Our day in court

Today Cliff Mass and I, (DaZanne Porter had to be at a training in Yakima) accompanied by Dan Dempsey and Jim W, had our hearing in Judge Julie Spector's King County Superior Courtroom; the event was everything we hoped for, and more. Judge Spector asked excellent questions and said that she hopes to announce a decision by Friday, February 12th.

The hearing started on time at 8:30 AM with several members of the Press Corps present, including KIRO TV, KPLU radio, Danny Westneat of the Seattle Times, and at least 3 others. I know the number because, at the end, Cliff, our attorney, Keith Scully, and I were interviewed; there were five microphones and three cameras pointed towards us at one point.

The hearing was brief; we were done by 9:15. Keith began by presenting our case very clearly and eloquently. Our two main lines of reasoning are, 1) that the vote to adopt Discovering was arbitrary and capricious because of the board's failure to take notice of a plethora of testimony, data, and other information which raised red flags about the efficacy of the Discovering series, and 2) the vote violated the equal education rights of the minority groups who have been shown, through WASL scores, to be disadvantaged by inquiry based instruction.

Realistically, both of these arguments are difficult to prove: “arbitrary and capricious” is historically a very, very difficult proof, and while Keith's civil rights argument was quite compelling, there is no legal precedent for applying the law to this situation.

The School District's attorney, Shannon McMinimee, did her best, saying that the board followed correct procedure, the content of the books is not relevant to the appeal, the books do not represent inquiry-based learning but a “balanced” approach, textbooks are merely tools, etc., etc. She even denigrated the WASL – a new angle in this case. In rebuttal, Keith was terrific, we all agreed. He quoted the introduction of the three texts, which made it crystal clear that these books are about “exploration.” I'm blanking on other details of his rebuttal, but it was crisp and effective. Keith was extremely effective, IMHO. Hopefully, Dan, James, and Cliff can recall more details of the rebuttal.

After the hearing, there was a brief discussion of whether the judge might keep the sample Holt texts, which I had borrowed from Jock McKinlay, a Bellevue parent who is using them to buttress his stand against the adoption of Discovering in that district. The press group waited patiently outside while Jock and I figured it out on the phone; he graciously agreed to leave the books with Judge Spector through the weekend.

Outside, in the hall, Cliff, Keith and I were interviewed by several reporters and each of us had the chance to speak at length. Cliff was his usual charismatic, compelling and erudite self; Keith and I both did fine as well, I think. We were featured on KIRO TV news at noon; the segment presented our side in a good light.

Whether we prevail or not, I feel like we've hit a home run by pulling media attention towards the math education catastrophe that is occurring in Seattle Public Schools. Dan Dempsey was busy telling people the facts about the new SPS initiative for turning Cleveland High School into a science, technology, engineering and math focused program. If nothing else comes of this, hopefully the district will not succeed in squandering money on this fruitless public relations gimmick.

Thanks to Chris Jackins for introducing us to Keith Scully, thanks to Dan Dempsey for providing the data needed to make a case, thanks to Rick and Linh-Co Burke, Dick Padrick, Ted N, Paul D, Jim W, and all the members of wheresthemath.com and community members who have helped to support this effort.