Questions on MCAS report

Mayor: "while the President is mentioning UPCS as one of the best schools in the country, it's a Level 2 school"
failure of this data
"doesn't tell the whole story"
Boone: "Much better way of recognizing the sound progress in our schools"
"overly cautious that we not use one measure but multiple measures" O'Brien

O'Connell: appears that we've had success with our tenth graders
"seeing some declines" in grades 5-8
notes different cohorts
Any plan to review curriculum in those grades? issues that need to be addressed?
Are we not preparing our students to excel the appropriate level?
Boone notes that science has not been taught
Mulqueen: "new literacy in each of the content areas"
to think like scientists, to think like mathematicians
curriculum review will do that

Monfredo:"in past years...emphasis on math and language arts"
letters to Level 1, to commendation schools
"lack of growth in math"
Boone: "more alignment with the standards of the expectations across the board"
"nationally mathematics continues to be a concern"
Monfredo asks about after school programs
Mulqueen cites innovation schools

Novick: sorry, I had quite a few...
whiplash to be spending all this time on this after all the criticism heaped on the MCAS at last night's forum
 there may well be new Level 4's; we don't know for sure, and we don't know when
Yes, there were schools that dropped from Level 2 to Level 3 (three, I think was said?)
Motion to bill the state for resending MCAS to 10th graders
Motion to for an update on common assessment and on NCLB waivers

Foley: comparison group would be other urban districts for CPI
question of whether we will have 72 schools statewide that are Level 4; so far we have 36

Mullaney: are you mailing to every tenth grader, or just the ones that had the change?
probably just the new ones, Perda
Boone points out that there is  parent information on the department website
"why does the state think that any parent really cares?" asks Mullaney

Biancheria: what are we doing for middle schools that aren't innovation schools?
"alignment between the frameworks and the standards" says Boone
Biancheria questions what we are getting from Focus on Results for all the money we are paying
"we still have a tremendous amount of work to do"
science and social studies shouldn't be an afterthought; asks what we can do to bring science to the same level that math and English are
Boone: "we shouldn't have to have a test to teach social studies"
Mulqueen: essential lab components