, class structure, and the options following middle school, along with any questions you may have. Speakers will include representatives from the Advanced Learning Office, Madison administration and faculty, and both West Seattle High School and Chief Sealth International High School.

Eagle Staff Middle School Update

From SPS:
In September of 2017, a new middle school will open in the NW Region.
Robert Eagle Staff Middle School will serve students from Greenwood, Olympic View, Northgate, Broadview-Thomson, Daniel Bagley, and Cascadia schools.
Meetings to discuss the hiring of the planning principal for this new middle school will be held at four sites. Parents of current 4th and 5th grade students are invited to attend to hear more about the hiring process and the planning that the new principal will lead during 2016-2017 to ensure a successful launch of the new school.
Parents of 6th grade middle school students at Whitman and 6th grade HCC students at Hamilton, whose reference school is one of the schools named above, are also invited to attend.
Meetings are scheduled on the following dates and times:
•February 17th at Bagley Elementary (6:30PM - 7:30PM)
•February 18th at Northgate Elementary (7 PM to 8 PM)
•February 24th at Greenwood Elementary (7PM to 8PM)
•February 25th at Cascadia Elementary Auditorium (6:30 PM to 7:30 PM)
All meetings will take place in the lunchroom unless otherwise noted at the school site. Spanish language services will be provided at Northgate and Greenwood.
Learn more about the new school on the Seattle Public Schools' Building Excellence Program website.

Ballard PTSA Meeting on Lincoln High School February 4th

Have you wondered how Seattle is going to continue to deal with the growth in the North End of Seattle? What new schools are opening in the next few years? Are you concerned about how the boundary re-draw is going to impact your neighborhood or your school? What grade levels will Lincoln High School open with in 2019? Will Ballard and Roosevelt students be forced to move to Lincoln? Do you have concerns about the impacts that the late start will have on athletics and field use? If any of these questions apply to you, attend tonight’s Ballard High School PTSA Meeting at 7:00pm in the BHS Library and hear from the person who will ultimately be in charge of these decisions, SPS Associate Superintendent of Facilities and Operations, Flip Herndon.
Please feel free to forward this to any friends at other schools that would also be interested in this conversation.
Keven Wynkoop
Ballard High School
Principal

HCS Advisory Committee meeting

Today - Tuesday, February 2, 6:30 - 8:00 PM

Garfield High School Library

400 23rd Ave

Quick Blog Roll:

 I'd like to get a rough idea of where our readership is to aid in picking topics, vote multiple times for multiple children:

What school does your student atttend?

Cascadia

Thurgood Marshall

Fairmount Park

HIMS

WMS

JAMS

Garfield

Ingraham

polling

What's on your minds?

Choosing between Garfield, Roosevelt and Ingraham for High School

This thread comes from a parent request

Middle school has been an extraordinary experience for my kid (she’s at JAMS) largely because of the extraordinarily mature, talented, and learning-focused cohort of APP kids who surround her.
In choosing a high school, one of our chief aims is to try to continue to live among this very strong and mature cohort of kids. In decades past, this APP cohort, I believe, tended largely to go to Garfield rather than Roosevelt or Ingraham. Is that still true?  Does anyone know where we can find numbers?

For the numbers part of the question, I happen to have data on hand for Roosevelt HC enrollment. It ranges from 25-12 kids per year which is similar to what is occurring at Ballard HS as well. All other non-HCS high schools are generally much lower.  Currently most of the cohort is continuing onto the pathway schools.  *Caveat: this data was not even collected until the last year or so the accuracy is a little bit questionable esp. the 11th and 12th grade numbers.

However, I thought I'd broaden the topic a little and let folks discuss how they are making their high school choices.

New Middle School Spin-up Process (Meany and Eagle Staff)

I received the following email this morning:

Mr. Leis,
Good morning. You emailed Michael Tolley last week regarding Robert Eagle Staff Middle School. He asked that I respond to your questions, which I am happy to do. We agree that the planning process for Jane Adams Middle School was greatly enhanced by giving the planning principal a full year to meet with community, hire key staff, and work on the logistical issues, etc. associated with opening a new middle school. As such, we will be looking to hire for this position during our opening round of hiring this spring. While I can’t guarantee a hiring date, I would anticipate by April 1 that we have planning principals in both of the middle schools (Meany Middle School is also coming on line at the same time). Thank you for your question and the embedded feedback regarding what worked in opening Jane Adams.

Sincerely,


Jon Halfaker
Executive Director of Northwest Region Schools
Seattle Public Schools

This essentially matches the timeline for JAMS. I remember a parallel parent effort to help out and establish a PTSA. So I've set this thread up for folks to talk about what worked well last time and what they'd recommend other parents do during this process.

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.

January Open Thread

Happy New Year, I hope everyone had a good break.

CSIP (Continuous School Improvement Plans)

The new year's CSIP drafts are out at: http://garfieldhs.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=15987

Supposedly all schools are required to have a section on Advanced Learners although a casual glance at a few shows this to not be the case yet. I view this as an opportunity, however. If there is something concrete you'd really like changed at your site this might be the time to band together and lobby to have it included in the plan for the next year.

Testing

This update was just sent out to hopefully to everyone involved in testing:

"Thank you for referring your child for Advanced Learning testing. The Advanced Learning office will notify you via email about your child’s eligibility as scores are received and processed (late January through February). Because the notifications will be emailed on a rolling basis, we cannot give you a precise date. If you haven’t received an eligibility email by Feb. 29, please contact us at alsupportanalysts@seattleschools.org with the subject line “Eligibility Letter.”



Enrollment

If you would like your child to participate in Advanced Learning programs or services in a school other than your attendance-area school, you should enroll the child during Open Enrollment, Feb. 17 to March 1. Even if you have NOT received eligibility results by this time, or if you are appealing, please submit a School Choice Form during this window, anyway. Find guidance on our Advanced Learning Enrollment page.

Ineligible Students and Appeals

If you receive an email stating your student is NOT eligible this year, you may appeal within a limited time. Important: All appeals documents must be received by the Advanced Learning office no later than THREE WEEKS from the date of the email. (We have tightened the appeals window in order to accommodate budget and staffing timelines.) Find guidance on our Advanced Learning Appeals page.

· Families who are eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch may request free appeals testing.

· Please submit a School Choice form during the Open Enrollment window, even if your appeal is in process.



Eligible Students and Enrollment

Highly Capable-eligible students: HC services are guaranteed, either at your attendance-area school or through self-contained classes in your pathway Highly Capable Cohort school. For your child to join the cohort, you should submit a School Choice form during Open Enrollment.

Advanced Learning-eligible students: Your student may receive advanced work at your attendance-area school or through self-contained or cluster-grouped Spectrum classes, available at designated sites on a space-available basis. You may submit a School Choice form during Open Enrollment, but a seat is not guaranteed.

Find guidance on our Advanced Learning Enrollment page.



Note that testing for grades K-8 continues at least through January for students referred by the Oct. 8 deadline. If you have not received a testing appointment by Jan. 6, please email alsupportanalysts@seattleschools.org with the subject line “Winter Testing.”



To learn more and to find answers to specific questions about Advanced Learning in Seattle Public Schools, please see our Advanced Learning pages: http://www.seattleschools.org/students/academics/advanced_learning/



Thank you!


Stephen Martin, Advanced Learning Supervisor"

Upcoming:

• The next HCS Advisory Meeting is this Tuesday 1/5  at JAMS at 6:30 in the library.
• Gifted Ed Day is Jan 29, 2016
  Starts in the Columbia Room
  Legislative Building (Lower Level)
  Olympia, WA
  9 am to 2 pm
  
  The Coalition is getting ready for Gifted Education Day on January 29, 2016.
  
  The Governor's proposed supplemental budget released on Dec. 17th actually slightly decreases HCP funding even though OSPI recommended an increase of nearly $2.5 million.
  
  We need to increase our support in the Legislature for full funding of HCP.  Please plan to join other advocates in Olympia on January 29th. In view of the "no change" budget proposed by the Governor, our hopes lie with Legislators and the Court.
  
  Here is our Handbook for the Day, containing background information on why the Highly Capable Program is entitled to full funding from the state as well as practical information for coming to Olympia.
  
  The basic idea of Gifted Ed Day is to meet in the Columbia Room at 9am for a presentation, get a green scarf to identify you with our group, then split up to visit your district legislators individually or in groups. Be ready to tell your representatives why Gifted Ed is important to your family, and ask them to support HCP budget increases in this legislative session. Bringing kids is great, and well received, as is groups of people advocating together. Legislators respond when they hear from voters in their district.
  
  If you plan to go to Olympia for Gifted Ed Day, NOW is the time to make appointments that day with your legislators.  Find your legislators here: http://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/
  
  If you have a question that isn't covered in the Handbook, please contact The Coalition for Gifted Education atwagifted@earthlink.net

Articles

Some recent articles I've read on the subject of gifted education.  

• http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/26/nyregion/reforms-to-ease-students-stress-divide-a-new-jersey-school-district.html
• http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/01/the-charade-of-special-education-programs/421578/?google_editors_picks=true
• http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/opinion/sunday/is-the-drive-for-success-making-our-children-sick.html

What's on your minds?