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omahasOkay, quick intro on this subject. Puyallup school district superintendent decides, in his infinite wisdom, to ban Halloween activities. There's some misinformation on the subject, so at this point I'm not sure exactly what is and isn't banned.
You can go to these two spots for public media info on the subject:
http://www.komotv4.com/stories/33602.htm
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/196371_spookban22.html
For blog conversations on the subject (including me) go here:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/jenkitty/619194.html
http://www.livejournal.com/users/hermesinbattle/86578.html
There wouldn't be a single celebration held at school that wouldn't waste valuable school time! Why not cut them all out...period?
This was a comment I made in a post on one of the threads above. I was thinking last night whether the real purpose of this whole thing is the WASL. Remember, having parties at school takes valuable time away from students studying so that they can do better on the WASL, and doing well on the WASL is linked to getting federal money for the school and the district.
I did some research, and found that the Puyallup school district had good WASL scores in 2001/02, they dropped in 2002/03 (they didn't meet the adequete yearly progress score), then the scores that were recently released for 2003/04 were up again by 11.1 percent. I also took a look at the particular school, Maplewild, that seemed to be the most in focus for this issue. Here are their scores for the past two years:
In other words, their scores did a nosedive between those two years. The superintendent is afraid that they will dive again and affect the district. I'll bet other elementary schools in the district are this way too (I just finished looking at Riverside..it took a nosedive in scores between the two years as well...how can they say these schools are still AYP with these nosedives??) These are elementary schools, where all of the Halloween celebrations would occur (parties, parades, candy swapping).
Some places to look for more info:
http://www.puyallup-herald.com/education/psd/story/3783691p-3809949c.html
http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/Reports/summary.aspx?schoolId=2025&reportLevel=School
I hate people who lie about their intentions. If it's about the WASL, then say it's about the WASL. It would suck, but that's why "No Child Left Behind" is such a bad law. Don't lie and say you're being open-minded about other religions when that's not what it's about.
You can go to these two spots for public media info on the subject:
http://www.komotv4.com/stories/33602.htm
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/196371_spookban22.html
For blog conversations on the subject (including me) go here:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/jenkitty/619194.html
http://www.livejournal.com/users/hermesinbattle/86578.html
There wouldn't be a single celebration held at school that wouldn't waste valuable school time! Why not cut them all out...period?
This was a comment I made in a post on one of the threads above. I was thinking last night whether the real purpose of this whole thing is the WASL. Remember, having parties at school takes valuable time away from students studying so that they can do better on the WASL, and doing well on the WASL is linked to getting federal money for the school and the district.
I did some research, and found that the Puyallup school district had good WASL scores in 2001/02, they dropped in 2002/03 (they didn't meet the adequete yearly progress score), then the scores that were recently released for 2003/04 were up again by 11.1 percent. I also took a look at the particular school, Maplewild, that seemed to be the most in focus for this issue. Here are their scores for the past two years:
| 2002/03 | 2003/04 | |
| Reading | 85.4% | 60.5% |
| Math | 70.7% | 65.8% |
| Writing | 51.2% | 39.5% |
In other words, their scores did a nosedive between those two years. The superintendent is afraid that they will dive again and affect the district. I'll bet other elementary schools in the district are this way too (I just finished looking at Riverside..it took a nosedive in scores between the two years as well...how can they say these schools are still AYP with these nosedives??) These are elementary schools, where all of the Halloween celebrations would occur (parties, parades, candy swapping).
Some places to look for more info:
http://www.puyallup-herald.com/education/psd/story/3783691p-3809949c.html
http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/Reports/summary.aspx?schoolId=2025&reportLevel=School
I hate people who lie about their intentions. If it's about the WASL, then say it's about the WASL. It would suck, but that's why "No Child Left Behind" is such a bad law. Don't lie and say you're being open-minded about other religions when that's not what it's about.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-24 04:12 pm (UTC)I personally say that you can't just dump Halloween, what about Christmas, Easter, and all other religious holidays that "impact" school performance if you are going to go as far as dumping Halloween... I mean if you are going to go on about defaming a religious holiday, then dump em all so we can truly separate church and (state) school. Just IMNSHO.