Questions on the report

Monfredo asks if we should be adding other programs; the superintendent responds (to sum) that implementing new practices is going to only make things scattered, that rather than buying new programs, we should use what we have from good teachers and implement internally. It's about implementing our own system that's going to last.
Mullaney wants to know if the School Committee is one of the circles in a diagram in moving things together: what is their role? The Committee should set a few high-priority goals that really drive the core work of the city.
Foley speaks of focusing on outcomes, results, not process. It's not a top-down model, it's a teacher-based model. Columbo says we have some of the most talented educators in the state in the Worcester Public Schools. People are eager to get to work on this. District has given them a framework to work within..."limited autonomy" He also feels the word needs to get out more and better on this.
Hargrove has been eagerly awaiting this presentation. She also wants to know how School Committee members can support this. Communication is critical.
O'Connell asks how we can work on kids who are moving within the school system (aha! The above point!), while retaining that school autonomy? The early reading curriculum is a help: bounded autonomy again. Much discussion here between Boone, Columbo, and O'Connell about how to get that district consistency while still allowing school-level autonomy. Also schools get more autonomy as they make progress, according to Superintendent Boone. O'Connell then asks how we continue to do this as the budget gets slashed next year. Making decisions around the instructional core...priorities...then seeing what's left.
Bogigian "I think we're on the right track"...teachers have to buy into any program in order for it to succeed. Uses his own experience to talk about teachers who have their own way of doing things...not forcing things...collaborating with teachers.
Lukes is "truly relieved and encouraged" that we have a plan to improve the schools that "have been failing for far too long.'