A Forensic Analysis of SPS with Vivian Van Gelder, Part 1

In this first installment of our three-part series unpacking Left to Chance: Student Outcomes in Seattle Public Schools (2024), hosts Christie Robertson and Jasmine Pulido sit down with report author Vivian Van Gelder to trace thirty years of reform and turmoil inside Seattle Public Schools.

The story begins in 1990 with the Cresap Audit, a state-commissioned report that deemed the district “nearly ungovernable,” and follows the arrival of Major General John Stanford, the charismatic outsider who redefined Seattle schools as a “market-based system.” Stanford’s three-year tenure (1995-1998) transformed governance, funding, and labor relations—introducing open-choice enrollment, principal “CEOs,” and the 1997 trust agreement between the district and the Seattle Education Association (SEA).

Drawing from Van Gelder’s decade-long research and Left to Chance (Southeast Seattle Education Coalition), this episode examines how these reforms—rooted in neoliberal management theory, school-based decision-making, and business-style accountability—continue to shape Seattle Public Schools today.

📖 Referenced materials

• Left to Chance: Student Outcomes in Seattle Public Schools (Vivian Van Gelder, 2024) 
  • Report Timeline
• Cresap Audit of Seattle Public Schools (1990)
• A Nation at Risk (1983, National Commission on Excellence in Education)

🎧 Listen and read the full transcript at rainydayrecess.org
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