January 18, 2011
"Teach For America, the national organization that recruits recent college graduates into teaching, announced Tuesday that it will expand into the Seattle area..."
Get to Know The Southeast Seattle Education Coalition
Southeast Seattle is home to 40% of Seattle's African American elementary students and approximately 25% of its Asian, Latino, and Native American elementary students. It is also “home” to the city’s twelve lowest performing schools. Motivated to expand the educational opportunities of children living in Southeast Seattle relative to their more affluent peers in other neighborhoods, local parents and a diverse group of grassroots organizations joined forces to create the Southeast Seattle Education Coalition (SESEC).
Like Teach For America, SESEC envisions a world where all students have access to and succeed in high performing public schools. The Coalition works to close the achievement gap in Southeast Seattle by empowering other local organizations such as the Filipino Community of Seattle, the East African Community Services, the Vietnamese Friendship Association, and the African American Community/Parent Coalition. SESEC helps communities of color impact education policy and foster collaboration among key stakeholders in the city’s educational landscape.
SESEC approaches challenges through the lens of their values: authentic engagement, leadership by communities of color, collaboration, a strength-based approach, self-determination, and positive results. Teach For America is proud to partner with them as they strive to achieve their shared goal of “All Fives in Five,” in which students of color will succeed at high performing schools across Southeast Seattle by 2017.
Region Timeline
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Seattle’s first public school was founded in 1861 as part of the Territorial University, a precursor of the University of Washington.
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1978: District-wide busing begins for Seattle schools in an effort to combat racial segregation. The district turned to busing after more than a decade of other efforts, including a voluntary transfer program that, at its peak in 1969-70, attracted just 3% of district students. At launch, mandatory busing involves about 12,000 of the district's 54,000 students.
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Three years after busing started, the district reaches its racial-enrollment goals. But some argue that mandatory busing didn't create as much diversity as the numbers might appear to show. White enrollment dropped by 28% in the first three years of busing, with many students moving to the suburbs or private schools, according to a district history of its desegregation efforts. Minority enrollment over the same period went up about 10%.
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Charter schools are first voted down in Washington in 1996. Subsequent ballot initiatives in 2000, 2004, and 2012 all result in vote to keep charter schools out of the state.
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2000: In 2000, a group of public school parents sues Seattle Public Schools over its “racial tiebreaker” policy that allowed the district--with an eye towards diversity--to consider a child’s race in assigning him or her to a school.
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The U.S. Supreme Court rules Seattle’s “racial tiebreaker” policy unconstitutional in 2007, disappointing many advocates for educational equity.
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Seattle Public Schools issues a strategic plan called Excellence For All. Closing the achievement gap is a stated goal.
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Seattle returns to a neighborhood assignment model, ending the mandatory busing in place for over 30 years.
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Census data reveals that even as the percentage of minorities in Seattle remained flat, it has exploded in the suburbs south of the city limits. In South King County, the white population declined by more than 14%, while the number of people who identified themselves as either Asian, Hispanic, African American, Native American or belonging to two or more races increased 66%. Much of the change was driven by Latinos, whose population doubled, and even tripled, in some cities. The 98118 zip code in southeast Seattle, where most Teach For America corps members are placed, is the most diverse in the nation.
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Seattle Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson expands Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, encouraging all students (and not just high achievers) to enroll. Some believe the demanding classes do a good job of preparing students for higher education.
Press
November 16, 2010
"Tensions over Teach for America's entry into the Puget Sound region is less about the teaching corps' efficacy and more about rebuffing a beachhead in the fiercely protected unionized teaching force..."
November 6, 2010
"West Seattle Elementary is one of 18 schools in the state taking part in a major federal push to help the nation's lowest-performing schools improve dramatically over the next three years..."
