Seattle is losing top students: 'We don't serve their needs'

“What we are doing in Seattle public schools is we’re disappearing our top students in math,” says David Evans, a middle-school math teacher.

The district's plan to close schools for "highly capable" students has pushed families out of the system, charges Danny Westneat, a Seattle Times columnist. That plan is now on hold for three years, but the pause came too late, he writes.

In a new survey funded to understand why enrollment is dropping, 86 percent of parents said they're concerned about the quality of education and more than half said they've considered leaving the district, primarily because of their quality concerns.

Parents of gifted students have protested the plan to close the special schools, reports Sami West for KUOW. Superintendent Brent Jones told parents advanced learning would be offered in neighborhood schools to mixed-ability classes. Teachers "are expected to personalize lesson plans to every child's needs and abilities."

"The changes were part of an effort to address longstanding equity concerns," West writes. Black and Hispanic students have been underrepresented in the highly-capable program.

But parents told the school board that teachers don't have the time or training to teach gifted students, while teaching everyone else in class.

“Our HC students might be handed worksheets, or they might be told to watch an extra video in the corner of a classroom," Talia Tittelfitz told the school board last week.

Laura Rose Murphy's son qualified for advanced instruction in math, but hasn't received it, she said. "His teacher is great, but she says she has zero support from the district in how to help my son access appropriate-level learning — no resources, no training, no funding, and they don't even tell her who has qualified or how they qualified."

Fewer students are taking advanced or accelerated math in middle school over the last nine years, said Evans. He's helping more families fill out applications for private schools. "They're leaving because we don't serve their needs," he said.

All his geometry students come from Cascadia, an HC school. Students who attended neighborhood schools aren't prepared for advanced work. Seattle Public Schools is replacing HC schools "with empty promises, zero plan and zero funding." a Cascadia parent, Kiley Riffell wrote on social media last year. "I’m sad to watch so many families leave the public school system, but I can’t blame them."