Board of Ed: report on Level 5 schools

You can find the backup here
Pia Durkin of New Bedford is here to talk about the Parker School
Chester says he sees her as turning around the district as well
Durkin: a gift to be able to serve as their receiver

Parker as incubator and vis versa
to stretch the district in ways previously unknown to them
curriculum, instruction, leadership, relationships
have struggled with how we make public and basic what our strategies are
instructional leadership by lead teacher, using teaching evaluation system
"largest tool we have" in terms of impacting the lives of children through improving instruction
pacing guides, pre-teaching
which students are learning, on time
full day 3 and 4 year old preschool
"if I had a magic wand, I would have this in every school in New Bedford"
students who were in preschool are going into higher grades "80 to 90 percent proficient"
PBIS: looking at relationships with students
"which choices are students making"
breakfast in the classroom
tutoring program with UMass Dartmouth
improving parental involvement
getting new windows through MSBA
still dealing with a tardy issue; importance of being on time
"though it is important to measure proficiency, I can't stress enough how important growth is"
"moving students out of the lowest levels of accountability"
growth is commendable, proficiency is the goal

Was 185 days, now 192 days of school
PD had been front-loaded during the summer; now embedded during the school year
summer programming was split; now continuous; now enrichment and intervention
parent engagement was family academy; now teacher learning conferences
what does differentiation look like at level, below level, and beyond
looking at student work to ensure application of skills and strategies
tracking individual student progress
when you look at how students apply the standard or the skill, you get a very different perspective

McKenna; how being a superintendent who became a receiver has been
Durkin: Parker represents what can happen if those barriers can be removed
"this is what I think many superintendents could use and could need"
"my first obligation is to my kids and to my families; my second is to my colleagues to say, 'We can do this.'"

YTD: suspensions at UP Holland are down to 4% (from 12%)
theme of staffing challenges across the reports
expectation that teachers will visit homes from Morgan; 77% have already done so
Rep. Peisch has filed legislation to give Level 3 districts "a zone" "to do more innovative kinds of approaches"
Sagan: why can't they do that now? What don't they have?
Chester: arguably there's nothing that would prevent a school district from doing that on their own
McKenna: there's innovation schools now, the difference is the teachers have to vote to bring in the difference
Chester: legislation anticipates it being more than one school