Board of Ed: competency determination

 anticipate bringing recommendations to Board in February

Craven interrupts to note her same questions

Johnston notes that history and social sciences and foreign languages
coursework not "courses" in statutory language
Moriarty: eighth grade civics is on track?
Curtin: yes, goes live in spring, but not a high school test

requires three parts of work:

• short term: class of 2025
  important that we help school districts understand what needs to take place for students who have not yet earned a competency determination for the class of 2025
  those who received a competency determination through the November retest: that competency determination is good; it cannot be taken away from them
• medium term: current high school
  have already begun taking classes, some of whom have passed MCAS
• long term: students not yet in grade 9
  what will it look like for them?

each has different responsibilities for Board and for DESE
Board can adopt regulation on new language in law; no different than prior adoption of language on laws

In short term for class of 2025: this is not many students
DESE has so far put out two rounds of FAQ
support to districts (webinar, trainings) and answering questions
changes to documentation on website
will be bringing language forward to clean up regulation language so it eliminates references to MCAS for graduation

• questions on current 12th graders who have not earned competency determination
• questions on if districts can set local graduation requirements (YES)
• questions on use of MCAS AS part of local graduation requirement (YES)
• districts continue to required to provide free and appropriate public education to students with disabilities; ensuring students with disabilities are not graduated simply to get them exited from the district
• recommendations for district competency determination; "they are recommendations at this point; perhaps in the future, they'll be more than that"
  will be speaking to districts on this tomorrow
• this applies to former students who had not received a diploma due only to not passing MCAS; they must be provided a PATH to competency determination; DESE has done this for many years, now shifts to local districts to provide this
• future of retests and appeals; DESE will be ending appeals (they don't do CD anymore); retests are continuing, as students take for scholarships, not only for CD; also districts may decide to use this as a local graduation requirement
• MCAS participation requirements: this changed nothing, as it is required by federal and state law.
• Seal of biliteracy and scholarships; uses MCAS, will continue to do so

Stewart: local districts have had to set local requirements for graduation all along so not clear on transition space?
Curtin: think it be really important that there be two processes here: one for local graduation, one for competency determination in the law
could have a district that has local graduation requirement of two years of science, if those were life science and geology, that coursework does not meet the language of competency determination of science of assessment of 2023, which is what the law says
strongly believe that there needs to be a separate process that the coursework aligns
as there is wide variance in local graduation requirements
Stewart: Sen Lewis talking about MassCore
Johnston: follow direction of Board on discussion
Stewart: what did we learn from not doing MCAS in pandemic?
Johnston: changed dynamic of student achievement since pause in MCAS of pandemic
see students not performing where they were
Stewart: acknowledge that, but what specifically, relative to MCAS, did the department learn from that?
Hills: for class of 2025, how many students have not yet earned the CD
Curtin: don't have it yet (there was a November retest)
although competency determination is still tied to a tenth grade standard, the CD could happen at any point
could be students who took a pattern of courses that don't follow meet state standards within the law
can provide number before November retest
"had enough concern that we wanted to bring this to the attention of the district...even if there was a need for second semester courses to change"
Hills: imagining school committee scrambling to provide three of this and two of that to ensure students are covered
"the law's the law" but this is coming
Curtin: there is that need to pivot and to pivot quickly
"the main message is it might be three and it might be thirty but they need to identify those students and give them a process this year"
Moriarty: impression that pause during COVID didn't serve seniors well
"not very optimistic where this goes"
"I don't have any sense...[of who is] working hard to provide solutions for their students"
hope to get better information from who is really embracing this and "providing best practices at the school board level"
Curtin: think we'll talk about what we're going to do at this level 

medium term: current high school students
DESE: develop and implement oversight of district processes; public reporting of those processes
"just under the powers of the Commissioner to collect data"
Board could: additional definition of terms through regulation
"what does it mean to satisfactorily master something"
possibly propose "additional areas" in accordance with new statutory language through regulation
areas that could be used for competency determination that an MCAS isn't administered in (as of 2023) is provided for in law
possible requirements on district processes; at this time, recommendations, but could be made requirements

longer term: not yet in grade 9

would like to create rules for high school graduations
"like to develop recommendations for new statewide graduation requirements"
may involve new legislation or under current law, Board could create regulation under current law
"I would say that it's important that we get to work on this"
middle schoolers are already on paths for math, for example
"It is important that whatever is going to happen long term, we get to work on that"
"take that urgency seriously and stand ready to begin that work"

West: think can't come up with a coherent approach within legal language
"I think what we have now is hard to make sense of"
coursework doesn't show mastery; could be read as assessment needing to provide a role
have to provide regulation so it is something for districts to work with
why based on 10th grade curriculum frameworks? Need multiple retakes and remediation
if graduation, why based on 10th grade?
have language now, even though not using a test, only doing on 10th graders
"this language is a mess...we need to get to work"

Hills: understand and respect on part of legislature
"but we still have an issue" if we think 351 districts (there aren't) making their own standards
"as we think of what we can do within the existing legislation, we're really limited in doing much that is significant and of consequence"
"if you don't, there's no actions we can take"
tread carefully on anything we can do with inputs as opposed to outcomes
MassCore as a substitute for a competency determination; skeptical that it could get passed
"we don't say 'congratulations'...because of MassCore"
"the mere requiring of coursework" doesn't demonstrate skills or knowledge
"don't think it's a particularly good idea to create a bureaucracy" for assessing district assessment
"everyone would hate that for the right reasons"
"whatever we do should not be to ensure districts are doing something"
some idea of what could get through the Legislature so as to cooperate
just pulled out a piece of the puzzle; other pieces are really important
"let's not pretend we're doing something that we can't actually deliver on"
"if we need changes, let's work cooperatively on something that's realistic"

Moriarty: "we've been disempowered to engage in this in a meaningful way"
constitutional mandates that are still there
would be interested in efficacy of MassCore
seal of biliteracy as a microcredential

Johnston: would be helpful to hear from Board about direction we can take in medium term
will be formulating soon what comes to Board in January and February

Hills range of views on Board
"however many cylinders you can fire on"
"there's some urgency"
"think this is interactive with us, with the Board and with the Department"

Mohamed: do we know what local graduation requirements are from districts?
Curtin: think there's been some external report done
internally, have not compiled officially
"there's wide variance across the Commonwealth"

ADJOURNED