June Board of Education: accountability system

backup is here
Johnston: went out for public comment in April, May
information sessions for school and district leaders to understand what the changes are
also before the Accountability and Assistance Advisory Council
Curtin: fairly limited in the changes that were proposed this year
"wanted to give the system time to breathe and to grow and to develop a bit"



four categories of changes:

1. adding Project Lead the Way to advanced coursework
2. change in participation in testing of subgroups; now will be grouped across subjects
3. add a second year of data (from this school year); weight more recent year's data at 60%; last year 40%
   
4. labelling towards progress schools are making; change made off of what was proposed; now proposed asmeeting or exceeding targets, significant progress towards targets, moderate progress towards targets and limited or no progress towards targets. 

40 comments received
requests for adding more courses; there are other courses included list online
chronic absenteeism; some believe it should not be in the accountability system under the control of school system, or excused/unexcused absence "we think of this as a loss of instruction"
there is an appeals process
comments that year one should be tossed; 2017 was baseline, however
generally supportive of change in participation rate; call for additional accommodation for medical absences
mitigation of small subgroups

feedback on category change of names
"I wish I had thought of some of the ideas prior to putting it out to public comment"

not meeting targets not accurate; some progress may be made
labels by amount of progress being made; more accurate
"a lot more fair and a lot more representative of what is happening with results"

No change in regulation; just approvals to the system

West: will changes be made retroactively to last year for Project Lead the Way: yes
Doherty: do percentages mean the number of schools?
Curtin: no... theory every school could be in meeting/exceeding
Moriarity: "what I am hearing is that districts don't clearly understand the concept as much as I wish they would"
"just speaks to the need for professional development"
excused and unexcused absenteeism for truancy
"it's not rocket science; it just has to be clarified for people"
Stewart: counting attedance
Curtin: what counts as attendance being clarified with districts
at least half a day of instruction; can occur online, in school, through tutoring
"we do not differentiate between excused and unexcused"
Stewart: do we know why? have data on why
Curtin: when we look at similar type districts, we see varying levels of absenteeism across the Commonwealth
Johnston: some of this is about habits, creating the habit of going to school
Stewart: positive engagement in classrooms as well
West: leading causes of chronic absenteeism different than absenteeism
McKenna: in terms of data, is it resource driven for districts to have option to not be in school but be receiving education?

AND Approved