What happened at the December 7 Worcester School Committee meeting

 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.

Note that the agenda is over here.

June Board of Education: Computer Science

backup is here
expanding access to computer science: allow more to study computer science particularly through MassCore, expand numbers prepared and interested in pursuing computer science
where are computer science courses offered and who is taking them?
course enrollment in computer science does not mirror student enrollment; higher among white and Asian students, lower among black and Latino students
students need to be exposed to computer science early in their schooling; can be integrated in existing curriculum
Stewart asking about disparities in enrollment of students
how does one find the reasons for those disparities?
Peske: using the data to drive us to ask more questions
"drilling more deeply into the reasons below the data that we see"
Trimarchi: "the reason I didn't take computer science is that it wouldn't count for math or science"
really incentivizes something we haven't
Peyser: barriers to offering computer science, to taking computer science; trickles down to elementary school
overall enrollment in computer science?
McKenna: some of the things in some of these places might be a summer offering
"I think there are a lot of students who are interested in this but can't access it"
Fernandez: factoring in outside organizations?
A: MassCUE and MassCAN for PD and outreach
don't count in landscape report

motion carries 

June Board of Education meeting on Tuesday IS A LOT

There's a LOT on the Mass Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, for which you can find the agenda here. Livestream on Tuesday at 8:30 will be here.
Here come the votes on all of those things they've been talking about for months!

After opening comments from the Chair, Secretary, and Commissioner and public comment, there is the monthly update on Level 5 schools, with a particular focus this month on Parker Elementary in New Bedford, now under the receivership of School & Main Institute now that Superintendent Pia Durkin is moving on from New Bedford. Note that the annual reviews of all schools is attached to the link off the monthly update.
Then it is on to the social studies and history frameworks, which are now up for a vote. For those who had been concerned about the gap between the Civil Rights era and the election of President Obama, please note that the standard as proposed now reads:

Research and analyze issues related to race relations in the United States since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, including: the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and its impact on neighborhood integration; policies, court cases, and practices regarding affirmative action and their impact on diversity in the workforce and higher education; disparities and trends in educational achievement and attainment, health outcomes, wealth and income, and rates of incarceration; the election of the nation’s first African American president, Barack Obama, in 2008 and 2012.

There is also now a mention of the Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County, California case of 1946 when it comes to desegregration, as well as some more recent history around the movement for Native rights. There are a bunch of links off that memo; take a look if it is of interest.
The regulations that will govern implemenation of the LOOK Act are also up for a vote. For those who had been concerned about the requirements for the seal of biliteracy, note that there has been a change:

The proposed regulations retain grade 10 ELA MCAS performance as a criterion for demonstrating a high level of proficiency in English, but also add options for students who are required to complete an Educational Proficiency Plan to earn the Competency Determination. Those students will be able to demonstrate proficiency in English by achieving a minimum score or level determined by the Commissioner on a nationally recognized and readily available English proficiency assessment approved by the Department. The proposed regulations have been further changed to reflect that the minimum scores or levels on foreign language proficiency assessments must be aligned to higher education standards for awarding advanced credit by examination and ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines.

 Odd to me that of the parent meetings, there wasn't one in the city with the largest number of English Language learners. Weird.

And yes, accountability is ALSO up for its vote on Tuesday! There is a link to the regulations as well as to comments received as well as to DESE responses; and people HOW did we only have eight comments? Really? And no, my comments made no changes. It appears as though there are no changes being made of any impact in the regs, though language was made more specific, and there is a note that the school and district report cards are coming out in December of this year.

Also up for a vote are the Computer Science and expansion of MassCore, to wit, allowing Computer Science to sub in for a math course. There is a report linked (it's another download, which is most of what I'm also mentioning but not linking to above) on the disparities in access across the state, as well. The vote specificially is around the change to MassCore, though the Commissioner is also looking for some affirmations.

The Board is being asked to vote on removing Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School in Springfield from probation (which it's been in since 2017). The Commissioner says it has largely met its conditions.

Due to snow days, the Board is being asked to waive the week's notice for charter school lotteries for this past year.

There will be an update on the state budget, which is still in conference committee. 
There is a request that the Board for to delegate authority to the Commissioner between meetings (aka, over the summer).
There is a proposed schedule of meetings for next year on which the Board is being asked to vote.
Other items for information includes one of my favorite reports of the year, the annual non-operating districts report.

The meeting is at 8:30 am on Tuesday in Malden and yes, liveblog will happen...my plane lands at midnight the night before... 

Joint Board of Ed/Higher Ed meeting: computer science access

Wulfson: looking at barriers to providing more access to computer science
college admission requirements are a major factor in high schools deciding what programs to offer
Conti: preK-12 effort, the change is we're talking about computer science as a foundational skill
"a strong foundation in equity"
"hearing from business partners that there aren't enough suburban kids to meet the needs of the economy"
"not only a moral reason for doing it, there's also a mathematical reason for doing it"

State Education meetings this week

and also my schedule!
DESE, amusingly, has posted a single agenda for all the of the upcoming meetings. Just keep scrolling! 
Tomorrow, we have the annual joint meeting of the Board of Higher Ed with the Board of K-12 Ed. That's down at Bridgewater State starting at nine am. The joint meeting includes discussion on:

• an update on the early college initiative, which was the focus of much of last year's meeting. The short version is "staff from the DHE, ESE, and EOE are providing support for partnerships that will be submitting a final application for designation" with the applications due February 9.
• an informational presentation (I'd call it) on educator preparation, or "where do teachers come from?" You can see from the chart in that presentation that Bridgewater State remains, far and away, the largest state producer of teachers in the state; I assume they also have data for non-state colleges and universities, which may be of less relevance to the Higher Ed board but would be interesting to see.
• a report on increasing access to high school computer science

Something that I thought we'd see that isn't here is something on the new MCAS, particularly as that's supposed to be aiming towards grade 12 preparation. Perhaps because we haven't done a high school round yet?

After the joint meeting, the K-12 board meets on its own (scheduled for 11:15; just enough time to rearrange the chairs). On that agenda, following opening comments:

• an update on the Commissioner search. It will be interesting to see if any additional information is offered in this update: how many, for example, were actually interviewed. 
• there is a discussion and proposed vote to solicit public comment on the revised history and social studies standards. If you have questions about that, if you scroll to the bottom, the backups are already posted (hurray!). 
• there is the promised discussion coming on weight within the accountability standards. Note the following from the memo:

  Our priorities should be reflected not only in the indicators included, but also in their weighting in the calculation. Furthermore, the results should provide a clear picture of school performance in order to help us direct our limited resources for assistance to schools that most need them...any change in this ratio will affect both our classification of schools for accountability purposes and our calculation of the lowest performing ten percent of districts for charter school purposes.

• There is an update on the students enrolling from Puerto Rico; as of January 5, 2440 students have enrolled.
• There is an update on the two new charter schools applying for charters; note that Acting Commissioner Wulfson has, as yet, not made any recommendations regarding these. He will do so before the February meeting.
• Bentley Academy, a Horace Mann in Salem, is asking for a waiver of the state requirement that its accountability plan be approved by its collective bargaining unit, which has declined to take action. 
• Paulo Freire Charter in Springfield is being recommended for a conditional renewal.

Presented for the Board's information, but not action are: education laws enacted in 2017; recommendations on integrating student supports;  a report on dual enrollment 2008-15; a report on efforts to upgrade school technology; a report on grants; and charter matters approved by the Commissioner.

On Wednesday, Governor Baker will release his FY19 state budget.

On Thursday, the Rennie Center is doing their annual Conditions on Education in the Commonwealth; the speaker this year is former Secretary of Education John King. The hashtag is #COE2018.

On Friday, beginning at nine, the Board of Education will interview the three finalists for Massachusetts Commissioner of Education. The interviews are at the Omni Parker House in Boston and are open to the public. They will also be livestreamed. 

On Monday at noon back in Malden, the Board of Education will meet to vote for a new Commissioner. 

Board of Ed for December: opening comments

You can find the agenda here. The livestream should come up here. Posting as we go.

June meeting of the Board of Ed

The Massachusetts Board of Education has their regular monthly meeting on Monday and Tuesday of next week; you can find the agenda here.
On Monday night, they'll be continuing their discussion of teacher evaluation, particularly the section having to do with "impact on student learning," one which is particularly relevant given the Senate's passage of a budget item that would eliminate that as a state requirement (as it no longer is a federal one).  The panel that will address this is:

• Henry Braun, Director of the Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation and Education Policy, Lynch School of Education, Boston College
• Thomas Gosnell, President, American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts
• Barbara Madeloni, President, Massachusetts Teachers Association
• Martin West, Associate Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education

DESE is including as backup on this item a joint white paper from the teachers' unions addressing it, with their own remarks embedded in it. 

Also on Monday night, the Board will be discussing digital learning, regarding which the state says "Our goal is not to determine which model is the best, but rather to support schools and districts in providing options and models best suited to students' learning needs and preferences." On Tuesday, the Board will have a new member joining them: Nathan Moore, a rising junior at Scituate High School, is the new student member of the Board. The briefing gives an overview of the Commissioner's intent on his opening comments, including what DESE has done around outreach for the state's new ESSA plan. These are the Rennie Center's "Shaping the Future of Accountability" breakfast and the Board's Accountability and Assistance Advisory Council meetings with DESE. 

The Board will hear updates from the Level 5 districts (Lawrence, Holyoke, and Southbridge) and the Level 5 schools. The Board will discuss and be asked to vote in new Digital Literacy and Computer Science standards. Upon this vote, DESE will distribute the frameworks that accompany the standards. The Board will receive an update on MCAS 2.0. Note that DESE announced today that they have awarded the contract to Measured Progress, which will subcontract with Pearson. The Board will conduct the annual review of the Commissioner; there is no attachment for that, but Mary Ann Stewart has posted an update about it. UP Academy-Springfield (part of the Springfield Empowerment Zone) is looking for an extension on their opening date. They were to open this fall; they now wish to defer that by one year.Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School wants the Board to overrule the Commissioner's denial of their expansion from a June 2014 request. The Board is being asked to vote to end some outdated regulations regarding an expired teacher quality grant, school construction (now covered by MSBA), and independent and agricultural institutes (which was part of a now-repealed law). The Board will get an update on the FY17 budget (they haven't met since the Senate passed their version).  They are also being asked (as per usual) to vote to delegate authority to the Commissioner to act over the summer break, and they're voting on next year's meeting schedule.
I will not be at next week's meeting, due to its late date in the June calendar. 

President's budget doesn't really increase Title I

Per both Politico and EdWeek, while there is an increase in the dollar amount proposed for Title I, it's essentially just the School Improvement Grant money merging over under the 7% set-aside called for under the new federal education law (and depending on how that works out, districts could get less, rather than even the same amount).
IDEA is frozen, as well.
There's an increase for Career and Technical Ed (up $77M), an increase for preschool development (up $100M), a new "Computer Science for All" proposal ($100M), PLUS Charter School Grants get a $17 million boost over current $350 million and Magnet Schools Assistance gets an additional $18M to bring it to $115 million.
Also, this on an ESSA outcome:

The president's budget is also expected to seek $500 million for the new block grant program in the just-passed Every Student Succeeds Act, into which a number of other programs were consolidated. 

The administration wants to put a twist on that program, though. Instead of having the money go out by formula to states and then districts, as it does under ESSA, it would first go by formula to states, who would then send it out competitively. And the grants would be at least $50,000. 

Under ESSA, districts that receive less than $30,000 from the block grant don't have to abide by the rules in the law for using it. But, if the grants are as big as $50,000 districts who get them would have to spend at least 20 percent on one activity that helps improve student health and safety, and another 20 percent on at least one activity that helps students become more well-rounded. And they couldn't spend more than 15 percent of the funding on technology infrastructure.

U.S. DoE memo is here. 

Board of Ed summary

I send this out to the School Committee and MASC list-serv every month. Posting here for those who might find it of interest.

The Board of Ed met Tuesday, and while, the main item on their agenda was the accountability report, their focus was much more on individual districts and schools.

Notes on opening comments by the Commisioner, Chair, and Secretary

Notes on public comments  which were either on charter schools facing some form of action or on the proposed computer science and digital literacy standards

The update on Holyoke which happens monthly not surprisingly focused mainly on the recent report on conditions for students at the Peck school; the Board in particular was concerned that they hadn't heard more from the Commissioner earlier, particularly as the district is under state receivership.

The presentation on accountability levels was fairly brief. While they didn't mention the increased risk of MCAS schools falling, they did mention the increased chance of PARCC schools rising.

The presentation on Southbridge did not recommend that they be put in state receivership, but (as someone who has now heard several rounds of these discussions) it sure sounds as though it is headed that way. There's a link there to the report; I'd strongly recommend reading the section on school committee leadership starting at page 20 in the PDF.

The initial presentation of the proposed digital literacy/computer science standards was at this meeting; the proposal is for them to go out for public comment in January. 

And there was a bit of a conversation on the Foundation Budget Review Commission (but only a bit).

As per usual, errors mine, questions welcome. I also do have paper copies of the PowerPoint presentations, should anyone be interested in shots of those.

Digital Literacy standards

the backup is here
Chester: "great effort and a great advocacy of this public/private partnership"
students consuming and creating information
creating and modifying technology
technology in several different contexts

"our work is focused on the standards, which provides the foundation of what we're doing"
"how public education should embrace computing"
"work together to introduce computing more broadly to every student in the state at every grade level"
hasn't been a lot of controversy: "everyone just is saying 'how'"
fluency in uses and impact of technology for living, learning, and working
huge gap between number of job postings and number of graduates in computer science
"computing historically has not been part of STEM"
disproportiate enrollment of white males
moving forward towards formal adoption: public comment in January with adoption proposed for spring

four strands proposed:

• computing and society
• digital tools and collaboration
• computing systems
• computational systems

practices: connecting, creating, abstracting, analyzing, communcating, collaborating, and researching

grade span standards, flexibility for schools, no plan to mandate assessment

a lot of the societal impact stuff will evolve over time and will need to be updating
are designed to be "integratable" with other courses

Board of Ed public comments

first comments from some from Dorchester Collegiate Charter
headmaster and Board chair
"hear today not to ask you to vote against Commissioner's recommendations"
asks that they be allowed to continue:
three points:

1. unique mission to address students who have struggled (requiring counseling in many cases)
2. significant growth in MCAS: level 2 school
3. strong academic program in place

Board of Ed meets next Tuesday

The Board of Ed meets Tuesday, December 15 (and only Tuesday; there's no Monday night meeting this month). You can find the agenda here.

• The big report will be on today's release of school accountability levels on which more to come!
• Southbridge is officially on the agenda this month.
• Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School is looking to amend their charter
• There's a report on probation for Global Learning Charter Public School.
• There's a report on probation and next steps for Dorchester Collegiate Academy Charter School.
• New proposed digital literacy and computer science standards are introduced for an initial discussion.
• There's a section on the Foundation Budget Review Commission(!)
• There's also the monthly report about Holyoke.

And yes, I'll be there and blogging.