Wednesday, April 3, 2019

April '19 Open Thread

"From WCGE: We Need Your Help - Stat

The deadline for bills to be passed out of the Appropriations Committee in the House is April 9th. So far SSB 5354 has ***not*** been scheduled for a public hearing. The committee plans sessions on April 5, 6 and 8. There is still time!

Please contact committee chairman Rep. Timm Ormsby, even if you have already done so, and urge him to schedule a public hearing and executive session on SSB 5354 before the April 9th deadline. Add a few words about why this bill is important as an equity measure [talking points below].

timm.ormsby@leg.wa.gov

Please also send an email to your own House Representatives and ask them to urge Rep. Ormsby to schedule this bill. If you don’t know who they are: https://app.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/

[Have friends and family across Washington do this as well.]

If this bill does not get out of Appropriations, it is ***dead*** for this session and we have to start all over again next year.

Suggested talking points (use your own words, but keep your message short):
* This is an important bill to improve equity in state highly capable programs
* The bill asks for important data disaggregation for better evidence-based decision-making about highly capable programs
* It calls on OSPI to provide equity-promoting guidelines when diversity goals aren't met
* It calls for highly capable professional development for principals, counselors, and student teachers – OSPI already has free professional development materials available online
* OSPI needs more than its current one half-time employee to serve the ENTIRE state with technical support and guidance and to provide data so that legislators and school districts can make evidence-based decisions
* It requires districts to acknowledge highly capable status from other districts for families that move a lot (military, migrant, etc.).
* It provides for transportation to highly capable schools, which is an issue especially in rural districts"
What's on your minds?

15 comments:

jenn joseph said...

There was a meeting at Washington Middle School last night to discuss the school's future. I couldn't be there. Can anyone share an update? Were any of the parent concerns raised in the petition to oust the principal addressed?

Anonymous said...

There was a well-attended PTA meeting at WMS on Monday with a speaker/facilitator, the focus was "what if every student believed they could succeed" (or something like that). It was an interesting meeting with many sharing views on the school's current state, positive and negative. The principal was there but she didn't speak and the petition was not discussed while I was there, as it wasn't the focus.

I left feeling that there is so much good work to be done in the WMS community and so many parents who want to have a strong community that supports all students. I hope the PTA will host more of this type of meeting - having the facilitator was important. There was a brief glimpse of the strength the school could have if parents could align behind the success of all students as a goal. I honestly don't know whether the principal has the leadership skills that are needed.

Ruthie

Anonymous said...

The HCS-AC was put on some kind of hiatus, per a directive of Tolley. Will this change now that Tolley has left SPS? Maybe the frequency of meetings was too much to ask of the committee, but could they at least meet every other month, or once per school quarter?

what's up?

Anonymous said...

Per Tolley's 9/27/18 letter, the HCS-AC was "paused" until the ALTF completed their revisioning of AL (which was estimated to take "one year to 18 months"). Only then was the HCS-AC to be reinstituted. Still boggles the mind that they would intentionally exclude the voices of HCS-AC while working on this task.

"...As we follow and support the work of the Task Force, please plan to review the activity through review of the meeting outcomes. Minutes are posted to the Seattle Schools website following each meeting."

I'd encourage families to take the time and read through the minutes.

(answering my own question)

Justin McReynolds said...

This is entirely unrelated to the comments thus far, but since this is an open thread...
Does anyone know where one can see gender distributions across grades and schools for HCC?
Anecdotally, Thurgood Marshall seems to have a lot more boys than girls, at least in grades 3-5.

Anonymous said...

Not specific to HCC, but you can start by looking at OSPI Washington State Report Card data. For 2017-18, SPS as a whole was 51.5% male and 48.5% female. For TM, 56.9% M, 43.1% F; Fairmount Park, 48.7% M, 51.3% F.

Benjamin Leis said...

I haven't gone back to the data either but I remember the last time this came up that TM was more imbalanced than the other sites and that there was some fear the gender imbalance was self perpetuating i.e. potential parents of girls were turned off by it and didn't choose the school.

How is the mix in the 1-2 grades?

Number Looker said...

On page 5 of this file
https://www.seattleschools.org/common/pages/DisplayFile.aspx?itemId=67764670
the district says that for 2017-18 the overall breakdown for Highly Capable Learners, grades 1-12, is:
45% Female
55% Male

In a school with multiple co-located programs like Fairmount Park or Thurgood Marshall, you would need more data than the district makes openly available to determine differences in gender distribution or race/ethnicity or class sizes, etc. in gen ed vs. HCC classes at the school. Word of mouth says that at one point for one grade at TM the imbalance was supposed to be as drastic as 79% male vs. 21% female, but also that it's not like that for every grade every year.

The P223 Enrollment Reports will tell you the total number of students for a school and how many of them are listed as male or female:
https://www.seattleschools.org/cms/one.aspx?pageId=15178

If you look at schools that are all HCC on the April 1, 2019, P223 enrollment report, here's the breakdown:
Cascadia: 44.4% female, 55.6% male
Decatur: 46.7% female, 53.3% male

That's pretty close to the district-wide 45%/55% split.

But if you dig a little deeper, Decatur's first grade class in the May 2018 P223 report was 25% male and 75% female!!! And Cascadia's second grade class in the May 2018 P223 was 63% male and 37% female.

So, there's definitely variation from grade to grade and school to school.

Anonymous said...

Decatur 1st grade which was 25/75 in 2017-2018 turned into a 2nd grade which is exactly 50/50 in 2018-2019. Big swing toward average in just one year.

-Decatur Parent

Anonymous said...

Policy 2024, Online Learning, is back on the Board agenda.

Benjamin Leis said...

I'm hearing that the principal at WMS has resigned but have not confirmed yet.

Anonymous said...

Dear Washington Community,

I am writing to let you know that I am resigning as principal of Washington Middle School at the end of the school year.

I've worked my entire career in urban schools to advance the education of students and engage families disenfranchised by the public-school system. After reviewing the school year, I have come to the realization that my skills and passion are better suited elsewhere.

I am committed to ensuring a strong close to the school year and a smooth transition for the next WMS leader before my last day on June 30th. I wish only the best for the students, families, and staff of the WMS community.

District office staff will reach out to the WMS community in the next few weeks and provide additional information about the transition and next school year.

Sincerely,

Principal Butler Ginolfi

Anonymous said...

Was that the good news?

HCC reader said...

No, that's not the good news. It's something else.

Nothing about Washington's situation has felt very good this year. While it's great for everyone the EBG and Washington can move on apart from each other... why? Why did it even have to happen in the first place? Why did it take so long? By 3 weeks into the year, it was clear this was going to have to be the outcome. Sigh. All the students, all the families, all the teachers deserve an apology from the district.

Anonymous said...


well said hcc reader. so what is it then?