Recommended read: Amici brief in Foote v. Ludlow

 

I just want to offer a strong recommendation that if you're around school districts, you give the amici brief filed by sixteen Attorneys General yesterday (including AG Campbell of Massachusetts) a read. It does a really nice job of outlining the public interest in public education, the purview school districts have to make policies for their educational systems, and the interest schools have in protecting and supporting trans students.

June Board of Ed: Commissioner evaluation

 Hills: "in the interest of time, and because everyone already has the material"
which I guess is here
each member was asked about the year, strengths and accomplishments, focus going forward, key priorities going forward
Hills wrote a summary of the Committee's view
two key takeaways: a year of a range of really significant accomplishments including in teaching and learning
need a clear roadmap on goals that are addressing the outcomes that we want, with check ins over the year
Hills that suggests a timeline for creation of goals and periodic check in on them over the year
"universal respect and appreciation for the Commissioner"
"very strong feeling that Jeff is exactly the leader we need, not simply coming out of the pandemic...but from where we were ten years ago"
"it's a collaborative thing and we're all going to own it"
Stewart: feel entirely separated from strategic plan
"do need a renaissance in teaching and learning
tension over relevance of Board
Hills: we need to own key goals that we have approved; key overall goals, not micro goals
"should have virtual no involvement with anything having to do with internal management of the department"
maybe they want to reconsider their subcommittees, then
Lombos: a retreat: understand role, understand goals
Mohammed: helpful exercise you're laying out
interesting to get perspective on what the Commissioner has learned for the year and what he might change of what he might do
Riley: thanks to team, "noting short of incredible"
"have done ed reform for 25 years...know it worked...have been flatlined"
look at data dispassionately; it is time to change
flat regardless of COVID
"need to move away from ed reform and move towards an education renaissance and figure out what's next and what's best for our children"
Craven says it was the legislature that created ed reform
wild how this always leaves out the McDuffy suit
"we've had a lot of discussion of the mechanism, the test"
the test isn't the end, it's the measurement

Hills moves acceptance of the evaluation which passes

June Board of Ed: State Student Advisory Council

 report of the State Student Advisory Council so this one is over to Eric Plankey
And I don't have this report, so I have no links as yet
state council of 50 members, then 5 regional councils which produce reports for the larger council
changes in student advocacy this year, too
first year of meeting back in person: moved the meetings from Malden to Worcester to increase access

student reps: opportunities for youth involvement in every district
should have two students from every high school in Massachusetts
how do student voices get represented across the state
student government; affinity groups; advocacy groups
handbook for student government, focused on policy change

financial literacy: bundle of resources for districts
life after graduation, paying for college
documented past work to build off of
lesson plans series
presentations from guidance departments on paying for college

health and wellness: youth risk behavior survey
consistent feeling of sadness/hopelessness: 50.1% of girls; 26.6% of boys
only 20.4% of students getting more than 8 hours of sleep
40-50% of LGBTQ+ students had seriously considered suicide
bullying down; alcohol use down
peer on peer support groups
up to date occupational advisors
make sure students aren't overloaded with work; stay balanced

now reviewing regional work: 
Greater Boston: list of recommendations for updating health curriculum; building codes and sustainability
Northeast: guidance on religious holidays
Central Mass: wellness week
Southeast: brochure for school spirit; initiatives on BIPOC history
Western: outreach for representation

Stewart: where can see report? need space on website

"got students thinking about what was happening in their districts"

Mass Association of Student Representatives:
student reps to school committees: every district required to have student rep, have student advisory to school committee
"there isn't a lot of compliance with it"
help spread best practices of students getting involved in their local districts
proposed amendment for student reps voting rights

Student Union of Massachusetts:
coalition of local youth groups from across the state 
local reform efforts to improve student voice
facilitate student gov reform
create template policies for local implementation

three levels of decision making now has a dedicated student advocacy to that level
"creating something special in MA"

Lombos: sees parallels between student organizing and work organizing
excited to see if can bake in continuity

Plankey plans to connect incoming student rep with Board and Department members
"state should be prepared to engage with students as partners"
suggests DESE solidify of SSAC as a partner with the Department: "one stop spot as student voice" for Department

Ella Gardner, Wellesley High School will be incoming rep for next year

June Board of Ed: budget update

 Bell: "our meeting schedule is always not quite where the Legislature is in their version"
conference committee is working to produce a budget
Driscoll signed an interim budget, provides spending authority until the general appropriation is finalized
"I think we're going to have a pretty good handle on the things we're going to see"
Third year of SOA: $6.7B of chapter 70
increases in circuit breaker, transportation accounts between 90-100% of need
increases in early college, career and tech ed
in the middle of federal spending
80% of ESSER II claimed; have until September of this year to spend
a little over 30% of ESSER III; a little over billion on this to go before September of 2024
released funding for federal entitlement grants 
Moriarty: packet for Board had information on Reading Recovery, does legislature get that?
Bell: not that I know of
Tutwiler: "this is a big blip on our radar" and not letting it go

June Board of Ed: amendment to educator licensure

 proposed for passage today: which you can find some things on here

over 350 comments received from a variety of people 

1) Proposed amendments to allow Initial and Professional license holders to obtain a Provisional license in special education areas and in English as a Second Language. 

2) Proposed amendments to create a new grade span, PreK-2, for two licenses: Teacher of Students with Moderate Disabilities and Teacher of Students with Severe Disabilities.

3) Proposed amendments to permit Provisional licensure applicants to meet a requirement through a demonstration of knowledge, as an alternative to meeting the requirement by taking a course or seminar. 

4) Proposed amendment to create a new Provisional license for school nurses. 

Hills: a comment, not a question
really little evidence that shortages are going to disappear in short to medium term
if there are changes that might help address some of those staff shortages, I'd be open to hearing them

passes

June Board of Ed: proposed technical amendment to student discipline regs

 sent to public comment

June Board of Ed: student data trend analysis

 Thomas Kane from Harvard University
he's an economist
"in the education policy debate, I have observed that there is one common storyline...that the folks on the reform side...will marshal statistics that things are terrible...that the status quo is unsustainable...those on the other side...are often arguing similar points...and will point to prior...policy for why"
"over time it's corrosive"

provide some history
nationally, achievement as measured by NAEP rose from 1990-2013
"have made quite a bit of progress"
I am not going to try to reproduce numbers here
notes decline in 2019-22, which started pre-pandemic
in Massachusetts increase was larger, but recent losses are larger
"a year's worth of growth is about 10.4 points"
(this always feel very made up to me)
quotes Mann on education being "the balance wheel of the social machinery"
"but the balance wheel has been under strain"
Increased economic stratification 
main countervailing force has been policy: school accountability and school finance
"merged each of the schools back to neighborhood" in NAEP results
He is presuming that the schools draw from their neighborhood in this analysis--not all do
and then looked at neighborhood income
Larger increases for lower income families, by this analysis
reading improved for low and middle income families
in MA, high poverty districts improved the most
looked at states that saw big increases in the NAEP, then looked at income over time of those born in those states; states with large NAEP growth were also places were those born those had larger income growth
["What do changes in state test scores imply for later life outcomes" Dec. 2022 NBER working paper]
"I just can't help myself; I'm an economist." on next set of data
what has the increase in achievement been worth?
for one cohort of 8th graders in 2013, he calculates at $6.4B
"Education reform did not fail."

Current challenges: respond to pandemic losses; resume progress in MA education
"would encourage us to be bold" in current challenges

"pandemic losses increased inequality in MA"
IMPORTANT POINT: THIS WAS NOT THE CONCLUSION DRAWN BY DESE IN THEIR OWN PRESENTATIONS. If you recall, during the goal setting conversation, the Department was quite clear that it was not the traditionally lowest performing districts in which those losses were concentrated
Would recommend policy changes that focus on these traditionally underperforming districts

"what are some of the processes that we could create that would help accelerate improvement?"
process by which improvement could be scaled up: MA state innovation fund

Characterize this as a pep talk
"can make progress, have made progress...we currently have some major challenges"
consider what is possible in the coming years

Craven: some people voted against 1993 education
"people argue that nothing but money matters"
you said policy matters; what do you mean by that?
Kane: "there is research...looked at what happened to NAEP scores" in schools like MA pre-NCLB accountability
which is also when we put money in, so this is not holding money aside
They found large positive effects, especially in math
"more narrowing in schools that did school finance reform in the states that didn't"
"I don't think the data enables us to show which was more important, but that both were important"
Moriarty: steps one through three; I think steps 4 and 5 are extremely problematic
(this is on his slide of "resuming improvement")
Kane: I don't think any state does 4 and 5 well (that's "share" and "scale)
thinks the best way to convince people that their peer districts had compelling outcomes
"as a persuasion scaling exercise"
Hills: when you see declining gaps reverse themselves, would be curious what items you want to highlight
Kane: very few things we understand in education research, but the turnaround in math "was related to school closures"
high poverty, high minority districts "stayed closed longer"
Newton students had more resources outside of school
both Kane and Hills live in Newton
Hills: ten years ago to five years ago, how did trends reverse themselves?
Kane: resource, incentives, but also persuasion; "my hypothesis--I can't prove it!--is we'd start to see improvement again"
Plankey: was there a tapering off in other states over this time, too? "Does ed reform just sort of expire?"
Kane: "pattern of rising and then flattening is pretty universal"
Plankey: are there any states that implemented a change and reversed?
Kane: "I hope that Massachusetts would be the first."
Have to acknowledge large losses in places like Lynn
"we'll learn a lot when MCAS results come back this summer"
hopes that Massachusetts has turned it around, but don't expect it
Tutwiler: what do you mean by spread?
Kane: districts voluntarily adopting effective practices, ideally
"but state also has levels" that it can pull 
"imagine if the state held like an annual meeting" on what is going to be tested this year and what will be tested this next year
"some of the things that get tried won't work...I wouldn't be surprised if even most of them don't work"
"by identifying that 20% that worked and spreading them"
Tutwiler: appreciate naming the differences between different communities
lived in Andover, worked in Lynn and saw those differences
there are elements that exclude the control factor "there could be wisdom in those control factors..in things for us to think about"
schools that had long-term subs, or positions that they never filled, or chronic absenteeism rates that are much higher
Kane: have research on what works in chronic absenteeism, for example
start systematically sharing what works
Stewart: strikes me that when Commissioner was new was a conference sharing what works
districts to share their successes
can target a few initiatives, but don't think the state needs to share the work and be excited about it
Kane: the role the state could play is set up the things to try, and then let the folks who did it be the ones to try and then share
"and for the state to invest substantially in it...even setting aside 1% of that" for experimentation
Mohammed: thinking about experience in health care: preventable medical errors
"it wasn't until hospitals really started to work on this using many of the processes you're describing"
might be things to learn from different industries, storytelling, measurement of outcomes was key to changing trajectory of things

Plankey: catalogue of learning supports
will catalogue be updated yearly as things change? (Riley nods)