The Board of Education meets Tuesday

Back at what I understand to be the revamped meeting space on the first floor in Malden (wonder if they moved the electrical outlets), the Board of Ed has their regular meeting on Tuesday. The agenda is here.

They're opening with the usual round of comments: from the public, the Chair, the Secretary, and the Commissioner.

They then will be hearing a report on two initiatives: 

• Curriculum Ratings by Teachers (CURATE) 
• Middle School Science Curriculum Development (Open Sci Ed)

Is anyone else weirded out by the state running curricular initiatives? There's been a pretty clear line on the state doing standards and curriculum being left to districts to decide; the state doing these rating systems and going around districts makes me uneasy.

There's a discussion on setting the new MCAS standard for high school graduation (that's "competency determination), and if that's of interest, do read the backup. It says in part:

In order to provide adequate notice to students about the graduation requirement for their class, and to take the time to fully consider all the factors involved, I will engage and consult with stakeholders and the public before presenting my recommendations to the Board in the spring of 2020. It is critical that we gather information from representatives across the education, business, and community sectors as we decide how we will define a new competency determination and how it will be implemented. 

As part of the engagement process, I plan to convene an advisory committee—composed of classroom teachers, educational administrators, policymakers, representatives from higher education, and other stakeholders—to assist me in making my recommendation to you. The committee will consider key questions such as the following: 

What do students need to be prepared for beyond high school?

What can student performance on the assessments tell us about their ability to be successful in the future?

How can we best support all students, including English learners and students with disabilities, in acquiring and demonstrating the skills and knowledge needed to graduate from high school?

I'd note as an opening: the key stakeholder group doesn't clearly include school committees (unless they're looped in as policy makers), and definitely doesn't include parents or, er, students.

There's an update on what the Department is doing for district support in dyslexia. 
There will be an update on the school finance bill (no backup).
There will be an FY21 budget discussion.

There are also available, though not on the agenda for discussion: a report on grants, a report on the chronically underperforming schools, the schedule for charter authorization for this year, and a note about audits and reviews by the state (that none overlap).

That's all Tuesday morning at 8:30, and yes, I'll be there.