Board of Ed for November: opening comments

 The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meets today at 9 AM. The agenda is here. The livestream will appear over here.

The meeting is being chaired by Vice Chair Matt Hills, as Chair Katherine Craven is remote today.

Joint Committee on Ways and Means hearing on education and local aid

 

sign from Amherst Regional

Coming to you live today from the Joint Committee on Ways and Means hearing at UMass Amherst. A number of the surrounding districts are here--Quabbin Regional brought a bus; Amherst Regional walked over--and I just hope someone told all these people that they don't take public testimony. If you're here and need power, by the way, I have a power strip at one of the outlets, so come over if you need it.

I'll post as we go. Note that they have us in what is the airplane hanger of an auditorium on the first floor of the Campus Center, so I can barely see the committee members; I'm making no promises on being able to identify speakers.

They'll start with intros then have the Secretary with the three Commissioners.

MASC President Ways and Means testimony

I am posting here the whole of the oral testimony of MASC President Mildred Lefebvre of Holyoke.

Jack Foley recognized

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. 

There are meetings in Worcester this week!

There are THREE Worcester School Committee meetings this week!

• Monday night is the third of the four of budget sessions to inform the plan due April 1 under the Student Opportunity Act. This one is at Doherty High and like the others is at 6.
• Wednesday night is the fourth of these sessions, this time at North High, also at 6.

Do remember that these sessions are open to ANYONE (and have food and have translators! And crayons, for that matter), so please do come.

Thursday at 7 pm is our REGULAR meeting (yes, we just did that last week, but February break always throws off the sequencing, which is usually the first and third Thursdays). While the agenda doesn't yet appear to be up (and no, that isn't an OML violation, as there's still more than 48 hours on business days before then), we do have ours, so let me give you the run through:

2018 MASC Delegate Assembly

You can find the resolutions being considered here. 
Resolution 1: Arming of Educators
Resolution 2: Small and Rural Districts
Resolution 3: Elimination of the Federal Department of Education
Resolution 4: Regional School Transportation
Resolution 5: Reporting and Accountability Standards
Resolution 6: Reproductive Health
Resolution 7: Gender-Identity Inclusive Athletic Participation
Resolution 8: Sports Wagering
Resolution 9: Access to Information for Parents of Special Education Student

Commissioner Jeffrey C. Riley at the MASC MASS Keynote

blogging from the Wednesday night Keynote address at the MASC/MASS Joint Conference in Hyannis, where Commissioner Riley is keynoting

"Personal relationships matter. Kids are always watching."
Have done nearly every job in public education...really orient myself first as a parent
often talks about his daughter, who has special needs but has had amazing teachers
His daughter has demanded equity, so he'll speak tonight about his son
"after about question 17, I would start making things up" when his son was three
grass is green because the leprechauns come every night and paint it
"that went on and on until I started to get in trouble with my wife and the day care providers"
"no matter how smart kids are, they need to be taught"
"no matter how bright people are, people are still capable of making mistakes"
Twenty-five years of education reform, "we've done good things, we've done some not-so-good-things"
have left many kids behind"we have to do better by them"
"need to put down our partisan swords, come back under the tent, and make some plans for the next twenty-five years"
pendulum has swung a bit far
focus on classroom instruction
"kids learn through play, yet we beat that out of them by second grade"
"high school...we send them from box to box and have them do worksheets"
"I believe in Massachusetts exceptionalism in a deep way: we have the Red Sox, the Patriots, the Celtics, the Bruins and the teachers of Massachusetts"
"change happens and change is coming...how do we get our kids there"
"we need to delve deeper on supporting kids' mental health needs"
"I think it's time that we started talking about the reality: the school funding system is broken"
was superintendent of a district that was shorted between $8 and $10M a year
"in the past, commissioners have not taken on an advocacy role: I am not going to be one of those commissioners"

And the Commissioner closes with "Three Letters from Teddy" by Elizabeth Silance Ballard (as he often does)

Lively Worcester School Committee agenda for July

Not a dull agenda for July!

First, note that there is a Teaching, Learning, and Student Supports meeting on Thursday immediately preceding the full School Committee meeting at 3:30 pm at City Hall; it appears as though this is only to approve the four new courses listed, 'though they persist in just listing every item that has been referred there on the agenda, which is not okay.

The full Committee meets at 4 pm (it's summer) at City Hall, but note the "now they're here, now they're not" schedule:

• 4:00 p.m. - Regular Session 
• 5:00 p.m. - Executive Session 
• 6:00 p.m. – Regular Session and Proposed Strategic Plan

Board of Ed in sum for June?

It's posted over here.

EDITED TO ADD: Can I just say a thing about this?

Earlier this week, Massachusetts:

• got new standards in what we're teaching in history and social studies, including deep conversations around the histories of marginalized groups, of protest, of use of first person sources, of focus on whose stories are told.
• adopted changed regulations around how we teach English language learners, among the fastest growing group of students in our school systems.
• changed how we evaluate schools and districts and how we talk about that.

That's some pretty big stuff.

There was not a sound or syllable on this anywhere in the press, as far as I can find.

Yes, there is a lot going on. But all of the outcry over civics, over those not knowing history repeating it, over the weaponization of language, over questions of who speaks what and why, over who has resources and who does not, over what it is we're doing when we educate kids? That's all in here.

AND IT DID NOT GET MENTIONED.

It is really important when we change history standards and talk about whose history we teach.

It is really important when we adjust how we teach kids who learn English and talk about who speaks what language and why.

It is really important when we shift our measurement and evaluation of schools and how we talk about this.

These are all current, highly-relevant conversations that are being had at every level. What we do with our kids informs the future of this country and the world at large. 

We really can't afford to skip this stuff.

Steve Finnegan talks McDuffy at MASBO

Steve Finnegan, MASC General Counsel, is at MASBO's Law Institute today to talk about the McDuffy case.
Note, by the way, Worcester Magazine's update on Worcester and Brockton. 
MASBO says:

Attorney Finnegan will retrace the activity which lead to the landmark decision focusing on his particular activity in this litigation. He will also review the end result 25 years later and offer thoughts on how that decision (and subsequent decisions such as Hancockmay impact future litigation.

updating as we go

And in sum

You can find the February Novick Reports summary over here.

One pager on Massachusetts accountability

Readers of the blog will find most of this familiar (yes, it's my work), but MASC put together a one pager on the changes in state accountability, and it's over here.

Acting Commissioner Wulfson on assessing districts

Quote in full from yesterday's weekly Commissioner's Update:

It was great seeing many of you at the MASS/MASC conference on the Cape earlier this month. I’m always impressed by the breadth and depth of the panel sessions and presentations on so many vital topics. One session that particularly stood out for me was a presentation by Wakefield Superintendent Kim Smith on the very robust set of rubrics they’ve been developing to measure student growth and learning. MCAS scores are part of it, but so are many other qualitative and quantitative dimensions of student performance. We all know that MCAS does not measure all of the content and skills that we want our students to know. But how often do we hear the complaint that a district is shortchanging some element of the curriculum because “it’s not on MCAS”? I believe it is neither feasible nor desirable for us to expand the state testing program to incorporate every dimension of student learning. So it’s nice to see districts like Wakefield that are willing and able to put MCAS scores into perspective and develop comprehensive local measures to support their educational goals.

MASS President (and Taunton Superintendent) Julie Hackett at MASS/MASC

I was going to pull from this to write something up myself, but, really, you should read the whole thing. Remarks delivered by Superintendent Julie Hackett last Wednesday at MASS/MASC's Annual Conference:

When I was a kid, I loved F. Scott Fitzgerald. I loved the way he could string a phrase together to evoke an image from words. I loved the heartfelt letters he and his mother exchanged, and I loved his books that helped me imagine and dream. I even named my yellow lab “Gatsby” after the main character in – you guessed it – The Great Gatsby.

 And I especially loved his quotes. F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” It’s a quote that’s stuck with me through the years, and I think it’s quite fitting for this time and this place, and for all those who care about education in Massachusetts.

As you all know, there’s a great deal of tension in public education right now. It strikes me that part of this stress comes from the increasing pressure to hold multiple points of view in mind all at once, without ever really having had an opportunity to hash things out together. I think a lack of organized, collective public discourse about our beliefs tends to impair our ability to function in some ways.
 And this pressure is particularly hard on leaders like you - superintendents and school committee members in this room – whose job it is to help your school community sort things out and make sense of the world.

It occurs to me that this “sorting out of ideas” has never really happened in a big way in Massachusetts. Yes, we’ve all probably talked about the direction of our State Department of Education and of our own district’s mission, but when I think about it, I’ve never even asked my School Committee members or Leadership Team, for example, to share their ideas about the purpose of public education. And to my knowledge, it’s not a discussion that's been had by MASS, MASC or the DESE. And so it seems we jump from one idea to the next without ever truly discussing the fundamental question at hand that gets at the heart of our belief systems, and that is: “What is the purpose of public education?”

And so, never having the opportunity to sort things out creates this kind cognitive dissonance for us, which makes us feel uncomfortable. For instance – we are Massachusetts, and while we may appreciate being the best in the nation, we may bristle at the measurements used to prove it’s so. Another incongruent reality we face is that we may fundamentally believe the purpose of public education is to teach students how to live – not how to make a living. However, our new Next Generation MCAS test (or MCAS 2.0) is designed to measure college and career readiness, and not what it means to be a contributing member of society, which also matters to many of us.

And so I think there is a sense that there’s a fundamental disconnect in what we believe and what we do. Education is filled with these internal inconsistencies, and the Greek even invented a word for this – they call it “oxymoronic” or said another way – “pointedly foolish.”

But I, for one don’t think it’s pointedly foolish – or even a little intentionally silly – to simultaneously believe in ideas that may, on the surface, seem incompatible. In fact, I believe that with more intentional public conversation by all stakeholders in Massachusetts – together in the same room – there’s a great opportunity for us to redefine the purpose of public education, bridge the gap, and gain some momentum. And we all know who that’s going to help in the long run.

So, as a first step in this effort, I thought it would be interesting to reach out to some of you with a question tonight, and possibly even encourage some of you to go back to your school communities and do the same. I wanted to sort out what I believe to be the purpose of public education, what you believe, and perhaps more importantly, what we believe together.

Borrowing from a National School Board Association survey based on an informal survey a teacher did back in 2010, I asked a number of you to answer this question in 30 words or less: “What is the purpose of public education?”

I contacted the MASS and MASC Executive Officers, and I posed the question to the sixty or so superintendents and school committee members who attended the Legislative Breakfast we hosted yesterday in Taunton. And finally, I reached out to my “tweeps” – and for the social media neophytes in the room, “tweeps” means “twitter peeps,” which is a term of endearment used to reference one’s followers on Twitter. (And I see the students in the room nodding, and they all know what a tweep is!). I was pleasantly surprised to get more responses to this question than I expected, and here are some that I thought you might find interesting:

• One of my parents said (and I quote), “The purpose of education is to help my child prepare to be a contributor to society. That’s all I want for her! Go Woodchucks!" (Only the Tauntonians will understand this inside joke - where are my Taunton School Committee members? Woodchucks are from where? That's right - Martin Middle School!).
•  A former Taunton High graduate said, “I think my public school education made me well rounded. I was well-prepared for a competitive 4-year college, which then prepared me for continued success in both graduate school and now my career. I’ve always been proud of my TPS education.” (I must confess, this one melted my heart).
• And here's one from one of my current students who said, “The purpose of public education is to teach kids how to function with little sleep.” (Ms. Doherty, I think we'll recruit her to your Late Start Committee).
•  A retired principal and a son of immigrants said, “My parents shared the importance of caring for your family and community, and the way to do that is to be smarter than anyone else – and damn it – get an education.”
•  One of my twitter followers who just published a book said the purpose of education is, “to realize the full and complex human potential of each young person who steps through the schoolhouse door.”
•  A school committee member said, “Public education’s purpose is to educate children providing them the skills needed not only to become responsible citizens but also preparing them for success in whatever career they choose.”
•  Another school committee member quoted a passage from MGL, and when I asked her to summarize, she said the purpose of education is “for the preservation of their rights and liberties.” • A DESE employee said, “to prepare all students for success in the world that awaits them after high school.”
•  A superintendent of a regional vocational technical school said the purpose of education is “to prepare students for life and not just a graduation stage.”
•  And one of my personal favorites? A member of our illustrious MASS Executive Officers said, and I quote: “‘Knowledge is good.” Does anyone know the origin of this quote? That’s right; it’s the Faber College motto from Animal House! (I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about which one of the Executive Officers said this!)

And so what does all of this talk about the purpose of public schools mean for us and why does it matter? Like F. Scott Fitzgerald said – smart, intelligent people like you understand that education doesn’t have to be about just one thing, it can and should be about many things to help give our young people every advantage in life. Drawing from your thoughtful comments in response to my question, it appears to me that public education here in the Commonwealth doesn’t have a singular focus, and that’s a good thing. If I had to define it based on my beliefs and your responses, I would say that the purpose of public education in Massachusetts is about college, careers, AND the common good – and not necessarily in that particular order.

As a first generation college student, I believe deeply that everyone deserves a college education. And probably like many of you, I’ve experienced how higher education changes lives. It teaches our young people to think critically, to be civic-minded, and to self-actualize. In addition to all that, a recent study from Georgetown University found that on average, college graduates earn $1 million more over their lifetimes. Now money isn’t everything and all those intrinsic rewards are just as important if not more so, but to me it is undeniable that every child in Massachusetts deserves a chance at a college education.

But here’s the reality: not every child is ready for a college education at the exact moment he or she graduates. So then what do we do? Do we say we’ve taught the young person to be a contributor to society and say our jobs are done? Of course not – the pathway to college and a better life can be through careers, too. We have an obligation to teach young people about career possibilities and prepare them for the jobs of the future. In my school system, 70% of our students take a Career Technical Education course, and I don’t think that’s good enough. It should be 100% - not just for my students, but for all students in Massachusetts. (As a quick aside, soon you’re going to see a white paper published by the Alliance for Vocational Technical Education that defines high-quality education that makes this same recommendation.)

Another important MASS movement involves computer science. In a departure from the top-down mandates that typically occur, MASS initiated a collaboration with the business community and education officials ensuring that all students in Massachusetts develop computational knowledge and skills and the ability – if they so choose – to explore their individual passions and develop the new literacies and foundational skills they are going to need in the future. Equity is an important part of this conversation, and MASS has insisted that all children have access, regardless of their zip codes and whether they live near Boston or in Western, Massachusetts where there’s limited broadband access and infrastructure.

The most compelling reason I believe that every student in Massachusetts should take career technical education courses is because of my conversations with young people. When I ask them what it is that needs to change in their public education, here’s what they tell me: they say that what they study has little or no applicability to their futures. And, truthfully, I have heard this from young people in every school system in which I’ve ever worked. I’ve heard it from students in rural, urban, suburban, less affluent or wealthy districts – you name it. I’ve heard it from the students who take more general courses, to the National Honor Society students who primarily enroll in Advanced Placement and dual enrollment classes. If you have a serious conversation with a young person, and you ask them how to improve their public education, they will tell you that there’s no connection between what they’re learning and what they will do in the future. And when they say this, what they’re really saying to you is they need and want contextualized learning opportunities so they can begin to imagine the possibilities for their lives, for their futures. All students in Massachusetts deserve to have more career technical education to help them dream and pursue their passions.

And finally, there is indeed no debate that one of the purposes of public education in Massachusetts is and must be for the common good. We recently heard from the Anti-Defamation League at an MASS meeting, and they reported hate crimes in Massachusetts public schools were said to be in the high 70s and counting in September – and those are just the ones that are known. And the Washington Post just reported that hate crimes in high schools are on the rise due to the national scene. Our young people deserve to grow up in a world where we look out for each other. A fundamental purpose of public education is to teach young people to care about one another, and I think we all can say that our young people deserve a better world tomorrow than the one they're living in today. They need to be active citizens who take collective action in politics and public service so we can preserve the common good.
And let me close by saying that I know with the caliber of superintendents and school committee members in this room, there’s nothing we can’t do together to create better opportunities and life outcomes for the young people we so cherish in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I thank you for your time.

Gratitude

left for me by housekeeping this week at the conference 

Two years ago tonight, I lost an election.
Like a lot of "clubs no one wants to belong to," it's one of those things that are both different for everybody and not really something you can relate to until you've been there.

We talk a lot in education in Massachusetts about superintendents being the only ones who have public evaluations that can involve their being publicly fired.
Not so: everybody out there who sticks their name on a ballot for a second or subsequent time can also have that same experience.

It stinks. It hurts.

But also like those other "clubs no one wants to belong to," it clears some things up. It makes it clear who values you for what (and who values you at all). It makes it clear what matters, and it makes it clear what doesn't.

There are much, much worse things in life than losing an election.

As the annual Thanksgiving posts on Facebook started to swirl, it occurred to me that I've never really said anything about the past two years, and if this past month has taught me anything, it's that you should say something lest you miss the chance.

Thus, I am enormously grateful:

• for my family, who made it immediately and enormously clear that this really didn't matter all that much in the larger scheme, who set about finding me a new ('real') job immediately (however...puzzling), never doubted that I would find something that was good and right, and who have embraced with aplomb the idea that now I go to lots of different school committee meetings.
• for those who fed me that Wednesday. I had support when I was most in need of it. I'll never forget that. 
• for every single person who said, "But who will blog the Board of Ed now?" You gave me a different perspective on my role in state education policy at a time when I needed it.
• for every single Worcester person who has said, "I always voted for you!" That never doesn't matter (and don't believe anyone who tells you that they don't care). 
• for all of the people in all of the various realms of education and politics and policy who didn't change a tick in reaching out for thoughts, analysis, information, explanations and such. You helped show me a path forward.
• for, of course, the Board, my boss, my colleagues at MASC. Quite seriously, every single person in that office wants every single school committee member (and quite a number of administrators!) to do the best job they possibly can. They are great fun, they are smart, they work hard, and I am so glad to work with them. Seriously: I love my job.

If you're in the above--and many, many of you who read here are--thank you.

Remarks from Acting Commissioner Wulfson at MASS/MASC annual conference

I was (regrettably) on my phone during this, so I'm reconstructing this from my tweets; it is a reconstruction.

Acting Commissioner Wulfson opened by saying that he was going to say what he's been too shy to say for 23 years, and warned that by the time he gets done, no one, including members of his family, may be speaking to him.

• Real changes and progress in schools takes years, whether it's curriculum changes, school turnaround, or other things. The average tenure of a superintendent is now 3 years. What are we doing to support superintendents to stay longer?
• Kids need more time in school, particularly those with greater needs.
• All kids need access to computer science (praising MASS for taking this up).
• Educator licensure is "way too complicated" and needs pruning. There should definitely be some requirements of what you need to know and to do, but the system needs reworking.
• Buildings are expensive to build; we should fix them, not keep building new ones.
• "When did taxes become a four letter word? The original Tea Party was neither anti-government nor anti-taxation."
• Regarding school transportation reimbursement: It “doesn’t seem right to me that Dighton-Rehobeth gets 80% and Taunton gets zero.” 
• On charter schools: “When the kid arrives mid year from Guatemala, he’s going to the district schools” BUT ALSO "there are good charters out there and districts should learn from them." 
• And there is excellent work being done by districts across the state every day.

And I'll close with the same thing I tweeted when he ended: "This is why MASS President (and Taunton Superintendent) Julie Hackett said that if it were up to her, she'd just cross out the "Acting" before "Commissioner." 

I don't always agree with him, and I think he's wrong sometimes, but he never takes criticism personally (at least publicly), he's always up front about what he knows and thinks, and he genuinely cares, not just about kids, but about people doing work in school districts, and sees himself as on the same team. That matters a lot. 

Debate of the Resolutions: 2017 Delegate Assembly at the MASC conference

Posting today from the MASC Delegate Assembly down that the Joint MASS/MASC Conference. The resolutions they are considering today can be found here.
reading of the resolutions is waived

Worcester School Committee meets Thursday, October 5

You can find the agenda here. There is also an agenda for an executive session for litigation on discipline of a teacher; the regular agenda posts three litigation items on worker's compensation and negotiations with custodians, nurses, and computer technicians.

The report of the superintendent will be "will be a summary of initiatives in process and planned in this school year" with a backup to come.

There is the usual beginning of school rounds of appointments, transfers, resignations, and retirements. The committee is also being asked to approve the appointment of a number of nurses (a power reserved to School Committees in Massachusetts).

There is an update on Ch. 74 and other career pathways at North and at South.

There are a series of responses to sharing information with students about various programs.

Mr. O'Connell is requesting the committee consider the resolutions that will be before the MASC Delegate Assembly on November 1. The committee has previously voted to make Ms. Colorio their delegate.

The administration is asking for authorization to rent space for parking school buses (this would be the buses the district owns; there's no backup).

There are a number of prior fiscal year payments (which I'll post if I get a chance).

Mr. Monfredo would like a report from the Wellness Committee, and a program on secondary allergens.

Mr. O'Connell wants to develop a process for consulting on school improvement plans.

Ms. Colorio is asking about a confidential drug hotline.
Relatedly, Miss Biancheria is asking:

Request that the Administration develop a protocol to train teachers to handle students in need of drug education and indicate how teachers can develop ways by watching, looking and listening to deal with problems of substance abuse.

...which seems a smidge...problematic.

Miss Biancheria is also suggesting the use of in-house attorneys rather than hiring one (one should perhaps note that school committees having legal differences with their municipality is not unknown, even currently).

There are a series of donations ((coming through on a single item!).

September Board of Ed in Sum

crossposted from MASC 

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education held their regular monthly meeting in Malden. The meeting agenda can be found here. 

Prior to the meeting, two new members of the Board were sworn in: Amanda Fernandez, who replaces Penny Noyce, and Martin West, who replaces Roland Fryer. James Morton was also sworn in for a second term. Fernandez is the founder and CEO of Latinos for Education. West is on the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. 

Chair Paul Sagan participated in the meeting remotely via video from Budapest; the meeting was chaired by Vice Chair James Morton.

Worcester School Committee meets Thursday

The Worcester School Committee meets Thursday. You can find the agenda here.
It appears it is time once again to honor Mr. Allen for receiving the Meritorious Budget Award from the Association of School Business Officers International. 🎈
The schools receiving the EoS Breakfast awards are also being recognized (and the awards being accepted), making it appropriate that the report is on school nutrition (not yet posted, though today's announcement may well mean it's being revised! UPDATE: posted)
Not having exhausted the discussion at the subcommittee level, the committee will be discussing their concerns over wifi. Salient point:

...extensive research into the matter has not produced any solid evidence that non-ionizing radiation given off by smartphones and Wi-Fi routers is harmful to humans...

They'll be voting a delegate and an alternative to the MASC Delegate Assembly in November.
Not having acted last week, they're considering a resolution on the Foundation Budget Review Commission's findings.
And Miss Biancheria wishes to:

review the precautionary measures and safety features under the safety regulations of the bus contracts for both the Worcester Public Schools and Durham School Services.

The 7th grade science text book is up for review (That'll go to TLSS)

There is an executive session beforehand for an HVAC employee grievance (again?) and collective bargaining for teachers (still). But hey: NO PCBs!  
I'll see if I can make at least the nutrition presentation; I'll be interested to see what difference the federal change makes