Recently, the Board approved its District Improvement Plan. With regards to attending to student achievement, it is where the action is in Spring 2008.
See the new gateway to our
group’s web pages on
Perhaps you have heard of the
recent (summer 2007) culmination of a bad year for the leadership of Tacoma
Public Schools. In a nutshell, a new
superintendent in his first year did not work out. Community groups and long-time watchers of
the public schools have said the situation is a disaster that tops any in
memory. For a page of links to news
stories about the situation, go here.
1.
Can the public
get access to data
about achievement rates for different groups of students?
2.
Can we improve
the quality and
quantity of public participation in the leadership of
3.
Does the District
have an implementation
plan for its five goals?
4.
What are the
Board’s critical needs in
its hiring process for a new superintendent?
5.
What is the consensus
about the quality of
leadership in
6.
What constitutes
a conflict of
interest for a member of the School Board?
Visit the Tacoma School Board
site
--Looking for the dates and
agendas of School Board Meetings?
The main Tacoma Schools page has a yellow box, upper right, with recent
items linked. The report of the 11/29
planning meeting is here. Data
presented at that meeting are linked here. --Get Smart Tacoma is a
parallel goal-setting effort. Read its
report |
Our state Superintendent
of Public Instruction website
--Here is the Report
Card site for Tacoma Public Schools --Their study on improved
school district characteristics. --the Washington State
School Directors’ Association describes the job of School Board members
and offers many useful documents. |
Learning from Others
--Check the Washington State
Achievers Program, from the ----A lot of very good
ideas were raised at the Achievement
Gap Summit, and at the Race &
Pedagogy Conference, which took place right here in --(If you have useful suggestions, news stories and so
on, send them here, please.) |
Links to research and
ideas on public schools. ----UW’s Beyond High School
Project has many studies based on --UW School of Education’s Center for Multicultural
Education supports work by James
Banks and others. --ED in ’08 wants the political parties to
emphasize education. --Ever heard of KIPP schools?
Should |
*The material found on these
pages is largely the product of discussions among different groups I have been
fortunate to encounter. One of them is
called “the Conversation.” Another draws people from around the city,
and does not have its own web page. They
are people who have a lot of experience with education, administration, and
politics, and discussions are always interesting. The discussions produce the ideas, and this
page serves to record them.
--Sid Olufs