Last week was Civics Week at South Seattle Community College, a week that encourages students at the school to participate both in on-campus government and the larger political arena. On Friday, students got extra inspiration at a rally with a visit from Sen. Patty Murray. The four-term senator was there to talk about the imminent Stafford loan rate increases that will double student loan interest rates if Congress does not act by July. The South Seattle students who introduce her talk about how community college has helped them reach their goals and how the interest rate increases might affect them and their fellow students.

West Seattle Blog posted video of the rally, which you can watch below. Sen. Murray begins her speech at 8:25, but if you have a few minutes, be sure to watch the rest of the rally, especially the two students who introduce her. Their speeches begin at the 4 minute mark.

A quick public service announcement for all of our Seattle School Board attending followers: Starting June 6th, school board meetings will begin at 4:15 pm, and public testimony will begin at 5 pm, before the board hears the agenda’s introduction and action items from staff. The new start time, according to the Seattle schools announcement, is “to prevent meetings from running late into the evening.”

Update those calendars! Or, for those who can’t make the new time in person, the board accepts written public testimony sent to SchoolBoard@seattleschools.org. You can also view the meetings streamed live on SPS-TV or on Comcast Cable Channel 26.

The National League of Cities published a new study  on cities trying to successfully integrate early learning into the education pipeline, referred to as educational alignment, highlights  Seattle as one of the most innovative. Since the 1990s, Seattle has been committed to expanding opportunities for the city’s youngest students. In 2009 the city built on efforts already in place by launching the Seattle PreK-3rd Partnership Action Plan. The plan’s main goals are to:

• Expand access to quality preschool and full-day kindergarten;
• Increase quality across the preK-3rd continuum;
• Develop and align learning standards, assessment tools and data systems;
• Create seamless transitions between grade levels; and
• Increase support and interventions for children who have special needs or are struggling.

Based on the work underway in all five cities, the report identifies 10 common elements to preK-3rd success:

• Formal partnerships or governance structures to develop common goals and take joint action to implement a high-quality, aligned system.
• Access to quality early education in a variety of settings to ensure young children enter school prepared to succeed.
• Quality, organized schools to improve access to full-day kindergarten, support developmentally appropriate room designs and teaching practices, and promote communication and collaboration across the early grades.
• Communication and data sharing to provide parents, early educators, teachers and service providers with access to common information that will improve how each supports the learning and development of the children in their care.
• Qualified teachers and administrators in both early childhood and elementary school settings.
• Alignment of standards, curricula, teaching practices and assessments, with a focus on both social competence and academic skills, to build on what children have learned and how they have learned it from one level to the next.
• Parent engagement and family supports to ensure that parents are empowered to be their child’s first teacher and most important advocate, and to connect families with the diverse supports that they need for a safe, healthy and economically secure household.
• Programs to facilitate smooth transitions to school by helping families understand school registration processes and making children and parents feel comfortable and welcome in the new school environment.
• Public awareness of the importance of early education to increase the value that is placed on the first segment of the educational pipeline and demonstrate how the success of young children is integral to the long-term success of the city.
• Creative funding strategies to allow communities to provide a more comprehensive and collaborative system of support for children and families.

The other cities studied were Boston, Hartford, San Antonio and San José.

Read more about the studies here.

Seattle Public Schools will be hosting a Building Bridges for Summer Learning symposium at Chief Sealth International High School this Saturday, May 12th.

The keynote speaker at the event will be University of Washington political science professor Dr. Luis Ricardo Fraga, who focuses on race and social justice.

The symposium will also include workshops on topics such as tolerance, discipline, STEM, early learning and much more. Light breakfast and lunch will be served.

What: Building Bridges for Summer Learning Symposium

When: Saturday, May 12th. 9:30 am to 2:30 pm

Where: Chief Sealth International High School
2600 S.W. Thistle St.
Seattle, WA 98126

Find out more about the event here.

Q13 Fox reported on a new SPS program, named the Skill Center, aimed at getting Seattle students college and career ready.

In an interview with Q13, students discussed how the classroom isn’t always able to adapt to their learning styles and interest. Dr. Shepherd Siegel believes that the Skill Center will help students just like that, stating, “They need that hands-on context. So we have that responsibility to provide that opportunity for kids because we know there is genius in all kids.”  The Skill Center will allow students to receive industry certification from some of the Seattle area’s largest companies like Boeing and Microsoft.

The Center purposely chose to focus initially on aerospace, information technology, game design, and the medical field because they are, as Dr. Siegel says, “where the jobs and careers are going to be in the future.” The Skills Center will expand into other courses as the program continues and grows.

The courses will be held at the Seattle Center, West Seattle High School and Rainier Beach High School. The program will launch in the fall of 2012.

Watch and read the full report here.

This article originally appeared in the Seattle Times on Saturday, May 5th.

For three years, José Banda quietly went about the business of leading the Anaheim City School District, working through steep budget cuts, remaking the transportation department, passing a $169 million school-construction bond.

He gave principals the chance to try new initiatives, put a special emphasis on helping Spanish-speaking students master English, and used a collaborative leadership style with his staff that encouraged everyone to chime in with ideas. On his watch, test scores rose modestly at some schools, more dramatically at others.

Suddenly, in his fourth year, search firms for much bigger school districts came knocking on his door. With three job opportunities, Banda found himself dusting off his résumé.

It was Seattle that grabbed him, and last week the Seattle School Board unanimously voted to make him the next schools chief.

Read the whole article here.

This column was written by Seattle Times Editorial Columnist Lynne Varner and originally appeared in the Seattle Times on May 1. Read the full piece here

If the Seattle School Board thinks it chose the quiet, low-key José Banda because he will be more malleable than his more experienced competitors, my great hope is that they are in for a big surprise.

As Banda told me on Monday, he has no problem “agreeing to disagree.” He wants to know what the board and the public want, but ultimately, we’re looking to him to raise academic achievement across the district, ease racial disparities and bring the city together around the schools.

The biggest test will be remaking an executive cabinet from the many vacancies and positions held by interims and keeping the school board in its policymaking corner, not out of it, micromanaging.

Read more

Brian J. Griffith from Chief Sealth International HS, Brendan C. McGovern from Roosevelt HS, Emma K. Meersman and Helen Tang from Garfield HS have all been awarded National Merit Scholarships worth $2,500 dollars. The winners, who have “the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies” are selected by a committee consisting of college admissions and high school counselors.

Out of 15,000 applicants nation-wide, only 2,500 receive scholarships. The scholarships can be used any regionally accredited U.S. college or university of their choice.

The Seattle Times reports that changes may soon be coming to the predominately low income Rainier Beach High School located in South Seattle. International Baccalaureate is a rigorous college prep program that was founded in Switzerland in 1968. Since then, the program has 3,372 schools in 141 countries.

The Seattle Times points to the positive impacts of bringing the IB program to schools such as Ingraham High School and Chief Sealth High School. Both schools have seen their enrollment numbers rise significantly since starting the program.

Some criticism of the IB program includes it being taken by predominately White students, leading to the fear of separating classrooms by race and income level. This fear is compounded by congress recently cutting assistance to the testing fee waiver (IB tests currently run at $100 dollars, not including the registration fee, which is $145 dollars). One way that teachers have found encourage classroom diversity and avoid cost concerns is by encouraging every student to take at least one IB course, even if they do no plan to take the end-of-course test and get the IB endorsed high school diploma.

The Times reports:

… at Henry Foss High School in Tacoma, the majority of students taking IB classes are low-income, and some mix IB classes into their regular curriculum, rather than pursuing the full diploma. But even that can have a transformative effect.

“IB students tend to take school-leadership roles — that’s just the kind of kids they are,” said Cindy Lenihan, who coordinates the program at Foss. “They’re trained to look at things from multiple perspectives, and that changes the culture of the whole building.”

Ingraham and Chief Sealth are currently the only two high schools in Seattle that offer the program. Rainier Beach hopes to be an authorized IB school by 2013.

Read the whole story here.