Seattle's Child: Educating Mom: North Mom, South Mom

November 2007

Educating Mom: North Mom, South Mom
In Search of Equitable Education for All Kids

North and South Seattle schools are separated by more than the Ship Canal.

Test scores, enrollment figures and levels of parental involvement set them apart. Under-enrolled schools with mediocre to poor test scores are generally in the south end, and more desirable schools with higher achievement levels are in the north end of the city.

Seattle Public Schools administrators are aware of that. They’re trying to boost the performance of three Southeast Seattle schools with a three-year, $2.5 million dollar commitment. (See related story, “New Initiative Tackles a Glaring Need.”)

While the district works to make education more equitable, there must be something parents can do, too. But what? That question led me to explore the differences between north and south school communities – first with a new friend, and then with a principal who spent six years in one of the city’s strongest elementary schools followed by six years in one of the most challenged.

On the surface, Sharon Dodson’s life is nothing like mine. She grew up in Memphis and now lives in an apartment in the Van Asselt neighborhood of Southeast Seattle. She’s a single parent who works a 9-to-5 job in the health care industry. Originally from Iowa, I live in a Ballard house that I own with my husband. I’m a writer with a flexible schedule.

But we’re really not that different.

We’re both in our early 40s. We each have two children, and we worry about whether we’re doing enough to give them a great start in life. Our kids go to Seattle Public Schools, and we want them to have valuable learning experiences. So far we’re happy with their education.

Privileged and Troubled

Our views split when we discuss North and South Seattle schools.

I ask her to pick one word that characterizes north end schools. The word Dodson thought of immediately is “privileged.”

“They’re privileged not just because it’s a white culture, but because they have parents who demand what they want for their kids, and they get it,” Dodson explains. “Parents up north fight for what they want. They have textbooks and other resources that we don’t have.”

The word I use to describe south end schools is troubled. My opinion is based on test scores – the 2006-2007 Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) – which admittedly only tell part of a school’s story.

The public high schools where students have the highest test scores are Roosevelt, Nathan Hale and Ballard, all in North Seattle. On average, 66 percent of their 10th-graders passed the math, reading, writing and science portions of the WASL. The lowest scores are in South Seattle schools, with a passing average of 28 percent at Cleveland, Franklin and Chief Sealth.

Middle school students with the highest test scores are again in the north. At Eckstein, for example, just over 63 percent of eighth-graders passed all three portions of the WASL. At Aki Kurose, 13 percent passed. The pattern continues in Seattle’s elementary schools.

Dodson has high expectations of her kids. They’re doing well, even though they’re in “troubled” schools. Her son, who attends Franklin, will study to become a pilot or engineer after he graduates in June. Her daughter goes to Aki Kurose and wants to be a lawyer someday. “She should because she argues a lot,” Dodson says with a laugh.

She doesn’t make excuses for her schools’ performance, but she does point out her community has economic issues that parents “up North” don’t have to deal with. All of her friends work full time and many of them are single parents. “They work crazy hours, maybe two jobs, and it’s not easy for them to go to school to take care of things because they can’t leave work,” she says.

The majority of my friends are able to volunteer in school because they are married, stay-at-home moms. No surprise, right? They still have financial concerns, but for the most part, they’re able to get by on one household income.

You Gotta Bring Something

Greg Imel has a unique view of the north and south disparity. For many years he was a principal at my son’s school, Whittier Elementary in the Ballard area. Now he lives and works in the Rainer Beach neighborhood. He’s Dunlap Elementary’s principal.

There are a couple of similarities between Whittier and Dunlap. Both are relatively new buildings designed by the same architect. And parents at both schools want the best for their kids.

“All families love and support their kids and want them to be successful,” says Imel. “I hang my hat on that every day.”

In other ways the school communities are opposites. Almost 70 percent of Whittier’s fifth-graders passed the WASL, compared to 13 percent at Dunlap. The poverty level is around seven percent at Whittier and 82 percent at Dunlap. Caucasian students make up three percent of Dunlap’s student population and 82 percent of Whittier’s. More than three-quarters of the kids at Whittier live with both parents, while less than half of the Dunlap students are in a two-parent household.

Also adding to the complexity, 40 percent of Dunlap’s students are from families where English is a second language.

“Many of our families are new Americans living in poverty. They’re grappling with things like learning the language and finding jobs,” Imel says. “Of course their children come first, but their priority really is working so their children can have better lives.”

And that factor leads to another contrast between the schools. Whittier has 240 PTA members. Dunlap has none.

With a 22-person PTA board, there are a lot of people available to raise money for school needs, including paying for the school’s Spanish teacher and several tutors. Whittier raises about $100,000 to support the school, although Dunlap receives about $200,000 a year in federal Title 1 funds to raise the academic achievement of disadvantaged students.

The biggest difference is that Whittier has far more volunteers, Imel says. “I’ve had to rethink what parental involvement looks like at Dunlap because we don’t have people who are available to help in classrooms or raise funds.”

If my school has so many volunteers that teachers are almost tripping over them, and his school doesn’t have parents available to help in classrooms or raise funds, then what would happen if north end parents volunteered in south end schools? Imel calls that a “great conceptual idea” and says the two schools have tried to work together on some projects. In reality, people are most concerned about their own schools.

Still, I’m naïve enough to think it could work. I’ll volunteer in any South Seattle school that needs help and I encourage other parents who have time to do the same.

Meanwhile, Sharon Dodson has stepped up to be Aki Kurose’s PTSA president, and 30 new members joined so far this year. She wants to recruit mentors who will assist teachers and students. She’s also making sure parents in her middle school are at least informed and at best involved.

“Parents need to bring something to the table too,” Dodson says, quoting a phrase her father told her. “You can’t expect someone to bring all the dinner and you don’t bring any fixings. You gotta bring something.”

Again, we agree. Perhaps the only thing dividing a North Seattle mom and a South Seattle mom is the Ship Canal.

Linda Thomas is a freelance journalist and she’s serious about volunteering in any South Seattle school that wants help. Send her an e-mail: linda@lindathomas.com.

NEW INITIATIVE TACKLES A GLARING NEED

Rainier Beach High School’s enrollment has been dropping for years. Now, with about 300 students, it is smaller than some Seattle elementary schools.

Seattle Public Schools estimates at least 1,300 high school students in the southeast part of the city pass by Rainier Beach and go elsewhere – many opting for north end schools. Rainier Beach is one of three schools “in glaring need of assistance,” says Carla Santorno, the district’s chief academic officer.

The district is helping with a new effort called the Southeast Education Initiative. They’ll spend between $800,000 and $900,000 each year – for the next three years – to increase enrollment and academic achievement at Rainier Beach, Cleveland High School and Aki Kurose Middle School.

Each school received $25,000 in September to figure out what their needs are. The schools have until the end of November to come up with a reform plan. In other words, decide how the rest of the district’s allocation will be used. The schools’ plans will include benchmarks, targets and all the usual accountability standards that tell educators if they’re on track or not.

Santorno says she has been involved with reform plans before that haven’t worked, but this one is different. “Reform efforts fail when people aren’t given enough time or resources to do the job. That’s not the case here where we’re giving these schools the support they need to pull it off,” she says.

If the schools don’t pull it off, then the district will “have to come up with an alternative solution which could be lots of things,” Santorno says. “If it’s not working we have to fix it.”

There have been changes already at Rainier Beach. The high school is bringing back advanced placement classes with two new full time teachers. A music teacher and part-time drama teacher have also been hired. And about $15,000 has been spent so far on equipment and supplies for science labs.

Cleveland is also using its funds for teachers. They’ll reduce class sizes in math and science with additional instructors. Aki Kurose has a new principal this year, and they haven’t determined how their funds will be spent yet.

Santorno says she’ll know the Southeast Education Initiative is a success when enrollment increases “significantly” and the targeted schools have “good advanced placement classes and higher achievement scores.”

And it’s a dream, but she says maybe in three years Rainier Beach and other south end schools will be so popular they’ll have waiting lists “and we’ll have to make sure the schools are still accessible for Southeast Seattle kids.”
– Linda Thomas

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