HiCap Parents Council Meeting
via Zoom
November 23, 2021
7:00-9:00 pm
Member updates; goal is a list of items to add to agenda for future meetings
- Lyn @ Canyon Park MS
- Curious about iReady from a district standpoint
- In ELA, it seems different teachers are requiring an hour of iReady (alternating between English and Social Studies)
- Students who are ahead get the same stories and questions over and over again
- Timbercrest parents also think it is a waste of time or that iReady gives work that is too easy if a student makes a careless mistake
- KMS principal says iReady doesn’t capture 8th graders’ skills, but they are using it for assessment
- Seems iReady is only liked by parents who value drills or kids who get limited screen time/video game access
- Amity may need iReady
- This probably has less value for an identified kid
- Amity’s use is more in regards to the periodic assessment of skills not the weekly drills
- Steven @ Inglemoor HS
- Regarding the HS course registration search interface he made, Steven would like feedback of changes others would like to see and if they (Obediah/District) want to us it
- It would be a short turnaround for Steven if they want it
- Austina suggested that it might be best to work this out with Angie Hancock who also works in the district’s tech department
- Terra reports that Northshore Family Partnership (NFP) is using School Data Systems for their course offerings which include syllabi and registration and that the district has already purchased this
- Carson @ Canyon Creek ES
- There is interest in seeing HiCap items in the PTA newsletter
- Working on getting Amity to speak at a PTA meeting (currently slated for January, but might get bumped by people talking about the bond)
- Carson is doing proctoring and enjoying seeing how this part of the work is accomplished
- There was a new issue mentioned on Facebook group this evening about middle school students being tested without their parents’ permission, should probably research this more and add to agenda for next meeting with Amity
- Stephanie @ BHS Feeder Pattern
- Introduced herself on all of her PTA pages
- Talked to families in her schools about opting into testing
- Notes that there was an incident where one kid came late and was set up but maybe they didn’t have permission
- Terri @ Timbercrest MS
- Nothing to report beyond the testing thread that Carson mentioned
- Austina talked to a Timbercrest family who reported not getting AAP classes in all subjects, but this student was in NVP and this is a known problem (there seems to be no difference between challenge and AAP courses)
- Terra @ Alternative Learning Programs (ALE - sorry I couldn’t figure out exactly what this translated to)
- A lot of these programs don’t have PTA’s; it might be nice if other more established PTA’s helped them
- NFP is growing into a high school
- NFP population facts
- 25% from out of district
- ~80-905 are HiCap
- Becoming sort of a HiCap center for homeschooling kids
- Working to add curricula to better support students in all schools
- Darpana @ NCHS Feeder Pattern
- Nothing to report
- Agrees that iReady isn’t challenging to most, but might still be valuable for data collection for those not yet identified
- Veronica @ Moorlands ES
- Hears mostly from parents looking to decide about taking an EAP spot
- Her kids are leaving Northshore Virtual Program (NVP) effecitive Jan. 3rd, but she has been volunteering in person on campus this fall
- Megan @ Northshore Virtual Program (NVP)
- Needs to talk to administrators to see if they will be adapting the program more for HiCap kids
- She didn’t understand that AP (World History) was a college level course, not just a HiCap Class
- Mistake/not known for several NVP kids
- Course catalog didn’t explain this
- Suggestion that it might be worthwhile to write an NVP HS registration document like the other high schools have
- Megan reported that she was in a meeting with Dr. Reid and heard that NVP would NOT be an option next year
- Hoping to share the graphic info that we were commenting on/revising
- Austina said we are waiting to see if the district will adopt and distribute this information or if HiCap Parents Council will own it
- Amity said she shared the graphics with some teachers, but we are not sure how many
- Anita @ Fernwood ES
- Anita asked if there is a difference between NVP curriculum and in-person curriculum in reference to her 3rd grader
- She said NVP may not be challenging: math is fine, but not English, Social Studies, or Science
- Noted that Social Studies and Science are still taught on grade level in EAP classes (though teachers might enrich the material as they find appropriate for their classes)
- Curriculum for NVP is different but may be lacking pace/rigor of in-person
- Veronica shared that the teacher sets the pace for Edgenuity at the 3rd grade level
- Edgenuity math is much harder
- Anita would need to talk to the teacher as they are driving the curriculum
- Also noted that curriculum in NVP might not be taught in the same order as in-person
- Karen @ Kenmore ES
- Teacher thinks their class is going well
- Mostly parents want to to know what will happen to kids for 4th/5th grade as the school only has a 3rd/4th split class
- Shared that Amity told us that schools that opted to keep their HiCap kids rather than send them to their middle school feeder EAP program committed to seeing those students through the rest of their elementary careers and that this could be shared with the parents
- Chu @ Northshore MS
- iReady: his kid hates it
- HiCap test for single subject qualifiers seems oka
- Ruthe @ Leota MS
- Asked for concerns on Whatsapp
- 6th grader did little writing last year, but is doing more this year
- Stephanie regarding Bothell HS (since Myriam not in attendance)
- AP curriculum stuff: student was told that they would NOT complete all of the material covered by the test and students would need to study that material on their own (this is not reported at other comprehensive HS’s; students there cover enough in class to get a 5 with minimal additional studying outside of class)
- AP Physics teacher
- Told students that they could get a 3 or 4 via their instruction and that they would need to work on their own to get a 5
- This teacher has now committed to setting up extra study sessions outside of class
- Juan says that BHS’s AP score average is a 3; seems satisfied with that
- This is the reason we’re pushing so hard on the course catalog
- This is somewhat teacher dependent (not all BHS teachers say this)
- Could we encourage change by encouraging competitiveness between the comprehensive high schools, like they have for sports?
- Question: Does Innovation Lab HS (ILHS) have APs? Answer: ILHS has no AP’s, but kids are welcome to take the tests.
- Accepting late work seems to slow everything down
- Late work policies differ
- BHS policy is causing work to slow down and not really hearing the same late work standard articulated at other schools
- Sees to have teacher specific policies at other schools
- Flexible late policies are good for some kids, but not good if it stops all progress
- Juan says this is at the level of the school board ← This seemed wrong to the Council
- May be part of the bargained contract (e.g. missing assignments cannot be scored below a 50%)
- Juan has said in the past “it’s a district rule” and does nothing further
- Sounds like the Council is going to need to record and submit all of these stories to get progress
- Dave Wellington is the Regional Area Superintendent (RAS) for BHS
- Imen @ Kenmore MS
- Had a meeting with the principal to ask how they differentiate the work
- Panel discussion where high school students came and talked about their experiences last year
- Concern about needing to find a person to take over her council position: it is NOT the rep’s job to find their replacement
- Carson regarding Skyview MS
- Still a question about the jointly taught English and History classes at SMS
