K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Seattle is losing top students: ‘We don’t serve their needs.’

“What we are doing in Seattle public schools is we’re disappearing our top students in math,” says David Evans, a middle-school math teacher.

The district’s plan to close schools for “highly capable” students has pushed families out of the system, charges Danny Westneat, a Seattle Times columnist. That plan is now on hold for three years, but the pause came too late, he writes.
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Laura Rose Murphy’s son qualified for advanced instruction in math, but hasn’t received it, she said. “His teacher is great, but she says she has zero support from the district in how to help my son access appropriate-level learning — no resources, no training, no funding, and they don’t even tell her who has qualified or how they qualified.”

Fewer students are taking advanced or accelerated math in middle school over the last nine years, said Evans. He’s helping more families fill out applications for private schools. “They’re leaving because we don’t serve their needs,” he said.

Well, they don’t.