An Op Ed in the Seattle Times expressed disdain for the wide spread failure of Seattle schools to meet the criteria of “No Child Left Behind.” Seems to me that the author, a Seattle School teacher, is from the school called “blaming the messenger.”
The failures of the Seattle Public Schools are evident in the huge amount of middle class flight. No one who can afford to flee wants to put their kids in the Seattle Pubic Schools.
This is not “white flight,” it is flight of parents who can afford to make choices and do not have the time and energy needed for endless fights with the District.
Among my own UW colleagues, the issue of paying for private schools is assumed to be conflated with any decision to raise kids in the city. Recruits always want to know how they will pay for their kid’s education. Schools like Evergreen, Northwest, Seattle Prep, Bertschi, Hebrew Day, Lakeside, O’Day, Seattle Prep, University Prep are growing while national rankings of our public schools do not include a single Seattle High School as competitive.
The facts are all too obvious if you look at the 100,000 new middle income and above housing units that have gone up in Seattle with NO provisions for schools. Why is this? I think its is because no one thinks the kids being conceived in those homes will attend Seattle Public Schools. This will become even more evident as we pass the universal preschool levy, hopefully attracting young families. Where will those kids go to kindergarten?
Is this an elitist issue? YES! Elitism is very real. Seattle does a super job of training and celebrating African Americans who get into the UW with lousy grades. It does not do the same job for any kid who excels academically. Seattle kids who “make it” in the National Merit Exams (a place Garfield usually excels at along with its athletics programs) get no attention. The problem is as real when it affects a gifted youngster at Rainer Beach as it is for some kid going to Lakeside.
A school that does not fill the needs of its most capable and ambitious students, will fail all its students.
Seattle’s schools have become a charity case.
On Sat, 31 May 2014, Amy Hagopian wrote:
> The Seattle Times
> Education Lab is a yearlong project to spark meaningful conversations about education solutions in the Pacific Northwest.
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> May 29, 2014 at 3:16 PM
> Guest editorial: Waiver loss shines light on absurdity of No Child Left Behind
> Posted by Dan Magill
>
> Dan Magill
>
> I am not bothered about losing our state’s No Child Left Behind waiver. In fact, this may be one of the best things to happen to education in Washington since standardized testing wrapped its shackles around us last decade.
>
> Losing this waiver is good because it finally exposes No Child Left Behind for the utter foolishness that it is.
>
> Here’s the letter I would send to parents if I worked in the state superintendent’s office:
>
> Dear Mr. And Mrs. Colbert:
>
> We must inform you that your child currently attends a school that has been labeled “failing” or “needs improvement” according to the No Child Left Behind Act.
>
> According to the law, you now have the option of switching your child into a school that is not failing. Unfortunately, because 99 percent of schools in the state have received this label, you’ll have to move out of state to find one.
>
> Otherwise, the instant you enroll your child at a new school, we will send another letter, identical to this one (costing us additional postage and printing), informing you that your situation has not changed.
>
> Therefore, we ask you to consider keeping your child enrolled at his/her present school. In the event of any changes to the law, your school’s status may also change at any moment. By next week, it may turn out to be one of the best in the state.
>
> But right now, under current definitions, it is an utter disaster.
>
> Regards,
>
> OSPI
>
> Any system that can result in a 99-percent failure rate reveals only its own failure to properly evaluate and predict what is possible.
>
> Under No Child Left Behind, with its 32 demographic groups that all have to show constant year-over-year growth, if even one group fails, the entire school goes down in flames.
>
> That’s why we see some of the top schools in the area, such as Lincoln High School in Seattle, receiving the “failure” label. If one tiny sub-group, say special-education white students, doesn’t show adequate progress, the entire school is a failure. The 1 percent can bring down the 99 percent in schools, too.
>
> Further, do you know why all the schools are now suddenly considered failures? Because the No Child Left Behind metric they have to meet this year is 100 percent passing.
>
>
> Paul Tong / Op Art
>
> Nothing in the universe works right 100 percent of the time. No district, anywhere, will ever get 100 percent of its students to pass everything, every year. And they have to, because any drop in “growth” gets you back on the NCLB bad list.
>
> This is education reform in its true light. We needed this. We needed to expose this law.
>
> The correct response to losing the waiver is not to force teachers to be evaluated for things that are outside their control, based on ever-shifting standardized tests and unscientific metrics for growth. No, the correct response is to repeal the bad law.
>
> The NCLB penalty isn’t really designed to take the state’s money. It just takes it away from in-school uses, like tutoring, and forces them to spend it on private tutors. By what magic will these private tutors increase student achievement, and can they please share it with the rest of us?
>
> So many parts of this musty law are terrible — I’m glad the state said no to “must.”
>
> –
>
> Dan Magill is a high-school teacher in Seattle Public Schools.
Steve
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