Agenda this week includes next year's testing plan

The Worcester School Committee meets tomorrow night, back at our regular 7 pm time at City Hall. You can find the agenda here.
As you may have seen in today's paper, the biggest item on the agenda this week is the PARCC/MCAS decision, which is the report of the Superintendent. The recommended list is this:

 PARCC: Chandler Magnet, City View, Clark Street Community, Columbus Park, Elm Park Community, McGrath, Gates Lane, Goddard School of Science and Technology, Jacob Hiatt, Lake View, Lincoln Street, May Street, Quinsigamond, Roosevelt, Thorndyke Road, Wawecus Road, Woodland Academy, Worcester Arts Magnet, University Park Campus School, Claremont Academy, Burncoat Middle, Forest Grove Middle and Worcester East Middle. 

MCAS: Belmont Street Community, Burncoat Street, Canterbury, Chandler Elementary, Flagg Street, Grafton Street, Heard Street, Midland Street, Nelson Place, Norrback Avenue, Rice Square, Tatnuck, Union Hill, Vernon Hill, West Tatnuck and Sullivan Middle. 

Note that in addition to the grades 3-8 tests above, all tenth graders will take the MCAS, and several schools are asking to take optional tests: Burncoat Middle would like to have their eighth graders try the PARCC Algebra I test; Burncoat High would like to have some ninth graders take the ELA test; Burncoat High would like have some eleventh graders try the Algebra I and Geometry tests; UPCS would like to have some eleventh graders try the Algebra II test; and Worcester Tech would like to have some eleventh graders try the ELA and Algebra II tests

In addition to that list, note that the report ALSO includes the information about which schools had students opt-out of the pilot test last year. Some very interesting stats there!

We are also having a report from yesterday's Teaching and Learning subcommittee; getting our usual update on new hires (Welcome!); possibly talking about class size at the secondary level (note that those are last year's numbers); approving a few prior year payments.
We're also being asked to approve a new early childhood director, Laurie Kuczka, and some new nurses.
We have the quarterly report of the Central Mass Collaborative and we're being asked to approve a new contract with them.
And speaking of contracts, we're getting updates (?) on contract negotiations in executive session.