Yeah. And I know as a as a parent, for me, you know, that would be a beautiful bribe to Oh, you want to play your video games? Get on Waggle for 20 minutes. Yes, I support that. Okay, Dr. Let me know when you're ready. I'm ready. Perfect. Um, I was just so excited to talk about this slide with you because after all the research, this is what we're doing next year. These are our upcoming inputs. Um, one of the things that we are most excited about is a targeted math professional development cohort. We have 10 teachers registered and one weight listed for our third through fifth grade next year. We have 10 teachers for our sixth through 8th grade next year. That is more than half of our middle school math teachers. That's awesome. Um, so during that time they're going to get monthly half-day learning sessions in classroom coaching cycles.
Because in a lot of ways, it's in theory to say you need to focus more of your resources on the kids that need to get the farthest. in a lot of way is that they have the most need growth growth that they need to hit like they need to grow the most in order to meet their growth target and Brad anything you would add here I know n the next one is ACT scores so we all know the caveat with ACT so historical data here is SAT um but ACT is Illinois's new measure for um college readiness standards and um based on SAT scores. There's been positive growth in Betavia. Um but of course these annual targets are drafted based on SAT scores and Illinois has not yet released ACT scores for 2025. So what I would really focus here on is not the numbers but is actually just we want to increase the percent of students who are meeting college readiness standards on the ACT and ELA and ACT and math.
It is mostly in during the school day. So it won't take them away from their work life balance. It will be an investment away from their students for half a day once a month. Um, we have we're in the procurement process with a consultant that we're very excited to work with that we'll be coming to share with you in the future. Um and then a couple of the other things are bringing in a student cadre. So we have a plan to start off a pilot with a small group of students and they're going to do a short course called how to do math, how to learn math and it's all about building their efficacy or like what does math really mean? What does it mean to be good at math? Um and then we'd also like to host a spring family math night. Um, we also through coaching and assessment, we've talked a little bit about formative assessments, rearranging the calendar.
The actual numbers will probably look different if you ask two months from now once we understand how baseline ACT performance went in Betavia and state norms in terms of performance on the ACT. Um, and one of the really important things to keep in mind, we talked about this earlier in the semester, the state of Illinois Board of Education is working very diligently right now to overhaul all of their accountability systems and metrics at, if you recall, our state holds our districts and students at a higher level of what they rate as proficiency in academic performance, higher than any of the states around us. They're working on re-calibrating it so that we're compared fairly to every other state in our region, right? If not the country. So, when we talk about calibration here, that is also kind of that factor. um when like the the school and and district report cards get released in the fall.
We are hiring an additional math coach for next year. So, we'll be going from four to five in our interview process. The candidates that were the strongest and move forward were all external. So, we didn't lose any teachers from our classrooms, which I know is always a concern when we expand our coaching staff. Um, coaches will continue to provide their PD throughout the year. And we also have district leaders. We have principles and assistant principles who will be embarking on the work with our consultant and learning more about math which will make them more effective leaders in leading the math in their classrooms and on their campuses. Of the Oops. Go ahead. Of the 20 teachers that signed up for the cohort, are each of the schools represented in that? We tried really hard. Um we tried really hard and most school I think every school is represented I know every school is represented between the two.
Um this has been part of the ongoing work that the state superintendent has been sharing publicly that we're you know all going to be part of. When I say all of us, I mean all the school district, all 850 school districts in the state of Illinois. So I have a question about these targets. So, I know like there's like the state average or norm or whatever we're using, but like are we also referencing it against other large unit districts that have similar demographics to us? Like are we like comparing ourselves to other peers? Like maybe not the Fox Valley isn't always the best example, but like like sometimes I think maybe comparing us to the rest of the state is not fair because we have a lot more resources and a lot we're like maybe we shoot higher than that. I don't know if that's the right way to put it, but you understand what I'm saying, Tom.
So we may not have because there are 10 spots each. We may not have a teacher from every campus in middle school or from every campus in elementary but between the two we do have a teacher from every campus. And some of that was genuinely teacher capacity. We had teachers that said like this sounds great. I'd love to do it but I can't right now. or I'm really passionate about K3 literacy or about language development and I'm going to do that cohort instead. And I was going to say, I don't know if I've shared, but we have a cohort for literacy, one for language, and then one for math. And so, um, these are the teachers that put math as their first choice. They want to be in this cohort. And we're replicating what we did a lot with our language acquisition goal. Were you going to say that?
I do. So, what would be an important factor for a district to be compared to us in your opinion? I didn't know you're going to ask me that question. I know. I mean, but there's like the resources, demographics, but is fund balance more important to you? Is the EAV of that school district more important to you? Are the FTE levels of that district more important? Like, I think this is a conversation. When you ask that question, my response is how what metric does the board of education want me to use then if we're going to look at comparator school districts. I'm not trying to trap you in this. I'm just asking to to elicit more reflection and thought on that question for everybody. Um because no doubt like our our accountability system, if you look at the state's report card system, actually has the tool feature for you to be able to compare school districts if you check off on certain boxes.
It was the I was going to ask it as a question so you could say it, but I am thrilled to have you say it spontaneously as well. So, a lot of things that Miss Twist is sharing like the cohort, we had the language acquisition cohort um this year that so we're replicating things that were working and that we were seeing results in the classroom and seeing in our um also in our you know achievement and growth and so that was a cohort um also some of the other items that you added here already, right? I'm just trying to think. I think so. Yeah. So, everything here has been replicated. Do you want to add anything? I'm just going to say I appreciate the team for coming up with the you're you're so um I again there's a reason that Dr. Pombo was our administrator of the year.
So you can line up how we compare to other school districts. You get to pick. Right. So your question is fair. I'm just saying your question is a fair question. But my my point is which are what are the variables the metrics or the data that's being reported on specific districts that the board would care about to say this is who we want to be compared to. So that might that might be a that statement I just made might not be I guess the genesis I'm thinking is um I think our potential is vast and I want to make sure we're setting challenging goals. Yes. That I know we want to achieve them but I'd almost rather set a goal that's slightly higher. Mhm. You know, if you want to run a 4-minute mile, you know, maybe you only maybe you're at 4:30, maybe you get to 405, but because you were pushing to get to four, you achieved further than you could.
Um like she we talk a lot about leadership and she always gives me great new leadership books. So one of the books she had me read this year was switch and I've talked a little bit about it here and on the podcast. But um in that book one of the things they talk about is bright spots. So you can go out in the world and look at about what a bunch of other districts are doing and you can try and bring that back and replicate it, but sometimes those districts don't have your culture or they don't match you demographically and so those aren't always the best fit. And so the most functional changes that you can make come from the bright spots you find within your own organization. So as we've been trying things this year, you'll through these progress reports, you'll see where we've done exceptionally well, where we've done fairly well, and where we've struggled.
Is that maybe that might be a better um you know, there's been a Yes. Yeah. I I I think I hear what you're saying. Um you know, there's been general support from the board. For example, one of the things that we do really really well is our uh dual credit programming. I've said this to you before and I've said this publicly in any space I I I talk about this. I would put this district up against any district including the Northshore. The level of access that we give our students to get early jump starts on college tuition, college credits, excuse me, to save on tuition. If you think about it from even an equity lens, this is an opportunity through a public educational school system to give kids a chance to go to college if that's what their desire is. But our programming goes beyond that.
And so what the team has been doing is assessing um those things we've done exceptionally well. How do we leverage those into the other areas where we've either just done well or have struggled? And so that's part of why you're seeing that practice replicated here. But one of the things I'm super proud of all of you for is that it's not just replicating what we did that was successful, it's also taking it and putting it on steroids because there's been this addition of these cadres in each of the areas that are coming together. And um many thanks to our principles, assistant principles and other district leaders who are joining those teams so that way that information isn't just embedded with their teachers, it's embedded with their leadership as well. So they're getting the type of support they need to be able to do the things they need to do.
We also offer kids if college is not their future, but they want to start a career pathway, we can do it. They can do it here. And so to me, I value that. If I'm being honest with you, that that's one of the things I really I I want us to protect and grow that particular aspect of our teaching and learning pathways uh for our students because that is the future that we're heading heading in right now, right? Like you know, some of the articles I might be sharing with all of you talks about the vast expansion that's needed right now to prepare our students for the workforce, right? Um, right now Springfield is considering a bill to allow two-year post-secondary institutions to award bachelor's degrees, right? And it's being met with some resistance right now, right? There's some um bargaining that's happen that's happening right now over that bill, but there's a reason for it because our career pathways are the the industries are telling us we are short of people qualified people with the training and certifications to do some of these things that we desperately need right now.
And if I misspoke on any of that, feel free to correct. That's perfect. What I was what I was going to add is that we're engaging like all stakeholders. So with the language, we had the family um night. So we're adding the family nights for um math. And then we also want to make sure we're always engaging our students. And so adding um the student what do we call it? Student cadre. Um and then we also have our leadership teams and then obviously our teachers and everyone involved. So just trying to make sure that we're reaching all of our stakeholders. I think that's everything, right? Oh, I know one more slide. I'm also going to commend our some of our math teachers. We have 20 teachers that are coming back from summer vacation two days early to attend fifth and sixth grade math training with the Department of Education.
Um, so if I were to use that metric, I would definitely want a dashboard to to to show, well, how do we even do that better, you know, and and you as a board um approved uh some extra counseling FTE for our middle school because that's a part of where our next steps in our programming have to go. Um, I'm not using the same example that Simone's been referring to, and I apologize for that. I'm just trying to answer actually your question right now to help give us an example. No, and I'm not questioning the validity of the numbers. I guess No, no, no. I didn't say you were, but scrubbed it though to make sure that because I mean if I just look at this, I mean go to 48 to 59 in 5 years is pretty ambitious. Yeah. Me very ambitious actually. So I'm not I guess I'm not doubting the numbers.
um and seven teachers who are going to invest an entire week of their summer in June to go down to Tucson and spend a whole week being immersed in excellent math teaching practices and then bring it back to their campuses next year. And I'll just add on this goal in particular because it focuses on our black students. One of the things out and about in the world, this is the goal I get asked about the most. Um, and I would say that we have learned so much about this group of students this year because of the goal. Um, specifically, we learned that many of them are immigrants. Many of them are second language learners. Their experience in this country is very different from the African-American experience in this country. So, what the team is continuing to do is they evaluate the inputs that are for all math learners.
I'm just saying to be really try to Well, and it goes back to the steering committee conversation that you and Rob were a part of a year and a half ago when our steering committee and the representatives in that group talked about their concerns that the goals might be so aggressive that there was frustration around using the number of 100%. Right. And I thought both of you articulated a really nice strong message that we have a role. We need to make sure that the district is accountable to growth for our students, but this isn't a gotcha. This is about showing progress. And I think Simone's really articulated that well that as long as let me drift from your visual like we may see this but if that general bandwidth is heading in the right direction that's the progress monitoring that I think Simone was trying to articulate the board ought to look at because uh Kristen I think you mentioned it like so if there is certain data though that we have to flag even though we may be making progress but could we be making more progress if we fix this particular subdata that a committee has detected right?
They are also being very conscious about the intersectionality of of race, language, and math development. And I really commend the team for for being very mindful as they build these structures and build these interactions that they are, you know, they are being really aware and really specific of what is unique about being a black student in the Kraton school district and learning math and then having to perform well on on standardized assessments for their future. So, it was a a courageous move to establish this goal and we've all been challenged by it. But the learning that has come out of it when I've shared it with folks outside of the district, we've gotten a I've it I've gotten a lot of like posit like there's a lot of positive feedback around what we've learned about our kids because we took a close look. So, we'll continue to do that and report on that for the future.
Uh through our monitoring protocols and we fix that or at least try and and bring solutions to elevate what's happening in that under that particular data set that might actually then impact the band to go up a little bit further. How does focusing on with going with looking at the data and the um with the targets that I'm just trying to go through like the metrics and you know we're moving up let's say but how are we ensuring that it's not just moving in upwards fashion for like our top 80% of students because we could be moving upwards where we're still having these certain individuals or certain subgroups or Uhhuh. So, how does that take this into cons that into consideration? Yes, really good question and I'm really glad you asked it because that is a really critical piece of um any sort of data presentation and and when the dcc and subcommittees dig into really specific like looking at all of this data, they should be breaking it down in every way that they can and um saying, "Okay, you know, overall map growth, we're we're improving thing, but our students with disabilities are stagnant over the last few years.