Room for hope and opportunity in Seattle schools

RECENT headlines have focused on the challenges facing Seattle Public Schools. Budget cuts. Teacher layoffs. School closures. These issues are impacting teachers, students and families, but headlines don't tell the whole story.

Step into two South Seattle schools, and another picture might emerge — one that gives confidence and hope for the future. Hopeful is just how we felt when we recently visited three students at Cleveland and Rainier Beach high schools. At these schools, most students are nonwhite and come from middle- and low-income families.

Put simply, this trio of students — Yonas Ayele from Cleveland, and Tyler Pendleton and Travonna Wiley from Rainier Beach — are ecstatic about their high-school education. They are inspired by challenging coursework, especially in Advanced Placement (AP) classes. With excitement, Yonas listed the subjects he has tackled in the past two years — Newtonian physics, derivatives, electricity, the Constitution — in five AP classes.

A few miles south at Rainier Beach, Travonna and Tyler gushed about mock presidential elections in Christa Ernst's AP Government class. Tyler researched taxation in Europe and compared it with U.S. policy. They took on tough reading loads, taking daily quizzes on what they read the night before. Between them, they've taken six AP classes.

Why are their stories important? Because just two years ago, AP classes weren't offered on the same scale they are today at Cleveland and Rainier Beach. At Cleveland, there are now seven AP courses, up from two last year. At Rainier Beach, there are nine AP courses, up from four.

AP classes are a boost because they encourage students to think deeply, read voraciously and conquer challenging material. And of course, it's the kind of thing colleges look for in prospective students. AP classes helped Yonas stand out to Western Washington University. He hopes to become a computer engineer.

Expanding college-ready classes is just one example of how Seattle Public Schools is committed to bringing outstanding curriculum to every school, in every neighborhood. It shows that Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson won't settle for anything less than giving all students the opportunity to succeed.

This commitment to "Excellence for All," the school district's strategic plan, is the right direction. And we think it's why our independent nonprofit organization — the Alliance for Education — was successful in helping the district win $9 million in grants from the Gates Foundation and other supporters this year. A grant from Boeing helped grow the AP programs at Cleveland and Rainier Beach, and paid for every ninth-grader to take the PSAT.

This support comes at a critical moment. Some of the very services that are getting students off to college are folding under budget cuts. Learning opportunities across the district are still uneven. Too many students in Seattle Public Schools — about one-third — won't graduate from high school on time this year.

The good news is that Seattleites have never taken a back seat when it comes to public schools. Wednesday at our 7th Annual Community Breakfast, nearly 900 people took up the call to support programs that work for kids. In February 2010, we can all do our part by renewing the operating and capital levies for schools. A failure to pass these measures is too disastrous to contemplate.

There's one more thing we can all do: think big. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has challenged America to do just that. He sees a new world where schools are open 12 hours a day, and are the source of health services, art class, tutoring — whatever a student or parent needs. In that world, the school is the center of community life.

Seattle is hearing the call. At the Alliance for Education, we are reaching out to partners and to the community, to determine how to bring that model to Seattle. It's a bold vision that requires all of us — the entire Seattle community — to play a part.