Thursday, April 13, 2017

Massachusetts Board of Education meets Tuesday, April 18

You can find the agenda here.

They are again foregoing the Monday evening meeting.
After comments by the secretary, the chair, the commissioner, and the public, they'll be hearing an update on civics engagement and the review and renewal of the history and social studies standards. You can download the civics learning and engagement plan here.
In the ongoing updates on Level 5 schools and districts, UP Academy Holland is giving an update. There are also written updates from the Dever School (going from Blueprint to Boston Superintendent Chang in oversight), Parker Elementary (from New Bedford Superintendent Pia Durkin), the Morgan school (provided by Holyoke receiver Steve Zrike).
The Board will discuss and vote on the proposal to reset school levels this coming year; as the accompanying memo says:
Schools enrolling students in grades 3-8 would not be placed in Levels 1-3 of the framework for district accountability and assistance for the 2016-2017 school year, provided that the school maintains at least 90 percent participation for each student group in each subject on the spring 2017 assessments and, if the school goes through grade 12, the school does not have persistently low graduation rates for one or more student groups.1 Elementary and middle schools with a participation rate below 90 percent will be placed in Level 3. Assessment results for each school still will be reported publicly. The 2017 next-generation MCAS results for grades 3-8 will serve as the baseline for future accountability reporting.
The Board is being asked to delegate their authority to approve charter school contracts to the Commissioner for the Old Sturbridge Village Charter School (to contract with Old Sturbridge Village) and Community Day Charter (to contract with Community Day Charter Management Organization). May want to keep an eye on this one; the Legislature gave this authority to the public entity for a reason. 
Finally, they are hearing an update on the FY18 budget, now that the House Ways and Means budget has been released.

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