School Board letter Jan 5

Dear Seattle School Director, 1-5-2010

The impact of the Discovery/Inquiry math agenda pushed over the last decade by OSPI has been extremely destructive for educationally disadvantaged learners throughout the state. This is particularly true in Seattle where the definition of how math is learned on their website advocates for exploration and inquiry.

Mathematics is the language and science of patterns and connections. Learning and doing mathematics are active processes in which students construct meaning through exploration and inquiry of challenging problems.

The result of our state's defective leadership are evident in a myriad of places. The recent posting of a math skills test given at the University of WA in Atmospheric sciences 101 found large numbers of students deficient in k-8 math skills as over 40% of students could NOT divide 231 by 7.

For the Wednesday board meeting
on the agenda at:
http://www.seattleschools.org/area/board/agenda.htm

in the .pdf for agenda 1-06-2010
will be found under action items:


2. Approval of a contract with A+ Advantage Point
Learning for Supplemental Education Services – Approval
of this item will award a contract for A+ Advantage Point Learning in the
amount of $320,978.00 for supplemental education services. (action)

The linked .pdf on this item contains the following:

============================================


BEST PRACTICES
Comply with the SES provisions of• NCLB federal legislation.
Provide supplemental services for eligible students in reading and math.•

RESEARCH AND DATA SOURCES
• Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) data.
No Child• Left Behind (NCLB) legislation.
OSPI’s SES program guidance.•
• Seattle Public Schools (SPS) data identifying eligible schools and students.

POLICY IMPLICATION FISCAL IMPACT/REVENUE SOURCE

School Board approval is necessary in order
to comply with NCLB legislation.

Funds come entirely from our Title I, Part A/Basic
federal grant; no local dollars are used. Seattle’s
2009/10 total grant is $14,079,640, of which no less
than 20% ($2,815,928) must be set aside for SES
and PSC.

X Annual Expenditure:


The School Improvement Department (SI) advertised SES free tutoring at all 13 eligible schools via:


============================================


There you have it.....

The school improvement department is a total joke.

Instead of improving schools (of which there are around 100)
supplemental services are provided to certain students at 13 schools
because the law requires it.

If you are a student in any school in Seattle you get the pathetic district adopted k-12 vertically aligned math program. Over 80 of these schools are not mandated to provide SES funding.

At grade 4 the achievement gaps expanded over the two years since Everyday Math was adopted. (Black, Hispanic, Native American, Low Income, Asian, Limited English)

+++++++
========
Black students WASL pass rates

10th Grade Math
Year State Seattle
2004-05 20.40% 12.90%
2005-06 23.20% 21.70%
2006-07 22.50% 19.60%
2007-08 22.20% 16.00%
2008-09 20.90% 16.30%

7th Grade Math
Year State Seattle
1997-98 4.90% 2.30%
1998-99 6.80% 4.70%
1999-00 8.70% 6.30%
2000-01 7.80% 5.10%
2001-02 10.30% 6.80%
2002-03 14.10% 7.30%
2003-04 21.40% 15.00%
2004-05 25.40% 17.40%
2005-06 24.50% 17.70%
2006-07 30.10% 24.10%
2007-08 28.00% 24.20%
2008-09 28.20% 23.10%

4th Grade Math
Year State Seattle
1997-98 13.00% 14.20%
1998-99 15.30% 12.00%
1999-00 18.70% 17.20%
2000-01 19.50% 15.00%
2001-02 28.60% 22.30%
2002-03 35.50% 31.10%
2003-04 37.50% 36.40%
2004-05 37.70% 33.10%
2005-06 36.40% 31.30%
2006-07 35.10% 32.00%
2007-08 31.30% 27.60%
2008-0930.20% 29.10%

percentage of Black students scoring at level 1
over the last 4 years

Grade 4 WASL level 1
Year State Seattle
2006 35.50% 41.90%
2007 39.00% 41.80%
2008 40.80% 44.40%
2009 41.80% 48.10%

Grade 7 WASL level 1
year state Seattle
2006 51.70% 59.60%
2007 46.80% 52.60%
2008 49.00% 54.20%
2009 51.80% 59.40%

Grade 10 WASL level 1 + no scores
year state seattle
2006 51.10% 50.40%
2007 55.60% 63.10%
2008 60.70% 70.40%
2009 63.90% 68.50%

Black students at Cleveland scoring at level 1 + no scores
2006 59.50%
2007 74.60%
2008 83.40%
2009 74.70%


Please keep in mind that prior to 2006 all second year HS students in Seattle took the grade 10 math WASL.
In 2006 and onward only students with sophomore credits could take the WASL and be counted as 10th graders in the report.

Thus the extremely high percentages of HS students scoring at level 1 + no scores
are for Black students with sophomore credits in Seattle High Schools.

=====================
The School Board has done nothing to change this situation except give the Central Administration the green light to keep going with this incredible failure.

It will be interesting to see if Judge Spector finds Seattle's actions to be in compliance with article IX of the State Constitution on Monday Jan 11..

The PSAT scores for October of 2008 are still unavailable from Central Admin.
Do you care?

Sincerely,

Danaher M. Dempsey, Jr.