{"id":150981,"date":"2010-01-12T14:05:15","date_gmt":"2010-01-12T19:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2010736991_educationfixes.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-01-12T14:05:15","modified_gmt":"2010-01-12T19:05:15","slug":"education-fixes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/150981","title":{"rendered":"Education fixes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Failed students a greater cost than the Early Learning Act<\/strong><\/p>\n

I, too, agree with comments by Michael Sheehan and Leslie Jordan regarding the need for the Early Learning Act [\u201cWashington needs to pass an Early Learning Act,\u201d Opinion, Dec. 28].<\/p>\n

The core of both comments states that if we don\u2019t fix the early learning gap we will continue to fail students. This is where class size is so important at the early level.<\/p>\n

As far back as 1989, we had research to show that smaller class size at grades K-1-2 successfully enhanced the achievement of low-income and minority students. This shrank the achievement gap and led to reduced grade retentions, disciplinary actions, less dropouts, and got more college entrance-exams attempts.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t this exactly what we keep hearing about how education needs to improve in Washington state? More teachers and classrooms will cost a lot of money. But if we don\u2019t take action at this end, increased school interventions, crime, incarceration, lower standards, poorer productivity and more failed students will cost us more.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jim Thompson, Kent<\/em><\/p>\n

An answer to school boundaries<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s too late in the game, but the real solution to our boundary problem is to have no boundaries [\u201cSeattle schools return to neighborhood-based system,\u201d News, Nov. 19]. Journey with me back in time to, what was it, 2006? There is massive public outrage about school closures \u2014 such as the elementary school Sacajawea. Now fast-forward to 2010, where the school district is madly drawing boundaries and threatening to separate families to handle an overcapacity problem.<\/p>\n

The fact is, neighborhoods and demographics change \u2014 one street has a bunch of newborns, another neighborhood has a bunch of graduating high-schoolers. We need to de-emphasize boundaries, turn them into big overlapping circles, insist that they\u2019re indicative rather than prescriptive of where a student might attend, and promise all families that no matter where they\u2019re assigned, their children won\u2019t be wedged into different schools to handle a capacity issue.<\/p>\n

Voil\u00e0! You have a system that\u2019s flexible, gentle to families and communities, and fairly predictable. Those who still have a bone to pick when their mandatory assignment shows up, can do so on a personal level with the district.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Courtenay Gebhardt, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Failed students a greater cost than the Early Learning Act I, too, agree with comments by Michael Sheehan and Leslie Jordan regarding the need for the Early Learning Act [\u201cWashington needs to pass an Early Learning Act,\u201d Opinion, Dec. 28]. The core of both comments states that if we don\u2019t fix the early learning gap […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}