In the Seattle Times:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014623419_mathbook29m.html
Appeals court sides with Seattle schools over math text choice
The Washington State Court of Appeals has reversed an earlier decision in King County Superior Court that found Seattle's choice of a new high-school math series was arbitrary and capricious.
---- be sure and check the comments at the Times.
Here is the Court ruling:
http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/index.cfm?fa=opinions.showOpinion&filename=650360MAJ
Key Markers Relating to Organizational Health
12 years ago
2 comments:
Obviously, those judges never bothered to read the textbooks that Seattle adopted.
The court was unwilling to admit the adoption was a failed process without evidence of criminal intent or malfeasance. Your team could only prove the district staff acted like idiotic cave people.
The textbook publishers colluded together through a monopolistic practice known as market segmentation.
The law is complicated...but the logical outcome leads to a dreadful reality that could become so expensive and unpopular for school districts that politicians will happily abandon it.
My own line of thinking is that poor textbooks are the tip of the iceberg. The prevailing amount of tinkering with classrooms by high brow reformists contributes to failings in student assessment (e.g. low student achievement) and teacher evaluation (e.g. scarcity of qualified teachers).
I see a parallels between this scenario and runaway global warming. How low will student achievement go? Do we just redesign and renormalize tests every five years so no one can object to the process? Who will be attending our schools in a hundred years? Chimpanzees?
Teachers in our district managed to put enough spotlight on our Superintendent, he left in the middle of the night and hasn't been heard of since. We had zero layoffs and approved a one year contract - the furloughs are more bogus speak by inept school leaders. If the district were being managed correctly - and that includes keeping down costs of 'developing' poor curriculum, most districts would not be foundering.
When our sup disappeared last Friday you should have seen the fingerpointing as administrators and teacher 'leaders' turned each other in and/or 'retired' - what a bunch of derelicts.
Signed, Not proud to be college-educated.
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