December Board of Ed: adult education

Wyvonne Stevens-Carter: 

adults seeking high school equivalency or English learning; workers following pathways; those imprisoned exiting; adults working 

Multiple pathways in one system with multiple providers
now reaching over 27 thousand students 

December 2025 Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: opening comments

 The agenda is here. The meeting will be livestreamed here.

I'm doing this one remotely so I can switch over to the consensus revenue hearing at noon. Updating as we go...

Public comment:

Jodie Alencar: adult education learner, speaking of his experience learning English as an immigrant from Brazil
"I am one of the faces of adult education in Massachusetts"

November Board of Ed: public adult education

 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

Snapshots from graduations

 

Isn't this lovely? Handiwork of a UPCS grad

A series of mental snapshots from this week of Worcester Public Schools graduations:

• A chef, graduating Monday from the Adult Learning Center with his GED, telling the faculty there how much he appreciates, even if he didn't at the time, the messages and calls that got him back to class after late nights working.
• Women who have emigrated from Afghanistan, who I can remember greeting in the fall when Rep. McGovern toured the program, beaming as they crossed the stage at Fanning to the cheers of their families to gather their English as a Second Language certificates and kiss the superintendent and I on the cheek on the way.
• The pause in the ceremony every year at the Burncoat graduation, as seniors come down from the stage to play and sing with orchestra and quadrivium one more time. 
• The seniors who have worked out a handshake or other greeting with their procession/recession partner when they meet again to walk back out.
• The murmur of appreciation when Dr. Monárrez revealed at the Alternative School graduation that the poet she'd quoted was Tupac.
• The enthusiasm with which Dr. Kareem Tatum was greeted by former students at the same event; he had been their principal earlier in their educations.
• The valedictorian of University Park Campus School thanking his parents for bringing him to the United States from Vietnam when he was ten. 
• ...and the deadpan sense of humor with which he gently teased his teachers in his speech.

We aren't done yet! This week at the DCU at 6 pm: 

Monday: North

Tuesday: Tech

Wednesday: Doherty

Friday: South

...plus the Creamer Center graduates Tuesday at the Hanover Theater at 10 am! 

Worcester Public Schools before City Council for FY20: laterblog

When the Worcester Public Schools goes before the Worcester City Council on the budget--or when any school district goes before their appropriating authority--I always find it is useful to start with MGL Ch. 71, sec. 34:

In acting on appropriations for educational costs, the city or town appropriating body shall vote on the total amount of the appropriations requested and shall not allocate appropriations among accounts or place any restrictions on such appropriations.

Further, in Worcester, we do well to note that by section 5-2 of the City of Worcester Charter:

The city council may, by majority vote, make appropriations for the purposes recommended and may reduce or reject any amount recommended in the annual budget, but except on recommendation of the city manager, shall not increase any amount in or the total of the annual budget, nor add thereto any amount for a purpose not included therein, except as provided in section thirty-three of chapter forty-four of the General Laws.

Thus the City Council:

• cannot add more money to the city budget (including the schools)
• cannot transfer money to or from any section of the budget (including schools)
• cannot allocate funds within the school budget

As I already noted, the City is also running very close to the line in terms of required spending, thus they don't have a great deal of ability to even cut.

Nonetheless, the City Council spent more than three hours questioning Superintendent Binienda and Mr. Allen on the FY20 budget on Tuesday night (you can find the videos on Facebook here and here), only to hold the item for next week. It is, of course, an election year, but I've also noticed that municipal bodies tend to edge more and more into schools when they can, either because they aren't getting pushback or they aren't seeing the school committee as doing its own oversight.
Note also that this was covered only by Bill Shaner of Worcester Magazine, which is really a problem. This is not a blow-by-blow liveblog, but I felt we needed to say more about this.

December Board of Ed: adult ed

the backup is here
Chuang: "some people don't realize is supported by the Department"
how many students do you think are supported (haven't received high school diploma and/or still need ELL support)
"it takes a team of us to make this happen"
"over a million students still in need of services throughout the state of Massachusetts"
currently serving about 12K ESOL (English as a Second Language) and 6400 GED (still needing a diploma) students
high rate of women, of parents, of receiving state services
waitlist of 17,000 ESOL and 2500 for GED
curently fund 70 community adult learning centers across the state, with 12,599 students
10 transitions to college programming, 6 integrated education and training, and 11 integrated English and civics programs, 8 workplace programs
Sagan: what are those who don't have services doing?
A: some are waiting, some are working as it is
are looking at how to reach out to those students as well

a concentration in metro Boston, but programs throughout the state
goal is to build a high-quality, performance-driven system
looking at outcomes, looking towards flexiblity and high quality, a block per-student funding based on student need
completing educational functioning level, attain diploma, enter higher ed, gainful employment
looking at "where the baseline is and where we're headed"

strong college outcomes for those participating
"it isn't just passing the GED...it's participating in our adult basic ed program AND passing the GED"
(there's a self-sorting question here...but "there's something happening")
Framingham study: those participating more likely to register to vote!
return on investment of programs
Q on teachers: most are K-12 teachers, some are retired teachers or other professionals
"need...is so great...it is imperative that our programs hire high quality teachers"
Q money increase? Was a bump up this year, was barely making up
real dollarwise not where it was a decade ago
Q on vocational? newly created workplace programs, "the vo-tech of adult ed"

And a student panel!
Audrey Kelly (from Charlestown Adult Learning Center): "it gave me the realization that I was smart enough to complete my education"
"I knew it wouldn't be easy..."
"I can make things better for my family...now enrolled in college"
hopefully will lead to the medical field
"not only will it better me; it will better my children as well"
Ana Tizol Cantor (Chelsea Public Schools) who came to the U.S. eight months pregnant at the age of seventeen, (she hadn't been able to complete second grade in Guatemala) who speaks of understanding people speaking English on the bus, learning to use the computer, "and shopping online"
working on her high school diploma
children have asked what she wants to study: she wants to study to become a teacher assistant, or a school nurse
"my husband is my big supporter, because he is studying for his diploma; he has one more exam to get it."

Board of Ed meets on Tuesday

You can find agenda here.
After the usual round of comments, including those from the public, the first report is "highlight the work of teacher-leaders" from across the state regarding the revision of the arts curriculum, STEM, and reviewing curricular products (which they're calling CUrriculum RAtings by TEachers [CURATE] and this administration's fondness for semi-acronyms that use parts of words is going to drive me round the bend). I've been asked a great deal recently what I'm seeing of the new commissioner: I'd ask if you remember any reports like this in the past. You won't. There's some of the change.
There is an update on the three of the four chronically underperforming schools that are under state receivership. (The fourth is in Holyoke and will be updated when Holyoke is next in.)
There is a report on Adult Education (which I didn't realize was managed by DESE, either).
And there's a report back on the response to the new accountability system, which will be interesting.

If you're curious as to what the final letter to Secretary Peyser on the FY20 budget looked like, it's posted as a backup.
You can also find a (Word doc) of grants approved by the Commissioner.
Tuesday, 8:30 am, in Malden!

Senate Ways and Means budget

The Senate Ways and Means Committee released their FY18 budget today. You can find the executive summary here, along with the ability to download the rest of the budget.

A few foundation budget notes first: in the outside section, the FBRC implementation committee (for lack of a better term) is set up:

Section 5B½. (a) Annually, not later than January 15, the secretary of administration and finance shall meet with the senate and house committees on ways and means to jointly determine an implementation schedule to fulfill the recommendations filed on November 2, 2015 by the foundation budget review commission established in section 4 of chapter 70. The implementation schedule shall establish a foundation budget as defined in section 2 of said chapter 70 incorporating the categories of tuitioned-out special education rate, assumed in-school special education enrollment, low-income increment, low-income enrollment, foundation benefits, retired employee health insurance and English language learner increment; provided, however, that in the first year of the term of office of a governor who has not served in the preceding year, the parties shall determine an implementation schedule not later than January 31 of that year. In determining the implementation schedule, the secretary of administration and finance and the senate and house committees on ways and means shall hold a public hearing and receive testimony from the commissioner of elementary and secondary education and other interested parties. The schedule may be amended by agreement of the senate and house committees on ways and means in any fiscal year to reflect changes in enrollment, inflation, student populations or other factors that may affect the remaining costs in the schedule. The implementation schedule may be included in a joint resolution and placed before the members of the general court for their consideration along with proposed legislation to execute and implement the schedule. The implementation schedule shall be subject to appropriation.

That's important, because that's the part that really makes it happen. If they have to get together and publicly decide every year "here's where we are; here's where we're going," then this becomes something that we're all in on making happen.

Worcester School Committee meets Thursday, March 3

You can find the agenda here.
Bill Coleman wants to talk about substitute teachers' compensation.
There is no report of the superintendent.
F&O will be reporting out from their Monday meeting.
There is a report back on textbooks (timely, as the district is also buying $700,000 worth of new ones!).
There is a report back on the projected cost of a gymnastics team (which doesn't look as though it has changed much since I asked in 2013).
There's a request to authorize adminstration to have a five year contract for environmental management services (the authorization is for the length).
There are several donations being received.
And Miss Biancheria would like reports on Read Across America Day, the assignment of full-time teachers for long-term absence, and the Recovery High School.
The School Committee is also receiving the proposed relocation plan which was covered in yesterday's T&G. The district has been renting space for Chandler Elementary for a number of years, so the school has been split between its building on Chandler Street and a building at the YMCA on Main. The school is continuing to grow, and managing the single school in two spaces is...less than ideal. Plus, of course, the rental costs money...and not just any money: rentals don't count towards Net School Spending. Add to that the complications of a single administrator covering the grade 9 and 10 program at Fanning as well as at the Creamer Center up on Granite Street, and you start to see why some of these moves make a lot of sense. And, frankly, anything that gets the Parent Information Center someplace that makes some sense to parents (like the central administration building) is progress.
I hope to make this one: 7 pm, City Hall. 

Friday news dump: the 9Cs come in at 4:57 pm

...I kid you not...

I've run through the 9C cuts from Governor Baker over on Twitter under #bakerbudgetcuts (edit: just check the year of the tweets; I used the same hashtag last year). There are four notes on education:

• The $300,000 in the budget for studying how best to meet our needs for preK has been entirely zeroed out. Again. So much for preschool and early ed expansion; we're not even figuring out how to do it.
• There is a $75,000 cut in DESE's line item, with no details. That could be an internal, Malden, cut; it also could be cutting something under DESE's discretion. I'm assuming Malden, but I've asked, and I'll update once I hear for sure.
• Adult basic education has been cut $500,000 (from a $31M line).
• The innovation grants have been cut $440,000 from 736,898; given that we're halfway through the year, that may be zeroed out. If last year is any measure, however, they'll probably tell us that these grants have not yet been awarded.

There's plenty more, but not in education.

UPDATE: this just in from DESE:

@TracyNovick FBRC staffing, but alt source found to cover cost. No reduction in service. @MissDebGee @wire2wre @JonathanCohn @marcela_elisa

— Massachusetts K-12 (@MASchoolsK12) January 9, 2016

I imagine that would be consultant David Bunker, who was brought in over September to finish the report.

A few notes on the House budget

The FY16 Massachusetts House budget was posted yesterday, and it's (mostly) good news:

• Chapter 70 is fully funded (we'd all hope that the state meets its legal obligation here, but it's good to check). It's also up $2.8M, as they're increasing minimum per pupil increases to $25/pupil.
• Quality Kindergarten is back! The House has it set at $18,589,713 which is within a dollar of the projected spending (see [on all of these] "Historical Spending" tab) for FY15. That would mean that it's being restored to the level after the midyear cut; it would be helpful to have it all the way back.
• Governor Baker's proposed grant merger isn't in here! Scroll your way down into the 7010 accounts and following, and you'll see that the Gateway Cities, ELL, literacy and so forth all have funding level restored, and the Partnership Schools Network account is cut by $9.5M. That's not only important to those programs--and thanks to the reps for listening!--but it also questions this centralizing of power at DESE that was clearly being anticipated by the Commissioner and Secretary. 
• Circuit breaker funding for extraordinary special education spending is up another $8M, getting us closer to full funding (always tricky to declare, since it's a reimbursement based on submitted receipts). 
• Regional school transportation is up $5M from the Governor's budget.

• There's also some cuts from the Governor's budget (and if anyone can explain any of these, I'd be interested!): $3,355 from the Secretary's office (which is more than a rounding error, but not enough to do much). $188,245 from DESE as a whole. 
• $1.7M from a $2.7M budget for School-to-Career Connecting Activities, which has had stable funding at that $2.7M level for a number of years. 
• $879,826 from Adult Education, which is about a $30M account; that will knock it down below this year's projected spending. 
• Student and School Assessment is brought down to FY14 levels, a cut of $5M statewide.
• It also zeroes out two lines that were added by the Governor's budget: $500,000 for implementing educator evaluation and $200,000 for School Safety and Supports.

More to come if or when I have it!

Notes from the Board of Ed: RTTT Early Childhood Ed

While I'm here for the inBloom MOU, I thought I'd share some notes on what else is happening here: 
You can find a bit here on the update the Board is getting this morning on the Race to the Top Early Childhood Ed grant.

Mass Budget on the Governor's Budget

The Mass Budget and Policy Center has posted their first look at the Governor's budget. Regarding education:

• Chapter 70 is increasing $226.2 million above FY 2013 levels, however most of this will just cover cost growth: "MassBudget projects that maintenance costs for FY 2014 would total $167 million, leaving about $59 million of the Governor's proposed increase to fund expanded services."
• The budget continues the so-called reforms of 2007, that increased the amount of money that quite a number of communities that may not be particularly high need get from the state.
• Along with a substantial section on preschool (some of which may well affect Worcester), there's also a bit of a  list of other things: support for Gateway Cities (still unspecified what this is going to do, may be Worcester); adult basic ed for English language learners (again, could be us); extended learning time grants specifically for middle schools with a large population of low income students (again, sounds like Worcester); "targeted intervention in underperforming schools" which sounds (from that description) a lot like the School Improvement Grants, which came from the federal government. However good these causes, my main concern here is all of this sounds a lot like short term funds that go away after a few years, leaving us with new programs to find funding for.
• Charter school reimbursement is going up by $9.8 million. The Board of Education, last February, approved four new schools, so that won't be enough to cover the difference. 

Last I heard, the Department of Revenue still hadn't posted the cherry sheet (Know why it's called a cherry sheet? The numbers were originally printed on cherry-colored paper...which would be pink? Maybe?) of the actual breakdown by municipality. Should they post that sooner rather than later, we should get an update specifically on Worcester. 

New ESL classes

If you're wondering where those new ESL classes are, here's the complete list:

• Burncoat Middle School, Monday and Wednesday, 5:30-7:30 PM
• Canterbury Magnet, Tuesday and Thursday, 3:00-5:00 PM
• Chandler Elementary Community, Tuesday and Thursday, 5:30-7:30 PM
• Elm Park Community School, Tuesday and Thursday, 5:30-7:30 PM
• Goddard School of Science & Technology, Tuesday and Thursday, 3:00-5:00 PM
• Greendale Head Start, Monday and Wednesday, 9:00-11:00 AM
• Quinsigamond School, Tuesday and Thursday, 5:30-7:30 PM
• St. Agnes Guild, Tuesday and Thursday, 5:30-7:30 PM
• Union Hill School, Tuesday and Thursday, 5:30-7:30 PM
• Woodland Academy, Tuesday and Thursday, 3:00-5:00 PM

Sign up through the Adult Learning Center at 508-799-3171

Dennis Ferrante

recognized for 33 years in WPS
"partner is a word that we think of" when we think of Dennis (Dolores Gribouski is giving the administration's tribute)
"really tap on that expertise"
"a creative innovator...really innovator in the world of music"
students in the adult learning center: his "belief in the potential that they had...was really evident"