Board of Ed: accountability levels

includes 45 commendation schools
about half of the commendation schools had taken MCAS and half had taken PARCC
growing number of districts that historically have had schools in level 3 that no longer have schools that are no longer in level 3
one new Level 4 school: Madison Park
four schools have left Level 4: two in Lawrence, one in Springfield, one in Worcester
now need to provide with exit assurance plans

14 schools are still in Level 4
under the waiver: goal is to reduce proficiency gaps in half by 2017
set individually for every school
Level 4 & 5 are subgroups of Level 3
modifications in 2015: additional credit for ELL growing strongly in ELL assessments
change in threshold of graduation rate : 67% for four years; 70% for five years
reduction in mimimum subgroup size to 25 students
equipercentile linking of MCAS and PARCC
hold harmless for PARCC (but not MCAS)
Sagan: how much did hold harmless effect anybody?
18% of schools were held harmless; 12% of districts
45 commendation schools: note that Commisioner's districts (including Worcester) represented
PARCC schools adding to percentage of schools adding to Level 1 and 2 (as they could only go up)
later on turnaround plan that previous years, so Madison Park won't have as much time to do their plan
Sagan: do we do something for (the Commendation schools), or do they just get a party and move on?
Chester: let's get the list of commendation schools
Willyard: already transitions are starting to happen with ESSA happening, could we see this as an opportunity of how we classify schools
"rather actual metrics" schools would have to meet
Chester: always the opportunity to look at
Legislation required an advisory committee about accountability
20% is codified in state legislation
Stewart: waivers expire in August: impact on next year?
Chester: able to operate our system with the five levels rather than using AYP because of waiver
last time we ran AYP, 80% of our schools were underperforming, 90% of our districts were
Stewart: so we can keep doing what we're doing
great opportunity to take stock of what's going on
some things in ESSA seem to align with what we were doing, assessment may be in projects or in extended performance tasks
since accountability under the new law includes a broader assessment of accountability
suggests social and emotional learning
McKenna: about Madison Park
"one optimism I had was in the last year"
"were significant gains" in MCAS scores, new superintendent, new headmaster
"seems like a year too late or a year too early"
Chester: had some significant conversations
"was clear from those conversations that the new Boston administration felt it needed to start from scratch with Madison Park"
none of us had confidence that we were seeing a turnaround that was going to propel itself on its own
time to give "Boston the additional leverage" since they were going to go through a planning phase on its own