Bonus Board of Ed for September

 The agenda (which doesn't tell us much) is here. 
The livestream is here.

Martinez: setting new benchmarks for proficiency, lower to zero doesn't meet (I think)
he is just saying this aloud; it isn't shown or written out as to what he's saying...this is really hard to follow

To read this week

•  Don't miss the Wall Street Journal's coverage of the crazy world of high school sports in Florida, which lifted bans on student transfers. Education figures nowhere in that at all. (That's a gift link.)
  
  

• I love a good "isn't this neat?" story, and that UMass Med brought in Worcester high school students for a science fair in which the high school students were the judges is very fun! 

• NPR had a piece this morning on a team of three teenaged boys in the "World Series of Birding" which was a nice look at teenaged enthusiasm in a wonderful way.

• A growing number of school districts are opening parking lots for families who are unhoused to stay in.
  Best summary? 
  

  “Parking lots are a terrible option, but there are options that are worse,” said Jennifer Erb-Downward, director of housing stability programs and policy initiatives for Poverty Solutions, a University of Michigan project to promote economic mobility.

These are on the way to South Station in Boston. Aren't they nice?

June 2025 Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: innovation career pathways presentation by North Attleborough High

 there's a cast of thousands here, 

How are these credit-bearing courses?

I'm using my snow day in part to read through the Doherty Memorial draft Preferred Schematic Design report, which will get its own post, but this section on page 648 raised the ongoing question I have on this:
How are these courses?

Beginning in the 2018-19 school year all grade 9 students are required to participate in a ten week course focused on college and career readiness, earning 0.25 credit upon successful completion of the course. The lessons in the Introduction to College and Career Readiness course incorporate lessons from Naviance and are designed to assist students in creating and maintaining a plan for their individual and personal educational plans or MyCap. The lessons include time-management exercises, self-awareness activities, interest inventories and college and career exploration lessons. 

Beginning in the 2019-20 school year, all grade 10 students are required to participate in College and Career Readiness II and will earn 0.25 credit upon successful completion of the course. The lessons for the tenth-grade students represent a continuation of the introductory course and increase the breadth and depth of these exploration activities and support the further development of their individual plans for high school while increasing each student’s knowledge of postsecondary options based upon their career interests.

Worcester School Committee meets Thursday

The agenda is here.
The report of the superintendent is on the Barr Foundation grant on "reimagining high school." The grant is a second round of a grant received last year--this one for $300K, last year's for $150K--of which little has been said until now. In fact, the first round of the grant, when it was listed in an article on disciplinary disparities, was billed as:

A $150,000 grant – and possibly more – from the Barr Foundation to implement a ninth-grade transition program aimed at reducing suspensions.

The School Committee did not receive a report on the work of that grant, nor did it receive a grant report that specified how the funding had been (or even was planned to be) expended. A ninth grade transition program for reducing suspensions is not the same as work on what Worcester imagines its graduates from high school to be, as this second grant reportedly is being used for, even if, as this report says, this one focus on "9th grade success," along with "rigor and relevance, college planning, and equity."
I say "reportedly" because the request that the Committee vote acceptance on the grant has not a shred of information on how the grant is being expended. This is problematic for two reasons:

•  it means the Committee can't fulfill its function of keeping spending aligned with the goals of the district (rather than chasing what is shiny)
•  it means the Committee (and thus the district) isn't fulfilling its fiduciary responsibility in allocating funds. No one is voting where the money is going. 

As the presentation itself also lacks specificity--the strategic plan is mentioned, but not how this aligns with it, with nothing on how this lines up with other work the district is doing--it's impossible to tell from this what exactly is being done, by whom, where, what it is going to cost, and how. The section on work so far and work ahead is the same: stakeholders that are being met with can mean a lot or a little; a "representative sample" of site councils, given how much work there is to be done on site councils in Worcester, is, frankly, not representative. One of course likewise wonders which students have been met with. If it's the usual suspects (as I call them; the kids who get picked for everything), the "portrait of a graduate" is only going to mean a very particular thing.
Also, that diagram on community is from Battelle for Kids out of Ohio and...why are their diagrams being used?
None of this, incidentally, is to find fault with the idea of looking at what Worcester thinks a high school graduate should be. It isn't clear to me that this is necessarily going to do it, nor how the grant funding is being spent to get there.

Teaching, Learning, and Student Supports subcommittee met largely to file things, it seems, as the term comes to a close. Looking through the minutes, it appears that there are a number of requests for information coming back.

There are some resignations and appointments.

The enrollment by course report that is coming back to Miss Biancheria's request isn't the full list of courses; I believe it's the new courses that had been approved.

There are donations and recognitions and congratulations.

The ongoing rash (pun intended) of prior fiscal year payments continue, with $1284,86 to a certified nursing assistant, and with $1721.02 (!) going to Struck Catering. I would think they are probably more prompt in their billing than this, which would mean the district not only is not following proper procedures on this, but it's also holding up paying a local business.

Mr. Monfredo has an item to "increase math scores as delineated in the strategic plan." That's not...how this works.
Miss Biancheria is asking again this year for a list of snow-clearing equipment by school "including the process for clearing snow at each site and the evaluation of equipment." Setting aside for the moment just how far into management this is (the answer is WAY into management!), it's hard to think of responses for "the process for clearing snow" that aren't, er, sarcastic.

Mr. Comparetto closes the agenda with a series of items in response, I believe, to an email from a Worcester principal that was pinballing across social media, which asked students to dress as Pilgrims and Wampanoag on the day school got out for Thanksgiving.

They read:

• Request that the Administration provide an update on the alleged culturally inappropriate programming at Goddard School of Science and Technology. 
• Request that the Administration consider incorporating a day of mourning at Thanksgiving time into school programming. 
• Request that the Administration consider incorporating real American history into the curriculum. 
• Request that the Administration review recommendations made by the organization Teaching Tolerance for culturally appropriate Thanksgiving programming

The implementation of the history and social studies standards still has, it seems, work to be done. The state standards did extensive work on historically disenfranchised voices, and the standards created and the resources used lead towards a richer understanding, one hopes. If you're struggling to see the issue here, start "A Culture, not a Costume" from the Washington Post; Googling that will give further resources.

There is an executive session, with one item arbitration with the EAW, one item on litigation, and two on collective bargaining.
And yes, I am planning to attend. 

October Board of Ed: competency determination going forward

Riley: have kept the old standard for two classes, considering doing it for a third as we consider what a new standard could be going forward
Wulfson: continuing series of discussions and briefings this year
most momentous decision this year
should recommendation currently out for public comment be adopted, interim standard will extend through 2023, current 9th graders
this discussion is about the class of 2024 and beyond
key element in this process will be appointment of advisory committee for his recommendation to come to you
committee will have access to student work samples
engage with educators in the field: K-12 and higher ed
public comment
consider if there should be more than one cut score to represent different levels of achievement
statistical work on what MCAS results in the past can teach us about the likelihood of success after high school
"some interesting finds of that study"
presentation on that at the joint meeting with Higher Ed in January at Mount Wachusett Community College

Craven: widespread passage
hard to articulate success rate connection with others
Wulfson: 95%

Mills: recommendation will go to Commissioner
Riley: yes, and then you take the vote
oho...and that determination is under the purview of the Board, which is a public body. They are advising the Commissioner, yes, but on something that is not under his purview. There is an argument here that this advisory committee would also be a public body

Wulfson in response to Q from Moriarty: descriptions at each grade level had been re-thought

The Board of Education meets Tuesday

Back at what I understand to be the revamped meeting space on the first floor in Malden (wonder if they moved the electrical outlets), the Board of Ed has their regular meeting on Tuesday. The agenda is here.

They're opening with the usual round of comments: from the public, the Chair, the Secretary, and the Commissioner.

They then will be hearing a report on two initiatives: 

• Curriculum Ratings by Teachers (CURATE) 
• Middle School Science Curriculum Development (Open Sci Ed)

Is anyone else weirded out by the state running curricular initiatives? There's been a pretty clear line on the state doing standards and curriculum being left to districts to decide; the state doing these rating systems and going around districts makes me uneasy.

There's a discussion on setting the new MCAS standard for high school graduation (that's "competency determination), and if that's of interest, do read the backup. It says in part:

In order to provide adequate notice to students about the graduation requirement for their class, and to take the time to fully consider all the factors involved, I will engage and consult with stakeholders and the public before presenting my recommendations to the Board in the spring of 2020. It is critical that we gather information from representatives across the education, business, and community sectors as we decide how we will define a new competency determination and how it will be implemented. 

As part of the engagement process, I plan to convene an advisory committee—composed of classroom teachers, educational administrators, policymakers, representatives from higher education, and other stakeholders—to assist me in making my recommendation to you. The committee will consider key questions such as the following: 

What do students need to be prepared for beyond high school?

What can student performance on the assessments tell us about their ability to be successful in the future?

How can we best support all students, including English learners and students with disabilities, in acquiring and demonstrating the skills and knowledge needed to graduate from high school?

I'd note as an opening: the key stakeholder group doesn't clearly include school committees (unless they're looped in as policy makers), and definitely doesn't include parents or, er, students.

There's an update on what the Department is doing for district support in dyslexia. 
There will be an update on the school finance bill (no backup).
There will be an FY21 budget discussion.

There are also available, though not on the agenda for discussion: a report on grants, a report on the chronically underperforming schools, the schedule for charter authorization for this year, and a note about audits and reviews by the state (that none overlap).

That's all Tuesday morning at 8:30, and yes, I'll be there.

"Doing God's work"

The post title is a quote from Associate Commissioner Rob Curtin in talking about these sorts of programs. It has stuck with me. 
I appreciated Molly Boigon's piece today for WGBH on (specifically) Kamary Adams Stokes and more broadly efforts to get young people back into school to complete their high school educations.

"You really have to go and find those kids and really make efforts to actually tailor what you are doing to their needs," she said. "Putting forward ... what they might gain from reengaging in school is really important."
Dupere said no one-size-fits-all approach to bringing students back to school works. "The needs of these young people are totally different. If we focus only on learning problems or school failure, we're going to miss a whole lot of kids who drop out for different reasons," she said.

It's some of the most important things we're doing in education. Give it a read. And reporters, please give us more of this. 

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"

Board of Ed for December: accountability system

Wulfson: why we're doing this work
believe state has an obligation to identify schools in need of intervention and to work with those schools
1800 schools in the Commonwealth and most are doing a really good job
believe we have an obligation to identify and shine a spotlight on the schools that are doing really well
believe we have an obligation to share information with parents
believe we have an obligation to provide information to the taxpayers of the Commonwealth
required by both federal and state law to hold districts accountable and report on their performance

November Board of Ed: MCAS as graduation requirement

backup is here
Wulfson: this year's ninth graders first to take new high school MCAS as their competency determination
because it's new, they haven't seen it yet
more rigorous
"for that class and the class behind them, that this Board set an interim passing standards for the  competency determination set...equivalent to the current passing level of the current MCAS test"
intended as an interim moving: beginning conversation of raising bar for classes subsequent
sending proposal out for official public comment
return in February to adopt them
"have done extensive outreach to the field...superintendent and principals have been very, very supportive of this approach"

West: implicit in this step that we're taking is an additional conversation about where the bar should be set after this transitional period
Wulfson: agrees
Board has signaled to field that over the long run, we are raising expectations
Board votes to send to public comment

Board of Ed: determinations for classes of 2021 and 2022

aka high school MCAS revisions 
Wulfson: now turning towards next generation high school test
field testing questions this spring
administering test for first time in spring 2019
first class taking with be class of 2021; they are freshmen this year
competency determination cut scores
standard setting groups in grades 3-8; not high stakes decisions
high school is a high stakes test for students
an extended discussion having over next years
and engaging with stakeholder groups
because it is a high stakes test, both fairness and due process requires giving notice of change in standards
propose that first two classes be held harmless with any raising of the bar
would set passing score at a level commensurate with a score of passing the current MCAS test
will require amendment to Board regs on competency determination
expect to be brought forward with language at November Board meeting
ninth graders are getting their eighth grade scores now; a lot of students falling into partially meeting expectations category
"We don't want them freaking out and saying, 'oh my God, you've changed the rules on me and I won't pass my high school competency determination'"
"not raising the bar on them"
passing will still be in 80 or 90 range of previous years
not asking for a vote now but "would urge anyone who takes exception to that to signal that now"
"it'd be even better if somebody said that they think it's a great idea"
West: supportive of idea "what assumptions we're making about our ability to do that" (cross-referencing)
Stapel: meeting of technical advisory committee this week
essentially be doing it in two ways: percentile linking
will also be investigation how to qualitatively do that during the standards setting process
Morton: thinks it a great idea
speaks to Ed's point: gives us a chance to try the test
"where we get a chance to learn from our past experiences" moving forward
Trimarchi: several mentions of updating language
Stapel: current language is associated with current assessment
changes would update those to reflect decisions we're making
Moriarty: makes sense, continuity
"this is transitional, goal in these assessments is to better align and better support a high school diploma as a genuine" signal of college and career readiness
Wulfson: will signal to class of 2023 and beyond: Board does plan to raise the bar

September Board of Ed: MCAS update

backups here and here
Wulfson: eighteen months ago that Board voted to do new MCAS

Michol Stapel:
participation rates: topping 97 percent in all categories (lowest grade 10 ELA, 97.9%)
"really high rates across the board"

"Conditions of Education in the Commonwealth: Putting Students at the Center of Reform"

The event posting is here. Hashtag is #COE2017

Why the Worcester Public Schools don't just use the WRTA

On tonight's City Council agenda:

Request City Manager work in consultation with the WRTA and Worcester Public School Department to direct an evaluation to utilize existing WRTA buses and personnel to transfer Worcester Public School High School students to and from high schools

 Yes, Worcester, it's an election year, when suddenly the Worcester City Council remembers there are 27,000 city students and $100M city dollars going to the Worcester Public Schools and they decide to DO SOMETHING TO FIX IT.

Here, for those not familiar with our bus system, is the WRTA route map:

Notice anything?

Yes, Worcester has a lot of open space (it's handily marked in green on the map) but those are, in fact, neighborhoods in all of those spaces between the red lines, even that big blank space in the upper left (where the default assumption is that you have a least one car). And those neighborhoods have students who live in them.

Worcester has seven high schools; two are in the urban core and largely have a student body that walk. Of the other five, South High is in the bottom left corner of the map (on the Leicester line); North is along the right side (close to Lake Quinsigamond, which is the Shrewsbury line); Burncoat is in the upper right (near the West Boylston line); Worcester Tech is midway on the right side; and Doherty is close where a lot of the lines cross, by Elm Park (though at the edge of that big blank space). The majority of the schools are at the edge of the city. And those schools together serve ALL students. Worcester Tech takes students from all over the city, but so does the Burncoat Magnet and Goddard Scholars at South. All of those students are guaranteed transportation.

The WRTA (as you can tell from the map) runs on a spoke system, out of the central hub downtown. Assuming you are served by a bus (and, as you can also tell from the map, that's a significant assumption), you need, for most trips, to catch a bus to the central hub in order to get to anywhere else in the city. 

And service is not at all frequent.

Let's try, for example, doing what I see students doing when I head out to the train some mornings: they live in Tatnuck Square, and they go to Worcester Tech. Worcester Tech starts at 7:20. How could they get to school?

There are two bus lines that run out Tatnuck Square, the 2 and the 6. Neither of them starts service until later in the morning, however, so the first thing they have to do is walk the mile and a half to Worcester State. Then they can catch a bus to the hub, to catch a bus to Belmont Street, to walk up the hill to school.

And they'll need to start at 5:45 am.

(providing, of course, that they don't start the night before)

Now, this seems, I am sure, like an extreme example. But all high school students within two miles of their high school already are NOT provided with transportation, so they're already not on the buses. It's only students like this who Worcester DOES bus. Those high school students--as has been pointed out every single time this comes up--require the same buses that then carry the rest of the students to school who don't require buses as part of IEPs.

I'd love to live in a city in which this is possible. We don't.

If you want to fix the transit system, I'd be a huge fan. Taking yellow buses away from high school students using "exisiting WRTA buses and personnel" isn't the way to do it.

Joint Board meeting: early college

early college being discussed now
more focus and more energy to these areas
select area of early college: to address concern of both areas: long term success of students, particularly first generation college students

update on Lawrence

Backup is here
Sagan: "welcome back, year 4"
Riley: "has it been four years?"
high quality academics, high quality outside activities, hard work matters
MCAS: trending up, still need to work on ELA
dropout rate cut in half since 2011
offering 130 new full year full day preK seats for eligible 4 year olds
"moving towards one larger high school with smaller personalized learning environments"
"gradual release of responsibility"
"teach kids to walk the line but then forge their own path"
9th grade academies: "reactive work" on working on dropouts
felt like 9th graders needed a more guided program, more social-emotional supports, a real focus on academics
"won't have to be as reactive" in upper grades
upper academies being planned this year
school year for 9th grade is expanded; start earlier; interesting electives: Crossfit, orchestra, mindfulness and mediation ("which I was personally a little skeptical about" but has received rave reviews)
Playball announcement: $100,000 to expand sports offerings in middle school
talk a lot about test scores, but offering outside opportunities really important
taskforce for special education for it to get "done right and done better"
teacher leadership teams at school level; teachers voted in at school level
working with an outside firm to create a facilities masters' plan
"this is a serious issue in Lawrence" as they have aging buildings and a booming population
Fryer: math and ELA "mirror nearly every reform effort I've seen in American"
Riley: accelerate timeline on language acquisition (I don't think this is possible)
"pound that language into kids"
"try to accelerate that pace...something everyone struggles with in second language learners"
"English is something that we continue to work on and needs help"
tutoring "still going on" but in mathmatics (in response to Q from Fryer about MATCH) and in house
possibly more important to focus on English
Fryer "good models for MATCH tutoring in English"
Stewart interested in data on staffing longevity
Riley: "hired virtually no new principals this year"
had replaced 50% of principals this year; pretty happy with principals we have now
teachers "saw more turnover the first few years...going back down"
Stewart: student support and family engagement?
Riley: "there's a lot of things going on"
expanded Family Resource Center: "have seen amazing results in this area"
if you come to PTO Presidents' Council, meet on a bimontly basis
field days on weekends with virtually every parent showing up
Riley: model where parents are not only welcome but expected to be there
Stewart: co-construtive model for parents as well
Sagan suggests making that part of the next updated
Noyce: how much of need for preK are you filling now?
Riley: waiting for demographic report
Chester: acknowledge the "terrific leadership that Jeff has provided...Lawrence kids in a much better place than they were four or five years ago"
have just renewed tunaround plan
"takes decades for a district" to fail, can't turnaround right away
students with a significant proportion of students whose first language isn't language
highlight work of DESE in shepherding turnaround effort across the state
at the end of this month, bringing together Holyoke, Lawrence, Springfield, "what can we learn from others and from each other"

Finance and Operations: student activity fund audit

Matt Hunt, auditor (who also does the federal single audit) is here for this one
Allen: state never adopted regs on student activity accounts, but MASBO has suggestions, which we follow
student activity accounts at all of our secondary schools
we audit annually "above and beyond what we are required to do"
This is the FY14 audit; FY15 hasn't yet been done
because the FY14 audit was completed during FY15, some findings will be the same
many about reconcilation of accounts and such
Hunt: goal is to do FY15 in a more timely fashion, so things can be cleaned up for FY16
report breaks down by each school
summarize procedures performed by auditor
summarize different types of findings: for several schools, a separate fund created for interest income--those funds dispersed by School Committee policy; checking account reconciliations not signed and dated (creates an audit trail); checking account reconciliations to be prepared by month's end; graduating class funds still in existance after graduation (needs to be process for closing accounts); overarching reconciliation of student activity account balances with bank balance (variances, often timing oriented); very isolated issues in receipts and dispersements (tested 200; found issues with 5)..."most internal control issues...most important part are monthly reconcilation which are being done"
work was all done remotely due to assist from business office
Foley: really about driving us towards best practice
"some minimal human area...some policy areas"
consider a vote today on a policy that within 90 days funds..?
Allen: have an existing policy, just need to update
a number of options: can withdraw and create a new fund for reunions, can donate to upcoming senior class; must take a vote on their action before graduation
MOTION TO HOLD pending FY15 report

How many kids ARE in remedial classes?

If you read my notes from over the weekend, you'll know we had a little back-and-forth about college preparation. I keep hearing this statistic that 40% of Massachusetts graduates end up in remedial classes in college, and this is why we need--fill in the blank--the Common Core, PARCC, better teacher evaluation... It hit me over the weekend that we don't have any way of knowing that, as we don't have the data from the kids who go to private school, which, when I asked, Senior Assistant Commissioner Bickerton then added to his citation. (You can find my notes on that here; it's where the all caps are.)
It seems Secretary Duncan got caught in the same trap on his visit to Massachusetts, and Carol Burris pulls out the actual numbers here.
The conclusion (beyond that everyone should check their numbers?):

Using the above, I estimate that the percentage of students in Massachusetts who attend four-year colleges and take remedial courses is roughly 17 percent, not the 40 percent that Duncan claimed.

That's a pretty significant difference, there, people.

How Messalonskee High School opened the year

Not sure what I love more about this: that the faculty started the school year at Messalonskee High School in Oakland, Maine like this:



Or that the principal then posted it on his blog.