How to Flush $800,000 Seattle Style (a primer)

How to ignorantly flush $800,000 just in case you ever have the opportunity and are wondering how.

Do NOT miss the guidance provided by my Investigative Reporting Rant on Seattle STEM.....

The full enchilada is
available HERE at comments 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

The summarized version follows
beginning at comment #5

It seems like we are trapped in some kind of Chain letter pyramid Ponzi scheme and it is important for everyone to believe that inquiry in small problem centered groups is really effective. Unfortunately this is NOT working but Math Program Director Anna Maria and MG-J think it is all the fault of the teachers and that performance management will cure the math malaise.

NEWS Flash for them. Research shows the foundational structure of your math learning approach is highly flawed and only the really ignorant would be pursuing this agenda after this much data reveals you are full of baloney.
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It gets much better thanks to Pancho's research:
comments 8&9

So let me get this clear....

A subsidiary of KW, NTN takes in lots of money ... the schools use an ineffective method for teaching mathematics, which produces crappy results. In Holland, Michigan $350,000 of the money comes from grants and donations. No one has any idea how much of the money winds up in the KW directors' pockets.

Few if any of these NTN folks have any STEM background. The NTN president Monica Martinez, an acquaintance of MGJ, has a degree in Sociology and many of the KW heavy weights are lawyers.

Yet the Seattle Central Administration will not answer any questions but assures us that all 41 NTN schools are successful, despite a profusion of evidence easily available on the web to the contrary.

CAO Enfield tells us that "Calculus" will be a requirement at Cleveland STEM. The principal, Princess Shareef tells us that Cleveland will be serving many students of Cleveland's current demographic.

MGJ tells us that the school will eventually enroll 1000 students with 250 at each grade. Even though data shows most NTN schools find the 11th grade class is only 65% of the size of the 9th grade class and rarely is any NTN school larger than 400.

Neither MGJ or Secondary Director Michael Tolley can answer as to whether the NTN Show horse school that Directors Sundquist and Martin-Morris and CAO Enfield visited costs more to operate than other Sacramento High Schools.

{You must be kidding me... the SPS spends 9% of budget on Central Administration almost $1000 per student and these folks cannot answer an obvious question when they propose spending $800,000 in a week. ... This is Insanity and most folks believe the School Board will approve this spending proposal by a 4-3 vote with only DeBell, Patu, and Smith-Blum dissenting.


Hey I have a great Idea perhaps Director Sundquist can propose that the SPS buy the Brooklyn Bridge from me for $800,000. I think that will produce at least as much academic advancement in Mathematics as the MGJ proposal. I mean really why not throw the money at me?

Does no one realize the "M" in STEM stands for Mathematics?

With the speed that TEAM MGJ throws this nonsense down the proposal for action pipe hardly anyone has the time to thoroughly research anything. I give my chance of a Brooklyn Bridge sale about a 50% chance. Steve I'll cut you in for 10% of what I make on this bridge deal. Think of it as a commission.

Wanna bet $200 bucks on whether the Cow can jump over the moon?

The school superintendent is making well over $250,000 per year and this passes for leadership.

By God we need to be electing the Superintendent because our apparently mindless board will rubber-stamp anything.

Oh Kay Smith-Blum please save us now.
Someone must direct the Superintendent.

Great leadership under MGJ.
Adopt an "unsound Math series" for high school.
Ignore achievement gaps that expanded in Math with the Everyday Math adoption for Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, American Indians, Low Income and English Language Learners. WOW 6 for 6 ... I think that is a double hat-trick.

By ignore I mean they spent over another $300,000 for consumables instead of switching to a real math program Singapore Math. You know the one written in English for students in a nation where over 50% of the students come from non-English speaking homes. The one that has led the world in 4th grade math scores. {Oh crap, what am I thinking that is using data of past performance and we do not do that in Seattle School math adoption decisions - using proven successful materials and practices is not allowed}


Instead we rip out tens of thousands of dollars of recent construction to build an over 1500 student 6th - 12th school, Denny/Sealth. This is such a great idea that Seattle is building the only one of these on the West Coast in at least the last 20 years.

Our kids are trapped in a School District operated by a highly paid, highly incompetent Central Office and with only a spineless school board for protection.

God help us all because we sure need it.