November definitely a time for a change

The more I read from pro-challenger and pro-incumbent blog posters and commentators, the more I am convinced things cannot change. No one yet made any predictions. I won't name names but here's my prediction action plan: Look for a frickin' job that can cover private school or moving expenses to Shoreline, Bellingham, or a small city in BC. # of Seattle School Board seats up for re-election: four two will be replaced with vote spreads over 5% one race will take days to certify, and a lead will erode by 3% one will be a major disappointment It just takes one or two new faces on the Board (probably two) to make a change. I want all of them in, but for that to happen 52% of the Seattle citizens filling out ballots for School Board directors have to agree with me. if all four incumbents get back in I am leaving SPS. Maybe even the city. If three incumbents get in I am homeschooling People have had umpteen opportunities to give reasons for supporting the incumbents beyond "they're my friends" and "they have experience." When he was interim King County Executive the Seattle Times endorsed the no-experience candidate Susan Hutchinson. Yet four people, three with corporate management experience, show few signs of understanding or performing their duties as elected officials and they're endorsed because they have experience. Others' rationales are "I don't have to explain why I am voting for them." Isn't that convincing? My son has a right to a decent public education. I may have to spend a lot of money I don't have to either spruce up the house to sell it, or to put him in private school, or to buy a car to drive him to another school district. Systemic and managerial failure account for the ills plaguing our school district. I don't see how privatizing public education will help, but I obviously don't think like an American.

Useful educational websites

I am indebted for reasons public and private to the Save Seattle Schools blog for cluing this Seattle Public Schools parent into resources and portals for building on my child's skills and education. This post from Seattle Schools' Information Technology in the Classroom blog shares some online links for math facts practice: http://it.seattleschools.org/blog/2008/04/learning-math-facts/ http://www.aaamath.com/index.html The child also likes Subtangent and IXL I am digging Khan Academy for its wide range of subjects and their levels of mastery. Also, in a selection of most-commonly understood languages among the Seattle Schools community, grade-appropriate toolkits for families to use in their responsible participation of helping their children achieve core common standards and passable proficiency in Reading and other subjects.

Loading up on education for the next school year

Testing the new blogger.com interface. I borrowed three education-related books: Math Coach, Winning the Math Wars and School Reform. Math adoption is important to me. Although my son has done fine in math, he is in a minority of third-graders who met the Measurement of Student Progress standards. I don't blame the teachers, nor the students: I blame the curriculum. It is Everyday Math and it did not serve my son's class. Out of 31 third-graders, fifteen passed (how many of these were in the Advanced Learning Opportunities group), sixteen did not meet standards, and of the failing sixteen, ten performed miserably. How many of those ten are English Language Learners, or economically disadvantaged? School Reform is an Opposing Viewpoints® Series book. It's meant for a young adult audience but it was the simplest and most straight-forward pros & cons offering about school reform. Winning the Math Wars I don't know much about yet, except the back jacket states "The authors focus on four principles for improving math teaching and learning: fidelity to reform efforts by all involved; an emphasis on instruction and instructional tools; the critical nature of mathematical knowledge; and the need for transformational change." So maybe it is pro-reform. I will read it anyway to learn. I don't yet know why "fuzzy math" is needed. I don't like the term "fuzzy" applied to academics, and particularly not to mathematics. It makes me think of derivatives, collateralized mortgage obligation securities, credit default swaps and other fuzzy financial math crapstunts that Enron and mortgage bankers liked to pull. In America, entrepreneurs push to have an education reform that results in bigger profits for them. Their ideas of reform are not about improving education to make American students globally competitive.