(Global Cities Education Network visitors in the Sealth library)
On this MLK Day holiday meant for contemplation of understanding, collaboration, and diversity, among other things, we have an update on one way that’s happening across borders, right here in West Seattle. Denny International Middle School principal Jeff Clark shares news of a delegation that visited Denny and adjacent Chief Sealth International High School last week as part of the Global Cities Education Network‘s meeting.

Clark explains, “The first GCEN meeting took place in Hong Kong on May 10-12, 2012, and included participating cities: Chicago, Denver, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Seattle, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Toronto. Participants identified several common, high-priority problems of practice and agreed to initially focus on two: the need to develop and sustain a high-quality teaching force, and the need to improve educational outcomes for low performing and linguistically and culturally diverse students.” He adds, ““We were very pleased to have the chance to welcome educators from around the globe to see the powerful things happening with our scholars at Denny International. The opportunity to network and discuss global educational issues is important and was insightful.” The visit report includes an observation from Sealth principal Chris Kinsey: “Chief Sealth International High School continues to open its doors to the world. Collaborating with international educators to create new opportunities for our students is a core element of who we are as an International School.” Here’s Sealth teacher Noah Zeichner, involved in many of their internationally focused initiatives (such as World Water Week), with a colleague from Hong Kong:

The visiting educators also checked out John Stanford International School while in Seattle.

The first competition for the first Westside School (WSB sponsor) middle-school robotics team went well, says adviser Erik Christensen, sharing this report:

Way to go, Monkey Wrench Gang!

Westside’s inaugural Middle School FLL Robotics team, The Monkey Wrench Gang, participated in the State Qualifying Competition for the Seattle region. Final standings haven’t been posted, but the team placed in the top third out of 35 teams.

In addition, the team took home the “Programming Award” for developing the best program to run their specific robot design – quite a coup considering it’s the team’s first year of competition.

Congratulations, Blake, Grant, David, Luke, Emilio, Coach Erik Christensen, and Team Manager Julie Jetland.

Teachers at a second elementary school in our area are voicing their support for others around the district who are declining to give the Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) tests. As with Sanislo Elementary School‘s teachers (see their letter here), Schmitz Park Elementary teachers are sending a letter voicing support without going so far as to say they won’t give the tests. We received this tonight:

Dear Superintendent Banda,

The staff of Schmitz Park, by a nearly unanimous vote, joins in its support of Garfield High and all other schools and individuals around the district that boycott the MAP test. We agree with Garfield’s position about the harmful, ineffective, and wasteful nature of the MAP test and its deleterious impact on instructional time and consequently student achievement. We join SEA in asking you to not discipline our colleagues for standing up and speaking the truth.

We also agree with the Sanislo Elementary letter of support, which points out a deep concern around MAP. Apparently, district officials told Garfield staff the test was “not valid” because the margin of error can exceed the expected growth score. Given this information, it seems unthinkable that these scores would be used to determine the “effectiveness” of teachers. The teacher’s collective bargaining agreement allows the use of low scores to impact the placement of teachers into more comprehensive evaluations, en route to performance improvement plans and termination. The threatening of teachers with invalid data simply is not right.

There is a similar problem brewing in the elementary schools. Not only are our teachers concerned about the time taken away from instruction to administer the test, but the current version of the MAP test is aligned with the old state standards and it is clearly an unsuitable vehicle for evaluating students currently being taught the new required Common Core Standards. So not only are the results of little instructional value, but this discrepancy between what is taught and what is measured will yield falsely low scores making the MAP test invalid for the purpose of measuring student growth/teacher effectiveness.

The idea of using MAP scores as a component of teacher evaluations is disconcerting and needs to be addressed. As such, in response to Superintendent Banda’s e-mail of January 14, we recommend suspending the MAP requirement until the promised review has been completed.

We hope you will interpret the “boycotts” around the district not as disrespect but as a sign of deep concern and needed change.

Sincerely,
Schmitz Park Elementary School Staff

Here again is Superintendent José Banda‘s published message about the MAP revolt from earlier this week, saying the district will review it, but needs right now to proceed with it.

ADDED 11:25 AM MONDAY: The Schmitz Park teachers have revised their letter to add the word “nearly” before “unanimous,” and at their request, we have also added that word (toward the start of the letter) to reflect the change.

The first of two West Seattle elementary schools to be built/rebuilt if Seattle Public Schools‘ BEX IV levy passes next month is already in the design phase. That’s because the new Schmitz Park Elementary at Genesee Hill (not its official name; that’s not decided yet) is expected to open in fall 2015. The project team has design concepts/options ready to show the community, and they along with SP principal Gerrit Kischner are inviting you to a presentation next Tuesday (January 22), 7 pm, at SP Elementary’s cafeteria (5000 SW Spokane). Meantime, ballots are expected to be mailed within days for the 2-levy vote on February 12th. (The rebuild to be funded by BEX IV, Arbor Heights Elementary, is slated to open in fall 2018 but the district is hoping to use “bridge funding” to move that up.)

You might have seen citywide media coverage – including this story from our partners at The Seattle Times – about Garfield High School teachers revolting against the district testing known as MAP (Measures of Academic Progress). A source has sent word of the first organized West Seattle concern about the test, saying Sanislo Elementary teachers are sending this letter to district Superintendent José Banda – note, however, it does NOT say that Sanislo teachers will boycott the test, only that they support the Garfield teachers’ decision:

We the staff at Sanislo Elementary, by a unanimous vote, write to express our support for Garfield High School’s decision to not administer the MAP test. We share many of their same concerns, including the impact on a struggling student’s esteem and the lack of usability of the results when given the current text adoptions. We similarly decry the loss of instructional time, the loss of computer lab access and the loss of instructional assistants who are used as test proctors, in addition to the financial costs of the subscription itself and the tech support for implementing it.

Garfield and all high school teachers find themselves in a Kafkaesque situation in which their employment (including career ladder and termination) will be determined by a test which district officials told them is invalid, since the margin of error can exceed the expected growth score. The collective bargaining agreement allows teachers to be put on ‘improvement plans’ if their test scores are low on two different tests. However, if one test is faulty, then in all fairness, this portion of the contract cannot be implemented.

Elementary teachers are approaching a similar situation, where the MAP test is not correlated with the standards we are required to teach. Common core standards are now taught in the classrooms so how reliable are this year’s MAP results and how useful will they be to elementary teachers since the test questions are not aligned with these new standards? Further, this misalignment will result in a false reading of student growth and those lower test scores will put elementary teachers in a Garfield-type predicament where a solid teacher could feel threatened due to faulty test results.

For these reasons, we urge you to recognize the Garfield teachers’ stance as an opportunity to correct an injustice initiated under a former administration and to publicly announce that no teacher will be put on plans of improvement as the result of test scores until such time as a statistically-reliable (and more humane) second measure of student growth is in place.

With Respect,

The Sanislo Elementary School Staff

In a response to the Garfield boycott, the superintendent said the district is reviewing MAP but expects the tests to be administered this winter as planned.

For the second time this week, a big-picture issue is at centerstage for a local PT(S)A: Tomorrow night, the West Seattle High School PTSA is examining “Student Assignment, Enrollment, and How It Impacts WSHS.” Here’s the announcement:

Make plans now to attend the next PTSA meeting, Thursday, January 17th at 7 pm in the West Seattle High School Library. West Seattle’s School Board member Marty McLaren and Carmela Dellino, Executive Director of West Seattle Schools for the school district, will be our main guest speakers. The PTSA will be highlighting issues that the current student assignment plan raises for West Seattle High School. The current school boundaries mean our enrollment base is significantly smaller than other high schools. More enrollment means more resources to the school, so how can we impact a more equitable distribution of students? Come and learn about this and other important issues facing the School District.

The enrollment-equity issue has been simmering since the Student Assignment Plan was created more than three years ago; community members had warned at the time that the boundaries drawn then were likely to leave Chief Sealth International High School overflowing and WSHS with extra room – and so far, that’s what’s happened.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Almost one full year after the Seattle School Board voted to create a new STEM (science, technology, engineering, math)-focused elementary in West Seattle, the district has not yet chosen the school’s permanent home – and district leaders indicated tonight that almost a second full year is likely to pass before a decision.

They spoke at a meeting of the PTA for the school that’s officially known as K-5 STEM at Boren – after the Delridge Way building where it’s currently housed – though the school calls itself West Seattle STEM Elementary.

Names and definitions were at the heart of the evening’s tension, too; the district still sees STEM education as a “program,” it was clear from district administrators, which is a big reason why they had nothing concrete to say regarding where the students, staffers, and family who see themselves as a school will be in the future. And the more than 50 people in attendance were warned not to expect any decisions before fall, meaning that another round of families choosing K-5 STEM will be making a leap of faith without knowing where their children might be educated a few years down the line.

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Where will the new K-5 STEM at Boren eventually find a permanent home? While a recent school-board briefing suggested the district is looking at the former EC Hughes Elementary – now home to Westside School, which is seeking to buy its own site in Arbor Heights – the STEM community has its own ideas, and plans to discuss them at their PTSA meeting next Tuesday night (January 15), 7 pm in the Boren cafeteria. The district’s executive director of southwest region schools, Carmela Dellino, will be there, as will West Seattle’s school-board rep Marty McLaren. The STEM PTSA site has more info, here.

Looking for a preschool – or expecting to be in the market for one soon? More than a dozen local preschools are expected to be part of next Monday’s fourth annual West Seattle Preschool Fair, presented by the WS Preschool Association. Its president Renée Metty of The Cove School tells WSB there’s still room to includelocal preschools who aren’t already signed up. Most of those on the list so far are half-day programs, she says, but a few offer before- and after-school care. Tomorrow is the deadline for schools to sign up – e-mail info@westseattlepreschoolassociation.com or call 206-923-2683. As for prospective families – it will be free to attend the fair, and children are welcome, according to Metty. It will be open 5:30 to 7:30 pm on Monday (January 14th) at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church, 3050 California SW (just south of West Seattle High School).

(Math teacher Gary Lai with students; photo courtesy Denny International Middle School)
Classes resume tomorrow at Seattle Public Schools campuses, including Denny International Middle School, whose administration shares this report of another Winter Break Academy in the books:

Wednesday, January 2nd through Friday, January 4th Denny International Middle School held its annual Winter Break Academy. Teachers, students, staff, and volunteers spent three days engaged in skill building work in math and literacy. The camp had 68 Dolphin scholars attend.

Denny teachers and staff showed great teamwork, flexibility, and effort as they worked with our students to practice skills in math, reading, and writing. Students practiced math equations and word problems, assessed their reading skills, analyzed different genres of text, and honed their critical thinking skills.

Denny ended the week with 62 scholars being eligible for the field trip to Skate King for having exceptional attendance during the camp. Students worked hard during the week in order to demonstrate their skill level and growth in math and literacy. Denny would like to thank all staff members, volunteers, Community In Schools, Seattle Parks and Recreation, and volunteers for making this a successful academy for our scholars.

SIDE NOTE: While the just-concluded winter break was two weeks as usual, mid-winter break is different for Seattle Public Schools starting this year: It’s a 4 1/2-day break instead of the previous full week; students will get out three hours early on Thursday, February 14th, be off Friday through Monday, then return on Tuesday, February 19th.