October Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: goals of the Commissioner

 Riley: "while the Department historically has been one of compliance, enforcing mandates, both federal and state" has argued since his arrival "that we at DESE need to play a more supportive role with our districts"
think the goals reflect that thinking (presentation here)
also think the Department needs to decide "if we're going to continue to be a kind of counting and a mirror organization or are we willing to jump in and support our districts"
wait, how are those two different things?
Strongly recommending move towards support

four themes:

• Provide Supports to Accelerate Student Learning 
"this is shifting away somewhat from that compliance role"
early literacy, acceleration academies, deeper learning, early college, IEPs and English learners

• Build a Diverse and Culturally Responsive Workforce 
"research proven to be effective for children"

• Cultivate Safe and Healthy Learning Environments
mental health "students came back from the pandemic often disregulated, often with challenges"
that includes mental health, food, housing

• Align DESE Supports to a Shared Academic Vision of Deeper Learning
"a vision for where we're going with this Department"

Peyser: "this are ambitious goals, and these are the right ones"
balance essential "with areas of improvement"
would suggest--"I was going to say 'add,' but I don't want to add to an already long list"--is early college (which Riley just said under student learning) 
would add career pathways
strengthening career pathways
"think of that in point four of the first point"
"the 25 percent growth...ambitious...would include innovation pathways and the after dark vocational programs"
existing programs are already growing as well
h/t to Secretary Peyser for demonstrating up to the end here that the Baker administration has been only early college and very specific aspects of vocational
Riley: were talking about students in high school being disengaged prior to the pandemic
"this idea that students are ready to do more...resonates with me"
Peyser: early college, strengthening Department's capacity to manage it
"don't want to lose sight of something that's really something internal"

Stewart: visioning exercise
really looking forward to having them share their vision
strategic plan: data being collected educator preparation programs
look at everything being proposed here: has to be "sauce that pulls everything together...and that's family engagement"
just want to see more of that
Riley: going to be talking about that on Friday

Mohammed: curious: how will you know over the course of the year where you are?
What kind of targets do you have?
"is there some kind of dashboard" that provides where you are
Riley: most of these goals are measurable
we can find a way to distill those and capture those for this Board to understand

West: thoughtful document, appreciated foregrounding accelerated student learning
sometimes you have an overarching goal with others in service of it
didn't see included anything on the changes in the competency determination process
"hope that's on your radar screen as well"
Riley: can expect we will adhere to the regulations as we begin to roll this out
important to hear from districts themselves in how it is rolled out

Lombos: glad to see diverse and culturally responsive workforce
interested in how we get to tried and true data-proven ways for students of color to improve
culturally responsive and inclusive curriculum is another way
Riley: focus on data to serve all our students better; "see what is most impactful"
"prior to five years ago, we didn't understand that there was a relationship between teachers of color and student performance and we're probably the only state that's focusing on this right now"
that is entirely not true, but it is troubling that he would think that; does he pay so little attention to what other states are doing?
These are the "kinds of data nuggets that we're looking to recover"
Canavan: what are the levers we could pull or push to have the greatest results?
had seen data that was even more granular than (what was just presented)
wonder as we highly these bullet points "to really really push on absenteeism"
really effectively move the needle on
how is the state going to move the needle on that?
Riley: for the first time, many families have children who were chronically absent "through no fault of their own"
"this is something...we're going to keep pushing out to parents and out to the public"
"kids that for whatever reason were caught up in COVID protocols missed more days of school"
(some of them got caught in COVID? itself?)
Canavan: "I had a kid who missed ten days of schools, because at that time the protocol was staying home for ten days...you could get super unlucky and be exposed multiple times, but is the lack of luck...anecdotally there seems to have been a shift in attitudes about attendance...COVID itself has been a huge driver of absence, but COVID has also been a driver in people getting used to not being in school as much"

Hills: was struck by the comprehensive nature of the goals in the memo when I read it
liked the comprehensive nature of what you were trying to do
set some expectations as part of a final document for a year from now what this Board should expect to see
resource conversations with the Governor and the Legislature
"Set our expectations given what we're seeing"
Riley: state ed departments move at "a more ponderous pace"
saying we need to move "more urgently...also be able to pivot if need be"