Three takeaways from this week's Board of Ed meeting

 Three things that stuck with me from this meeting: 

1. Both the Commissioner and CFO Bell gave a "yikes*" when it comes to federal grants during the budget update. While the federal entitlement grants were level funded by Congress, they're reallocated by state and then by district each year by demographic information. The state and districts may see less money this year.
   
   
2. Depending on what language the conference committee on the literacy bills comes out with**, the Department may end up in the awkward position of enforcing something that doesn't exist. In the literacy discussion, they were careful to note that their standard for "high-quality instructional materials" isn't "evidence-based" because "very few materials on the market have evidence of efficacy." This is, of course, more evidence (hmph) that the Legislature shouldn't be involved in this, but should be leaving this to the level of authorities who are doing the actual reading on this.
   
   
3. Speaking of not doing the reading, it was alarming to hear, in response to a question posed during the interpretation and translation regulation discussion, that the only guidance or recommendation coming from the Department on the use of AI in translation was that translations be checked by a person. So we're okay with teachers and others just dumping, say, an IEP into a chatbot where it then becomes part of the universe on which everything draws?
   FERPA, people.***
   Let's please do more reading about how this stuff works before turning our core responsibilities over in such ways.

__________________________

*not actually; my interpretation 
**assuming it comes out at all? Is it possible this terrible idea will just die there?
***when it comes out for public comment--it hasn't yet--this would be a very good comment to offer

This is not really related to the above but I thought it was funny.
source

On teaching the humanities

 From Iowa: 

Are we richer if we don’t know who Plato was, or fail to read the poems of the Roman poet Virgil? While we may still listen to Beethoven, can we understand the meaning of the music? Who will chronicle our time like Steinbeck, Hemingway, and Irving enlightened us about theirs? Where is Betsy Ross to sew our flag?

It really is time for the academic community, the humanities side, to sharpen their pencils, freshen their paint brushes, and tighten the strings on their violin. They can even ask their tech colleges to come out of Plato’s cave and join the fray.

And in the Yondr v actual students contest

 ...the students are going to win every time [gift link]

I thought this, from student journalist Joel Nam, was quite relevant (and not only on this): 

Let’s not pretend this outcome wasn’t inevitable. Any policy that hinges on student integrity, mass compliance and daily administrative policing is doomed from the start.

That full piece can be found here.  

Board of Ed for February: budget!

 "real challenge" per Martinez at federal level on funding, related to enrollment decline and other things
pay attention when things like this are said

Bill Bell on the Governor's budget

SOA implemented in full as of FY27

concern of how chapter 70 is working; increasing number of districts receiving minimum aid
Department, Commissioner, Executive Office, A&F "aren't tone deaf to the issue"
commitment to see through implementation of Student Opportunity Act; what leaders want to do after that "remains to be seen"

circuit breaker growing by $100M into next budget year

haven't received word on what the education funding levels would be for federal grants in entitlement grants
baseline is funded nationally, but allocations remain to be seen

Legislators have begun their process of budget hearings: education and local aid is March 23 in Lawrence

Hills asks if they have the resources needed to implement the goals
Martinez, in essence, says it is a start

Smidy: the capacity is very limited in the field
even with allocations and grants, a lot of schools are not going to be in a position to move forward with these initiatives if they don't have the resources to move forward

Craven: need a sense about what costs are being piled onto districts
Martinez: not only the need, but also where districts are in 
"when we use the word 'advocacy' we're using it too loosely"
nah, that's still advocacy; you just want specific advocacy
"how do we become strategic about our resources..."
this is what people say when they aren't going to give you more funding to do more things
report on local contribution coming in June 

Bell: another attempt to meet the needs of local districts and communities that exist within a capped revenue environment 

And adjourned

Board of Ed for February: regulation updates proposed

 These are in response to the Protect Education Equity Act as outlined here 

update regulations consistent with federal law on discipline procedures for students in special education
regulation for interpretation and translation for public schools
proposing to go out to public comment 
anticipating vote in June 

amendments to special education regulations 603 CMR 28
technical amendment (adding "state" to law in definition of IEP)
new section 28.11 of discipline procedures
mirror federal requirements

new regulations for translation and interpretation services 603 CMR 57
requirement is not new
law requires state to established clear statewide standards
qualification of interpreters both general education and advanced (requires specialized knowledge)
similar for translation
experienced-based pathway for those who served for at least two years in a district

non-regulatory actions by DESE 

proposal for a 60 day comment period

aha! "use of AI would need to be checked or verified before being released to a family"

so they aren't barring dumping an IEP into an LLM? Because that's a violation of FERPA

Board of Ed for February: early literacy

 Kershaw opens (which is interesting, because of course she's early ed!)
PRISM grants, Literacy Launch, high dosage tutoring
"struggling to see improvement statewide"
grade 3 "dropped during the pandemic years and has not yet bounced back"
"there's been lots of legislative interest"

Board of Ed for February: opening comments

 The agenda is here. The livestream is here. The meeting is fully remote.

tree in my backyard
why they are fully remote

Today will be (I believe) the sole appearance of  Amy Kershaw, as Acting Secretary of Education, as Steve Zrike will have started before their March meeting.