Wednesday, February 23, 2011

And so it begins...

Dated August 10, 2010, this is the first email regarding the Goddard MCAS scores of those Dianna Biancheria and I received from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. 
The email is from Matthew Pakos, DESE's School Improvement Grant manager, (while SIG became School Turnaround Grants, like those applied for by Union Hill and Chandler, up until last year, Worcester simply received SIG funds, and so Pakos would have some oversight for the district) to Robert Lee, Chief Analyst for DESE (he's the chief MCAS data guy).
Pakos refers Lee to the Goddard data (CPI stands for "Composite Performance Index" which is a sort of average of student performance) and calls the gain "extreme."

6 comments:

Neil and Joan said...

Matt also has state oversight for all Title I grants.

Neil and Joan said...

Matt also has oversight of all MA Title I grants.

Tracy Novick said...

Thanks, Joan! Yes, I had to cast around a bit to figure out the connection.

Bill Randell said...

great job

Neil and Joan said...

He is fairly new to the job. A few years back he replaced a woman who was quite possibly the most knowledgeable state Title I director in the country. He is a really nice, very personable and extremely intelligent "kid" who had to learn the job on the fly. His connection to WPS goes back to Dr. C during the time when Julianne Dow was trying to dictate how districts spent all their Title I funds. Every district had a grant reader and reviewer and she assigned Matt to that role with the WPS around 2007.

Tracy Novick said...

I just figured out this week that the state has some Title I oversight. I didn't previously realize they had a say.