The Board of Ed meets in Malden Tuesday

And the agenda is online here. If it seems like it's been forever--just me?--that's because the December joint meeting with the Higher Ed board was cancelled due to snow and ice, and November was that weird short one that was mostly about Kaleidoscope.
Anyway, this one, after the usual round of opening comments, opens with the consideration of the competency determination for graduation; the recommendation:

I recommend that the Board vote on amendments to the regulations that govern the CD, to extend the interim passing standard for one additional year to the class of 2023.

Redline tracking of the proposed change in regs is here.
On the same item, there's some discussion of a five year research study being done in partnership with Brown: "The grant will fund a study of the state’s high school exit exams the use of performance levels and how they relate to long-term student outcomes, and the CD policy, among other topics." The results so far (again, this is all in that memo) are interesting (and they're an example of why I think more people should read Board of Ed reports):

The initial findings from this research partnership can be summarized as follows: 

• Since the CD policy went into effect, grade 10 MCAS scores and educational attainments have increased despite changing student demographics.
• Grade 10 MCAS scores are an early indicator of long-term success, even among students with similar characteristics and grade point averages.
• Students scoring at the needs improvement/warning cutoff (a scaled score of 220 on the legacy MCAS), do not appear to be college- or career-ready.
• Gaps in later earnings between higher- and low-income students are explained by differences in grade 10 scores and educational attainments.

The second item, tagged as "evidenced-based policy making," appears to be about coordination among and between various departments. There is a proposal that the Board pass a motion supporting it.
There is a vote to solicit public comment on a change in regulation that would allow for alternative assessment for educators.
There is an update on, honestly, it's more a summary of the Student Opportunity Act. Possibly the most telling line:

Implementing this comprehensive legislation will require considerable effort by Department staff and educators in the field.

There's a discussion and a vote on City on a Hill Charter in New Bedford surrendering its charter., as well as an update on the rest of their schools.
There's a vote on amendments of charters, all of which are expansions:

Boston Day and Evening Academy Charter School (a Horace Mann charter school)
Pioneer Charter School of Science II
Veritas Preparatory Charter School

There are also reports on the three charters on probation:

• Boston Green Academy Horace Mann Charter School
• Helen Y. Davis Leadership Academy Charter Public School
• Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School

In sum, the recommendations are not much change: 

I recommend that the Board vote to extend the status of probation currently imposed on the charter of [Boston Green Academy]. I recommend that the Board vote to remove the status of probation currently imposed on the charter of [Helen Y. Davis], but maintain a set of conditions to monitor the school’s governance and improve academic performance. I recommend that the Board vote to maintain the status of probation currently imposed on the charter of [Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School]

There will also be an update on the budget; speaking of which, the memo from the Commissioner to the Secretary on DESE's budgetary priorities (why is this dated January 17??) is of interest, particularly as I'm not clear that any of them were fulfilled?
To my point at the end of the post on FY21:

The Department’s programmatic administrative resources to oversee the expected additional responsibilities likely to be called for in the Student Opportunity Act. Resources would be prioritized for data analytics and school finance work designed to support the oversight of district plans as discussed in the Student Opportunity Act.

 And yes, I am planning on being there.