Seattle schools end gifted and talented program

[Anonymous]

Because they know that those who are gifted are smart enough to leave Seattle. Equity education will only need to enclaves of the mediocre or worse. Happening in cities across the US. Wonder what the common denominator is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe that society is much better off when schools support struggling kids and those with special needs.
The gifted kids will do well in most cases regardless. The only time that they absolutely need differentiation is by age 14

Unfortunately, there isn’t really a silver bullet to help struggling kids. So many ideas have been tried and a staggering amount of money has been spent chasing this effort. Nothing’s been proven to work outside of phonics and FARMs. Even universal pre k has had mixed results. It’s just really hard to overcome a bad set of parents or a bad home life. The student has to be unusually motivated.

In the meantime we drive away academically focused families by throwing them under the bus. “They’ll be fine anyway” is terrible policy. Parents who care about education don’t want to see their children unchallenged and bored.

That doesn’t mean we should ignore struggling kids, but we need to come to terms with the limits of what schools can accomplish. We shouldn’t be so hyper focused on struggling kids that we ignore everyone and everything else.

[Anonymous]

This type of thing will really be the final nail in the coffin for public education. They think they can get away with it because people don’t have other options, but they do. Especially those families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In 2021, NYC’s then mayor initiated a phase-out of all the city’s gifted and talented programs, for racial equity reasons:

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-schools-to-eliminate-controversial-gifted-talented-classes/3313300/

Massachusetts doesn’t have gifted and talented programs and their public schools always beat every other state in terms of test scores.

And why is a two year old reciting the Gettysburg Address and how does that make the child gifted? My three year old niece could read anything without missing a word and she wasn’t gifted, just a good reader who started a few years earlier than most. Everyone caught up with her.

Massachusetts doesn’t need gifted and talented because it is a state that openly celebrates formal education. Easy to recruit teachers when there is a college on every corner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In 2021, NYC’s then mayor initiated a phase-out of all the city’s gifted and talented programs, for racial equity reasons:

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-schools-to-eliminate-controversial-gifted-talented-classes/3313300/

Massachusetts doesn’t have gifted and talented programs and their public schools always beat every other state in terms of test scores.

And why is a two year old reciting the Gettysburg Address and how does that make the child gifted? My three year old niece could read anything without missing a word and she wasn’t gifted, just a good reader who started a few years earlier than most. Everyone caught up with her.

Massachusetts doesn’t need gifted and talented because it is a state that openly celebrates formal education. Easy to recruit teachers when there is a college on every corner.

Easy to recruit teachers when you pay them well and fund public schools well.

Washington doesn’t have a state tax and has low property taxes (even in the nicest districts) compared to areas on the east coast, even when you control for real estate prices and socioeconomic factors. Schools are not well-funded and families are not well-supported compared to other states.

[Anonymous]

GT in elementary isn’t the end all be all, but there’s no evidence that removing GT programs does anything to help anyone.

Detracking in general doesn’t seem to work. San Francisco tried detracking in 2015 and by 2019 there was some evidence that the achievement gap actually widened.

[Anonymous]

Won’t the Eastside schools simply follow suit and implement similar policies as SPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Won’t the Eastside schools simply follow suit and implement similar policies as SPS?

They have their own problems. Bellevue needs to and will close schools but they’ve retreated after unexpected pushback by gifted and less wealthy communities of color (Odle, Phantom Lake, etc.). They’re going to have to take action soon but I think they see an opportunity to benefit from SPS’s mistakes and/or quietly slide big changes in when things get messy in Seattle. Other neighboring districts such as Shoreline are cutting extracurriculars and electives and will have more drama soon enough.

Even wealthy school districts like Mercer Island have a tough road ahead- they have a resident population that is increasingly >65, equity rich and aging in place. They need major rebuilds for some of their schools and their HS graduating class size will drop by 25% this decade.

[Anonymous]

Bush head of school Percy Abrams just announced he's leaving the school. He was a great HOS. I fully expect a weak social justice hire to replace him, like we have seen for Lakeside and SCDS. When the private schools are the same watered down product as public schools, you really start to have no options.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, there isn’t really a silver bullet to help struggling kids.

It's not a silver bullet, but the most effective thing is more adults with the right training. But lots of highly trained humans costs money, and few taxpayers want to pay more.

And given how school boards and administrators often spend money, it's understandable.

[Anonymous]

Dumbing down of America. Again.

Learn Chinese, people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bush head of school Percy Abrams just announced he's leaving the school. He was a great HOS. I fully expect a weak social justice hire to replace him, like we have seen for Lakeside and SCDS. When the private schools are the same watered down product as public schools, you really start to have no options.

Bush, Lakeside and SCDS will never have a shortage of parents willing to pay for perceived prestige, especially among old-Seattle types trying to replicate their privilege and new money tech families eager to get a foothold in that universe.

But Percy Abrams leaving is the end of an era and will definitely hobble Bush. The HOS pipeline isn’t very robust. It’s the same people playing musical chairs across the country. There’s an entire generation that bided their time associate or assistant heads and never got their chance, and hiring committees are now drawn to younger leaders without complicated histories but who turn out to be inexperienced leaders.

It’s not even “social justice hires”- it’s just that a lot of candidates don’t have the sophistication or experience to run complex organizations. An inexperienced administration puts huge demands on Boards of Trustees and they’re burnt out and aging out, too. Meanwhile parents expect everything, especially parents new to private schools.

Anyway, in short: I agree. Private school parents feel like they’re not getting their money’s worth but don’t know what else to do, and public schools are doing their best to become a non-option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bush head of school Percy Abrams just announced he's leaving the school. He was a great HOS. I fully expect a weak social justice hire to replace him, like we have seen for Lakeside and SCDS. When the private schools are the same watered down product as public schools, you really start to have no options.

Bush, Lakeside and SCDS will never have a shortage of parents willing to pay for perceived prestige, especially among old-Seattle types trying to replicate their privilege and new money tech families eager to get a foothold in that universe.

But Percy Abrams leaving is the end of an era and will definitely hobble Bush. The HOS pipeline isn’t very robust. It’s the same people playing musical chairs across the country. There’s an entire generation that bided their time associate or assistant heads and never got their chance, and hiring committees are now drawn to younger leaders without complicated histories but who turn out to be inexperienced leaders.

It’s not even “social justice hires”- it’s just that a lot of candidates don’t have the sophistication or experience to run complex organizations. An inexperienced administration puts huge demands on Boards of Trustees and they’re burnt out and aging out, too. Meanwhile parents expect everything, especially parents new to private schools.

Anyway, in short: I agree. Private school parents feel like they’re not getting their money’s worth but don’t know what else to do, and public schools are doing their best to become a non-option.

Agree. For Bush the pressure is even greater since it's a high school. There are few HOS in the market with the connections that Abrams had.

[Anonymous]

Fairfax is following Seattle and NYC’s example in dismantling G&T programs, but they are doing it in a far quieter way.

The latest example is FCPS expanding their pilot of the “Equity Cubed” or “E3” math curriculum to all FCPS AAP classes.

On this pathway, AAP will eventually merge with general education in FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This type of thing will really be the final nail in the coffin for public education. They think they can get away with it because people don’t have other options, but they do. Especially those families.

Seems like the next decade will create many middle and lower class voters who will want to vote for school vouchers.