Garfield Honors Classes getting cut Part II

The number of comments has grown to be unwieldy. So despite the lack of any further news this is part II of: http://discussapp.blogspot.com/2016/06/garfield-9th-grade-honors-classes.html

First: please avoid personal attacks and respect the diversity of opinions.

Secondly, I've been thinking about the issue and had a few questions/thoughts:

• Honors classes vary wildly across the high schools. For instance Roosevelt has none in 9th grade and after that they are not separate but entail some additional requirements instead for the class. Ingraham, Ballard and West Seattle  have separate classes. Nathan Hale which follows the Coalition of Essential Schools also doesn't offer stand alone honors. A few like Franklin talk about an honors option but I don't have enough information to tell what that actually means although I suspect its similar to Nathan Hale. For those who have been in any of the other schools it would be interesting to hear your experiences.  I keep coming back to the idea that there should be a uniform policy of access in high school to the honors option and that there should also be a definition of what additional work or curriculum it involves.
• I tend to think about these issues first and foremost through the lens of whether the classes are meeting the needs of the students. Its hard to predict before its been implemented but I'm curious for more feedback from those already there on reasons why or why not.  I should add that we veered a bit into a discussion of disruptive students. For me, these points are very problematic since moving all the hard to manage students into a separate track is known to produce lower quality classes. My hope is always that where we track, the tracks remain high quality at all levels and that there is some thought put into making sure that occurs. 
• Finally, the process here has been dreadful which has I'm sure exacerbates the anxiety. Any instructional model changes should be communicated directly to the school community with adequate lead time. So if anyone hears additional information please post it.

Update:

This is via Alec Cooper the outgoing Garfield PTSA president  (presumably but not verified)

"Outgoing (now last year's) Garfield PTSA President here again. At our request, we met with Mr Howard and the teachers who are leading this initiative on Thursday of last week. We continued to reiterate that the way this was being done was hugely counterproductive. 

We suggested to the teachers that (as a compromise) they consider to pilot 1-2 sections next year, enabling a more comprehensive plan to be prepared, vetted by parents, questions asked, feedback given - all parents, not just the PTSA. We offered PTSA funding for curriculum development and professional development. We emphasized that we understood the challenges that the teachers were trying to address. 

No additional details were presented at the meeting, other than some of the teachers are planning to take some training. At the end of the meeting, the teacher who was leading the discussion simply told us that they were going ahead anyway. Afterwards, we received this mail 

"We realize there's lots of uncertainty about the planned 9th grade detracking, esp with the recent Times article that mis-characterizes our plan. We have a draft of a description of the plan, and would like to incorporate the questions you've already collected from parents. Then in a couple days we can send you a clear description that answers as many questions as we can, which hopefully you'll share with as many parents as you have access to via constant comment, etc. So please share the questions you've gotten, grouped as makes sense to you, or just as a raw list."

Apparently when they decided to do this, they didn't even have a draft of a plan to share. I also inquired whether the Advanced Learning Office Office had reviewed the plan, this was the reply i got:

"Garfield was the designated APP site for the district many years ago. Now every neighborhood school is providing AP courses for their neighborhood populations. To answer your question. Does Garfield need permission from Michael Tolley, School Board, or Sarah Pritchett to make Academia changes. The short answer to your question is NO. 

Lastly, there is no change for our advanced placement cohort or our students who want to challenge themselves at GHS by taking honor courses. The change is for our general ed population." 

Update 2:

Garfield HS PTSA July 5, 2016 Dear Garfield Families, Members of the PTSA met with Principal Howard and Language Arts/Social Studies (LA/SS) teachers last week to learn more about the proposed changes to the 9th grade LA/SS curriculum. We requested the meeting after The Seattle Times published an article about Ted Howard and Garfield that discussed the school's race and equity challenges. The article indicated that 9th grade LA/SS Honors was going to be cut. Principal Howard and the teachers clarified that The Times story mischaracterized the LA/SS Honors change. In fact, the school plans to offer Honors curriculum to all 9th graders. There will no longer be two curricula tracks for LA/SS - regular and honors. Now, all students will take the LA/SS Honors curriculum and be held to the same standard: Honors for All. The PTSA, the school and the teachers feel this is an important change to demonstrate to a greater number of Garfield students that they can enroll, and take on the rigor of more challenging courses, and succeed in that environment. The teaching staff are 100% committed to Honors for All and to its success. All of the teachers are certified and trained to teach Honors and to teach a wide range of learning styles. They voted unanimously to make this change and to supporting each other as a team. The teachers explained they help initiate the change because it would hold all students to a similar standard and it will be a rich learning environment. Classroom discussions will be enriched with the new classroom composition and the teachers will introduce project-based learning, a nationally recognized teaching tool. It will enhance learning for all as students will have the opportunity for individualized learning and peer learning opportunities will grow. The teachers acknowledged the challenges they will face and shared how they were preparing for them. It is a challenge to teach Honors to a broad spectrum of students. The LA/SS teaching teams have been preparing for several years: enrolling in courses to teach differentiated learning; researching the newest teaching methods; studying high schools that have already made this change. Principal Howard also announced a new reading class for students to improve their reading skills. Principal Howard and the district are committed to supporting this change, and the PTSA will work with the school and the district to ensure its success. The PTSA is requesting that the teachers share their implementation plan for this change and communicate the plan to the community, and it will also request quarterly check-ins to learn how it is going and to identify where we can best support the students, teachers and classrooms. In the short term, the PTSA has shared parent questions with the teachers, and next week the teachers plan to address the questions and share their implementation plan for LA/SS Honors for All. The PTSA will continue to invite feedback and update the community. We are committed to partnering with the school - One Garfield! - to deliver an excellent education to the entire student body. Garfield HS PTSA Executive Board Sally Hulsman and Barbara Kelley sally_hulsman@yahoo.com 206.992.0924 bjkelley62@hotmail.com 206.349.1697 Garfield HS PTSA

July Open Thread

Summer is finally here. Generally July is the quietest time of the year for this blog with everyone's focus elsewhere. I distinctly remember folks asking about preparing for Math in the fall in past years.  So I'm including a link to this online app for those looking for resources. I tried dreambox out after one of my son's schools did a school wide trial and I really liked it.

http://www.dreambox.com/

Basically, you know your own children best but if you feel the two year jump is going to be difficult a small but consistent amount of  practice/learning can go a long way. Also, online programs usually are more effective if you watch over the shoulder of your kid and jump in when needed from time to time with questions and/or more explanation.

For those following the situation at Garfield, please keep using this thread:
http://discussapp.blogspot.com/2016/06/garfield-9th-grade-honors-classes.html

Administration

I'm researching 3rd party comment systems to replace the builtin one as well as considering whether to move the blog from being hosted in blogger to wordpress. Feel free to chime in if you have any technical opinions.

Commenting System Beta Test

I'm trying out Disqus for now as a new commenting system. The default commenting system doesn't have enough tools for controlling trolling that I think would be useful.

Pros:

• Anonymous comments are still allowed but the use of a name/pseudonym is enforced. 
• Whitelisting. New commenters are automatically moderated but can then be whitelisted.
• Link blocks for spam - any urls will trigger automatic moderation. 
• You can like/dislike comments. I don't know if that will be used or not but it could be interesting.
• You can authenticate via almost all the social media sites: Facebook/Twitter/Google+ etc.

Cons:

• I can edit your comments. I promise I will responsibly run the system but you'll have to trust me.
• Registration requires an email address (but it doesn't have to be valid.)
• Its a little non-obvious where the guest post option is.
• I'm unsure how easy the replies are to follow once they start nesting. (This all looks like facebook comments rather than the flat model we use now.)
• Comment counts and the most recent comments widget update in near realtime but not as immediately as the native blogger comments.

Notes: If you want to anonymously post use the signup with Disqus UI and click on I'd rather post as a guest. Its  important to then choose a consistent name/email address if you want to be automatically whitelisted.  Its not necessary to use a valid email address although I'd prefer you did if you feel comfortable. That gives me a private channel to communicate back. Any email addresses are never disclosed to other readers.

Example: anonymous guest post.

So please go over to  http://discusshcc.blogspot.com/ post some test comments and tell me what you think..

Secondary Administrative Procedures and Counseling Manual

SOS Counseling Manual - This was provided by a reader, It contains a grab bag of procedures related to grades, course scheduling, high school credits, equivalent courses of study.

Math

The US team won the IMO Mathmatics competitions for the second year in a row:
http://www.maa.org/news/us-wins-first-place-at-international-mathematics-competition-in-hong-kong

What's on your minds?

Garfield 9th Grade Honors Classes getting Cut

This article was published today in the times about Garfield High School.

http://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/microcosm-of-the-city-garfield-principal-navigates-racial-divide/

There are a lot of other interesting issues raised in the article but relevant to our focus is this paragraph:

"Part of the answer may lie in more money for counselors trained in dealing with trauma and for academic tutors. But Howard is no longer waiting. Next year he intends to abolish most out-of-school suspensions and, in response to a push from the faculty, cut honors history and English for ninth grade, chipping away at a system that traditionally tracks gifted middle-schoolers — mostly white — into Garfield’s Advanced Placement curriculum."

There have been whispers that this might be coming but as far as I can tell this is first official confirmation. (Why has this not been discussed in more normal channels?)

Assignment to the classes was not based on HCC eligibility but respectively:

English: "Students will be assigned based on their HSPSE test scores and their grades in 8th grade Language Arts."

World History: "Passing the Reading and Writing sections of the previous WASL exam and reading at or above grade level, or approval of History Dept Chair"

PTSA Email

Here's the email from the Garfield PTSA received today:
Garfield HS PTSA
June 25, 2016
Dear Garfield Community,

As you may have seen, the Seattle Times published an article this morning about Mr. Howard and Garfield. The in-depth article addressed race and equity issues at Garfield and quoted a number of people, including Mr. Howard, the Mayor's education adviser, students and parents. 

In the article, Mr. Howard says there are plans to make changes to the Honors Social Studies and Language Arts program for incoming ninth-graders. The PTSA is now engaging with the administration, teachers and parents to learn more about the plan. Specifically, we are asking for an implementation plan that addresses the timing and requirements to launch this change.

We are planning to have a meeting next week with the school to ask questions, share parents' concerns and learn about the preparations the administration and district has and is undertaking to make this change a success. 

We appreciate that many of you have questions and concerns, and we would like to hear them. Please email or call Barbara or Sally with your thoughts. We will update you as we learn more.

http://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/microcosm-of-the-city-garfield-principal-navigates-racial-divide/ 

Regards,

Sally and Barbara
sally_hulsman@yahoo.com 206.992.0924
bjkelley62@hotmail.com 206.349.1697
Garfield HS PTSA


Please treat each other respectfully and think before you post. 

End of the 2015-2016 School Year

This Friday is the last day of school. For my family and all those I've talked to in person it was a year full of many learning experiences. I'd like to first congratulate all of this year's graduates.  It's the amazing things that they do in school that motivate me first and foremost to keep blogging. Then I'm going to offer up two personal anecdotes for this year.

The first is the very amusing series of dinner conversation we had around the class government in my son's fourth grade room. During their civics project, the kids created and voted on various governance structures and then tried to work within them.  What then ensued was a series of failed governments, restarts, intrigues with their counterpart class including a shadowy underground resistance movement, Machiavellian intrigue, an attempt to install a monarchy, and a constitutional convention. Every day, I asked "So what happened with the government?" and there was some new  political affair to talk about.

Secondly on the last day of Math Club I had a student come up and ask me "Is there a new problem of the week?" I suppressed a smile and responded back "You'll have to wait and rejoin next year."

What have been your favorite moments?

This thread is meant to be celebratory/social.  I've setup other threads to track more serious trends. 

UW Robinson Center program on HiCap Programs

A reader forwarded this to me:

High School Credit For Online Math

This question comes from a parent:

"Hi,

I am interested in learning from anyone’s recent experience homeschooling in math so that a student can progress beyond the upper level allowed for the grade. My 6th grader is in Algebra I this year, and the teacher and we (parents) agree that it’s not meeting his needs. It’s not just that he has already learned most of the content on his own, but also that he picks up new math concepts so quickly. His teacher has indicated that he’s ready for higher level math and college-level proofs, which she can’t accommodate in her class (understandably).

We have sought guidance from the Math Curriculum manager, HCC director, principal and homeschool contact. I understand the logistics of how to partially enroll him so that he can do math at home, but I’m not sure how to find online curriculum that will 1) meet his very advanced needs, and 2) “count” so that if he wants to use it for high school credit and/or re-enter SPS math classes in a future year. Stanford online H.S. courses and Art of Problem Solving courses have been recommended to us, but they are not on the OSPI list of approved online courses. Any advice?

1) Is there an OSPI-approved online provider that can meet the needs of an advanced student?
2) If not, and we proceed with Art of Problem Solving, how can we lobby to get high school credit for these courses?
3) Are there District funds available for online courses when school-based instruction doesn’t meet the student’s needs?"

Hopefully someone has already gone down this path and knows some details.

HCC Procedure Changes

The Curriculum and Instruction Committee will be reviewing procedure changes to the HCC program tonight June 13th

Agenda  (The revised procedure begins on page 295 of the agenda and the changes are summarized on page 312. )

The summary is as follows: 

The proposed revisions to Highly Capable Services and Advanced Learning Programs Superintendent Procedure 2190SP have been made to promote clarity and align with other relevant procedures. The following points provide a guide to changes:  

• On Page 2 of 7: The high school eligibility application requires the submission of a student writing sample. The writing sample was not explicitly addressed in previous version of 2190SP, so we adjusted this language.  

• On Page 3 of 7 No substantive changes to eligibility criteria, except that achievement data is required for Advanced Learner identification in all grades K-7.  

• The appeals language change on Page 4 of 7 is meant to make transparent the process that the MSC uses to make eligibility decisions on students who have appealed. All data points are considered at that stage in the eligibility process; these include parent rating scales, teacher rating scales, and any/all available cognitive and achievement scores, including those from privately administered testing.  

• On the bottom of Page 5 of 7 under Program Design, and under the HCC subheading, the wording specifies that HCC in grades 1-5 is self-contained for ELA, mathematics, and science, and may be offered as self-contained in social studies. This wording was added to give flexibility to the staff at elementary HC sites, and reflects the practices have been and will likely be proposed in the name of equity and a social justice agenda.  

• Also on Page 5 of 7: Clarification of Garfield as pathway school and Ingraham as option school for 8th HCC students. Ingraham enrollment based on space availability and not guaranteed, per Student Assignment Procedures 3130SP

A few opinions/points on all of this:

1. Proposing changes publicly late Friday for the first time and discussing them the following Monday is terrible public out reach. In the name of process I would delay this until the next meeting to allow more time to understand the implications. 
2. The High school changes need clarification that the default placement for HC students is Garfield if they do not get a placement at Ingraham otherwise parent's will be forced to unnecessarily gamble if they want that program. This is especially important since it functions as a relief valve for the capacity issues.
3. Someone on the board really needs to force a more public discussion of the enrollment caps at Ingraham. Currently, I haven't been able to pinpoint who even sets the numbers or why.
4. The social study changes are explicitly limited to grades 1-5 but Middle School is redefined as being "mostly" self-contained which is open to a lot of interpretation.

Update

Melissa Westbrook over at SaveSeattleSchools had this writeup of the meeting:

"So this was QUITE the discussion at the C&I meeting yesterday. Highlights:

- Stephen Martin, the head of AL, had to apologize - yet again - for misinformation from his office to parents. "Sorry for the confusion." I have to say, this seems to happen quite a lot and, at this point, I don't think sorry is enough. There needs to be more vetting of information BEFORE it gets to parents.

- He said some changes to the procedure were "editorial" and then pointed out five other ones. 

- He said they would be seeking engagement before August 8th (read on before you comment.)

- For those applying for high school, students will have to write an essay based on a standardized prompt that the AL offices gives them. Apparently this has always been the case but not clearly stated.

- They will use MAP test data for kindergarteners.

- Appeals. Martin said some parents thought if they did private testing and got the scores needed that would be the deciding factor. He said a single score would not be and that it is a committee decision based on several factors.

- "Flexibility" for staff at HCC sites. This is where it got real. Martin said that Thurgood Marshall wanted, as part of their social studies program, have more "socially responsive" teaching. He said they needed "permissive language" so they can go ahead with the program they have planned with input from department of race/equity. 

Director Geary - you know this will cause "some stir" within the community and that it needed to go thru the community engagement tool and she didn't see how it could be done by August 8th (which is some kind of deadline for Thurgood Marshall to have the program in place.) 

Martin said that it was up to the Board but it was just for one school.

- He also said that there was a clarification that only Garfield was a guaranteed high school pathway for HCC and not Ingraham. (He made it sound like Ingraham was never intended to be and I'd have to go back and check but I thought it had been.)

Director Burke said he was worried about the TM issues because they would be amending a procedure for a practice. He said it is "out of alignment for inclusion" and could "create polarization."

He said the district didn't seem to be serving AL students well OR closing the opportunity gap and having underserved kids at either end wasn't good. He said there were "optics" around this issue.

Then Director Harris quietly laid into Mr. Martin. She said she didn't appreciate getting this info on a late Friday for a Monday meeting. She said she felt blindsided and parents may as well. She said she didn't see how there could be true community engagement in the middle of summer. 

She said, "This is not the best we can do." She said that "we have got to do a better job for every child, every day." 

(Burke pointed out that Martin had walked each member of the committee thru the changes before the meeting. Harris wasn't a member so she didn't get the walk-thru. She did state that as a Board member, it was important for all of them to understand the changes in any program in the district. She said she heard from parents at her last community meeting and "it was not pleasant."

Michael Tolley mentioned that staff would take the info, work thru changes and it ultimately goes to the Superintendent.

Now that's true and this is the super's procedure but the procedures flow from policies. 

Between this discussion and the one around MTSS (see my next comment), I was gobsmacked. Trying to make AL even more hard to understand? Allowing schools to decide how they want to present advanced learning opportunities? Sure, why not? It feels like that is what has been happening all along. 

I cannot see the Board going along with all these changes and especially being presented them right before school ends and then coming back to them in early August."

So its a bit hard to read what the staff will do next.  In theory procedures unlike policy don't need board approval so they could try to go ahead anyway.  If you want to contact the Staff I'd suggest asking for more genuine engagement in this and other changes being proposed.

Update2: It looks like the staff are supposed to come back in August with an amended proposal.

The blog (school) year in review

Now that a year has passed since taking over as moderator here I'm ready to reflect on the experience. To start off, running this site has changed my view of it versus being a reader and occasionally commenting in a thread.  I don't think I fully realized, for example, how active and all consuming the testing period is for us just as much as the AL department.  Its also cemented my understanding of what we can do well here versus all the alternatives such as school facebook pages or PTA websites.

• The biggest strength for me is the conversations that occur between parents in different schools.  I think its really valuable to have a place to ask about choosing a Middle School or the testing process in Kindergarten etc.  All the sharing of experience is great and strengthens the collective knowledge base of the whole community.


• I've been focusing on disseminating information about program wide changes. Thanks to everyone who has forwarded information to me. I think this is the second largest role this site plays and initially its why I stepped forward to make sure it would continue on.


• We're an open site  and allow anonymous comments which allows free conversation that might not take place on FB etc.  That's a two-edged sword.  I don't really want to degenerate into the Seattle Times comment section. However, I've been very pleased with the conversations so far even on more contentious subjects like race and equity.  Again thanks to everyone for the contributions here.

The flip side of this is that we're not particularly a social site. I mostly cede that role to all the other alternatives but I'm curious what others think. Do you think we should do more community building or less serious threads or is that best handled elsewhere?

Highlights

1. I'm proud of how the testing season went this year. I think this site made the best of a chaotic situation. 
2. We've had sporadic comments from various staff members which I always appreciate.I hope that continues next year.
3. Here and there I feel we actually moved the dial a bit on some decisions like the proposed changes to the main policy in the fall. Granted, the jury is still mostly out on this one.
4. Site usage is up.

If you're interested in being a contributor or enhancing this site in any fashion please contact me. I'd love more help.  That includes submitting a piece that you want more broadly published. I especially would also like writeups from meetings I can't attend.

Finally, I'm always interested in what everyone else has to think. Are there any changes that you think I should make in the next year?

June Open Thread

The last few weeks of school are finally here and summer vacation is nipping at our heels.

Items I'm Tracking

1. District plans for 24 credits to graduate High School.
2. Social Studies related changes instigated at Thurgood Marshall.
3. The Cascadia Elementary split.
4. IB Program Funding.
5. West Seattle HCC program at Madison Middle School.

HCS Advisory Meeting

The June meeting for the Highly Capable Services Advisory Committee will take place tonight/:


Tuesday, June 7, 6:30 - 8:00 pm
Garfield High School Library
400 23rd Ave 98122

The agenda will include:

- Assistant Superintendent Flip Herndon talking with us about capacity issues and the Highly Capable Cohort

- Report from the Advanced Learning Office

Lincoln High School Community Outreach

      Seattle Public Schools invites you to a Community Meeting

      for the Lincoln High School BEX IV Project

      Date: Thursday, June 23, 6:30-8:00 p.m.

      Location: Lincoln High School Auditorium, 4400 Interlake Ave. N., Seattle WA

Dear Lincoln High School community:

Seattle voters approved the Seattle Public Schools Building Excellence IV (BEX IV) Capital Levy in February 2013, which includes the project to modernize and open Lincoln High School. The meeting will be presented by representatives of Seattle Public Schools BEX IV capital projects team and Bassetti Architects and will include information about the project’s early design progress.

You will be able to learn more about the project scope, schedule, existing conditions and design exploration. You will be able to ask questions and give us input and feedback. We hope that you will be able to join us! For more information, please visit http://bex.seattleschools.org

The Seattle Public Schools BEX IV Capital Projects Team

Summer Course in Data Analysis

Data Analysis Academy is excited to announce its intensive, week-long summer course for rising 11th and 12th graders called Seeing the Big Picture: An Introduction to Investigation Through Data. The course aims to introduce students to techniques used across a variety of fields in a way that sparks their interest in data analysis and amplifies their future education in quantitative fields.

The Data Analysis Academy believes anyone can use data to inform and refine their critical thinking skills in an increasingly numbers-driven world. The curriculum reflects a data-centric approach to solving business problems honed by the former Managing Director at TGG Group, the quantitative consultancy formed by the world's leading economists, including Freakonomics author Steven Levitt and Nobel Laureates Daniel Kahneman and Gary Becker.

The application deadline is June 30th. To find out more, visit https://dataanalysisacademy.org or contact the program Director, Janet Moehring, at janet@dataanalysisacademy.org.

I'm also probably going to stop and reflect about the state of this blog in an upcoming post. In the meantime what's on your minds?

High School Schedule Changes

These talking point come from one of our commenters. I've chatted with some board members on the subject and it sounds like the high school changes are fairly far along with no alternatives even on the table. So time is short to make improvements here. The recommendation was to send mail pointing out problems with the plan. I'll also summarize all the comments here in a letter to the board at a point when there are enough to makes sense.

3x5 schedule talking points:

The district is considering changing all high schools to a 5 period, 3 trimester schedule (3x5) as a means of helping students meet the new 24-credit graduation requirement in WA State. Instead of a classes meeting 180 days a year for 6 periods a day, classes would meet 120 days a year for 5 periods a day. In theory, students would have the ability to take more classes per year and thereby increase their opportunities to meet the 24-credit graduation requirement. In reality, the 3x5 schedule poses many challenges, and may limit the class options for students. 

How would a 3x5 schedule work?

A class that would normally meet 180 days is compressed into 120 days over the course of two trimesters. A traditional 6 period schedule allows for (6) 50-55 minute classes per day; a 3x5 schedule might have (5) 60-65 min classes per day. A typical course would last two out of the three trimesters, though not necessarily consecutive trimesters. 

How does a 3x5 schedule increase credit opportunities for students?

If students filled their schedules each year, they could potentially earn 30 credits over 4 years, or 7.5 credits per year, compared to the current schedule that allows for 24 credits over 4 years, or 6 credits per year.

What challenges would a 3x5 schedule pose?

> Course content would likely be reduced. A3x5 schedule attempts to cover the same content with 33% fewer classes per year. While classes are slightly longer (60-65 min. in a 3x5 schedule vs. the 50-55 min. in a typical 6 period day), it would be a challenge to cover the same material in 120 days compared to the current 180 days. It would be especially challenging for math and science classes that are paced for covering a topic a day.

> Course continuity would be compromised. A class might meet first and third trimester, with a gap in the second trimester, and no guarantee of the same teacher each trimester. There could be an 8-9 month gap year over year if a course was covered in first and second trimester, then in second and third trimester of the following year.

> Students may not be able to schedule the minimum 6 credits per year, or meet IB diploma requirements, due to the scheduling restrictions. AP and IB classes, with national and international exams on fixed schedules in May of each year, would need to meet in the first and second trimesters of the school year. Students would not only have fewer days of class to cover a significant amount of material, but they would need to self study for the May exams. There would be limited opportunities for year-long electives such as music, or even a needed 6th credit, as the schedule would be full in the first and second trimesters. 

How do other districts manage a 3x5 schedule with the demands of AP and IB classes?

Very few districts with a 3x5 schedule offer the same number of AP and IB courses as Seattle area schools. Some districts schedule an optional zero period (lengthen the school day), or offer AP and IB study sessions outside of the 5 period day.

Here's a link to the official page from the district: https://www.seattleschools.org/families_communities/committees/graduation_requirement/

Social Studies at Thurgood Marshall and its Rippling Effects

If you've been following the proposed Social Studies changes in the Thurgood Marshall building you'll remember how at the last HCS Advisory committee meeting (See: http://discussapp.blogspot.com/2016/05/53-hcs-ac-meeting.html) the AL staff indicated it was explicitly against policy to blend the classrooms.  On the bright side, it looks like everyone is paying attention to the policy this time. On the other hand, the solution now has ramifications for HCC as a whole. I haven't seen the proposed changes yet but its not hard to see how this argument could be extended particularly in  the context of Middle School.

"Dear Thurgood Marshall Family: 

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about Social Studies at our school.  Why? Let me give you some background…
When I first came to Thurgood Marshall after being hired in April of 2014, I met individually with teachers to get a sense of what they thought was going well with our school and areas for improvement. What came from these meetings was the idea that Thurgood Marshall was more like three programs in a building than one school.  Each teacher mentioned that students in different programs had little opportunity to get to know each other or to interact across the school day. From this, the idea of “Building Bridges” was born – an effort born in the 14-15 school year to reach out and make connections between various student groups within the school and to help our various parent groups feel connected. We want everyone to feel that they have a place at Thurgood Marshall. 

In the spring of 2015, our school became one of nine school accepted to participate in the first District Race and Equity Team.  As we received training in this area, we begin to think more about the impact our school’s design on our students. Our three programs – PEACE Academy, General Education and Highly Capable Cohort - are all designed to serve the needs of three different groups of students, but could there be points of intersection between these groups? 

Teachers began to think about integration and how this might be beneficial for our students, both for social needs and to support their academics.  Fledgling efforts had been made in this area – “Friendship Days” for 1^st and 2^nd grade classrooms where students participated in literature-themed art projects in mixed classroom groups, multi-age classroom partnerings for Reading Buddies, and “Mix it Up Day” where students were encouraged to sit by someone new in the lunchroom. Teachers felt these projects were a success, but because they happened sporadically, we were not seeing relationships between students develop outside these projects.  One notable success story was happening in our Fifth grade.  Students from our 4 classes – 3 HCC groups and 1 General Ed group – were blended into groups with students from each of the 4 classes to study moral dilemmas each week. Students spent time thinking together about how they would solve problems they might face in middle school. And from here, we began to see relationships take root that carried over from the classroom to the playground. 

Where this stands now…
The district currently has a policy in place (Procedures 2190SP) about self-contained learning in HC classes that states: “Highly Capable Services are designed for students identified as Highly Capable to provide advanced curricula as well as support their social and emotional needs from identification through graduation. Highly Capable Services include a self-contained path called the Highly Capable Cohort, which provides a rigorous curriculum in language arts, mathematics, science and social studies. The curriculum is presented at an accelerated learning pace and/or advanced level of complexity and depth, requiring students to perform significantly above grade level. 

After discussion with Advanced Learning, the department of Curriculum and Instruction, and principals of elementary and middle school HC sites, a change to this policy has been proposed that will allow slightly more flexibility in the study of social studies and science.  This is something that the school board must consider and vote on before our school is able to move forward. While we have had some discussions as an Equity Team, a staff, and at PTA Parent Equity meetings about the possibility of integrating Social Studies, at this point, we are on hold until we hear back from the central office. 

Why Social Studies?
I would like to propose that we consider our goals for social studies education.  On our district social studies page, the following is excerpted from OSPI:

What is social studies education?
Social studies in Washington State contributes to developing responsible citizens in a culturally diverse, democratic society within an interdependent world. Social studies equips learners to make sound judgments and take appropriate actions that will contribute to sustainable development of human society and the physical environment.

Social studies comprises the study of relationships among people, and between people and the environment. Social studies recognizes the challenges and benefits of living in a diverse cultural and ideological society. The resulting interactions are contextualized in space and time and have social, political, economic, and geographical dimensions.

Based on appropriate investigations and reflections within social studies, students develop distinctive skills and a critical awareness of the human condition and emerging spatial patterns and the processes and events that shape them.

If we are undertaking the study of social studies to develop “responsible citizens in a culturally diverse, democratic society,” what better way to do this than to teach social studies to groups of students who look like the culturally diverse, democratic society we are preparing them to live in?  Our General Education and HC programs are aligned to the same standards. We believe that the unique experience each of our students bring to this study will actually enrich their learning and push all students to think more deeply.

• In the spring of 2015, third grade teachers decided to blend their classes for a social studies unit on Pacific Northwest Indians.   The success of this experiment, encouraged us to think about trying this on a larger scale.
• Social Studies is a smaller part of our core content.  At the elementary level, most classroom time is spent on reading, writing and math. The curriculum for reading, writing and math is advanced 1-2 years in our HC classrooms; social studies curriculum is the same across programs.

Questions/Concerns that have come up:

• How will we make sure that students are being appropriately challenged at their level? This endeavor, like any classroom instruction, will be taught with an eye to differentiation to make sure that students are engaged and thinking deeply about the topic. Differentiation is already taking place in each of our three programs so that students are able to access the curriculum. The departments of Advanced Learning and Curriculum and Instruction have each offered their support in helping our teachers prepare for blended classes and to make sure that each student will be challenged. The professional development we plan to do around this will benefit our teachers in planning for their regular classrooms, too.

• Is this change being initiated by the school or by the district?  The idea to teach social studies in a different way came from staff at Thurgood Marshall, to address the learning needs of the students at our unique school site.

• Is this an effort to reduce services to HC students? Absolutely not! We care deeply about meeting the needs of all of our learners.  We want to be sure that students are appropriately challenged at their level. HC exists to serve the learning needs of students who need something beyond the typical classroom, just as we have special education resources for students who need more support to access the curriculum. On the contrary, we feel that teaching social studies in this way will actually provide our students with another level of challenge as they consider more diverse viewpoints.

• Is this a permanent change? As a school leader, I do not think that I go into any new and innovative situation with the expectation that something is permanent.  Instead, I like to think that we are pushing our thinking and learning forward (as both adult and student learners!).  With any new initiative we take on, we try it knowing that we will make refinements and improvements as we go.  I understand that this question comes from a distrust of past district practice – when a group has felt the need to strongly advocate for their children, they are wary of losing any ground.  I understand this – and I can tell you that this effort is coming not from the district, but from grassroots efforts of Thurgood Marshall staff and parents involved with our equity work.

As with all of the work we do, this is a conversation I want us to engage in together.  Our School Board will meet to discuss a revised policy in early June.  Once we hear their thoughts, I will schedule a meeting so that we can talk together about our hopes and wishes around this topic.
If you want to dig in a little further, I have added some resources below you may find interesting.
Sincerely,
Katie May, Principal
Thurgood Marshall Elementary

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/does-integration-still-matter-in-public-schools/

https://tcf.org/content/report/how-racially-diverse-schools-and-classrooms-can-benefit-all-students/

The radio program “This American Life” did a two part series on the topic of segregated schools:
Part 1:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/562/the-problem-we-all-live-with

Part 2:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/562/the-problem-we-all-live-with"

End of the Year Achievements

This is an experiment inspired by Maureen:

"Note that an Ingraham student placed first in the U.S. in the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad. Second place was also from Seattle (Lakeside). 

Results from the Invitational Round of the Invitational Round of the 2016 NACLO: The top four US students include Laurestine Bradford (Invitational Round winner) of Seattle, Washington, James Wedgwood of Seattle, Washington, Erik Metz of Ellicott City, Maryland, and
Shuheng "Nelson" Niu of Cupertino, California. The next four US students are Margarita
Misirpashayeva of West Windsor, New Jersey, Wyatt Reeves of Fort Worth, Texas, Jack
LaFleur of Washington, DC, and Nilai Sarda of Atlanta, Georgia. 

Congratulations Lola!"

What accomplishments are you excited about from this year?  I'm sure all the kids have done interesting things (this doesn't have to be an official award) that parents in other buildings don't know about.

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.

May Open Thread

Here we are again. There's a slow moving capacity crunch at Cascadia that will come to fruition next year (and at least one at the H.S. level coming behind it). I was talking with a friend who joked "I could post my senior college philosophy thesis" and if it were labelled as being about capacity in the schools everyone would read it.  There's a lot of truth to that. 

My goals at this point are to daylight as much of the staff's thinking as possible along the way, push to have a decision voted on as soon as possible and forward any interesting ideas we as a community come up with on.

Teacher Appreciation Week

I thought this article was fairly interesting: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-ewing2/appreciating-teachers_1_b_9807046.html

"The teaching profession needs two things in order to thrive—respect and trust. The two go together. You can say nice words and be grateful to teachers, but if you do not trust them as professionals, you are not showing them respect. Trust means giving teachers (appropriate) autonomy in their classrooms, but it also means giving them influence over policy—real influence, not a few token teachers on some committee—and it means giving them control over their own professional growth. We need to stop fixing teachers and create environments in which teachers themselves fix their own profession. We need to trust them to do so."

Lincoln High School Updates:

Design team blueprints and notes are up at: http://bex.seattleschools.org/bex-iv/lincoln-building/school-design-advisory-team/

Math Culture:

Congratulations to Edward who is a 7th grader at Lakeside.  One of my passions is increasing our district's participation in more of these events in Middle School and High School.

Administrativia

Google informs me that you can now use SSL and connect to the blog via https://discussapp.blogspot.com

What's on your minds?

Cascadia PTSA Round Table with Flip Herndon and Rick Burke

I'm just back from the general PTSA meeting tonight at Lincoln. Very generously, school board member Rick Burke and Flip Herndon the assistant Superintendent in charge of facilities and capacity came out to answer questions and hold a community round table after the general business was completed. For those hoping for new information about all of the impending capacity issues, the short answer is that not much has shifted since the last time I saw Flip in person.  All the key decisions, geo-splits, boundary zones etc. are still up in the air and won't be resolved until next Fall at the earliest.

However, there were a few interesting points raised. During  the principal talk, Rina announced next year's confirmed enrollment for Cascadia is currently at 732 which is actually down from this year although the window to join is still open.  We talked again after it was over and she made a special plea for those families who haven't officially committed to enroll as soon as possible. This will make the staffing and budgeting process easier for the staff.  She also mentioned that she is involved in the K-5 English/Language Arts curriculum adoption process. I hope to look into the materials further at some point and post about it.

I had mentioned here that Flip had three children enrolled in the district. He added on tonight that one of his kids was involved in the HCC qualification process this year. If its any comfort to those of you who also went through the process, the senior staff share your pain: Flip mentioned missed screening deadlines and late status notifications.

On the subject of whether Cascadia will split, there was little new information but his tone made it seem likely.

• Apparently the district is trying hard to avoid portables on the new site. This was stressed.
• The new K-3 teacher student ratios have further reduced the capacity of the building absorbing all the flex spaces that were planned.
• The 660 capacity numbers are the "right size" for the building.
• If there is a split, the district will try to identify a cohort of  around 150 students. Note: for comparison Fairmount Park has about 164 HCC students.
• The only possible site that came up by name in his talk was the Decatur Building. 

There was a brief mention also of the Hamilton Capacity issues for next year. The district is still trying to get permission from the city Landmark Commission for a one year placement of 2 double wide portables on the blacktop. This will be decided hopefully by mid May.

High Schools were talked about as well. Flip mentioned Garfield is projected to reach 2400 students in a few years without adjustments being made. He also said conversations were being had about whether to make Ingraham the default High School placement for the north end rather than an option despite this year's enrollment issues.

Finally, in a brief comment Rick Burke mentioned that the district is 11 curriculum adoptions behind and doesn't have the budget to get those done as quickly as he would like. So any HCC specific materials are very unlikely and that instead the adoptions are being done with an eye towards textbooks that will serve both the gen-ed and advanced learning communities.

One editorial note: If you're planning ahead its best to make peace with the lack of certainty and assume that you will be geo-split. The capacity  and budgetary constraints are only getting more severe.

Sixth Grade Math Placement Policy Redux

Recently I had another conversation with the Math Coordinator for the district while looking into the opt-up form and at that point the old policy still was intact. However, events have moved forward and it looks like placement will be a more site based  decision after all.


From Principal  Paula Montgomery at JAMS:

"Since there is no longer the use of MSP and MAP data, we are attempting to create an equitable and clear process to get every student in the most appropriate math course.

Our intent is this:

-          We value 5^th grade teachers recommendations but at the same time we want to make sure that students are not overlooked in non-HCC schools and that 5^th grade teachers are not over-burdened with recommendations. At JAMS we have a few students from neighborhood schools who are in Algebra and are quite successful. About 1/3 of our HCC population comes from neighborhood schools.

-          We are finding that SBAC scores are coming back to us within a few weeks. Even last summer, we were able to use 5^th grade SBAC scores as one of the measures for students requesting a higher math placement.

-          We also want to  respect parent decision to have their students not take the SBAC, but need a consistent measure of the students mastery of specific skills.

-          At JAMS, we believe that all students should have mastery of 7^th grade math standards prior to Algebra. We have a small group of students who move from “7^th grade math” to Algebra. The above criteria is in-line with the same criteria that we are using for our current students in Math 7.

We have collaborated with Hamilton and Washington so that we are similar in our placement decisions, but I am not sure how completely align/ed we are as all schools are now moving quickly since receiving our 5^thgrade information. JAMS is a bit different than both school as we group our students by level and by grade level. For example, we have a 6^thgrade only algebra class. Our 6^th graders in 8^th grade math, have only other  6^th graders in their classes. "

I'll see if I can get the equivalent policies from the other Middle School buildings. If anyone has any information please add it on.

2016-2017 Ingraham IBX Admissions

I'm setting up a separate thread for discussing admissions to next year's ninth grade class at Ingraham.
What I know so far:

• At least 30 families were waitlisted and assigned to their neighborhood reference school rather than Garfield.
• Some other number may  have been just assigned to their neighborhood school.
• The official district policy on the website which has always been followed up until now:

The IBX (Accelerated International Baccalaureate) program at Ingraham High School is currently available to all students identified as HC. Eligible students who wish to exercise this option, need to complete a school choice form during Open Enrollment, but not later than May 31st. Students who apply during Open Enrollment, are guaranteed seats. They may also apply after Open Enrollment; however, in this case, assignment would depend on space availablility. If a student applies for this program and is not assigned, the student’s default assignment will still be in effect (unless they apply for and are assigned to another school)."

https://www.seattleschools.org/students/academics/advanced_learning/open_enrollment_information/

• Enrollment is a district function, so the people to  possibly contact are:

1. Enrollment
2. Advanced Learning
3. The district ombudsman.
4.  Board Members.

I've sent out a few inquiries of my own. Please add any information that you discover and if anyone is organizing any group action. In addition if you are not on the waitlist I'd like to know just to get an idea of the total # of people affected.  I'm  still hopeful that this will be amicably resolved since no procedure was followed to alter any of the policies. 

SBAC Testing Season

Spring SBAC testing is starting fairly soon for most students.  Based on the data last year most HCC students did not opt out despite some  more vocal statements of opposition. (See: 2015 Testing Results).  As this is a subject that I'm very concerned about I thought we should have a thread on it. Here's a sample of the two poles of opinion on the subject.

Opt Out

https://dianeravitch.net/2016/04/11/why-every-child-should-opt-out/

"Want to end the obsession with standardized testing? Opt your children out of the state tests. Ignore the threats from state and federal officials. The tests today have taken over too much of the school year. Teachers should prepare and give tests that cover what they taught.


What if all students opted out of testing? That’s democracy in action. The elected officials who mandate these tests would take notice. They might even discover that no high-performing nation in the world tests every child every year.


The tests today are pointless and meaningless."

https://iamaneducator.com/2016/04/21/off-the-deep-end-the-swim-test-vs-the-standardized-test/

This one's from local educator Jesse Hagopian:

"Parents and teachers across the country have united to demand an education system that recognizes children’s needs aren’t satisfied by filling in bubbles on an exam. So, before we throw our schools into the deep end, let’s demand authentic assessment now!"

Opt In

http://edexcellence.net/articles/draft-essa-regulations-a-mixed-bag-for-educational-excellence

"Before ESSA, a No Child Left Behind provision required all students to take the same tests. As it was interpreted by both the Bush and Obama administrations, the provision also barred material from those tests that was significantly above or below grade level. As a consequence, most current assessments do a lousy job of measuring academic growth by pupils who are well above grade level. They just don’t contain enough “hard” questions to allow reliable measurement of achievement growth at the high end. In other words, the ceiling on those tests is so low that most advanced students can pass them even before the school year starts. 

Thankfully, ESSA allows computer-adaptive tests (CATs)—such as those developed by the Smarter Balanced consortium—to be structured and administered in ways that measure growth at every level, without overburdening any student with a ridiculously long paper-and-pencil test. And if combined with a real academic growth accountability model—one that holds schools to account for ensuring that all their students make progress over the course of the school year—this can finally create incentives for schools to attend to the further learning of their high-achievers. Making sure that every state allows for above-grade-level testing is critically important as we implement ESSA."

Some Facts:

• Advanced learning had initially publicized that starting next year you will need to take the standardized tests in order to qualify but not to maintain eligibility in AL programs.  Even that seems to have been rolled back.
• If you want to opt-out the usual procedure is to email your teacher and sometimes building coordinator or principal.
• 5th grade SBAC data is being used by some Middle Schools for math placement although there are alternatives.