The right balance in Seattle schools

A big, urban school district is like a small city. It has to serve a variety of people with a wide range of needs. Recent Seattle School boards at times have overemphasized the needs of some students at the expense of other students.

Out with the old, in with the new. The new, improved Seattle School Board is assembling and so far, saying some of the right things about serving all Seattle schoolchildren. Many school boards have a theme, a frequent refrain, about what members hope to accomplish during their four-year terms. Board members have focused on improving underserved students' scores, which is something that must be done — but not at the exclusion of other students, particularly students from middle-class families.

A successful school district has to be able to reach all learners. Board members alert families of their thinking by their use of the bully pulpit — what they say and don't say.

Four newly elected board members have the rhetoric right. Instead of focusing almost exclusively on students struggling to pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, the new board is also talking about serving students from the middle class. That is most appropriate. No school district can be successful if it pretends one group of students doesn't matter.

"We're here to serve all children, and so certainly continuing focus on the achievement gap is absolutely appropriate and an imperative," said new board member Sherry Carr. "But it's also appropriate that we address some of the other issues that have kind of been left unaddressed for a number of years."

The board is looking at ways to add more Montessori programs and create more foreign-language immersion programs, which are popular with middle-class students. The board is also working on a new student-assignment plan and aims to promise students space in schools near their homes. The district is examining changes to gifted and special-education programs.

Roughly 20 to 25 percent of Seattle children are enrolled in private schools, and that takes money away from a district that needs the cash to serve a wide range of students. The district can lose between $5,000 to $9,000 per student in state and federal money for each student who flees to private school.

Seattle schools will be successful when they get the balance of programs and rhetoric just right.