Board of Ed: early literacy

 memo is here

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

resources that are used by schools in delivering instruction 
Department recommends a single core curriculum for use across classrooms
"teachers can and must make instructional choices to use that curriculum to meet the needs of particular students"
"no one curricular product is perfect"
help each district use a thoughtful adoption process
increase in number of districts reporting, and of number of districts reporting using what DESE calls "high quality instructional materials"
quite a few have simply not reported that information
Department has provided grants and some districts have used ESSER funds for this
supports and resources from Department

Dr. Morse: "if we know better, we need to do better"
"change can be very very hard, but change was a non-negotiable"
she has a list here of what was used to make the decision...I'll backfill
Dr. Ganais: evaluation on a list of criteria, including multilingual supports and culturally relevant 
how did it align with standards: balance of informational and literacy reading over course of year
writing instruction
meeting the needs of diverse learners 
pilot in K, 2, 4
all schools will trained and received ongoing supports
data collection via biweekly survey; classroom visits; feedback sessions for final recommendations
multiyear implementation plan 
Morse: "a revelation about rigor" it's "raised the level of discourse immediately"
students love core knowledge units 
are skill gaps and opportunity gaps
working with a task force of teachers and district team to regularly review to ensure we're modify or enriching curriculum as we go
"an ongoing process...professional learning must be ongoing"
"Worcester Public Schools is committed to doing this well and doing this right."

Hills: to what extent was lack of funding an impediment to going even faster?
Morse: grateful for DESE support, "but money is always an issue"
"opportunity to purchase a high quality instructional material" that would not have been possible without funding
hope Board will continue to identify as a priority
will constantly have to spend money to provide resources for schools
Worcester did this with $6M in ESSER
Hills: "this is just such a foundational issue..."

Moriarty: financial issue but other things in place
"an implementation plan is something we're hearing over and over again is a gotta have"
will impact a greater number of kids because of scale
"I think this has got to be a tremendous" decision on Worcester's part (budgetarily)
"creates tensions..."
"speaks to what other states have done"
"I think guardrails are necessary"
"I just can't thank our friends from Worcester enough"

Fisher: thanks presenters
teacher preparation: did teachers have background or were there gaps?
Morse: have educators from every generation
"we are seeing circular changes in how our teachers are prepared for learning...no one is quite prepared for what we are today"
"should take into account the strengths they bring to the work" approach from a cup half full rather than a cup half empty 
"we're really grateful for the colleges we have"