2 new Amendments

There are two new amendment/resolutions for the upcoming Board Meeting related to pathways: 

https://www.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=32846293

Amendment 4:  (West Seattle Area)

Allow current 7th grade highly capable students from West Seattle attending Washington Middle School to enroll in Garfield as rising 9th graders in 2019-20. Approval of this item would allow current 7th grade highly capable students from West Seattle attending Washington Middle School to enroll in Garfield as rising 9th graders in 2019-20.


Substitute Resolution for 18-10

Substitute Resolution No. 2017/18-10 to affirm the vision for equitable access to advanced coursework in all high schools and develop the detailed plan for implementation by 2021-22. 

Approval of this item would replace Resolution No. 2017/18-10 as introduced on January 17 with a substitute version that affirms the vision for equitable access to advanced coursework, calls for more equitable identification practices for advanced learning and highly capable services, and requests a report that will detail the comprehensive plan for increasing advanced learning in all high schools following a collaborative planning process.


18-10 was the horribly flawed resolution that would just dissolve the pathways. The replacement one here offered by Mack, Patu and Pinkham is vastly superior.


Some quick predictions: given 3 board members have sponsored this one and you only need 4 to pass this version will likely pass as will the general interim plan to have the Pathways be Lincoln/Garfield/W. Seattle for the next few years.


Scenario F4.3: The official boundaries going forward. With the ammendments

• The Language Immersion Pathway will also be at Lincoln.
• You will be able to attend your area pathway high school if you are qualified regardless of what middle school you attended.
• Grandfathering was given to the W. Seattle students at Washington Middle School to attend Garfield.
• Language seems to be intact that if you're in a HC pathway High School in 2018-19 you will also be grandfathered.

SB 6508 Proposed changes to the identification requirements in the State HiCap program

We need your help to pass this bill. A landmark bill, SB 6508, was introduced in the WA State Senate yesterday, mandating equitable HiCap identification practices in all school districts.  This is big, big, BIG news!  We need a MOUNTAIN of advocates across the state to band together to have any chance of getting this bill passed in this short 60-day legislative session. Want to learn more about the bill and the process from here? Need sample text to copy/paste? Scroll down to the bottom of this email. Call to Action!   We need EVERYONE to do 3 things RIGHT NOW: 1. Submit a "support" comment on the bill via this SUPER EASY link: https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/bill//6508 2. Send an email to the Senate Education Committee Members asking them to schedule a hearing and pass the bill out of committee. Send an email to the following addresses: lisa.wellman@leg.wa.gov, Christine.Rolfes@leg.wa.gov, hans.zeiger@leg.wa.gov, andy.billig@leg.wa.gov, brad.hawkins@leg.wa.gov, sam.hunt@leg.wa.gov, mark.mullet@leg.wa.gov, mike.padden@leg.wa.gov, jamie.pedersen@leg.wa.gov, ann.rivers@leg.wa.gov   3. Sign up to help with testifying in Olympia, attending Gifted Ed Day on Feb 8, reaching out to legislators, or other ongoing support activities: http://www.tinyurl.com/support6508 I want to know more. What's happening?  The Coalition for Gifted Education, WAETAG, NWGCA, and NAGC teamed up this fall to write a bill about mandating equitable identification practices. Experts from UW, Whitworth, and others weighed in as well.  The bill has been introduced in the Senate as SB 5608 by Senator Christine Rolfes (Vice-Chair of the Senate Education Committee) and Senator Ann Rivers. A companion bill will be introduced shortly in the House, sponsored by Rep. Brandon Vick and others. Some highlights of the bill: Mandatory universal screening at or before 2nd grade, and again at or before 6th grade All screening and testing happens during the school day (no Saturdays) Use instruments in the native language of the student when possible, or use nonverbal instruments Don't use subjective measures like report card grades and teacher comments to screen kids out from consideration Use local norms, but never allow local norms to be more restrictive than national norms 3 hours of professional development per biennium for administrators, principals, and members of the Multidisciplinary Selection Committee (which make HiCap placement decisions) You can see the full bill text and other info here We expect the Senate bill hearing to be next week, the week of Jan 29. The first challenge is making sure the Senate Education Committee actually schedules the hearing, and then, that they pass the bill out of committee to get voted on by the whole Senate on the Senate floor. The House hearing will likely be a bit later, early/mid Feb. Similarly, it will need to be heard by the House Education Committee, then voted on the House floor. We are particularly looking for people in Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos' district (37), as she is the chair of the House Education Committee and in large part decides whether a hearing is even scheduled. If you are in her distrct, PLEASE answer our survey. Having many people attend the hearings is important. We only need about 15-20 people to speak, but will ask all in the room who are there to support this issue to stand so that the committee members can see the volume of support. Seeing all your faces - and your kids faces - is huge. Even if you can't attend in person, submitting written testimony on the bill is also extremely valuable. Once hearing dates are announced, we will let you know. We should know in the next couple days. If you can help, be sure to answer our survey I'm happy to write a comment or email, but I don't know what to say... Here are things you can copy/paste into your message. Mix & match, edit, and add your own story or your own personal touches - or just keep it short and sweet, a sentence is enough: I strongly support this bill. Dear Senate Education Committee Members, Please schedule a hearing and move this important bill out of committee. This is an urgent issue in my community. The gross inequities in our highly capable programs must be fixed ASAP. This is a big issue in my school district, and this bill will make a big improvement. Districts need to up their game and actually screen all students for highly capable needs. It's so easy for these kids to blend in, but ultimately they won't get their needs met and eventually they disengage from school, underachieve, or worse. De facto segregation in our state's highly capable program is unacceptable. This bill will go a long way to answering that need.  Bravo! This bill is exactly what we need. It's about time! Thank you WA Senate for answering the needs of the community. You do not have to write lengthy comments, though of course those are welcome.     IF YOU DO WRITE SPECIFIC COMMENTS, PLEASE STAY FOCUSED ON THE NEED FOR BETTER, MORE EQUITABLE IDENTIFICATION PRACTICES (such as universal screening and screening during the school day, not Saturdays), and the need to proactively identify HiCap kids in historially underserved groups such as low-income students, students of color, English Language Learners, Homeless students, and students with disabilities (2e).     Please do not write about HiCap program funding, curriculum, or service models (which are much more controversial topics that distract from this bill.)  Was this email forwarded to you? Join our mailing list  Northwest Gifted Child Association |  info@nwgca.org | http://www.nwgca.org NWGCA is still looking for a TREASURER and a MARKETING/ADVERTISING specialist. We are open to other skillsets as well. Looking for a way to give back to your community? We would love to have you on our board of directors! Email us at info@nwgca.org  STAY CONNECTED:

High School Changes Thread

Per a reader request this thread is for discussion about any of the non-boundary related high school changes for next year.

• New Science Standards: https://www.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=31363959

"Emergent Parent and Educator Science Alignment Changes Meeting

Do you want all children to have access to AP science classes at Seattle Public Schools?
Would you like Ballard HS to be able to continue to offer the Biotech Academy, Ingram's IB program, or the diversity of each high school's science offerings?
Please join us during a community action committee meeting to learn more about planned changes to science learning opportunities at all Seattle public high schools. Our timeline is short for influencing this process. These changes will affect all HS kids starting this fall, as it will radically redistribute science resources!

On Thursday, January 25 at 7 PM at Ballard High School Library, parents and educators will be gathering to discuss concerns related to a planned high school science curriculum alignment to be rolled out starting with the '18-19 freshman class.

Contact Tia Keenan tmkeenan@uwalumni.com with any questions. Hope to see you there!"

• 24 core related scheduling changes
• 8 period day

Note: There is a separate open-enrollment thread for general questions deciding about where to go.  

1/17 Board Meeting

This is a thread to discuss the latest board meeting and high school boundary developments.

Seattle Public Media Stream of the meeting:

http://www.seattleschools.org/cms/one.aspx?pageId=15690

Agenda: https://www.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=31634754

I have not had time yet to view this or parse anything but I hope to make some updates to this post once I have.

What's going on with High School Boundaries

After some conversations with neighbors I realized not everyone can keep up with the rapidly changing situation. So for those of you just joining or who have not been  avidly reading all the posts and comments for the last few months here's a quick summary:

Background:
Almost all the High Schools are overcrowded and only getting worse as larger classes age up.

SPS HS Projections

We're also currently in the process of bringing Lincoln H.S. online. Both these trends require a redrawing of boundaries. At the same time the size of the HCC cohort at Garfield has also increased just like the general population and no longer fits so it has become a huge part of the conversation.

As of right now the district has gone through several unsuccessful iterations of planning that culminated in the board rejecting the staff's plan last month. They are currently exploring one of 2 long term options:

1. Dissolving the HC pathways in high school and sending the students back to their attendance area high schools by 2021.

2. Setting Lincoln up as the North End pathway and W. Seattle H.S. for West Seattle. You can see some maps of the proposed boundaries here: http://discussapp.blogspot.com/…/capacity-scenario-visualiz…

Official SPS Link: https://www.seattleschools.org/departments/enrollment_planning/growth_boundaries/high_school_boundary_changes/

This current round of planning should result in a decision at the end of the month 1/31 if a consensus is reached by the school board.

Why is this important to everyone?

If you look at where the HC students are coming from a huge number are from the Roosevelt and Ballard area and returning them to the building is going to have a dramatic effect leading to either:

1. Increased overcrowding. There are around 530ish freshman even today in a building like Roosevelt that has a capacity for about 400 per class. We're talking about at least 100 more kids on top of that per year.

2. A dramatic domino effect movement of students between buildings. One estimate from Kelli LaRue was about 3000 high schoolers will have to switch in attempt to right size the buildings.

For the HC cohort there are additional risks to being dispersed. These will be felt at the periphery sites like Nathan Hale or Franklin where there are very few identified students and there is neither the money nor the will on the part of the principals to serve them.

I have a write up here with more details:

http://discussapp.blogspot.com/…/editorial-importance-of-pa…

[Since this is a summary and the discussion is already occurring in existing posts I've disabled comments. ]

* I corrected a small mistake in the RHS numbers mentioned.

Capacity Scenario Visualizations

Courtsey of Evan Mclain:

Official maps and data can be foundhttps://www.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=30514191

Editorial: The Importance of a Pathway

Reading some of the comments about various high school pathway options I sometimes feel a disconnect between what commenters are most vocally concerned about and what I see is the critical issue of the moment.  I also think there is a larger conversation to be had about the nature of the high school program but that is not the place we find ourselves today.  In the last board meeting there was a vote where a majority of the board voted to dissolve the high school pathway completely.  Most of the board members are on record and will vote that way again despite the current round of planning. The chance of anything remaining is dependent on convincing four directors that they are still important. Ultimately, its crucial that in analyzing pro/cons of the alternatives we don't lose sight of the larger stakes and that folks are consistent in stressing this part of the message.  This may mean rallying around a plan that is imperfect rather than suffering a much greater loss and I realize that's a hard pill to swallow given various individual circumstances.

To that end I want to make the case that indeed this is true and its crucial to emphasize that  HC students still need a pathway.

Critical Mass:
In order to create classes that meet advanced learners needs and continue the sequence of study that has already occurred in Middle School there needs to be a sufficient number of advanced learners at any site.   At lower grades two classrooms worth of kids is assumed to be enough. The complexity of High School scheduling makes it critical that they are there in large enough numbers to allow flexibility.  For example, if the single Band  class half of the kids are in is at the only period AP US history  is offered  there is  a problem.  Based on  the number of classes at some but not all of our High Schools even adding in the neighborhood HC students does not reach this minimum bar.  This is most clearly evident in the Math/Science pathways where classes like Calculus BC are not offered at many high schools due to insufficient demand.   Given the tight budget  and classroom space constraints the district operates under its simply not realistic to assume classes of non-viable number of students will be offered.  But in small ways across every class experience with large numbers of outliers can inform better teaching, curriculum, and focuses for a school in a way that doesn't happen when you don't see as many students.

Oversight and Advocacy:
The second advantage of the pathways is they provide leverage for families. Once spread out its not very easy to advocate for student's needs. 60 kids in a sea of 1500 are ignorable.  The cohorts also enable families to reach out to to each other and  advocate en masse for the system to change.  The converse side of this situation, is the more sites that exist, the harder any systematic oversight becomes. Over and over again we see various initiatives in the district fail to be consistently carried out across buildings due to site based management. Advanced Learning is even more subject to this variance in implementation given its political nature.


What about everyone else?
One of the the most common complaints I've read is along the lines "I have a Spectrum student who will have to go X. Its not fair there are limited opportunities at X."  I'm sympathetic to this line of argument. My main educational philosophy is meet kids where they are at and provide the classes they need. I think there are two answers to this issue. First, many of the class/grade combinations that we're talking about  are unique. The HCC students need a 9th grade Chemistry class that doesn't conflict with the rest of their 9th grade schedule for instance.  At most of our high schools a student on a  regular non-accelerated track does have reasonable access to core AP classes and most families are satisfied. Like above, having sufficient numbers of students at the same grade requiring the same general classes make this possible. There are also some schools which where more families end up having to access Running Start by the senior year due to missing classes. In some cases, the demand is already there and the principals need to be pushed to meet  it. In others, we really need to consider letting kids move buildings to access unique needs (I don't think this is an issue for a huge number of students) .


Capacity:
Finally, from a purely pragmatic point of view, HC students play an important part in overall capacity management. This is a body of students who will move voluntarily to a different site if there is compelling programming.  Given the space constraints of Seattle Public we should be taking advantage of this phenomena and not exacerbating the space issue by funneling students towards already overcrowded sites. The neighborhood school plan has the most domino effects and disrupts the most students in general because of the misalignment between buildings and student populations.

January '18 Open Thread

The NGCA sent this in the mail:

Don't miss our headline event for the year! NWGCA is thrilled to partner with GHF to bring Gifted Research & Outreach (GRO) to Washington state for the premier of their brand new workshop!   Want a preview? Check out GRO's searchable library of almost 300 articles they have gathered about the physiology and neuroscience of giftedness - including more than 70 peer reviewed papers! The amount of research piling up is astounding, and their eye-opening insights will forever change how you talk about giftedness.   Workshop: The Gifted Advocacy Toolkit Leveraging neuroscience, gifted research, and industry techniques to drive the change you want to see.  Saturday, January 20, 2018  9:00am - 5:00pm Woodinville, WA   Attention educators: 6.5 clock hours are available at no extra cost!  REGISTRATION & MORE INFO   Effective advocacy for gifted students requires both knowledge and skill. This ground-breaking workshop delivers both in one sitting!

Julia Robinson Math Festival

The mission of the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival is to inspire students to explore the richness and beauty of mathematics through activities that encourage collaborative, creative problem-solving.

I can’t thank you and your entire team enough. My daughter had never attended one of your events. She absolutely LOVED every math activity that she participated in.PARENT

The festival is a noncompetitive celebration of great ideas and problems in mathematics. We will have several dozen tables of rich math problems and activities led by our volunteers, who are lovers of mathematics from different disciplines, representing mathematicians, teachers, engineers, programmers, graduate students, and more.

To register or find out more go here: https://t.co/U1RsqvFoKl

What's on your minds?

Book Review of "Off the Charts: The hidden lives and lessons of American prodigies"

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/books/review/off-the-charts-ann-hulbert.html

Happy Holidays

What's Next (officially)

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

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

picture polls

Student Assignment Transition Plan and High School Boundaries

Posted on 12/12/2017

Student Assignment Transition Plan and High School Boundaries

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

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

Next Steps

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

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

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

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

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

Timeline

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

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

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

2017-2018 Cohort Demographics

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

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

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

[2016-2017 cohort size data]

So where do the kids originate from now?

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

So what's happening at each school:

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

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

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

What's Next?

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

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

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

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

Dir. Burke asked in addition for: 

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

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

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

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

Dual Language Pathway:
N: HIMS to Lincoln

Timelines:

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

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

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

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

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

Late Fall Math Thread

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

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

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

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

So how is Math going for you in your building?

December '17 Open Thread

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

HCS AC meeting tomorrow 12/5

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

 The agenda will include:

- An update from Advanced Learning

• Changes to appeals process

- Updates from new sites

• Decatur, Eagle Staff and Madison

- High School Boundaries/Student Assignment Plan Discussion

NWGCA Annual Workshop

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

What's on your minds?