Private firm gets failing grade

By Jesse | Published: March 10, 2009

By Jesse Hagopian and Vicky Jambor
Special to The Seattle Times
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POP quiz: (We hope you’ve been paying attention because this is a high-stakes test; wrong answers may lead to the dismantling of our schools.)

What is ailing public education in America?

  1. Chronic underfunding of public education;
  2. Diversion of public monies away from the public schools in the form of vouchers and charter schools;
  3. Blaming teachers for problems in education that stem from underfunding and oversized classes;
  4. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which promotes charter schools and overvalued tests that punish underfunded school districts;
  5. All of the above.


    6. Read More »

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On the Eve of School Superintendent Evaluation, ESP Vision opposes Pay Raise for Superintendent During Fiscal Crisis

By Jesse | Published: March 10, 2009

Parent and teacher group also asks Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson to return last year’s 10 percent pay increase in a show of solidarity with district children and teachers whose schools are being closed or jobs lost through SPS budget measures
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SEATTLE – On Weds. March 11, the Seattle School Board will meet in an executive session to conduct an evaluation of School Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson (http://www.seattleschools.org/area/board/calendar.dxml?month=3&day=11&year=2009&caldb=).

ESP Vision (Educators, Students and Parents for a Better Vision of the Seattle Schools) urges the school board to refrain from offering the superintendent another pay raise during this time of local and national fiscal crisis.

ESP Vision believes it would be fiscally irresponsible and ethically inappropriate for the school board to award the superintendent a second pay increase in less than 12 months, and after less than two years on the job, with few tangible results to show for her work.
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The Dog Eats Its Tail: Oversized Classes, Overpopulated Prisons

By Jesse | Published: March 7, 2009

Common Dreams (3/7/09) – by Jesse D. Hagopian
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/07-2
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One in thirty-one.

As a public school teacher I am quite familiar with this figure—it’s a typical teacher to student ratio in the classroom. But now that proportion has taken on new significance: A report released on March 2nd by the Pew Center on the States found that one in every thirty-one adults reside in the US corrections system—now totaling some 7.3 million people.

That means roughly one student per classroom in America will end up in prison, on parole, or on probation.

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Madness to their Method?

By Shawn | Published: March 2, 2009

Madness to their Method? – by Sue Peters
Originally published at http://eatthestate.org/13-10/Madnesstotheir.htm

The day before the Thanksgiving break, my son came home with a letter from his school. It announced that the school district was going to close his school, cut his program in half and move it to two other schools, and scatter the school’s special ed kids across the district.

Turns out we were just one of hundreds of Seattle families tossed this bit of gristle from the school district on the eve of the holidays. The new School Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson’s “Preliminary Proposal” to solve the district’s latest budget crisis consisted of closing seven buildings, moving or dissolving 14 programs, and shuffling around as many as 4,000 kids, all in the name of “capacity management” and “Excellence for All,” to save just $3.6 million from a $24-37 million shortfall.
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Don’t hang a closed sign on Seattle Public Schools

By Jesse | Published: February 27, 2009

Special to The Seattle Times – by Jesse D. Hagopian and Andre Helmstetter
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008722355_opinb09hagopian.html

Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson and five School Board members have enrolled the city’s schools in a course titled “Closing Schools for Excellence.”

We have been instructed that the closures of five schools and disruption or discontinuation of eight additional programs are fiscally responsible. We are told the decision will lead to better academic outcomes by eliminating empty seats and concentrating educational resources.

However, the instructors of this course didn’t analyze their lesson objectives and have produced a curriculum that will fail our students. To align the district’s course for our schools with best teaching practices, we call on the district to enroll in “A Better Vision of the Seattle Schools,” encapsulated by three remedial classes:
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