Comments on: More West Seattle teachers back MAP testing revolt: Now, Schmitz Park Elementary

By: lyric

lyric — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 02:05:22 +0000

Why are’t the parents more upset about the government profiling your children with this form of test?? If one were to look at it scientifically thats what they(government) are doing. Thank you Lyric

By: Dano

Dano — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 06:01:09 +0000

Sorry, Jeff…… We will have to agree to disagree on this.

By: Jeff B.

Jeff B. — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 04:59:42 +0000

Dano,

You are correct in your assumption on an earlier post that student can transfer from a low performing school to a higher performing school under NCLB. In 2008-09 Schmitz Park had 11.2% poverty (37 students k-5), 2011-2012 14.5% (67 students). That’s 5 additional students of poverty per grade level. Not that significant when you see a school with almost 90% poverty, 60% E.L.L., 35 languages, 25% refugees and they are getting a 6.14 on the achievement index and their Hispanic and Black students are out performing the White and the Asian students. You as an educator actually believes:” with them come lower test scores” Who’s freaking fault is that, the students, the families? No, it’s the result of low expectations on the part of our educational system and the inability of schools to get kids to standard, which they get paid to do.

By: Dano

Dano — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 04:07:19 +0000

Morrigan- I am a teacher at an elementary school here in West Seattle. I commend you for your decision….. Because you are acting on information that YOU have reflected on, and weighed… You are illustrating what is important…. Talking with your child’s teacher about his PROGRESS…. Thank you for being involved, and for treating the teacher as a professional who cares about, and is invested in your child’s education! ;)

By: Morrigan

Morrigan — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 03:23:12 +0000

Unfortunately my child attends a West Seattle school that is still taking the MAP test. Tomorrow he will go to school with a letter to his teacher, his principal, and cced to the superintendent that specifies, as a parent, I DO NOT GRANT PERMISSION TO THE SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT TO TEST my child with a high stakes test. And they can’t do a damn thing about it. My kid will not take it! His teacher knows much more about his progress then a computer screen, and a test that even the district says is bad.

I didn’t even get a letter home telling me that the kids were taking the MAP test at this time!

By: marty

marty — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 08:53:00 +0000

I never said that there are no single parent success stories, I have seen many. The fact is that children from single parent families have far less success on the average. Spend a few minutes looking at the attached link and you will see what I mean. The information comes from the Seattle School District. It also shows the huge gap between White/Asian students and Black/Hispanic students. It couldn’t help but notice that strength of family and student success are strongly related.

http://www.seattleschools.org/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/1583136/File/Departmental%20Content/siso/disprof/2011/Prfl11all.pdf

By: Dano

Dano — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:58:20 +0000

Marty – kids need people who care greatly about them….. They need love, and protection, and time….. All of which can come from two parents….. Or three….. Or four…… And yes, even ONE. I am the lucky, educated, happy….. And most of all, GRATEFUL child of a single parent.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:48:08 +0000

Marty – Is this one of those wink-wink disguised phrase comments? Be careful so your agenda isn’t revealed.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:45:03 +0000

Mark – Try stepping out of your mindset and start understanding the problem. Your personal “union” issue does nothing to fix the problems in education. BTW, I’m a teacher

By: Mostinterestingman

Mostinterestingman — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 04:59:34 +0000

Have the kids evauluate the teacher…

By: marty

marty — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 04:51:42 +0000

Dano: Economic disparity? More like single-parent households. Kids need two parents. It helps economically too when you have two people who can earn a wage.

By: Dano

Dano — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 23:59:49 +0000

Jeff- what your data does NOT show is the very notable CHANGE in demographics from ’08-’09 to present day….. Since then, boundaries have been tweaked, NCLB has provided that kids in low performing schools (which are often linked to low economic neighborhoods – face it…..) are given preference to go to a high performing school….. So while those kids are hoping for a better performing school, the reality is that with them come lower test scores… At least for a while. The truth of the matter is that until there is something done about poverty and economic disparity, there will continue to be disparity in test scores…… They are undeniably linked.

By: G

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 20:35:47 +0000

Hagopian clearly enjoys being in the limelight, but the goal of an education is not to turn out partisan activists, but thinkers.

By: Mark R

Mark R — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 17:06:28 +0000

Good Op-Ed piece from a Garfield teacher:
http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2020158085_jessehagopianopedxml.html

By: Jeff B.

Jeff B. — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 16:32:58 +0000

Marty and the rest,

The Washington state board of education has been working on a system that considers low income and minority students. In other words it recognizes the population that a school serves and provides a rating based on MSP scores. If you go to the website you can look up any school in the state, it ‘s called the Achievement Index. Based on the achievement index Schmitz Park is rated as Fair with a score of 3.53 on a scale of 7! In 08-09 they were rated exemplary with a score of 5.93, I don’t think we can blame this on the Maps Test people, or the kids.