The Board of Education meets for November next Tuesday

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meets next Tuesday at 8:30 am (note: no Monday night meeting this month). The agenda is here. After the opening comments from the Chair, the Secretary, and the Commissioner, there will be time for public comment.

Sydney Chaffee, Massachusetts and National teacher of the year, will be presenting (as is the tradition. These are usually quite good, and also among the only times the Board hears directly from a teacher on a topic of the teacher's choosing.)

There will be an update on the Commissioner's search (get those applications in soon!)

There will be an update from Lawrence, which is of particular interest in light of last week's announcement that the current appointed receiver Jeffrey Riley will be stepping down at the end of this school year; he will be replaced by a board appointed by the Commissioner (hmm...which one, I wonder?).

There will be an FY19 budget update.

There will be a discussion and vote to solicit public comment on the proposed (and verbally supported by the Board) hold steady standard setting on MCAS for the graduating classes of 2021 and 2022. That is, they'll take the new test, but the passing score will be set equivalent to the current difficulty level of passage with the old test.

There will likewise be a discussion and a vote to solicit public comment on a change to regulations around foster care to bring the state into ESSA compliance.

And there will be a discussion of virtual schools.

There will be an initial discussion on the revision of the social studies standards, and an update on the implementation of the ELA, science, and math standards.