Good news wrapped in a conundrum at Rainier Beach High School

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The Seattle Times on Monday's front page wanted to know if Rainier Beach High School is headed, finally, for a renaissance — or at least a rediscovery by southeast Seattle families. The school is rapidly pushing WASL scores up for its primarily African American students. And, as Emily Hefter reported, African-American students at Rainier Beach are making WASL progress faster than African Americans enrolled in any of the district's other high schools. This is truly good news. RBHS is closing the achievement gap.

But that may turn out to be a real conundrum for Seattle Public Schools and the School Board as administrators and elected officials set out to make changes in the district's outdated assignment plan.

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Critics cut to the core of our curriculum

When it comes to problems with our schools, there’s a lot more insight in Robert Jamieson’s Thursday column than in the school district’s curriculum audit by consultants Phi Delta Kappa International, summarized elsewhere in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s local section by Jessica Blanchard.

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Why voters expelled the Seattle School Board class of 2003

Riding in on overreaction to a financial crisis, these reformers were so wrapped up in their various political agendas that they lost sight of the basics of educating kids. They paid a price in this week's election.

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Using income, instead of race, to identify disadvantaged students

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that race cannot be used as a factor in assigning students to schools, family income is likely to play a big role in the Seattle district — in determining where students attend classes, in allocating resources to neighborhood schools serving disadvantaged kids, or both.

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Seattle's contradictory school-assignment proposal

'Choice' competes with 'predictability' in a proposed new plan for assigning students to buildings. And a former School Board member and journalist thinks choice, the status quo, will probably win.

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