Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Accountability in Seattle .. or NOT

This analysis by Charlie Mas details the SPS failure to follow the Strategic Plan of June 2008.

http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2008/12/accountability.html
Exerpts follow....

The Superintendent talks about accountability - and she talks about it incessantly - as if it were something that we should expect next year or the following year. It's something that she is going to insist upon.

Where is the accountability for the Strategic Plan? All of the Strategic Plan initiatives were supposed to have goals set by now - they don't. They were all supposed to have their benchmarks set by now - they don't. They are all supposed to comply with the Community Engagement Protocol - they don't.

* Where is the aligned math and science curricula?
* The High School math curriculum was supposed to be adopted in fall of 2008. It wasn't. Who is accountable for the delay and who is holding that person accountable?

* The High School science curriculum was supposed to be adopted in the fall of 2008. It wasn't. Who is accountable for the delay and who is holding that person accountable?
* Alignment of the elementary and middle school instructional materials to the new State Performance Expectations was supposed to be completed during the summer of 2008. Was it?
* Every math teacher was to be provided with up to four days of professional development to learn to use the online resources included with the Curriculum Guide. Were they? Every math teacher was supposed to get training on the new state standards including math content and materials. Did this happen?

* Were new principals matched with a coach and are they getting monthly support meetings?
* The math and science curriculum alignment team was supposed to have the full scope of their work outlined and timelined by fall 2008. Where is it?
* Expanded professional development programs were supposed to be implemented in the fall of 2008. Were they?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

WHOA Dan Boy!

Be careful what you wish for!

4 days of training for math teachers ... and if it is the same old same old worthless training, all that will be accomplished is that the district will have another angle on horrible student performance to blame us math teachers with!

I suppose they'd blame the lack of new math curriculum on fine tuning with the strategic plan, blah blah blah ...

yawn.

dan dempsey said...

I agree ...

I just point out that these folks put forth a plan and then ignore it.

There is no plan .... only chaos.