October Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting: opening comments

Agenda 
Video

Chair Craven is remote

Public comment: single one asking that Boston add more exam schools, and complaining about "unleveling high schools": "no one cares about advanced children in this state"
"This Board doesn't engage; this is about accountability"

Craven who has lost her sister recently; she spoke about her sister at the last meeting
Commissioner's performance committee will now be chaired by Hills
Craven "the lack of writing and literacy skills that were unable to be conveyed during online learning" which is now a committee chaired by Moriarty
I can't help but reflect that they'll say that--which is untrue, by the way--and then they'll renew two online schools. So which is it?
Mohamed reports on the budget subcommittee; most of DESE's budget is ch. 70 and other aid specified by the Legislature; DESE doesn't have discretion over these accounts
federal funding as well 
Within the Department, there are priorities that align with some of the Commissioner's goals
early grade literacy; pilots for alternative assessment; career and vocational ed; targeted assistance to underperforming districts, including the $10M committed to Boston earlier this year; support for 'learning loss'; multi-tiered system of support; curriculum review and recommended best practices for adoption; rural school aid; addressing chronic absenteeism
budget committee will meet prior to the November meeting
Commissioner then will work with the Secretary of Education (WHO WILL BE SOMEONE NEW!--note she didn't say this) on the proposed FY24 budget

Moriarty reports on his reading committee (does this mean we have to hear this at every meeting?): "have been burning up the phone" with Department and colleagues
hope to have an organizational meeting in the near future to have a "deeper dive" into the results from today's meeting
I'm realizing as I am listening to him talk that this is an excellent illustration of someone's personal hobbyhorse becoming a subcommittee, even as what the subcommittee considers is in no way under the purview of the organizing board
"we want to identify best practices"

Peyser: last week was STEM Week
Data released last week related to college enrollment; overall down by 3.8%
Good news that first time undergraduates up by 3.1%, almost all at UMass
gets back to long-term concerns of the Board of college readiness and college matriculation
changing patterns in college attendance
gets back to early college, other efforts
school shooting in St. Louis yesterday: schools need to be a safe place, and we need to do everything we can to ensure that this continues to be case and he uses this to beat the drum on the Governor's proposal on "school safety" which is a little gross

Riley: Better Together School Summit; over three hundred family and staff members gathering Friday
talk together about how we can have better outcomes for our students
update on Boston, particularly transportation for students with disabilities
"have encouraged the district to work with the families to resolve this issue"
complaint has been filed with DESE; DESE has 60 days to issue either a letter of finding or of closure
BPS is not meeting its 95% goal that has been set
(shocker)
re: MCAS and NAEP, globally have seen losses brought on by the pandemic
"Massachusetts is no exception."
state "at or near" the top on all four of the subtests
much work to do with the learning loss
while "some particularly in recent times have been against standardized testing"
"that data is crucial for teachers to understand where students need additional help"
acceleration roadmap "where we asked students and teachers to work on their mental health needs" (wait, what? are mental health needs included in the acceleration roadmap?) while scaffolding learning that might have been missed 
"we refined" (?) our practice with additional time in summer programs and vacation academies
crucial to understand where we are first, and so today's presentation

Hills: follow-up on Boston Public Schools: how often will the Board get updates, and the Department was providing analytics
Riley: the Board will get updates monthly; have contracted with E-Y Parthenon to do that analysis