Horse’s Ass:
A lot of families are awfully anxious as they await [today’s] release of the Seattle School District’s new assignment plan, one which intends to assign the majority of students to their neighborhood schools, with fewer options and less flexibility than we currently enjoy.
Will many of my friends here in SE Seattle, whose children are comfortably on an academic track they thought would guarantee them a slot at Garfield, happily accept an assignment to Rainier Beach? I don’t think so. Likewise, on the even more contentious issue of middle schools, an assignment to Aki Kurose in its present form would be the equivalent of a one-way ticket out of the district.
Criticize me all you want for stating the obvious, but that’s just the way it is. Read more.
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A fascinating study about the achievement gap is “Black American Students in An Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement” by the late UC Berkeley sociologist, John Ogbu.
Prof Ogbu was engaged by parents in Shaker Heights, Ohio to determine why the achievement gap persisted in spite of the school system’s high quality, parental income, and other factors. The results are interesting and it is worth reading his observations, so I won’t spoil it for you.
The Seattle Public Library has a copy.
Just to clarify, students in the APP program will have no changes under the new student assignment plan:
http://www.seattleschools.org/area/newassign/faq_advancelearn.html#al7
This does not, however, forgive the District for forcing parents into APP because there are no other viable options in SE. It’s ridiculous. And the fact that they’re making Cleveland a STEM school is equally ridiculous. What is a STEM school? The Cleveland faculty would like to know as well. They had to accept a program change with no money or help with implementation.
What does that create? A cluster$*&*. It means all of SE will be funneled to Rainier Beach.
So. Not. Ok.
They say if you don’t like the Seattle Schools assignment rules, just wait two or three years because they’ll change completely. This is obviously cold comfort for those whose kids need to be assigned now, but it is even worse for the hopes that the secondary and high schools in our neighborhood will ever measurably improve. It’s a catch-22 of sorts.
The fact is, if higher-achieving kids don’t go to a school, it isn’t going to get the programs/classes that might attract them. They don’t have the money to implement these types of things on speculation.
Unfortunately, and with good reason, nobody wants their kid to be in the group of high-achievers that attracts the higher-quality academics. So around it goes.
Of course, if I-1033 passes, it’ll all go to crap.
I smell white flight coming on……………
White flight from schools in the 98118 has been in effect for over 20 years. Last I checked, Aki had 2 white kids.
Whoever drew the maps needs to get an education for drawing straight lines. The new map shows where one house on the block is designated for a totally different set of schools…
Total inequity…in NW Seattle, they have Ingraham High which has an IB option and made Newsweek ranking for high schools, …so where is our option for SE Seattle???
Let me start out by saying I am a teacher in the Highline school district, a district that mirrors (amplifies one might say) the challenges of diversity and economic disparity that are found in SE Seattle. I am also a parent of two children who lives in the Rainier Valley. Having been on school leadership, design, and finance teams, I know that the cost to implement high achieving programs is minimal and that the ability fall easily within the scope of all current Seattle high schools. What is needed is buy-in from the parents and community within the school’s service area. If parents commit to sending their children to local schools; if parents commit to engaging themselves and their families in school programs; if families and school administrators acknowledge that schools are community centers, not just classrooms; and if teachers are willing to engage with the communities they teach to, issues of inequity will become irrelevant.
Anonymous: our options are Cleveland, Rainier Beach, and Franklin: rather than wishing for a greener side of the hill we should be making ourselves present in our neighborhood schools.
Graham St and laurel: Pushing aside the blatantly racist implications of “white flight’s” effect on education, we should focus instead on local elementary school movements to refuse APP tracking and keep all students within geographical areas so that diversity becomes the common nomenclature for the myriad forms of intelligence rather than a description of our educational challenges. Speaking not as an educator, but as a parent, the I relish the opportunity my children have to excel and grow as leaders in a school not traditionally known for excellence. Quite frankly the APP track and the IB options are easy ways out for our best and brightest students. Looking st the increasing inequity of US society in general, one cannot help but wonder how the elitism of these “options” in early education are contributing not only to our increased achievement gap, but our decreasing viablity as wolrd leader.
PDS: the APP program is the single most discriminatory and detrimental aspect of the Seattle school district (beyond even the fact that until this year students who failed a class didn’t get an F or a zero on their transcript, and that F’s didn’t effect transcripts) and has probably done more harm to more students than even enforced bussing.
Yes, Erik you are right, SE Seattle schools are failing because most of the people who have time to volunteer have their kids in a Catholic/Parochial school or another private school most likely north of Madison. The schools won’t be any better until people come back to them. I also agree regarding the “special” programs for the special kids — these programs though highly desired by parents just take all the most developed kids away from those they might mentor. Students should be mixed so that they can help one another and now the schools are so bad too many people refuse to send their kids to them…. the flight out of our schools has already occurred, but in fact there are whites moving here — even though they are going to send their kids to Bush or Seattle Academy because they cannot afford to buy houses on Queen Anne, in Magnolia or Laurelhurst….
It’s not just “white flight” guys. I have dozens of friends of color in this neighborhood who have fled the public schools (primarily for middle and high school) in the Southend as well. Many families—of all creeds, colors and economic situations—who want a quality education in a safe and nurturing environment look elsewhere. Actually, it was friends of color who first started moving their kids to private schools when my child was in elementary school.
Mr. Weiss…your basic ideas have merit (though I would dispute what you say about the AP and IB Programs—and my child did NOT test in). BUT…my child has one chance to get a good education and to learn the study skills and work ethic needed to succeed in college and life. Middle school and high school careers are short. The three and four years spent in each respectively must be quality years. I can’t afford to have my child languish in a school while I try to somehow “fix” it.
You hit the problem on the head in your first paragraph…buy-in from the parents. I want my child in a school where all of the parents value education and do the VERY HARD JOB of teaching their children to value education as well. That means showing an interest; making sure they do their homework, get to bed at a reasonable hour, eat breakfast, and stay away from drugs/alcohol and crime; attending school functions and teacher conferences; checking “The Source” (or whatever system their school has); volunteering in any way they can; rewarding their child for good grades and finding them help when grades fall.
That’s not something I have a lot of control over. I spent 8 years in a local elementary working my butt off on the PTA to benefit all the kids in the school, but there were many parents who could or would not participate.
Seattle Public Schools has a number of problems, and many are the result of inadequate funding and bad decisions by the administration. But until all parents make the education of their children a priority in their lives, there will be schools that are less successful. Until then, many of us will do whatever we can to make sure our own children get the best education they can.
And Graham St. is right—nobody wants their kid to be the guinea pig in an untried experiment to improve a school. Their education is just too critical. SPS is going to have to figure out a way to improve the schools first before they can expect families to willingly attend.
And Denise…many of the flight families have stayed in PUBLIC schools, but they have chosen the IB programs at Sealth (West Seattle) or Ingram (North), The Center School (Seattle Center), NOVA (Central District), lucked into Garfield (when it was temporarily at Lincoln), or lied about their address to gain access to Garfield.
Many kids who benefitted from the Rainier Scholars Program received hefty scholarships to some of the city’s most prestigious private schools. These are all kids of color who recognized the immense difference in academic environment between the RS Program and their 6th-grade MS experience at schools like Aki and Mercer. Most were eager to switch schools at 7th-grade when the RS Program ends.
I did not refer to it as white flight because I too know lots of families of color have sent their children to private schools. However, when it comes to housing there are whites moving into the valley — it has become more white while the schools have become less white…. probably true of Beacon Hill and other neighborhoods as well.
Oh yes, and certainly the need is to find a better place for the child and if that can be accomplished and stay in public school then of course they are going to be in the gifted programs, app and the like at some school that isn’t in our neighborhood such as the Center School or Garfield to Tops….
Well crap, guess I’m moving to Montlake……
Lets call it educated middle class flight then. With all the dumping of the section 8 housing in this zip code we will never get the required buy in from parents to make the local schools function at a level that middle class south enders expect. I don’t care how you sugar coat it – generational povery is the norm in the section 8 ranks and the ranks are predominantly located in our area. I predict no changes in demographics or enrollment in the south end schools and an increase in enrollment in private schools. I guess that has been happening already. Oh well, it is fun to read the outrage inthe northend though – my god there are some entitled white folk up there.
Probably can’t afford to live in Montlake either, but if you have a friend that does live there then they’ll no doubt let you say that you live there so that you can send your child to a better school. Try it you’ll find there are lots of others doing it too.
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