Seattle Public Schools delays sunset of highly-capable cohort program

Seattle Public Schools has changed course on its gifted education program, announcing plans to keep dedicated schools open for at least three more years.

The district will also continue to offer advanced learning in neighborhood schools, and parents can choose either option for their kid.

"We recognize the importance of highly-capable programming to our students and families, and we're committed to a thoughtful, transparent process as we assess it during the next three years," Superintendent Brent Jones said at a school board meeting on Wednesday.

Officials have committed to keeping highly-capable cohort schools open for at least another three years. After that, they may proceed with sunsetting cohort schools, with a possible 2029-30 academic year for an end date.

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The pivot follows ongoing parent and community pushback on changes to the highly-capable learning program, including the sunset of all cohort schools.

Under this new approach, advanced learning is supposed to be embedded in neighborhood schools, and teachers are expected to personalize lesson plans to every child's needs and abilities. All highly-capable cohort schools were slated to be phased out by the 2027-28 school year.

The changes were part of an effort to address longstanding equity concerns. Black and Hispanic students had been historically underrepresented in the highly-capable program. As part of the sunset, the district moved to universal screening, so families don't need to pay for outside testing or get a teacher's recommendation to get into the program.

Those efforts to make the program more equitable are starting to work. Data shared last month showed the number of Black, Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial students identified as advanced learners went up in 2024.

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At Wednesday's school board meeting, parents and educators celebrated the pause on sunsetting cohort schools — but said they still want to see improvements.

Talia Tittelfitz, the parent of two advanced learners, was among them. Her oldest child attends a cohort school, while her youngest is supposed to receive highly-capable services in their neighborhood school. But she said teachers are stretched too thin to make that happen.

“Our HC students might be handed worksheets, or they might be told to watch an extra video in the corner of a classroom," she told the school board. "This is not advanced learning or instruction. This is a missed opportunity.”

Laura Rose Murphy has had a similar experience. Her son receives special education services at his neighborhood school, and Murphy recently learned he also qualifies for advanced learning in math. But Murphy's son hasn't gotten those services yet — to no fault of his teacher.

"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," she said.

"The district has not replaced HCC," she added.

Matt Evans, a math teacher at Hamilton International Middle School, said he's seen the district's lack of gifted education at the elementary school level firsthand.

Not only has the number of students learning advanced or accelerated math decreased over the last nine years, but he's also noticed fewer of these students are coming from neighborhood schools, which are supposed to provide highly-capable services just like cohort schools.

"The only kids that are in my geometry class now are kids from Cascadia, which basically says that the only intelligent math students who are above grade level all go to Cascadia," he said. "Statistically, that's impossible, and Seattle Public Schools has to be in the business of allowing kids to realize their dreams."

This, Evans said, has meant he's helped more families fill out applications for private schools — and that shouldn't be happening.

"They're leaving because we don't serve their needs," he said. "And I really believe that we can serve the needs of kids mathematically, and it's not based on their grade."

District officials say they’re working to make advanced learning better and more consistent across schools, including by providing new training to all teachers.

Over the next three years, they say they'll evaluate how this hybrid advanced learning model is working, and reevaluate whether they should phase out cohort schools after all.