I had every intention of writing you at least two blog posts this week--one for what happened December 21, and one for what to know and consider in the next Worcester School Committee term--but COVID knocked me flat this week.
As the year and term ends, then, I'll leave you with how I closed with the Committee on the 21st.
He's more than the face on the attendance billboards:
As I often say, absenteeism is really a manifestation of a need being unmet. We need to think carefully about questions like, is there a mental health challenge the student is experiencing? Do they have stable housing and enough food? Those are the kinds of things that we're having deep conversations about. In our first fiscal year, we really were thoughtful about investing in mental health strategies and universal [mental health] screeners. I think we're going to see improvements over the coming years. But it is a big issue and we're paying close attention to it.
This is not, of course, how the Commissioner has been approaching this issue at all.
This may get interesting in the new year.
...squeaked in on the legal posting with fifteen minutes to spare this morning. You can find it here.
It's a two item agenda:
Burncoat High School was accepted into the Mass School Building Authority pipeline today, entering the Eligibility Period.
Burncoat's the oldest of our comprehensive high schools, being built in 1964. It serves 1174 students, and is home of both the arts magnet program and the dual language program.
YAY!!
...I feel as if the above title should continue "Part X of a continuing series"
Yesterday, the Boston Globe posted an article with the following headline:
.png) |
| Globe headline reads: "Pandemic funding for Mass. schools is going away, but state funding should soften the blow" |
The crux of the piece is:
In Massachusetts at least, schools will probably be much better off than those in neighboring states for the next school year, according to a recent analysis from Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab. The research center found that while the end of federal aid could mean, on average, a 3 percent reduction in funding in Massachusetts, most districts will probably see that loss mitigated by increased state aid.
aka: It's going to be less money everywhere, but it's going to be a smaller loss in Massachusetts.
The Mass School Building Authority has their final Board meeting on Wednesday, and their agenda (which I've shared here) includes an proposed (subject to Board vote) invitation to Eligibility which will be of local interest (last in alphabetical order):
Worcester Public Schools earns the Meritorious Budget Award!
Congratulations to Brian Allen, Sara Consalvo, Mohammed Siddiqui, Ivanna Then, Nancy Blomstrom, Akshay Guru Rajkumar, Liam Young, Stephanie Carrasco, Kate Ota, and Emma Kearney (that's the budget office).
As I have said many times: it is a great pleasure to get to work with such a well-prepared document, and none of us in Worcester should ever take that for granted.
Last night was a LOT, and with two members having commitments as parents and it being the mayoral holiday rounds, we ran part of the Committee with just a quorum, which is unusual!
That's why, oh committee watchers, I was chairing; in the absence of both the chair and the vice-chair, the senior member chairs (and then hands off sequentially, which is why Molly McCullough chaired when I was speaking).
Also, it appears the T&G is going to do a terrible job covering this meeting, so I guess it's up to us again.
On this day when we mourn yet two more shootings in Texas and in Nevada, and Senate Republicans again blocked an effort to reinstate an assault weapons ban, I would urge you to take time to read "Someone tell me what to do" which is the work of ProPublica, the Texas Tribune, and PBS Frontline on the police response to the Uvalde shootings. As the article opens:
When confronted with a mass shooter, the children and teachers of Uvalde knew what to do.
Many officers did not.
The part that was most heartbreaking to me: because the students were quiet, as they have been trained to be, the officers didn't think that anyone was in the classrooms.
Frontline has also a documentary that they've put together. You can read about the reporting here.
gb 3-257 O’Connell Novick (November 28, 2023)
To submit testimony in opposition to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s proposed increase in weight in the state accountability system for chronic absenteeism at the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s December meeting.
from the December 7, 2023 Worcester School Committee agenda
I suspect that you might need to be deep underground, beyond the reach of cell service, in order to have missed that there is some concern on children's school attendance. Just in the past two weeks, you could read about it in The New York Times, The Hill, USA Today, plus about every corner of the country.
If you've been following Board of Ed meetings here in Massachusetts, you may have noticed that this has been a frequent topic of Commissioner Riley at meetings; he spoke about it in October, and then again last month. He has declared, absent any research or even discussion, that the uptick in students being absent is a result of their falling out of the habit of going to school. When asked if he's discussed this with families (which Member Mary Ann Stewart has done at both meetings), his response has been that he's talked to--not with, let alone listened to--them.
He has decided, not only that this is a focus of this year, but that it is such a focus that the state accountability system needs to be reworked, so that districts can be (my quotes) "held accountable" for student absence.
Now, let me first be clear: yes, we have more kids not attending school than we did before the pandemic. The presentation at the October meeting made that very clear.
But what Massachusetts as a state does not know is why. We haven't asked. We haven't delved into the various and many reasons why kids might be missing more school than they were. What the Commissioner--and make no mistake that it IS the Commissioner--has done has simply asserted, in his ongoing conviction that school buildings being open is both an unequivocal and irreplaceable good, and that closing school buildings was nothing but harmful, that having buildings closed meant that kids "fell out of the habit."
In marked contrast, and just for example, last month The 74 suggested six reasons for children being increasingly absent:
The Commissioner's solution to this has been twofold: he has given, he's said, about $4M in grants statewide. $4M in a state in which the total for K-12 spending is somewhere in excess of $20B a year.
He's also going to put the Secretary of Education on billboards to emphasize to parents that it's important that their children attend school.
Now, I'm more than happy to see Secretary Tutwiler's general enjoyment of his job in more places. But the implicit condensation in billboards telling parents that school is important is a demonstration of just how little the Commissioner is connecting with anyone on this.
He's certain he knows what the issue is, despite no information.
Doing the actual real work of getting kids back to school more is hard, time consuming, and, yes, quite probably expensive work. It's about relationships, and health, and better support for families and students (and staff, come to that). It's about finding out why each student isn't coming to school, and what it would take to get them there.
That isn't what the Commissioner is doing here. There's no time, no relationships, very little money, and zero interest in the actual why's here.
The Commissioner now going to jump straight to punish--and that's all this is going to be is a punishment--districts who don't pull those rates up, with very little state support to do so.
Thus my item on Thursday's Worcester School Committee agenda. The only way we have of stopping this is for many--MORE THAN WORCESTER, please!--push back from the district level on this one.
The next meeting of the Board is on December 19.
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The post title is attributed to Mark Twain, but there is no evidence that he said it.
hearing will be going up here (updating as we go here!)
As reporter Katie Lannan notes:
✨three fiscal years at once✨ https://t.co/TYO13qYM98
— Katie Lannan (@katielannan) December 4, 2023
Senate Ways and Means Chair Senator Rodrigues notes that the Senate is in session, subject to the call of the chair and "I need to put fiscal year '23 to bed before I start talking about FY25"
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| I'm not including this below but I am not going to miss a chance to once again brag about the fact that both Mr. Hennessey and Mr. Allen got national awards because of our fabulous transportation department. Photo by Dan O'Brien from our November 2 meeting |
Before we move into December, in which you'll see some important things being voted complete--strategic plan! rules!--I did want to highlight a few things that the Worcester School Committee did during November that will matter:
First up, Governing looks at the culture warrior aspect of school board elections and looks into if that is waning:
There will be other issues that polarize future school board candidates as these shifts ebb and flow according to what’s been successful and what’s failed in capturing voters’ attention. That cycle of controversy is yet another reason why it’s too soon to call these elections results a permanent blow to extreme partisanship in school board elections. Complacency and a sense of too-early satisfaction around some wins in school board elections nationwide can’t help protect students and teachers’ rights.
Hey, I'm not going to talk about this, as my turn to talk about it comes next week, but do check out the draft WPS strategic plan. It was discussed at yesterday's Governance meeting (video embedded below) and is before the full committee for discussion next Thursday, with scheduled final vote for our final meeting of the year and term on December 21.
As noted during the meeting, there are some edits already in train, so note that the above is very much not the final document.
If you have comments, get in touch with the Committee!
And we're off!
and there is a memo here "Live to Learn
Wyvonne Stevens-Carter: puts no-cost quality instruction, advising, job training, and career pathways within reach of all adult students in Massachusetts
students are all different, they're reslient and indomitable
public education for adults is the bridge between living and learning
need for services and commitment from state; added 284 seats for basic adult education; 3087 English learner seats
and now a video from some of the students
putting opportunity within reach of everyone
update on early curricular materials Katherine Tarca
with guest stars Worcester Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Marie Morse and Manager of Curriculum and Learning Magdalena Ganias
the memo for this is here 'though that doesn't give any details
Curtin: adjusting the weighing of chronic absenteeism
students missing at least 10% of their days in the school year, so 18 days in 180 days
'19 was just under 13%
have come down from high water of 29.9% in '21 to 22% in '23
rate in elementary has doubled from before 2019
high school, percent increase isn't as great, but almost 30% of high school students are chronically absent in the '23
"impact is startling" MCAS for students who were chronically absent versus those who were not
close to half an achievement level of difference
all grade spans, all school types
Students who are not chronically absent achieve more highly
DESE is interested in increasing weighting in accountability system FOR THIS YEAR
"coupling this with...grant or seed funding to districts to work on the problem" plus a public service campaign
"But one of the levers that the Department has is the accountability system"
memo on this is here but I am just going to plunk them all here:
1.
By 2026, the state
will return to pre-pandemic levels (or higher) of the percentage of students
meeting or exceeding expectations on the MCAS:
a.
Increase grades 3-8
ELA by 10 percentage points to 52 percent of students meeting or exceeding
expectations
b.
Increase grade 10
ELA by 5 percentage points to 63 percent of students meeting or exceeding
expectations
c.
Increase grades 3-8
Math by 8 percentage points to 49 percent of students meeting or exceeding
expectations
d.
Increase grade 10
Math by 9 percentage points to 59 percent of students meeting or exceeding
expectations
2.
By 2026, the state
will return to pre-pandemic levels (or lower) of the percentage of students who
are chronically absent:
a.
Decrease the non-high school
chronic absenteeism rate by at least 9.4 percentage points to 9.0 percent
b.
Decrease the high school
chronic absenteeism rate by at least 9.1 percentage points to 17.3 percent
3.
By 2026, at least 85,000
high-school students will be enrolled in a designated high school college-and-career
pathway or program (e.g., Career and Technical Education, including Chapter 74
and “After Dark” programs, Innovation Career Pathways, and Early College).
4.
By
2026, the percentage of diverse staff in schools and districts will increase by
at least 4 points to 17.9 percent.
5.
By 2027, the state will offer structured professional learning
on evidence-based practices for literacy for all teachers and administrators with
responsibility for early literacy.
Mohammed: budget is just under $8B but vast majority is distributed via formula
memo is here
three priorities proposed:
The agenda is here. The livestream will show up here (and that's the only way to see it, as sadly the Board did not pursue the eagerness to meet in Worcester demonstrated last meeting).
Craven says they're meeting remotely "because there's no other place" (which is of course untrue; the Department is between locations, but that's it).
Interesting, Tom Moreau is on for Secretary Tutwiler; it also appears that Marty West is in a car.
In New Hampshire, which, according to the U.S. Census Bureau is the state that contributes the smallest percentage of local education revenue to local public schools by the most recent data, there were two related school finance decisions handed down yesterday.
In one ruling, Ruoff found that the current $4,100 base adequacy rate – the minimum amount of money the state sends to public schools for each student – is not enough to meet the state’s constitutional requirement to provide an adequate education.
The state instead should send no less than $7,356 to each student in order to meet its adequacy requirements, Ruoff ruled.
In a second ruling, Ruoff found that the statewide education property tax (SWEPT) is unconstitutional. That tax is collected by towns – not the state – at a set rate in order to provide funding for each town’s school district. But Ruoff held that the state’s 2011 decision to allow wealthier towns to retain any excess SWEPT they collect is unconstitutional and that the money should be distributed to poorer towns. Ruoff’s order Monday enjoined the state from allowing towns to retain that excess SWEPT in the upcoming tax season this winter and spring.
Per the Boston Globe:
Ruoff said he intentionally released the two orders together because he wanted the parties to be able to consider how a higher state contribution will impact the taxation scheme used to raise some of that money.
SWEPT is raised locally and kept locally. In most places, those funds don’t cover the full cost of education, so there’s also an additional local tax. But if a town raises more than they need through SWEPT, they get to keep the excess. That happens in about 17 percent of communities, according to Reaching Higher, a nonprofit education think tank based in Concord.
Ruoff said communities that raise more than they need can no longer keep the excess, starting with the next budget cycle. Those funds instead have to go to the state and “must be used for the exclusive purpose of satisfying the State’s adequacy aid obligations,” he said.
Related reminder that if daily education news is of interest, part of my job for MASC is putting together a daily education news collection; it's called The Daily Ed and goes out via email. Today's is here, and there's a link to sign up at the bottom.
Tonight, the Worcester School Committee accepted the report of the Governance committee, thus moving forward three finalists for the position of Worcester School Committee Administrative Clerk. The three finalists are:
Among those recognized with MASC Life Membership last week at the MASC Joint Conference was former Worcester School Committee member Jack Foley. I just wanted to share what was said about Jack there:
Jack Foley’s 22 years of service on the Worcester School Committee were an exemplar of, as the MASC Code of Ethics states, school committee service as “means of unselfish service with no intent to ‘play politics’ in any sense of the word or to benefit personally from their Committee activities.”Jack’s service to the larger Worcester Public Schools community began with his co-chairing, with eventual Secretary of Education Paul Reville, the successful city override vote of June 1991. That vote, two years before the McDuffy decision, was a marker of the needs on not only Worcester’s children, but the state’s children, for which Jack would continue his work on Worcester’s school committee.His service was always to those most marginalized, his focus always on the otherwise unheard. His leadership in committee work on school finance made him a trusted voice in the decade’s long work to reform the school funding system, 25 years after McDuffy.His professional career was as an administrator at Clark University in Worcester. In that capacity he was instrumental in helping to organize the first of MASC’s Poverty and Equity Summits, which Clark hosted.He is recognized for his work with other MASC leaders in focusing on equity and services for students and their families and for modeling the best in local elective public service.
Jack will receive this award at a December Worcester School Committee meeting.
With a new school committee will come the election of a vice chair, as the Worcester School Committee (unlike the Worcester City Council, for whom the vice chair is the mayoral candidate who came in second whilst also winning an at-large council seat) elects its own vice chair.
In the 2020-21 term, the vice chair was Jack Foley. Jack had also come in first in the election of 2019 (recall that Brian O'Connell's name was on the ballot, but he died in October), but Jack, we also knew, was retiring after his decades of service to the district, and thus was elected to the position.
In both cases, at least part of the consideration was also the power of the vice chair under most city school committees, and now under Worcester's, to work with the superintendent to set the agenda, and to ensure that the Committee fulfills its legal obligation to meet with the Student Advisory Council every other month. While this rule change only was implemented in this (2022-23) term, the revamping of the rules began in the 2020-21 term, to ensure that the Worcester School Committee was (finally) reforming itself in light of the critique of the Committee's lack of adherence to its business in the Comprehensive District Review of 2017 by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Prior to these two terms, the tradition--though this was not in the rules--was for the position to rotate among members. As the position of vice chair prior to this term had no authority beyond chairing the meeting in the absence of the mayor, considerations such as the ability of the vice chair to work with all members and with the superintendent, the knowledge the vice chair had of the role, purview and authority of the school committee, and the temperament of the vice chair did not play into the decision.
The recent history of the position is as follows:
2019: Molly McCullough
2018: Jack Foley (Brian O'Connell was the top vote getter in 2017)
2017: Dianna Biancheria
2016: Brian O'Connell (Brian O'Connell was the top vote getter in 2015)
2015: Dianna Biancheria
2014: John Monfredo (Brian O'Connell was the top vote getter in 2013)
2013: Jack Foley
2012: me (Brian O'Connell was the top vote getter in 2011 by 11 votes)
2011: Brian O'Connell
2010: Jack Foley (Brian O'Connell was the top vote getter in 2009)
...because, really, this is something to celebrate!
USA Today headline: "In school board elections across America, voters offer stunning rebuke of culture war politics" and here's the conclusion:
“It’s going to cause school board candidates down the road to seriously question whether affiliating themselves with some of these far-right groups is good for their chances of getting elected,” said Valant, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.
“I think a lot of them are going to come to the conclusion that it is not and that there’s too much risk that comes with associating with these groups,” Valant said.
Christian Science Monitor headline: "Parents’ election plea: Could schools get back to teaching?" and notes "a growing disenchantment with the way so-called culture wars have dominated school board discussions"
And Amanda Marcotte in Salon, who had done a report Moms for Liberty in Pennridge last month, followed up yesterday:
The suspicious aura of money around the group was interesting to journalists, but what really damaged Moms for Liberty was that they underestimated the intelligence of the people in the communities they were targeting. The parents of Pennridge were not fooled by attempts to characterize literary fiction as "pornography." Local residents also feared that rewriting history classes to adhere to right-wing mythologies would ultimately harm the school's reputation, which could hurt both their property values and the ability of their kids to get into good colleges. Above all, multiple parents expressed a belief that schools should be preparing kids for the real world. They worried that right-wing whitewashing of history, social studies and other courses would leave kids without the basic skills necessary to thrive in a diverse, dynamic society.
Don't rest on your laurels, but it's worth celebrating.
While I am not quite in a space to yet post on our local results from Tuesday, I want to be sure that you've caught the big national news on school board elections on Tuesday, which is that the Moms for Liberty, culture war candidates largely lost, and even lost in some pretty amazing places.
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| Front counter at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Malden, MA |
The Association Press has an overview here focusing on Pennsylvania:
In recent years, down-ballot elections have become proxy votes for polarizing national issues. Liberal and moderate candidates took control in high-profile races Tuesday in conservative Iowa, as well as swing states Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The New York Times (that's a gift link) frames it as "conservative activists for parental rights" which is doing that thing the Times does of buying someone else's framing, but closes with AFT President Randi Weingarten observing that this isn't what voters want their school boards focused on:
But the conservative push to restrict books and to ideologically shape the history curriculum is a “strategy to create fear and division,” Ms. Weingarten said. The winning message, she added, was one of “freedom of speech and freedom to learn,” as well as returning local schools to their core business of fostering “consistency and stability” for children.
(As a side note, catch how on brand charter and choice supporter Jeanne Allen is in that piece. She presumably hasn't caught that those issues don't win, either.)
PBS News Hour, which interviewed Julie Marsh, Professor of Education Policy, University of Southern California caught this quite well in this exchange:
Geoff Bennett:
Well, what effect has all of that had on significant issues that public school boards face, like teacher shortages, pandemic-related learning loss, school safety?
Julie Marsh:
This has been a distraction.
I'll say that I think most of the elections appear to be disagreeing with her conclusion, that it is driving people away from public schools. Instead, they appear to be moving away from those who have put school boards in this position.
HuffPost names Moms for Liberty specifically--Sarah Dohl put together a spreadsheet of how those they endorsed did!--and concludes:
After a lackluster showing from culture war candidates in 2022 and again last night, it’s becoming clear that casting public school teachers as the bad guys and Moms for Liberty as students’ only hope just isn’t the winning strategy that MFL and other conservatives want it to be.
And WHYY went to Central Bucks County, where the Democrats completed a clean sweep.
Amanda Marcotte in Salon notes this, on reporting from the Pennridge race:
The suspicious aura of money around the group was interesting to journalists, but what really damaged Moms for Liberty was that they underestimated the intelligence of the people in the communities they were targeting. The parents of Pennridge were not fooled by attempts to characterize literary fiction as "pornography." Local residents also feared that rewriting history classes to adhere to right-wing mythologies would ultimately harm the school's reputation, which could hurt both their property values and the ability of their kids to get into good colleges. Above all, multiple parents expressed a belief that schools should be preparing kids for the real world. They worried that right-wing whitewashing of history, social studies and other courses would leave kids without the basic skills necessary to thrive in a diverse, dynamic society.
Erin Reed summarized well on Twitter:
Political pundits: If your analysis of today's race results start and end with abortion, you are missing another huge part of the picture.
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) November 8, 2023
Book bans, anti-trans bans, and anti-LGBTQ+ policies are getting resoundingly rejected in school board races across the country.
I remember reading that part of what was so exhausting about the Trump administration--besides the ongoing "what fresh horror is this?" of the whole administration--was that so many of us had to be so ongoingly conscious of the presidency. This wasn't the attention of an active denizen in a democracy; this was the hyperawareness of someone who is watching for the next chance of being hit.
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| "The Awakening" at National Harbor, Maryland |
We don't have direct democracy in this country at any level save town meeting, and even there, a selectboard is put into place to conduct much of the business of the town over the course of the year. We hire, in essence, school committees and city councils and selectboards, as well as board of health and library boards and many other groups to conduct the week to week business of running our democracy and the parts it oversees.
There is a lot of that work that isn't very dramatic (when done right): ensuring that roads are repaired and plowed, that school buses run on time, that the water you drink is clean and is there when you turn on the tap, that trash gets picked up and disposed of some way we won't later regret, that the next generation is getting what it needs to keep the work running for decades to come.
And even the work that oversees that--the setting vision and direction, the setting the budget--doesn't, often look very dramatic. It's working to agree to what comes next for all of us as a community and how one gets there. It's knowing what the job of the governance board actually is and doing it.
One thing that I have seen written a bit about on school committees of late is how the very boringness of school boards has changed since the pandemic. Starting with school building status and moving quickly through masking and critical race theory and LGBTQ rights and book banning, the country has had a wave of fearmongering be very loud at our school committee meetings. The budgetary oversight, the policy work, the direction and oversight that is the charge of the school board in the U.S. has often gotten pushed out by this very loud fear of a small group of people.
That move away from the responsibility of the work, though, doesn't always come from either that space or those sentiments. There are other spaces and directions that flatten the attention of governance boards, such that their work of actual governance remains undone. To be consumed entirely by any single matter--to show no inclination or opening towards steps forward if they don't accomplish all wished for--to not come to the table prepared to do anything other than speak--that is to neglect the duty owed.
I bought myself a pin four years ago when I rejoined the Worcester School Committee, adopting as my own unofficial motto Emmeline Pankhurst's "Deeds not Words" as a reminder to myself as much as anyone that, while making a speech on a Thursday night may be satisfying, it doesn't, alone, change anything.
And change, of course, we have, over the past four years. We have a new superintendent, after a thorough, professional national search. That superintendent is, alongside an administration reconstituted to provide the support denied schools, doing the hard work of shaping our schools to work for all of our students. We brought, over the objections of the prior superintendent, district transportation in house, demonstrating not only that it could be done, but that it could improve performance and our relationship with our drivers and monitors, while saving the district money. We fought for and won increased funding for facilities, gaining reimbursement for Doherty's inflation, seeing reinstatement of the accelerated repair program, and securing increased funding per square foot for new buildings, putting us in good stead for a new Burncoat. We set forward, and will adopt by year's end, an updated strategic plan. We updated our own rules, ensuring we are focused on the work which is our own. We redrafted the dress code; we adopted a new elementary literacy program; we saw the new health curriculum implemented; we added guidance counselors, climate and culture specialists, mental health professionals, nurses, more funding for student supplies, and many teachers.
And that's just what this weary brain can conjure the night before the election.
But note that much of the above wasn't glamorous. It wasn't the result of speeches. It was deliberation in open session. Some of it was the result of compromises.
None of it was the work of any one person.
Many of us will cast ballots in the next few hours. If I have a hope this evening, not only as a candidate for public office but one who simply lives here, it is that we elect people who are in it to do the actual, non-glamorous, non-rhetorical work of governance.
Deeds. Not words.
Today there were two related cases argued before the Supreme Court which could have implications for local elected officials and their interactions with their constituents.
There's a good summary of the two cases on SCOTUSblog. In both cases, they have to do with public officials--in one case, it is two elected school board members (O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier which is from California) in the other, it is an appointed city manager (Lindke v. Freed which is from Michigan)--having blocked people on social media. Lower courts have found differently on if a public official can block someone on social media: in the California case, the court found that it was a First Amendment violation (the argument that those blocked were just the right of petitioning for redress), while in the Michigan case, the court observed a line between personal and political persona online.
...where the reporter clearly has been working for a bit on a story on the pushback on the district's work on diversity and inclusion work.
A small but vocal group of parents are spreading the idea that declines in standardized test scores in Newton are the result of diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programming in the schools. And they are drawing from the rhetoric of national far-right groups that have sprung up in the past few years to push an “anti-woke” agenda that’s being highlighted in the Republican 2024 presidential campaigns now taking flight.
I do want to note, though, that the idea that this is "unlikely" or surprising is ahistorical.
It first leaves out the point that Lily Geismer made in her book Don't Blame Us: Suburban Liberals and the Transformation of the Democratic Party that--and this is my summary--white suburbanites of metro Boston were all for equity right up until it started to hit at home. See, for example, the more than 50 years we have of METCO, without ever taking any steps towards actual desegregation as a state.
It also leaves out the pushback that has happened throughout America history of "Nice White Parents" and Mothers of Massive Resistance pushing back on what is perceived as threats to white children.
Filling in a bubble next to the Democratic candidate for president does not define someone. We need to work harder on knowing the landscape.
Kids cannot focus on learning if they’re hungry or worrying about where they’ll sleep that night.
— Secretary Miguel Cardona (@SecCardona) October 30, 2023
Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, child poverty rates have plummeted, and kids can simply focus on being kids.
...child poverty rates HAD plummeted, Mr. Secretary, but that is no longer the case:
Child poverty more than doubled last year:
The poverty rate among children saw a sizeable increase, more than doubling from 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% last year, census data shows.
Why?
The increase in the child poverty rate comes after the child tax credit expansion ended on Dec. 31, 2021.
(Thus no, it hadn't fallen due to ARP funding.)
more than 13 million children experiencing food insecurity, a jump of nearly 45 percent from 2021
It's pretty exhausting to have the people who are supposed to be on team "let's make sure kids have what they need to learn" get both their facts and their causation wrong.
via Bill Shaner's piece published this weekend.
Content warning: sexual assault, suicide attempt
as reported on the MASC page
The Mass School Building Authority met this morning, and made some significant changes to the programs they oversee, funded by the Fair Share amendment and changes made in the FY24 budget.
The first set of changes was to the cost funding limit per square foot that the MSBA will cover in a core project. Going forward, the Board voted to raise this amount from $393 per square foot to $550 per square foot. Additionally, going forward, the Board voted to include up to $55 per square foot for sitework. Overall, then, starting with the projects moved into Project Scope and Funding today, the total construction cost funding limit will be $605 per square foot.
Additionally, the Board approved adjustments to the total facilities grant available for projects approved prior to October 1, 2022, moving to $393 per square foot and $39 per square foot for sitework; this includes 30 projects. For projects approved after October 1, 2022 and before October 1, 2023, an increase to $516 per square foot and $52 per square foot in site work was approved; this includes nine projects.
Finally, the Board approved plans for an accelerated repair program, with applications opening in January 2024. This program will run biannually, with $150M allocated each year. It will be open only to window and roof projects; roof projects will include a study of feasibility of roof repair in the requirements. The MSBA will seek a contractor to study funding heat pumps moving forward, as the program will no longer include boilers. The MSBA will also be reviewing accessibility requirements and eligibility determinations for expanded HVAC items.
The above was made possible by action within the FY24 state budget, including an the increase to the annual MSBA cap, the removal of the accelerated repair program from the cap, a $100M supplemental grant, and the increase to the allowable rate of growth.
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Inquiring minds want to know: What does this mean for Worcester? Excellent question!
First, let's note that EVERY aspect of this is related to work that the Worcester School Committee specifically asked for: back in January, we had three asks for the budget:
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and there are some materials there
Claire Abbott, Office of Educator Effectiveness
third of what will be four updates on MTEL alternative assessment
Aubree Webb, also works there
and there are people here from CALDER (Center for analysis for longitudinal data in educational research)
focused on three strategic objectives:
Erin Hashimoto-Martell, Associate Commissioner of Instructional Support,
Katherine Tarca, Director of Literacy and Humanities
Reuben Henriques, History and Social Science Content Support Lead
Dave Buchanan, Massachusetts Civic Learning Coalition
Riley reviews recent headlines
"almost one in four Massachusetts children missed 18 days or more of school last year"
The Board of Ed meets today at 9 am. The agenda is here. The livestream will be here.
I don't like their new room arrangement.
Brookings took at look at where "Moms for Liberty" are, and where they are and aren't winning school board races.
Scholastic (finally) released a statement on their book fairs, and it leaves a lot to be desired.
I tweeted back this:
This is extraordinarily gutless, frankly. The librarians, teachers, and parents for whom you claim to be watching out for are putting their own safety and positions on the line in many cases to take actions to fight these efforts. You should be backing them up.
— Tracy O'Connell Novick (@TracyNovick) October 14, 2023
You’re caving.
I also appreciated this take:
Kids & schools deserve every opportunity to celebrate their #FReadom to read books! 📚
— Mychal (@mychal3ts) October 14, 2023
YOU belong in books, YOU ought to feel seen in books 💚
Books are beautiful, they’re joy, they’re our friends! Diverse books are beautiful, they’re joy, they’re our friends! ✨ https://t.co/LfoByLLljk pic.twitter.com/ysPsv6bFKr
The bills that would allow for video from stop arm cameras on school buses (like those Worcester already has) are up for a hearing before the Legislature's Committee on Transportation on Tuesday of next week in room A-1 at 1 pm.
I plan to attend and testify. Note that this is also Resolution 6 before the MASC Delegate Assembly next month.
Anyone can submit public testimony and I highly recommend it if you are a student, family member, bus driver, or otherwise concerned! Emailed testimony goes to Kirsten.Centrella@mahouse.gov.
Two to read today:
First, check on this extensive piece from Amanda Marcotte on Salon on the pushback the Moms for Liberty who took over the Pennridge School Board in Pennsylvania are getting. Pennridge is a bellweather for Pennsylvania, which is a bellweather for the country.
Yes, the Pennridge school board was dominated by far-right members, one of whom had been present in Washington for Donald Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally-turned-riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Yes, at least five of the nine board members were linked to Moms for Liberty, a right-wing "astroturf" organization that has orchestrated a national campaign to remake public education along arch-conservative and anti-intellectual lines. But Pennridge board meetings for months had been dominated by outraged parents speaking out against the Moms for Liberty incursion and the board majority's apparent agenda.
As always: it is not only Pennsylvania, so pay attention to local elections!
Second, it appears that Scholastic book fairs have been presuming there might be pushback on books and is allowing a check off to, Twitter has subsequently turned up, opt IN to so-called "diverse" books:
Can confirm that they had to be opted into and the boxes of books were labeled “diverse” when they arrived.
— Aislinn (@itmeansdream) October 10, 2023
...with an APOLOGY IF YOU GET THEM ACCIDENTALLY!
I saw this in a FB group today. Scholastic book fairs is not only offering an easy & preemptive way to censor BIPIC, Queer, & other historically excluded voices out of their book fairs, they’re actually apologizing JUST IN CASE TGEY ACCIDENTALLY FAILED YO CENSOR FOR YOU https://t.co/vYnR8X9mS0 pic.twitter.com/fM38sxZ0zg
— Kelsey Bogan, MLIS (www.DontYouShushMe.com) (@kelseybogan) October 10, 2023
You may have seen that WPS has updated their school safety protocols.
(This actually happened, as families and staff may remember, back in the spring, but it didn't get the same public side launch.)
It delineates what we expect staff and students to do in various situations that happen in schools:
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The Boston Globe has an enormous, fearmongering article today on early literacy; I've posted it here as a PDF if you don't have an account.
The reporters--there are two, Mandy McLaren and Naomi Martin--have as their thesis that Massachusetts is falling behind other states in students' abilities to read, particularly for students who are low income, and that the solution to that is to have our Legislature pass laws requiring particular kinds of curriculum.
Former Worcester Mayor Jordan Levy died last night, and I want to be sure we remember his contribution to equitable school funding in Massachusetts. In 1989 when he was Mayor (and Chair of the School Committee) he filed, in the name of his daughter, Levy v. Dukakis together with families from Carver, Revere, and Rockland challenging the constitutionality of the school finance system. That case was joined to the McDuffy case, which of course found that the school finance system was unconstitutional, and gave us the foundation budget system we use.
It was a case filed on behalf of Worcester's schoolchildren, and really all of the children of Massachusetts, which is itself quite a legacy to leavy.
Rest well, Mayor Levy.
...which even EdWeek is saying "(again)" about.
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| There is no good news here, so please enjoy this chicken. |
First, a lot of what I wrote in 2013 is still the case, as two things still hold true:
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits—also known as food stamps—would only be guaranteed through October and federal funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) would run out a few days into a shutdown, CNN reports. Food banks, Meals on Wheels and housing assistance programs would also be disrupted, causing continued uncertainty for families.
The biggest impact could be that, the longer a government shutdown lasts, school staff will likely have to contend with growing needs in surrounding communities. Some 10,000 children would immediately lose access to Head Start because grants would not be awarded during a shutdown. And, The White House warns, the impacts on the pre-K program would worsen over time.
no questions on this which passes
Bell on the FY24 budget
third year of Student Opportunity Act implementation
weighted to districts with greater need
increase in minimum aid to $60 per students; costs about $16M to the Commonwealth
"basically halfway through the investment called for in the Student Opportunity Act"
commitment to support districts with extraordinary special education costs (circuit breaker): to about $500M
impacts of increased tuition rates through special education private schools
$5M to $20M for assistance for the current year (as circuit breaker is a reimbursement), plus $75M sent by Governor to Legislature in supplemental
increase in almost $10M in rural aid
transportation reimbursement accounts funded at highest levels:
regional and non-resident students funded at high levels
homeless transportation significant strains as it relates to families needing services; working with administration to identify what those additional costs will be
remains to be seen what those homeless transportation costs will be
universal free school meals started last year through supplemental budget; effectively state's wraparound payment (additional to USDA) "we think that's a good thing"
a lot of new things happening in the budget, too
continued investment in other programs, mostly through grantmaking
assist schools with green schools; "not an activity we're familiar with"
digging in in consultation with the MSBA; new initiative we'll be working on
ESSER: closing in at end of spending authorization for ESSER II
85% of funds claimed (about $115M not claimed) in ESSER II; "certainly doesn't mean it won't be claimed"
"late liquidation" process on a project basis; obligation has to occur, but 18 month reconciliation side
ESSER III (good through end of next September): 55% claim rate (roughly $1.1B still available)
actively engaged with school districts that still mathematically still have a lot of funding unclaimed on the spreadsheets
roughly $1B is out to be claimed
Riley: achievement slide caused by the pandemic appears to be over
"either maintained or increased number of students meeting or exceeding"
"need to continue on the momentum"
accountability : "today's data will not include any exiting or entering underperforming status": coming in the coming weeks
66 schools of schools of recognition
Curtin: "the embargo on the results is lifted"
"achievement slide since 2019 has halted and recovery is fully underway"
Science remain relatively unchanged
"positive momentum" towards recovery
one caution is grade 3 "has not increased"; results are flat
they were in preK or K during height of pandemic
statewide results can mask school and district results
all grades in ELA either held or gained ground over last year
compared to 2019, still have ground to make up; on average 10% points off 2019
grade 10 flat from last year
by race and ethnicity relatively unchanged with overall results; Black students 1% off of 2022, 4% compared to 2019; Hispanic students just about back to 2019 level
"math represents a similar but better story"
really large increases of +3 (grade 4) +5 (grade 5); flat results in grade 10
by race and ethnicity; "more in the two range across the board" increases across the board
compared to 2019, distance to be made up
in math in grade 10, greater than in ELA
science, relatively stable, slight decreases "caused by rounding"
cannot compare grade 10 to 2019 as implemented new science test in 2022
5% increase in grade 10 Asian students compared to 2022
accountability system running in full for first time since 2019
all schools receiving overall accountability classification, plus student group percentiles
criterion referenced percentage towards targets
no designations on underperforming or chronically underperforming exit/entrance today
of 1832 schools, 226 receiving "insufficient data"
remaining 1607: 1331 "not requiring assistance or intervention" 83%
275 "requiring assistance or intervention" 17%
also normative indicators 1-99 within grade groupings
points assigned on progress towards each accountability indicators
over 60% of 50 or higher making either substantial progress towards targets or meeting or exceeding targets
Craven: asked for overview prior to release of scores, will have Hills
Curtin: "nothing I say today should be construed as myself or the Department as taking any position on any proposed ballot question"
McDuffy v. Secretary
Riley: current dates back to 1999
"document has benefited further from public comment"
up to individual school districts to determine implementation
parents continue to have right to opt children out of sexual education "which is a very small portion" of these frameworks
they didn't put names on the slides so I have no idea who is talking; it's DESE staff
Kristen McKinnon, Assistant Director for DESE’s Office of Student and Family Support:
grateful work of many (some of whom are named, but I am not catching these names)
now going over process...which I am not going to type up, because you have been here for much of it
public comment made "more accessible and ready for our educators and students to access"
reviewed and analyzed the nearly 5400 pieces of public comment
(and this is someone else)
will then launch implementation support sessions and resources; PD, online connections to other frameworks; and update crosswalks to national standards
Stewart: was pleased to see the language was broadened to include social media
Hills: add appreciation; work started pre-pandemic
Gardiner: adds appreciation for (her fellow) students for their advocacy
Moriarty: glad to see that it's responsive to public comment; glad to see implementation; completing the set
have now worked through all the curriculum frameworks
"Don't stop...excellent opportunity to take a fresh look" at all the frameworks
West: question: received correspondence from people in Newton (notes "strong Newton contingent on Board")
Safe Routes to Schools task force comments received but weren't in what was received
answer: it was an oversight; updated on website
Vote: PASSES UNANIMOUSLY!
five minute break!
