Today's Seattle Times describes a program in the Seattle public schools which seems to have some success in teaching English to non-native English speakers. Good.
A companion article describes an even more successful program in Federal Way.
Federal Way appears to have more success on the WASL than Seattle with English-language learners, despite spending half as much per pupil.I'm not surprised that spending more money doesn't necessarily lead to better outcomes. But I'm sure there are others who will argue that we're just not spending enough. Oh, wait. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at January 03, 2006 10:02 AM | Email This
I think in Seattle, too many people are giving the immigrants an excuse not to learn English, and so they don't learn. It just goes to show that you get what you expect.
Posted by: Jonathan Gardner on January 3, 2006 11:23 AM· They (students) are entitled to learn in multicultural context.
That a fundamental shift from a euro-centric to a culturally inclusive curriculum and pedagogy is necessary and required.
We support use of multiple measures in assessing student achievements. Assessments must be non-biased. That SEA supports use of multiple measures in assessing student achievements. (Not the WASL as the indicator of mastery. Assessment of learning requires measures that are broader and deeper than a single test.)
The above can be easily construed to include teaching in multiple languages, and the inclusion of "feel good" standards where a student receives a gold star because they "tried". So much for standards.
Posted by: Miles on January 3, 2006 01:15 PMIn as much as by 5:57 ST staff was cognizant of the
fact that there was a problem with the tracks being
blocked at Sumner, there was an obligation on the part
of ST to relay this to riders who were sitting on the
second Sounder train that had not yet left the Tacoma
station and would not leave the Tacoma station until
6:20. This would have allowed riders the option of
de-boarding and either driving or taking the bus.
Being as ST did not bother to relay information
regarding this situation to riders and allow them the
opportunity to utilize alternate transportation to get
to their destination, ST bears responsibility for
everyone’s loss.
--- John Ladenburg wrote:
> Sounder Trains run on time 98% of the time. Driving
> the Freeway is like
> lotto, you never win. I apologize if it appears
> that the second train
> should not have left the station, but often times
> the decision on
> whether we can continue to use the tracks is made by
> the fire
> department, not us. Further, we have little control
> over the place
> where fires start. If they have not told us that
> the tracks are not to
> be used, then the train must leave on time. This
> being the case, I
> don't see any negligence here. Now, when you drive
> the freeway and some
> idiot up ahead creates an accident and stops all
> traffic, have you been
> successful in getting your wages back from him? If
> not, I suspect you
> face the same here. On behalf of Sound Transit, I
> deny your claim.
>
> John W. Ladenburg
> Pierce County Executive
> 930 Tacoma Ave S.
> Tacoma, WA 98402
> 253-798-6602
>
> >>> Jxxx Hxxx 12/30/2005
> 8:43 AM >>>
> I am contacting you in your capacity as the person
> in
> charge of Sound Transit.
>
> This morning December 30, 2005 I boarded the Sounder
> in Tacoma at approximately 6:10 and sat and read my
> paper until 6:20 when the train pulled out of the
> Tacoma station on time. Within minutes of the train
> leaving Tacoma Station the conductor's voice came
> over
> the loudspeaker system announcing that the tracks
> were
> blocked due to a fire in Sumner and that the train
> would be delayed for an unknown period of time.
> Sound
> Transit knew of this situation by 5:57, my coworker
> who boards the first sounder in Puyallup was
> informed
> of the situation and to expect a delay of
> undetermined
> length, possibly hours.
>
> Had I been informed of this situation prior to the
> second Sounder leaving the Tacoma station I would
> have
> simply gotten off the train and driven to work in
> Renton. I was not given this option and therefore
> will
> suffer a loss of two hours wages. Either I will have
> to use some of my vacation or comp time or will have
> to make the time up.
>
> My base pay rate is $28.32 however since my comp
> time
> and other time in excess of forty hours per week
> rate
> is 1.5 times my base rate I am making a claim for
> two
> hours time at $42.48 per hour. Please remit a check
> in
> the amount of $84.96 made payable to Jxxx D Hxxx to
> reimburse me for my time loss due to Sound Transit's
> incompetence in this matter.
>
> I have contacted Sound Transit Customer Service at
> the
> toll free number on the card the conductor gave me
> prior to forwarding this request to you After being
> repeatedly transferred from one person to another
> who
> said that they were not responsible for handling
> this
> and did not know who was, decided that it would be
> best to send the claim directly to you and let you
> decide who is responsible for handling it.
>
> Jxxx D. Hxxx
> xxxx N xxth St
> Tacoma WA 98xxx
Unless you are a progressive, you realize that the first priority should not be diversity training, but basic reading, writing, math, history, etc.
Liberals here are far more concerned with programming their future voters than teaching kids core proficiencies.
Posted by: Jeff B. on January 3, 2006 03:29 PMThe sad thing about SPS is that the schools, overall, are pretty good. You can ask most parents and they like their kid's school. It's the management, the direction of SPS that is sorely lacking (and has been for a decade or more). I think my children are getting a very good education in SPS and there's a lot less of the "diversity" and "multi-culturism" than I hear being whined about here. But folks, black history shouldn't just be relegated to one month (the shortest one to boot) a year nor the history of Native Americans (especially since we live right in an area with many tribes). Black history and native American history IS American history.
Of course reading and writing and math are the key elements especially in the primary grades. It sounds like Federal Way is doing well by ALL its students, not just the bilingual speakers. I actually just sent a link to an article (gasp! in the NYTimes) about a district in New Jersey that is closing the achievement gap using some of the techniques mentioned in the article. (The article notes early and often intervention in children not meeting reading and math goals as well as study groups for African-American students who, unlike many Asian students, don't study in groups.)
Posted by: westello on January 3, 2006 04:52 PMThe more important question...do they pay for it?
I don't recognize the logic here...if I were so concerned about SPS that I was speaking up about it, why would I send my children there?
Like I said, most of the SPS schools are good and we are lucky to have many fine teachers and administrators. But until the state education system quits focusing on one test and SPS leaders quit trying to go in all directions, it won't get much better.
Posted by: westello on January 4, 2006 09:41 AMIn times past, those who achieved proficiency in mathematics, science, history or literature and appreciated these subjects for their intrinsic merits became teachers. They were passionate about passing the rich possibilities of such mastery on to others. Some very few teachers today are like this, but they are frustrated by an “educational system” whose exclusive agenda is self containment.
The unionization of the teaching profession has largely ruined education. The liberal teaching profession made up of education professionals from colleges and universities has largely substituted substance for ideology and social indoctrination. Most of these “education majors” pursued the course of study because it specifically avoids rigorous scholarship in favor of course materials in the “soft” social sciences. In short, it’s easy.
In turn, prototypal teachers are coaching school children that there is no such thing as right and wrong and everything is relative; an emergent form of nihilism and hedonism that destroys self discipline and initiative, and creates the mentalities that we see exhibited here from the left. Values, right and wrong, and ideology used to be subject matters for families and churches. Today, liberal teachers presume to “raise” them—and having seized education for their own purposes—they also seize the hearts and minds of school children dumbing them down to pliable mediocrity.
The product of all of this is a faction of people who don't care in the least about democracy because they don’t really understand what it is. All they care about is maintaining partisan liberal power (a government teat) through the democrat party. The fundamentals of logic, reasoning ability, basic writing skills and communications—a summary skill set for self reliance—are all subordinate to the nascent liberal status quo. Worse, history is taught with enforced emphasis on anti-Americanism, especially anti-male, anti-anglo, and anti-semitic emphasis. Few people have a basic grasp of our American heritage. Every value that could be considered traditional is flouted and replaced with secular humanist relativism.
Actually this has been going on for several decades in a “progressively” incremental fashion only recently becoming more brazen as liberal progressives seize more and more power. Many strong willed children see through this cloud of nonsense, and many more don’t. If you ever wonder why all of the trolls are vicious, hate filled, petty and illiterate, imagine the limitations they live with as true believers in their utterly empty liberal ideology. Imagine following the leadership of Teddy Kennedy, John Kerry, or Al Gore among the many morons in their leadership. Most importantly, imagine being intellectually incapable of making a rational argument or pursuing an unswerving debate in pursuit of honest truth based on honest facts . . . think about it. This is why.
Here's to those few beleagured conservative teachers that are doing the best they can to teach fundamentals and equip children for life in the real world. The rest of them should go find a job somewhere and leave the young kids alone.
Thanks for your observations Jeff B.
Your post introduced some interesting concepts I hadn't considered before. You don't trust the Bush administration to do the right thing by American children, correct? It sounds like you are calling for the abolishment of the Department of Education. Am I hearing you correctly? Are the other liberals on board with this plan? You and conservatives might have common cause after all.
Also, you talk about public schools being the great equalizer. This is less true all the time. If you would read and try to understand what is being said on Sound Politics and elsewhere, victims of public education are becoming progressively less qualified to compete in the real world, and the children of the affluent are being sent to private schools in ever increasing numbers. If you focus solely on equal results, and fail to focus on superior results, you will lose the rich, and you will lose the leveling effect of public education. Can you see that?
Posted by: huckleberry on January 4, 2006 10:58 AM10. "After all these years, I'm sorry to say my recommendation is this: Forget about self-esteem and concentrate more on self-control and self-discipline."
-- Roy F. Baumeister, professor in the department of psychology at Florida State University. (January 25 Los Angeles Times)
9. "When the students don't learn, the school must change."
-- Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, addressing the National Governors Association. (February 27 Los Angeles Times)
8. "If the United States is to preserve our system of free public schools, teacher unions are going to have to stop accepting the status quo and making excuses for the poor performance of our students."
-- Morty Rosenfeld, member of the NEA New York board of directors. (October 17 Teacher Talk)
7. "Kids do not do better learning math themselves. There's a reason we go to school, which is that there's someone smarter than us with something to teach us."
-- High school student Jim Munch, relating his battle against his school's constructivist math program. (November 9 New York Times)
6. "It was negotiated by the MEA [Maine Education Association] and governor's office over the last four months. We're all just learning about it."
-- Maine State Senator Libby Mitchell (D-Kennebec), chairwoman of the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee, reacting to Gov. John Baldacci's plan to reduce graduation standards and pay $17 million to teachers working on the state's assessment program. (April 7 Lincoln County News)
5. "We might rank in the top half in some areas, but we're not in the top of the top half."
-- Nancy Henderson, president of the Jefferson County Education Association (Colorado), expressing distress over teacher salaries in her district. (March 31 Canyon Courier)
4. "Please sign your letters as an individual or representative of a community group, not as a member of GAE."
-- Jonathan Goldman, director of communications and marketing for the Georgia Association of Educators, advising GAE members on how to respond to a column by Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Jim Wooten on a bill to provide state-funded liability insurance to teachers. GAE was opposed to the bill.
3. "There are better ways for me to spend my hours than to deal with an employee who files constant grievances and objects to basic rules."
-- American Federation of Teachers Local 212 Executive Vice President Charlie Dee, on a lawsuit filed against his union by employee Mary Tews. Local 212 fired Tews in 2003, was ordered by an arbitrator to rehire her with back pay, then, Tews alleges, cut her pay and hours and tried to force her out. (May 25 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
2. "While building efficiencies of scale might fit a sound business model, it is the antithesis of sound educational practice."
-- Hawaii State Teachers Association Vice President Joan Lewis. (November 1 Honolulu Advertiser)
1. "All we want to do is learn. We can't learn if we don't got teachers."
-- Raquel Brito, one of an estimated 900 students who walked out of class in the East Side Union High School District in San Jose, California, to protest layoff notices sent to district teachers. (March 23 San Jose Mercury News)
And a special honorable mention to...
"I'm allergic to onions and I wouldn't walk under an onion bridge."
-- An NEA delegate debating New Business Item 91 at the union's Representative Assembly on July 6.
Posted by: JDH on January 4, 2006 03:39 PM