001Oh, wait. Is it Is it live? Okay. Yeah, it's live. Okay. >> Calling allegiance >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, we will do roll call. Trusty Ho here. >> Trusty Kim here. Uh, and I'm here and I think uh trusty Proctor and Trusty Brooks are absent. Um, so we will do approval of the agenda. >> Motion to approve the agenda. >> Thank you, Trusty Kim and Trusty Ho. All in favor say I. >> I. Zero. Okay. Um, we will check for public statements. Are there any in the audience person? Uh Joe, can we check online for any public comment? >> Okay, great. Well, um we'll move on to the multilingual
002learner services presentation. Thank you. All right, share our screen now. Okay, I have additional people. >> Good evening, um, board of trustees and superintendent. My name is Ala Bara Cruz. I'm the executive director of multilingual learner services for the San Mato Foster City School District. and my colleague joins me tonight and I'll let her introduce herself. Janette Ramirez, principal and special assignment for multilingual team at our community schools. We're here tonight to share with you an update on our multilingual learner goals and strategies for the school year. And before we get started, we want to share with you a short video of one of our multilingual learner students. You'll see a few of our students who are currently in fifth grade lead. Sorry, we're having a bit of a technical problem here. Is it go
003back to slide there? Yeah. Oh, is it the last? Just this one. Yeah, >> there. The last one is the one that we have to go to YouTube. So, this one's embedded. >> You have to present. Uh >> and I go to elementary school. Learning English was like a little bit hard but like the hard part is it was when I read and some parts of the words I couldn't understand them. So like I read them like tricky. So I got confused on the words. But it was easy cuz most of the words that I used in English and to read they had like I saw them and like I could read them like quick and with no problem. So I think the part that most struggle with is I think a little bit of
004writing and a little bit of speaking. I speak good English but some words I don't speak like I don't say correctly and for writing sometimes I misspell some words that I haven't even learned. My teacher does help me a lot in math and like in English when I always get confused in like words she helps me pronounce them. So I asked the teacher and uh persons that are next to me if I don't understand something so they could explain it to me and then I could solve it. The only thing I think I it would change is teachers helping a little bit more English to kids so we could pass the L packet test. >> My name is Leonardo and what school do I go to is lead. I like learning in class. It's not
005that much hard, but it's not that much easy. It's like a little bit hard. Sometimes when I learn something too much, I I'm a little confident with with a subject, but when I do a little bit, it's like a little hard for me. I usually practice like taking deep breaths and it helps me a little bit of practicing. I usually go by myself like I practice myself. I said, say the teacher what's going on. The subject thing that was like the easiest thing in the school was math. Like in third grade, I started getting interested in math. So I started practicing my multiplication facts, division. Now when I'm in fifth grade, like I learn fractions, decimals, I learn how to do even algebra. >> My favorite subject is math. She sometimes makes it learn like
006decimals or fractions or stuff like that. I usually like reading a lot. I usually like to read graphic novels, reading with my friends and learning subjects. >> Thank you. So th those are just some student perspectives that we wanted to show you and these are fifth grade students at Leed Elementary. We now want to present with present you with some statistics around our multilingual students in San Foster City. close to 50% or a little bit over 50% of our students are considered multilingual learners and we have a total of 57 different languages spoken in our district with Spanish being the top language. Close to 80% of our multilingual students speak Spanish as their first language. Most of our multilingual students have been in the country three to four years in our school district and our
007multilingual learners reclassify as English proficient at different years throughout their academic history. We have students who reclassify the first year that they take the LPAC assessment and those are considered IEP. If a student continues to take the assessment and they reclassify in subsequent years, then they're considered perfect or um yeah, reclassified. Um multilingual students who have not reclassified according to the California Department of Education are still labeled as English learners. Our team has been able to develop a system that we implement this year to support multilingual students and their families. And that system is guided by three frameworks. The first framework is the California English learner roadmap which was adopted by our state back in 2017. The second framework is our district strategic plan. And the third framework is the multilingual learner district plan which
008was adopted back in 2020. This visual that you see there is a visual representation of the framework or the system that we have developed to support our students this year and their families. We start out by providing professional development to our educators around designated and integrated EL and um the professional development has been continuous and also throughout the district professional development days. The second pillar are the instructional coaching cycles that our multilingual tossas have implemented are at our title one schools. And the third one are the languageri instructional practices that our teachers are putting in place at all of our schools this year. And then we follow with monitoring student progress where um we look and analyze at our ELPAC data, our reclassification tracking and then classroom walkthroughs and then followed by our family engagement
009with parent workshops, newcomer supports and multilingual communication. So to share a little bit more about the professional learning for educators and leaders this year the professional development has focused around what we call designated and integrated English language development. Integrated means all the strategies that teachers use to support students during content areas such as math um language arts, science and social studies. designated refers to the 30 minutes uh a day that students are leveled according to their English level so that they can get more targeted support. We also provided professional development around our signature strategies this year which are the constructor conversations and I'll go into more depth in a little bit. Um, so throughout the year, our team has been able to provide continuous professional development during the three professional development days, but also during
010staff meetings. And to this day, we have provided 71 professional development series for our educators. All of our elementary schools have received a professional development in grades K through five and teachers have participated in at least three professional development series. The same thing goes for our leaders. Um we have been able to provide them with the same type of professional development around how to be instructional leaders for multilingual students at their school sites. Elementary leaders have been provided with three sessions and middle school leaders with two sessions so far this year. Um and to add on to that because we believe that supporting students is important um but also supporting the parents is an important piece. the uh family engagement sub team and our team has also been supporting the parents to learn the signature
011strategies. So just to talk about a little bit more about what instructional coaching looks like. So we have six multilingual teachers on special assignment that focus their work in our title one schools this year and their main task is to coach our teachers in those schools. Um what they do is they have instructional coaching cycles that are six to eight weeks long and the cycles focus around supporting teachers by doing co-eing co-planning uh doing demo lessons in the classrooms. At the end of each coaching cycle, they bring student data and analyze the growth of the students in the classroom to support the teachers with really honing in on the student outcomes. So it's it's very intimate because it's a teacher at for example Samo Park talking to a Tossa who's at Samato Park >> who
012has been there all year and goes you know it's sort of like the familiarity of somebody who's a very proximal but also consistent person there and then they're essentially connected with them for those six to eight weeks >> to try to initiate a conversation about seeking progress on on skills we want students to demonstrate and then tracking how we teach and what impact that has on how they learn. >> Yeah. And our um coaches they hone in sometimes on specific grade level teams. So at a time they're probably coaching an entire grade level team so that the teachers are also collaborating and co planning together. um they've developed really deep relationships with those teachers as well. >> And to Gail's point, they they know the children too. They've seen the children. >> It's also something
013the teacher keeps with them. So when the cycle ends and the TOSA starts to work with a different grade level, that group of teachers still gets to keep with them the thought process and the planning behind that cycle of inquiry. So it's not just we do this once a year when we have the to support but what what's our next area of focus in improving EL instruction and and you know moving multi learner work forward >> and that confidence like if she's the toa and I'm the teacher I have confidence that I know her and I can tell her >> where I am so it's a big difference >> yes um we had an opportunity to present the hostess had an opportunity to present their work at the Cave conference last month. And that was
014actually one of the questions that the participants were asking them. How do you create that relationship with the teachers? Like how do you get them to buy into the coaching? And so it was because the TOSAs spend a lot of work, a lot of time in the classroom uh connecting with the students and the teachers and the students and teachers um you know they they trusted them in that sense. And there were 70 people in that session. I mean, people were like, >> literally standing at the door. They couldn't get in. And then they stayed there. And I think we made everybody late for lunch that day. >> Yeah. We couldn't get >> Well, I know they wouldn't let you guys leave either because there were just a lot of >> what they saw was
015a version of what you're seeing, but like they saw the whole thought process behind a district that is trying to make progress with multilingual learner. um outcomes and not just through a tutoring program or not just through we hired a new director or because as you're going to see it's the intent here is like that first visual you showed there strategies all trying to move the learning forward and and I think a lot of the districts that attended that session took away like you know missing the parent component you lose been missing the coaching component. He was listening missing the data component. So it's a real affirmation of the kind of systems you guys have put into >> the the trust and the co-f facilitating between the teachers and >> it was all teachers. Yeah.
016>> It's um you just go farther with that kind of relationship than just one person. >> Yeah. And then the picture that you see there, that's actually the um inquiry cycle document that the toastas use when they start coaching teachers. I know it's quite small, but um we we intentionally develop it like that because that gives teachers an opportunity to reflect on what they want to focus on for their coaching. Not necessarily what the coach says, but it's what the teacher wants to focus on and bring it back to the students. So which students do you want to see improvement and what strategy should we focus on for the next six weeks, six to eight weeks and how do we measure whether the students actually improved or not? Um there's a there's a big uh
017picture around the trust because I let the coaches know you know your trust with the teacher is the most important thing and please let them know that you know you're their confidence and they can trust you with anything that you say during that coaching cycle so that >> between you and them. Um the can I point out Alita that the biggest thing here uh compared to last year we were able to do the inquiry cycle but it was too far apart this year it's a little closer and it's it's it circles back even faster. So um so it looks like you need never leave it. You're always studying it. So um in connection to the coaching cycles um we need some kind of focus during the coaching cycles and the focus comes with the languagerich
018instruction as I had mentioned before we over the last few years we've introduced what we call the signature strategies and we still continue those signature strategies be because we want to see more implementation happening in in the classrooms and more students using them. The three signature strategies are called constructive conversations, cognitive content dictionary, and language function law. And the reason why we selected them a few years ago was because these were high impact strategies that could easily be implemented by the teachers and they would provide us with the language but also the academic access because multilingual students need language and at the same time they also need the academic supports in their instruction. So to this day um all elementary teachers understand the signature strategies and they use at least one in their practice. Each
019school has been able to decide on which strategy they want to focus on during the year and if they master the strategy then they move on to another one. Um for example in some of our schools we have some innovative work happening and um we have the mathtosis working with the multilingualtosis to implement the strategies specifically during math instruction. An example of that is constructed conversations which was actually created initially to be used during math instruction as well. So um we have the collaboration happening across content and also across our different TOSA groups. >> Um and to echo what you said earlier, our families are also becoming familiar with these strategies because in the family side we're able to then bring also that awareness and they could see what um the students or how they're
020learning in the classrooms. This year we have also introduced some additional strategies for the 30 minutes a day that we call designated ELD which is when teachers the students multilingual students according to their English level. So, what we'll show you right now is an example of a designated English language development lesson and the strategy that the teacher is using. I can break down long tough sentences into small parts to help me understand them better. >> There are many different types of clouds. The shape, appearance, and elevation of clouds can help people predict weather. Why do you use sentence deconstruction? >> I use sentence deconstruction to focus in on grammatical aspects such as the vocab, nouns, and verbs. I also use it to help break down the sentences so my students can understand them. Look at
021that sentence really close and I want you to see if there are any words that you might not know or a friend might not know. So it could be you think a friend might not know it or you might not know it >> like a half like same but like have different colors. >> Oh yeah because of the weather like if it's going to raise and the cloud that's going to be is going to be gray or black. >> If we take out vapor let's see if that makes sense. Clouds are water floating in the air. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. What word did we say it kind of sounds like? >> Elevator. >> No. >> Elevator. >> You said it kind of sounds like >> Elevator. And what's an elevator do? Leave your
022hand. >> It goes up >> and down. What is going to happen to the appearance of the clouds? What's going to change about the clouds, Diego? >> They're going to be gray. And if it's gray, is it going to be a nice sunny day? >> No. >> What can we predict about gray clouds? >> It could be dark. But what else can we predict about gray clouds? >> Um, it can rain. >> It could rain. The shape, appearance, and elevation. I want you to turn to your partner and tell them what three words are connecting in that sentence. What is the first word it's connecting? >> Um, shape, >> shape, appearance, and elevation. Very good. If I have the word kind, I just need another word before it to make it make sense because I
023can't put listening kind and we'll say resting can help people make good choices. That doesn't make sense. What word could I put there? >> Being Let's try that. >> Let's read it. Listening, being kind, and blame can help people make good choices. When we add being kind, does that make more sense? >> Yes. >> So, the first half of the video, um, the teacher was integrating a science topic to help the students make sense of the sentence. So that's what we consider sentence deconstruction and that's what our multilingual students need support with understanding syntax, grammar and all the morphology of the words and the different sentences. So that's what the designated EL 30 minutes a day does for our students. So um to move on to how do we measure progress for our multilingual students?
024So in our district, we use both qualitative and quantitative measures to support the growth of our multilingual students. Qualitative measures that we've been using this year are around doing classroom walkthroughs. So this year we've been visiting all of our schools to observe the integrated and the designated instruction happening at all of our schools. And we do the walkthroughs three times a year at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the year. And we bring the principles and any tossas or anyone else who wants to join us. After we visit the classrooms, we have a conversation with the principal around what we saw, what would be some next instructional steps or leadership moves that need to happen at the school site. for qual quantitative measures. At the end of each trimester, we do
025monitor the growth of our multilingual students in our literacy assessments and we send those reports out to the school leaders so that they can track the progress at the end of each trimester. And at the end of the year, we of course use the LLPAC, which is what the students take at the end of each academic year to measure their growth in the language development. Um then at the same time, we also look at our reclassification trends at the end of the year, year after year, and across all schools so that we can get a picture of how our multilingual learners are doing across the year. And um to top it off, it's at the bottom of the slide, but it says dually identified um committee. That committee is a new committee that we created
026this year to really go into depth around the needs of our dy identified students who are students who are multilingual and also have an IEP or a 504. And the reason we created the committee was to analyze the needs of the students and be able to create a more equitable system to support them. So for example, one topic that we've talked about during the committee is how do we make sure that the IEP goals of the students are actually also supporting their language growth and when they take the LPAC, how do we make sure that they're getting all of the support so that the students can achieve the best results on that assessment? Yes. And um for next year uh we want to add that you know one of the questions that the committee has
027brought up is how do we prevent multilingual students from being enrolled in special education if their need is actually language and not a learning disability. And so for that reason, next year we want to dive deeper into what we do in in the multi-ter systems of support. What kind of interventions do we want to put in place in terms of language and literacy so that we don't have a significant population of multilingual students represented in special education. Um going back to the some connected to the dy identified um student conversation, a lot of the students that are multilingual and end up in a dy identified uh criteria are also what we consider long-term English language learners. So that basically means that they've been in our country for six or more years and they have not
028reclassified as proficient. So, um, one initiative that we put in place this year to support to minimize the number of long-term English language learners or ELELLS going forward is that we've started a pilot um with Abbott Middle School. Abbott Middle School is currently participating in a professional development with our county office of education where they attend sessions with their instructional leadership team around what are the best practices for long-term English language learners. Um through that process they dive deeper into understanding their needs. They've conducted a series of student empathy interviews. What they do is they interview students who are els about their experiences in school, what their learning needs are. They've also shadowed the students in the classroom. So they spent time in the classroom observing how the students learn, how they respond to instruction,
029and they surveyed the teachers and the parents as well. So through this process, Abbott has been able to develop more professional development for their teachers. Specifically, they're implementing one of our signature strategies, the one called constructive conversations. And their hope is that by the end of the school year, they will get more LTEL students increasing their academic discourse in the content area classes. Um, and that's something that they've been working together as a team. It's not something that we've um told them they have to do, but they've been doing a lot of inquiry around their own initiatives and practices and bringing bringing that back to their um school teacher teams as well. >> Yes. So, um, we've been talking about the supports that we provide our students in the classrooms, and my colleague Jana will
030now share what we do to support their families as well. So, we have a little video here to get us started, but I'm going to move into here. Hopefully, it'll work. is I was part of the PTA at his elementary. So I set that example for them. and you get a sense of belonging. It means that you get to feel like you're a part of a community, your school community. So being present means a lot of different things. Woohoo! is here. There we go. So, we're really proud of that video because it really shows the parent voice and the students voice and everything that um we want to support within our families. Um just within the video um I just wanted to share we have created a YouTube um where monthly we're able to let
031our families know what's going on in case they don't have time to look at the uh the flyers that come through. So, we've created a YouTube uh opportunity and we have uh talking flyers and so if the parent needs to click on it to hear what it's saying, um they don't have to read it and so it'll tell them always what's coming up. And um the other item that that we're doing very conscientiously is we're letting all the other CS um social workers and CSS's know from all the sites in the district what's coming up. What are all the parent engagements opportunities? Um so in that video you were able to see dads participate and that's what really blows my mind. Fathers participating with their families and it's like a date night. Um it's so
032beautiful to see, you know, the fathers and the moms with the children um really getting um invested in in the um activities. Um we have um you also uh saw while we have the parents in one room, the students are in the other room doing the same thing that the adults are doing but in in in um childlike form. And so we're getting their input as well. Um and then the littles are obviously playing outside, making friends. Um and then um we were also able to bring a panel of our parents and students um and that um in that presentation we the the panel was presenting to our sanctuary task force um highlighting leadership. So that was um the video in itself. Um, as far as our parent um, workshops, you can see here, um,
033we have a slew of workshops and we're always thinking of the the family unit and we have, um, our multilingual family handbook. So, all our sites um are very welcoming to newcomers, to students um, that are new or new to the country. and all the sites know how to access um how to support. We began our parent workshops this year with our safety plan for um immigrant families. Um that was really successful because we had it in San Mato and we had it in Foster City and we were able to share with our families, we're united, we're here for you and um we'll do whatever in our power to protect our children and our families. Um then we continued our partnership with other um um areas such as technology and math. Um our parents really
034wanted to be connected but some of them didn't know how to navigate the systems so we helped them. Um math was a delight. Um everyone had fun and learning in such a uh way that is not scary. um we were able to share just basic practices that they can do at home. Um one thing that I wanted to highlight is for every event that we have, we do certain things um that are special. We bring the mercadito. Um so it's it's uh bringing like little farmers market to our families and we know that they're going to go away with with products that they can use at home. So, our medito is really important and we do our door prizes. Our door prizes are fantastic because as we raffle off a basket full of books or
035um items that we get that are donated, um we also when we call them up, we ask them, "What have you done from any of our um parent workshops?" And they share. They love to share. So, it's not just us sitting there going w it's them teaching also the parents what do they do at home um how have they been able to practice what they're hearing back at home and that's and it's beautiful because it's not just us up there um typically our every celebration that we do every meeting that we do we incorporate it with a cultural opportunity um you saw diutoto um very close to Halloween. We all got dressed up. Um it was just a fascinating um event. And then we um also have a slew of other opportunities for our parents.
036Um we are accessing AI. um has been very supportive in that we know that going into the websites to learn how to access ELPAC is is really daunting. And so we're trying to make it very um in a way that it it's easy to read, easy to follow. And so we make sure that our families always have access to that information. Um and the nice thing is it's a one-on-one as well. We present, we share, and it and we're there for them in case they have questions afterwards. Um I can go on and on later. Um so for our newcomer support, um for our sanctuary task force, um this year we focused a lot on our um leadership, leadership from our students and leadership from our parents. Um what does that mean? Um, what does
037it mean to be welcoming? What who am I? Who am I as an adult, as a mom, a sing, it could be a single mom or a mom that has four or three children. How do I help? Who am I as a child? Um, how can I help myself and others? Um, what inspires me and what are my aspirations? And so that's the theme of this year for sanctuary task force along with making sure that our newcomer intake and protocols are present at every school and we monitor that if um Ela comes from Mexico. I'm going to welcome her. I'm gonna do a intake and find out all about her because I want to know what strengths she has so that we can highlight that um and teach her what she needs. Right. And then
038so and then also our newcomer um wellness with our specialists um at the high schools at the excuse me middle schools we want to make sure that um the children that need um that extra support they have it. Um and then with our DAC uh our DAC and ELAC um like I mentioned earlier, we um have taken the LPAC and really deconstructed it and really narrowed it down for grade level specific. Our parents want to know what the score ranges are by grade level. They want to know exactly what does it mean for my child in my grade level, the reading, the writing, the listening, and the speaking um section. So, um we're able to go through all of that at DAC meetings. And then obviously there's mandates, you know, and things that we need
039to go through like our LCAP. Um it's fascinating at our last um we had very great conversations Um, and it wasn't uh it was different in that we didn't need to teach them what LCAP was about. We had great conversations so we could go deeper because they heard um a lot of information beforehand to get them ready to have great conversations for ELP for instance. Um and then uh DAC is the district version of ELAC. And then for our ELAC in supporting our principles, um we've had some trainings um to inform how to run a ELAC, how to make sure that there's elections for ELACs, and then there's guidance for schools. And so, um we've had virtual um trainings for our principles and um for next year, we're actually putting some binders together for our
040representatives. Let's see here. Um, oh, one more thing or two more things I want to mention. Um, for the Lack, we are actually creating little, uh, vignettes, little shorts, um, that they're called for parents to take a look at, um, for our different domains so they can learn what the different domains are for the ELP testing. And then we have English together. English together is an amazing program. Um we have it at the six title one schools. It is a parent support um using technology where our families learn how to use their English skills. Um but it's related to like the workforce. Um I if if if I'm out there working um and say I'm a chef, I'm going to look use all that practical language and with the volunteer they get to meet weekly
041and practice all that language um in a non-threatening space. Um they get a Chromebook, they meet weekly. um if they miss their appointment for some reason, it's rescheduled and it's a constant um interaction back and forth and the volunteer and the student, which is the adult student, they really get to know each other. Um and it becomes um non-threatening like it's not as scary to learn English if it's that one-on-one. >> And at the end of the year, we have an amazing annual celebration. One thing to add is um the testimonies that the parents share like last year at the end of the year um the founder of the program Walupe Valdes was sharing that the things that she's most proud of is when the parents come to her and say thank you for giving
042us this opportunity because of this program we have received promotions in our jobs and of course when a parent receives a promotion it impacts all of the family students and you everyone in the family. So those are the things that we also value a lot. >> Right. Right. Um because our parents want to um they want to connect with their children too. And so um all of the words and all of the the English that they hear they're also going to use with their children at home. Um there's statistics a little later, but I want to since I'm here, we went from about eight about eight students to now almost 70 students. >> The first pilot year we piloted with eight parents and now we have 68 parents every single year. >> Yeah. And that's
043it's an example of um of thinking about the opportunity that inviting English speaking neighbors because the the the mentors and the volunteers are they're people who live here who are invited to essentially make a best friend, make somebody you're going to meet with and talk to. And you know the parents that I've spoken to, they go and they have coffee with these people. We go for walks with them. They go, you know, I mean, they become friends and they become really close through the partnership. And I mean, these are people we live with. So, it's also having an impact just on people who live here in San Monteo City. Just knowing somebody who's racially different or economically lives in a part of town they're not familiar with. Um, and it's not necessarily going to have
044like a big impact on on the kids's reclassification or their test scores, but it might result in that economic stability for the family, which will have a huge impact or it might just result in families not feeling home saying one of the other very frequent comments is um something came up that was like a legal question and they asked me and so then I was able to like it it was a a signal this parent needs legal support. Let me get them connected with that or medical support. So, it becomes a a connection beyond just even learning learning English. >> It's it's also resource oriented and um just like you said, just not feeling lonely. It's it's it gives you uh a lot of self-esteem. >> Yeah. So then now we have our evidence in
045progress um report where we can show you some statistics and in our next section will be reclassification um which each year um obviously moving the trend moving up higher um elated. >> Yes. So since 2019, our district has seen significant improvements in the number of students that we reclassify, specifically the last three years. However, last school year we did see a slight decline, but that can also be attributed to having high reclassification numbers the last two years prior to that. Uh which left us with a significant number of students who have recently arrived in the country. One thing to consider is that it typically takes a student 5 to seven years to fully become proficient in another language. So that is something that we also consider when we look at how many students are reclassifying
046based on how many years they've been in in our schools. And then we have our English learner um performance indicator or also known as LP. Um and we have uh data from 2019 to now. Yeah. So again uh we see a consistent percentage of our multilingual students and the way the state measures the LP is they just count how many students are making progress on the LPAC out of the total number of students that we have. What is the percentage that is making progress or staying at a level four for example. So um across all five years we see uh that number close to 50. Last year we did drop a couple percentage points. Again that was probably because we had been reclassifying so many kids the last few years before that as well. And
047then we have our seal of literacy pathway. Yeah. So um our district prior to 2023 was not providing our multilingual students with any sort of recognition for their biiteracy and bilingualism skills. Um we started the seal of biliteracy pathway awards as a way of recognizing them for being bilingual or multilingual in English and another home language. In our district those languages are Spanish and Mandarin. So we have two types of awards. The first one is a participation award which means that students have participated in a bilingual program in our district and the second one is an attainment award which means that they're on track to get the seal by literacy at the high school. So that's the seal that all 12th graders get at the end of their high school education. Um and it's essentially
048like a seal of approval. They can get bilingual jobs. it opens up the doors for college entrance and so many other opportunities. So um year after year we've given uh those awards to approximately 170 students every year and this year um of the total number that we've given approximately 54% on are on track to get the SEO bilitery at the high school level because they already met the language criteria through our um local criteria assessments for English and Mandarin or Spanish >> also the older the kids get, it has a couple of different effects on their scheduling and their their competitiveness for universities and for uh scholarships um that will help them in the future. Because a student that has really really strong second language uh dominant skills is able to enter the high school
049district and not take the introductory language course and in some cases like jump right straight ahead to the highest level course before AP. So you'll have kids who have been in the country four or five years and they're taking an AP language course as sophomores and then when they ace that they take the advanced or in certain languages will have literature not just language course and they'll take that one and ace that statistically according to research what that does to the psyche and the motivation of students who take advanced placement classes and do well it has tremendously ly big impact on their self-esteem and their attainment and growth in other high school level courses. And then for kids who are not necessarily um dominant in that second language but have gone through and taken the
050courses here, they're able to enter in maybe in that second year or third year of that language course and free up opportunities to take an AP environmental science or a second AP statistics class or or another elective competitive maybe career technical course because It's basically kind of like buying time for themselves by showing up more prepared. The schedule starts to have a little bit more flexibility and then it doesn't necessarily require the zero period and the seventh period. And some kids still do that too, but like it just it's just like a fast pass to the pathway that kind of works for them. And in our case the seal of B of uh B biliteracy pathway is a message to the students that these are the things that will become advantages for you and that
051also just keeps them kind of moving forward and advancing their language beyond um you know the introductory learning circles. >> Well actually give them the awards two weeks from tonight. >> Yeah. on April 23rd um at Bayside Theater. >> It's always a sold out event. We finally picked a big facility the last two years. >> We've I've been like afraid that we were going to exceed the number of people there for the fire marshall. So I don't think there's any chance of that with Bayside. It's such a massive place. But the community really comes on and people are really excited about that event and it's a really great night. To echo what you're saying, Diego, um it also impacts the college um pathway. Um we we've had students um go all the way to college
052and they when they take their foreign language, >> they just breeze right through it. >> Yeah. >> All righty. So along with those statistics, we also have our parent um DELAC attendance and that sense of belonging. Um, as you know, you can see here for our DAC, we've increased by numbers, but it's not about the numbers. You know, it's it's a and and I could tell you we might have 74 that it says 2025, but there's a lot of parents that didn't sign in. So, that could be probably half. But, um, we have, um, it's the rich conversations that happen at these events. It's the learning. It's the getting to know each other. um people becoming commod you know um that that's what's important is that um that camaraderie that happens um and learning together
053which then says our sense of belonging right we do our own survey and our sense of belonging is pretty high >> this also doesn't include the pika program attendance and also doesn't include the bay fun leaders >> and one night we were at we were holding a daylight meeting in North Central and the Bayad Fund was holding a a parent leadership meeting and Pika was holding a parent meeting. There were at that one night there were over 200 parents just that one night. So that even I mean we're obviously proud that our parents feel like they belong and and more parents are showing up, but it's also part of the the architecture of multiple ways to invite parents to do initial learning, right, or create community or inspire them to lead and advocate and, you
054know, tell us when they feel like we need to be doing more for them. >> Right. Right. and and and right along with what you're saying, we've created our u multilingual parent leadership team where we hear from them. They help us um not just set up and and take down, right? It's not about that. It's about, hey, how did that go? Should we tweak it? Should we do a little bit more of this or a little bit of that? Um maybe one of the parents could lead a session, you know? Um so there's more of that conversation and that comes with trust. Um, so that's been uh a really nice journey. And we have our English together. Like I mentioned earlier, back in 2022, we started off with eight. Um, and look at us now.
055We're up to, I believe that we even have 70. Um, so 68 70ish. >> Um, but it's been growing the last couple of years. And with our parent workshops, the same thing. Um, we just have a great amount of families. um participating in a whole unique way. Um it's funny because when we set up uh we start early and you know once it hits five o'clock we're like oh my gosh no one's coming. All of a sudden through that door it just it's like it's a burst of of of community just coming through. It's so much fun to see. >> Susie, you've been at some of those. >> They're all on hills there on the >> Exactly. Um so also I think most of our workshops are at Fiesta which is really central local um
056area that really supports. One thing to mention um is that all the blues that you see there are around the immigration rights and safety events that the team held >> together. There were a total of close to 500 parents who attended those sessions because that was a very important topic to them. That's right. Um and we continue Elena, we continue at all our parent workshops. We invite faith and action. >> Um we invite um resources that are in the community. Um so we always have a table ready with different um resources. Um even if it's not a safety meeting, we we do still offer um other information. >> You were going to say D. I was going to say those safety meetings aside from building trust and community for us, multiple partner agencies in San
057Monteo and the greater Peninsula area are have met with us and are meeting with us to to take our our process and our documents and our strategies and to implement it more broadly beyond Sanail Foster City because we um have the sort of the receipts of how many families came through to learn about it and to hear about it. Um, just really all around us regionally, there's just a lot of interest in in coming in and learning from us on how to give the information in such a way that parents will actually show up and then utilize it. >> Right. Right. Because um I want to echo what you're saying. Those meetings were not just here's the information. There were a lot of safety plans that we sat with them and said, "What do you
058need? How do you get yourself ready in the event of something? Um, and it was a lot of one-on-one, too. Yeah. All righty. And now we have voices from the field. We have um parents, students, and teachers. And we'll read I'll read to you the parent. Um, a comment was says, um, I sincerely want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to be on the program, although I still find some apprehension when communicated. I've gone from not saying a word, feeling fear and embarrassment to feeling the need to make myself understood and to understand what others are saying. It has been fascinating working with Professor Jennifer. We clicked from day one and she has facilitated my learning, supported me and recognized my achievements. And this was a parent from Laurel. >> Um, and that
059was a >> Let me talk about the student. >> The student, he's you should show this to him because he doesn't that that picture it looks like it's three years old. >> He's super grown up now. He's really really gregarious. An awesome kid. Um but you know he um he volunteers he's always raises his hand when we say who wants to talk on camera about this who who really feels like they they want to represent the class and XYZ. Um but you know he's like he sees his own development his language development and his family's transformation of of feeling confident and secure happening in front of him. And he's he's like the biggest advocate for the process himself. um and he'll you know grow up and have some job where he talks for a living
060and then and then uh there are so many obviously so many teachers and so many like different perspectives but um >> one of the things that we hear is teachers remarking on what it sounds like in their classroom once the kids start building those conversational that are academic conversational skills and that's one of our signature strategies is that constructive conversation um and and really and really applying that to what they start to see kids writing and what they start to see kids engaging in um in their thought process. So >> Yeah. So, our student um big words I didn't understand. Now I know that diseases are and big words. I think I know those words by reading books and talking with other people. I feel like I could help other people who don't know Spanish
061and translate for them. That makes me feel responsible. Fifth grader at lead. >> Yeah. And I won't read the entire teacher quote, but just um something that stood out to me was the fact that she's noticing that the strategy constructive conversation is not just being used for multilingual students, but for all of her students, it's impacting the engagement for all of her students and her classroom and just the relationship that she's building with her coach and how that has made her a better teacher in her practice. Um so as far as next steps uh we want to continue to work on all of these initiatives next year specifically deepening the professional development around integrated and designated EL for all of our schools and all educators next year. Um a big part as well is expanding
062the biiteracy pathways to more schools. For example, today I was just checking in with our principal at AVID because they're also creating a world languages pathway for more students to be able to get the biiteracy pathway awards. So, that's one avenue that we're working on. Um, also continuing to support long-term English language learners so that they can reclassify before they get to middle school by helping other schools implement inquiry cycles at their school sites, not just Abbott next year. And then Jana, hope >> Yeah. Yeah. We have our uh strengthening our family engagement, really elevating um that sense of belonging and elevating leadership. um creating more panel opportunities um so that they can share who they are and where they're coming from um and that we learn from one another. So, we're looking forward to
063that. >> So, thank you for your time. Um that's our presentation and if there's any feedback or questions, we're happy to answer. Thank you. It's like everyone just looks at me first. Um, thank you so much for the presentation today. Um, I think it's always really encouraging for me to hear, you know, all the work that's being done and also just hearing how, you know, our district is really a leader in a lot of ways, you know, and other people are looking to us for direction. And so, I really wanted to just first, you know, thank you for your work that you're doing in this area and the lives that you're transforming. Um, one just kind of like a simple thing. It's not really like a deep question, but um, you know, how are you
064mentioning like the ELD classroom walkthroughs? Um, I would love to have an opportunity to join um, one of those like I think when we go on these like schoolboard partner visits, right? Like and we go through certain classrooms like I don't get to see an ELD classroom, you know, as part of my as part of my tour. So, I would love I don't want to speak for everybody, but I personally would love to to be part of that. And, you know, not to like totally disrupt everything, but you know, I I wanted to just kind of get a you know, look and see what this is like. Um Okay. Um the first one I wanted to ask was um I really enjoyed learning about like the ELTEL um you know, kind of pilot you're doing
065in Abbott. And one of the things that you were mentioning was like having interviews with the ELTELS surveying the teachers and parents. So I thought that was really really great that you were doing that. I would love to hear from you like were there any areas like growth areas that were identified in those interviews that you had with students and teachers and parents that you kind of heard maybe as a pattern. >> Yes. So um the Avid team noticed that when they shadowed the students a lot of times there was a lot of direct instruction happening and the students were just trying to keep up with the direct instruction. They were not processing the instruction that the teacher was giving them. Um there was a lot of silence also happening. So silence and keeping up
066with teacher instructions was one of the noticings. Um and then um >> can I talk about why that is? This is like what has been the topic of discussion at our community strategic plan and our new vision for instruction. That's like we're, you know, we're really close to having some finalized language that we can bring to the board in about six weeks. The reason that happens is because a very common traditional mode of instruction involves adults having content that they organize and package. Having students all seated separately, individually, facing forward, listening, and having adults deliver content to students where their student is expected to take it in and either take notes on it or just listen and then complete work to some extent independently, maybe with with some minimal guidance. Um, and if you're learning
067a second language, that's you can't do that. It's just so what our what our visits and the whole idea that Abbott put in place to shadow was to just look at it from the standpoint of a kid and say, what does it really amount to? And what they found was it amounts to sitting quietly for six hours a day, like really long stretches. And that's just not conducive to feeling engaged into having versus having instructional models where students are put in collaborative groups where they seek learning, where they investigate learning, where they engage in conversation about learning and where the content isn't being given to them, but rather the conditions are being set up so they can seek knowledge and build knowledge. Um, and in the end, like at the end of the unit, you
068might get to the same place, but one involves me saying it to you and you practicing it, and the other involves you seeking it and building. >> Um, yes, that's exactly what they were referring to. Um, another interesting piece was when they interviewed them about like their comfort level in the class, a lot of them spoke about just the social emotional comfort that they're feeling um to be the sense of belonging. They do feel a sense of belonging, but they don't feel confident to speak up in class yet. Um, and they really value when teachers give them like different avenues for speaking up in class like with a partner or in a small group or things like that where they're the attention is not directly at them because of their confidence level. >> Well, the
069audience is small. >> Yes. >> You know, when a teacher uses strategies that are designed to have the three working together, but it's at the same time seven other groups of three are working together. there's very little emotional stress versus raise your hand if you can share with me XYZ and then if I call on you and you have an audience of 27 people, it's just it's hard. I mean, adults have a hard time with that. So, if you're a 13-year-old who's learning a language and you're in your second or third year, it's >> that's a big mountain to climb. Yeah. >> One last one. Um let me see um just kind of a question of clarification. Um when you were explaining about the sealed biiteracy pathways um you're saying how like you know the
070attainment is on track for the high school seal. Can you explain to me like do we how do we track kids when we get to high school? Is that what's happening? Or like are we giving it to them in middle school because they look like they're on the pathway? Like what does that kind of how does that work? So the way um we track them is we track them at the end of fifth grade and at the end of eighth grade and we have Mandarin and Spanish assessment. So for Mandarin we use the stamp assessment, Spanish we use the California Spanish assessment and as a district we developed a criteria meaning um what range do they have to score in in order for us to determine that they're actually on track to get that um
071seal of bi literacy at the high school level. So, we have that criteria um and that we use and every year we look at the fifth grade scores and the eighth grade scores and that's how we determine if they're on track. >> But they all still have to do it, right? >> Our view on it was in a K12 district that is very seamless. You're like on this track. One of the challenges of like having kids go to a different school district is you lose that >> grade. But what does it sound like to have a parent and a student say we have this seal of biliteracy pathway. So tell me what my class you recommend because we want to get to you know so we're seeing that in our interviews with students we're hearing
072them then they it helps them make the right choices once they start picking their classes at Arabon or Hillsdale or any one of our San >> Yeah. And last spring we actually interviewed some of the students in um our zone immersion and we asked them like when you go to high school what what do you do like do you continue the pathway and some of them spoke to how there's more less opportunities in high school or if they want to take electives sometimes they have to pick between continuing their learning in their home language or second language or selecting on different electives >> because it said fifth 8th and 12th. >> Yes. Um are you know you mentioned that the the assessments um are they offered to all students or like you know let's say
073someone who is not in one of our language programs like could they opt to take the assessment as well? >> Um right now we're only um offering it to the students who we know are in a world language program or bilingual program. In the future, one of our goals is to expand it to all students. So, and the way to do that is through a portfolio approach where they can submit a video or a writing piece um in that home language, Mandarin or Spanish, and someone on our team can evaluate it to determine if they're because we might have students who are newcomers who are coming in with full fluency in those languages as well. Um, so currently the test is it just a written test or is it >> the test is um the
074same as any English literacy assessment but it's not given in Mandarin or Spanish. So it measures listening, speaking, reading and writing. >> Okay. Got it. >> Okay. And that's that's part of the reason why we can't administer that test to a student at a different school because they're not in that program and because it's like provided to us, we are limited in like being able to assign it across a different campus, >> right? Yeah, that's what I figured um that I wanted to Yeah. Clarif. >> Well, that's where maybe the portfolio comes in and you know and and kids do that like especially like the older they get when once they get to high school, they'll actually record themselves when they take those AP tests, those AP language tests. So it's it's actually kind of
075good for them to practice it and it just puts the onus on us to create the pathway and then assign the staff and put the time into collecting it and then you know doing right by the kid by evaluating having a process. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Go first. Um I mean one of the questions I think uh superintendent show already spoke about which is kind of looking ahead what does it look like if we you know change our approach to um to teaching and learning and and making it more of a like having more student agency. Um, but I'm wondering like currently do we have, you know, we've been doing like project based learning pilots at Barisford and and lead soon to be Cottage Grove and we like have we gotten any feedback from any
076either of those communities about um, you know, ways that like PBL like helps our multilingual learners or um, adjustments that we need to make as like think about this transition. >> Yeah. Um before I get into like the actual schools, there's a lot of research out there that already says that project based learning is one of the highest ways of learning for multilingual students. Okay? because it um encourages collaboration, encourages thematic learning which is you know good for multilingual learners when the day is not segmented but rather it's used or um they can see it as an entire unit of study. The language is repeated constantly. There's a lot of visual representations, small group partner sharing, a lot of revisiting of of texts together and um projects right at the end of each unit there's
077a project. So all of those things are great strategies for multilingual students and at college um or sorry uh lead and barert we do have multilingual tossas and I've personally seen them coaching in those classrooms. So one of the key ways that I think is really helping is when um the teachers and the multilingual tossas are collaborating around the units. So our tossas are actually helping the teachers create those units of study uh thematic units of study through project based learning. And the way they're infusing the um expertise for multilingual students is thinking about what text they're going to use and how the text is going to use throughout the entire unit. so that students can revisit it and they can um become familiar with the academic language of the unit, um how they're presenting
078it, how they're working in partnership. So, it's actually been really fun for me to go and see um the demo lessons and see our TOSAs working with the teachers collaboratively. Yeah, >> I've got a couple. Um, but before I do that, I do want to echo I think what Trusty Ho said earlier. I really appreciate all the kind of thought and work that goes into this. I think we could literally take this deck, the kind of best practice we have in our district, hold it up to any district in the state, in the country, and I feel very confident that what we're doing from engaging parents, from having the Spanish YouTube, from every like live translations we have at events, every aspect of how we're approaching this, I feel like it's just very kind of
079top line, people can very much stand behind. and I understand what other districts or schools would look at what we're doing and see that as a model. So again, huge credit to you and your teams for all the work that we're doing on that front. Um I just had a few follow-up questions on different pieces we discussed. Um one of them and we've talked about it before for the ELTELS. Do we have strong insight kind of building on what Trusty Ho said about why a certain students are kind of stuck in the system much longer? I know you said that we kind of have a realistic timeline of several years for many of these students, but is there is it a duly identified situation or what is it that we think is making it harder
080for certain students to progress and are we seeing any type of chronic kind of patterns that we can address based on what we at least have data for for the last five years? >> Yeah. To um kind of paint the picture, I'll start out by sharing what the criteria to reclassify is. So, one is getting a four on the L pack. So, getting a level four. The second one is um meeting our local literacy assessment criteria. So the students have to get to the uh meeting or reaching or exceeding benchmark on our local reading assessment. Um so for some of our students um the duly identified um pathway has happened because we didn't have in prior years a clear way of supporting their literacy instruction. Um so some students did end up in that pathway
081for that reason. other students um are still um trying to reclassify >> because they haven't reached the literacy criteria and knowing that over the last few years or four years our district has put in place path >> um we can totally see a correlation between the number of students who are reclassifying in the lower grades and the path. >> So most of the students that we reclassify they're on the extremes. We have the eighth graders and then seventh graders and then we have the kindergarteners and the first graders. Um which speaks to our district's um pathway around the way we teach reading in recent years. Um and and then for the LTEL students, one way that we shifted also um instruction for for them in the middle school has been by completely revamping uh the
082curriculum and the courses in middle school. So that we just did last year. We revamped all of their EL courses. We noticed that some students were actually uh being placed incorrectly in EL courses. They were being held back in newcomer courses when they could have accelerated to higher EL courses which would have um expedited their path to reclassification. So that was one initiative that we put in place completely redoing the courses getting new curriculum and now training the EL instructors on what are the best techniques and strategies to use. So we're we're kind of hitting it from both extremes from the lower younger grades and then the middle school approach as well. >> We're also as a district in the top 5% statewide and locally. >> That's great. When you when you look at central
083California districts, when you look at rural districts, there is a really high correlation to choosing to move to a certain part of Fresno and staying in a certain part of Fresno or choosing to move to Sacramento or to San Diego and staying in San Diego versus our particular part of the peninsula has a really high level of of of residents mobility in families living in North Central and then moving to North Fair Oaks or moving to South San Francisco or Daily City. And the result of that is when students enter the system with us in preschool or kindergarten, the numbers that that Ala is referring to, the really high reclassification rates of kinder and first grade are students who have been with us for those two or three consecutive years. >> But we have a
084really high incidence of students who move here in second grade and third grade. Now, in the data, they're showing as long-term English learners, but they spent their first two years attending Pittsburgh Unified, and then in third grade, they moved to Hayward, and they came to lead in fourth grade. Economically, because of the neighborhoods we serve, they don't move typically to Highlands or Baywood or Foster City or Bur Island. So their their newcomer data is is different in that it's not serving students who move typically for economic and high residence mobility reasons. So on our fourth, fifth, sixth grade data, we have a really high incidence of students who have been with us less than three years, but the only way to qualify as an ELTEL is to be in the country five years or more
085and not reclassify. It's just matching multiple school districts. And then um you touched on this in your remarks about the empathy interviews with middle schoolers. When students don't reclassify and get to middle school, two things happen that are have a negative impact on their experience. They lose the chance to take an elective >> because we're required to assign them an EL. And it's the right thing to do to assist them. but they're bummed out that they don't get to take a music class or another or an art class or some other elective that they might be interested in and their self-esteem takes a really big hit. So the criteria that Ala mentioned the first was scoring four which is it's a listening speaking reading and writing test. So you have data kids in this district
086who we can show as fourth and fifth graders scored four and then they get to middle school and they score a one or a two because they don't try text >> and it has nothing to do with their language ability. It has to do with their their sort of their their sense of motivation and their >> it's a it's a protest to some extent of saying there's a lack of justice in this process for me. And then last but not least, even at our highest rates of of reading readiness, we're at about 80%. So there's still 20% of kids who aren't reading at grade level. And obviously we're happy about 80, but we want it to be 90 and 95 and up to 100, but there's still a percentage of students who aren't there. So
087even if their language improves, but their reading is behind for whatever reason, they can't reclassify. So the ELTEL label applies as a result of difficulty reading not per se difficulty language which is it's reading is part of it but it's only one of the four domains. I think the state is looking or one some of the advocates are actually saying that we should get rid of the reading assessment and just have one criteria across the state which would be the standard ELPAC assessment because this assessment also gets harder as students progress in the grade levels and sometimes our English only students would not even be able to pass it. So if you have a child who takes a language test and they are four means you're advanced and you're like you made progress, you're there,
088but there's a a state reading test that you that you took and didn't score meeting or exceeding grade level. Then what happens is as a teenager, as a sixth, seventh, and eighth grader, you take a course that spends 75% of the time on things not related to the score that made you have that label. So there there's sort of an unfairness, but you know, as we talk about a lot, that's where legislation, governance, and school like we have this is something for us to talk about in in the next three years. the state board of education is going to redo this the state's accountability system and and groups that I participate in and that Alva and Jana participate in. We're advocating for that change so that it's it's a it's a more fair and common
089sense way of tracking growth and like we want to aim at the target we're trying to hit which is language proficiency not reading ability and language proficiency and this other thing and this other thing and there are other criteria that we should also remove but that's different presentation >> context are very helpful. We've discussed some of that um as a future request down the line next time we visit this topic. It would be helpful to kind of see that because I know we've discussed it in the past. We've talked about mobility. We've talked about kind of a dy identified and other type of issues that don't aren't directly addressed by what we're talking about today. And so I think just kind of getting a better sense of how many outs we have in district, how
090many of them fall into one of those categories. Not that again we're 100% committed to bringing everyone forward, but having the context helps us see why we might be stuck in certain places where we would think with the amount of intervention with the amount of innovation happening that we would see more progress with certain students. But I do think that context is helpful. I also did want to address specifically when we talked about literacy previously we did talk about duly identified students from the other side talking about whether or not we're capturing multilingual learners in that whether they're being mclassified. So, the fact that we're addressing it already is really great to hear. Um, I did want to look at the chart specifically for the evidence in progress. We've talked about it before, but it
091is interesting that the more successful you are, the harder it is to be successful down the line because so many students have reclassified. Do we have a goal moving forward in terms of the numbers that we want to see based on the fact that again, the more successful you are early on, the harder it'll be, especially for a student who just transferred into the district. I guess what is the number that we're looking for for this year and for next year in terms of a rough range? >> Um we're aiming for 50 to 55% of our students reclassified and for up to me I want 65%. Which is the highest marker we can get to. Um that would be like significant progress 65% and then um uh that would put us on the like I
092don't know if there's another color beyond the green like neon green is 65% but um yes so actually for some of our schools they are on the green for the progress for multilingual students it's just that we have a variation across the schools that is causing us the the composite score to be 46% % um but we >> variation because we have a higher concentration. >> Yes. Okay. >> Yeah. There there's a variation in number of multilingual students across our schools, the number of years they've been here. So some schools are having um some schools in our district actually have like over 65% of their multilingual students making progress. >> Um but when we average it, we get to 46%. So that that's why we're being very strategic next year and having all of the
093schools perhaps do inquiry cycles where they can hone in on their specific areas of need based on their school community so that we can accelerate the progress. >> And I think we've talked about this other issues too, but having the sideby-side >> information at very high level I think is very helpful to us to see for example if there's one particular site or another that seems to need much more support. It definitely is helpful to kind of see if that is part of what's affecting the totals that we're seeing. Um, on the bi literacy, still by literacy issue, I love the the philosophy behind it, the strategy. Um, echoing what was discussed earlier about the coordination with the high school obviously tougher for us and I know Trusty Proctor talks about that constantly about how
094do we track to make sure that what we're setting them up for continues on down the line. I know we've only done it for a few years, but that is something I know that's on our radar. And I really would love to see that down the line to kind of see how it connects to the high school level or the success stories we can bring back even before we've been formally introducing it at our district. The fact that our students go on to achieve that is something we can definitely highlight. Um, one big thing I wanted to talk about, I appreciate the feedback we're getting from community, you know, parents, students for teachers. When we've met with teachers about it, obviously the folks who are doing the pilots or involved in coaching have a very
095high opinion of it, but one concern we've heard is that we're changing a lot of how they've learned to teach. We're trying to, you know, set these different goals, benchmarks, asking them to take all these steps. We are providing professional support, but I know there's sometimes a feeling of like you're kind of throwing a lot on us. That's very new. That's very novel. That's not the way that some have been teaching for decades. Have we received feedback specifically on that? Especially given the level of targeted instruction intervention that they might need to do down the line. And I guess to what extent have we surveyed or talked to teachers to kind of see where they are on kind of the direction that we're going? I know it's beyond what we're doing here, but I'm just
096curious given the concerns we've heard from them previously. >> Um, as far as supporting multilingual students go, we do survey, we we produce our own internal surveys and we survey the teachers about their um, comfort level and implementing the strategies, what support that they need. In fact, we're planning on sending another survey in the coming weeks so that we can start planning for next year's professional development. Um but at least from a like you know qualitative approach the voices that we hear are not necessarily the voices that are telling us that the this is too much. It's actually the opposite like they really enjoy the the new approach for helping the students learn. Um it helps ground teachers and >> you know a lot of them when they go to the teaching credential program they
097learn how to teach this way. But it's because, you know, we've adopted so many curricula and have segmented the contents into like here's your math curricula, here's your science, here's your ELA. They start to lose that approach of teaching. And so, um, what we're trying to do is u remind them of, you know, why they went into teaching in the first place and what works for students and how students learn best. Um, but we have not received at least from my my team because they talked to the teachers feedback around like wait like this is too much. That's why we're slowing down. That's why the last couple of years we stayed with the same strategies. We talked to the teachers about how to go deeper into their practice instead of introducing more strategies at the
098same time. And Elena, can I add that also when we did the pilot like the teachers had the opportunity to look at one curriculum over the other >> um to see which one was best. >> Um and also for yeah for EL um and the whole process with the core selection and all that that was very um intentional but united. >> Um so there was um always asking for feedback. >> Sorry. Let me tap in just for a second too that some of the feedback we got in prior years was around on our PD days and we we um you know we did exit surveys with our teachers was a lot of feedback about the kind of the sit and get when it's a large group and we're getting stuff thrown at us. And so
099one of the big transitions that Alita team has really facilitated over the last really year and a half is is much more sightbased as she mentioned sort of site selected site driven uh which has called for you know multilingualsa support at the sites and also confidence of our principles to be that kind of instructional leader facilitating those kind of sessions and and we're seeing much more positive feedback this year from our PD days where teachers are saying it was great for me to sit with my colleagues, we talked about our kids, we talked about our work with our people and and so we're hearing, you know, and getting feedback of much more satisfaction with that um less sort of kind of like the kids less direct instruction and more collaborative engaging special. So we would
100have had 212 teachers at a training a couple of years ago at the Bayside location with a person with a microphone and a lot of listening and a lot of you know listen to this and now it's 17 teachers at Brewer Island and at Foster City 22 teachers but they're all foster city teachers and at schools that have multilingual learns or one of our team members there they lead or co-lead with principles and then other principles you know, I got this. Let me, you know, I I know exactly what to do and this teacher is a leader and we're going to work on it together. We facilitate provide the content to them and and give guidance as needed. But it's just much more responsive to teacher feedback and the reason we changed it was because
101of the feedback. >> Yeah. So, each school goes at their own pace and then principal is the one that surveys the teachers and together together as a school community they decide what they want to focus on. We give them an array of choices and say from this array what do you guys want to focus on? Go as fast as you need to or slow down based on the needs of teachers. >> Okay. Thank you so much for that. And the last question I had I think there was a slide on the parents responding they feel a strong sense of belonging. I mean that's really great to see. I was curious is this poll the folks who attended EAC meetings? Is it just a general poll of >> we actually send the survey out to all
102multilingual families that >> that's great. Okay. >> In a Google form. >> It's almost 90% which is phenomenal. >> I think given all the effort, engagement, touch points, cultural activities. I'm not surprised but that's >> a phenomenal stat. I >> don't think I could even honest ask for better than that. Um that's all from my end. Thank you. >> Okay. Um, I guess maybe we can check in and see if there's any comments from the public or >> Joe, if you're there, is there any >> I just wanted to add one comment to both of my colleagues, but um we share a lot of the same uh toas that serve also as mentors with new teachers and um they um work collaboratively obviously together, but it's so nice that they're able to share that work
103and have perspective from often a brand new colleague right out of school coming to the district. And they also have a shared responsibility with a new um connection and a colleague that is in a TOSA role sharing their perspective of how the strategies are shared and taught and that's really really enhanced their practice and what they're doing in the classroom and how things are moving forward. So just wanted to share that it's really helped and we have so many TOSAs that share their experiences with teachers and want to bring that to the classroom. So really great work and thank you. Well, I think sorry I think that they're also asking for more, you know, like a lot of our teachers are asking for the be glad asking more the seal by lid the seal. So
104teachers are are asking for more um and we're taking it back to the roots, you know, >> standards and looking at um >> how to unpack it in a different way. So, I really love the video >> by yourself >> that you presented as a teacher kind of breaking things down, the sentence construction. Um, I was very engaged by it, >> but I also could just see how those kind of tweaks of professional development, that investment, and kind of changing the style of way things are presented, not pulling on students to speak in front of 20 peers, um, those types of minor adjustments can make a very big impact. And so, I'm glad that we're able to capture that and showcase that as well. Yeah, that's actually um our totals learned that strategy by attending
105a professional development at Berkeley. We're actually at the county office, but it comes out of Berkeley. It's called the California Reading and Literacy Project. So, this summer, our hope is to take more TOSAs, the language and literacy tosses through that training. So, they can also learn those strategies. >> So, it's not just reading the manual or taking it >> to say Berkeley. I'm sold. >> It's at Berkeley. >> Both of us. Yeah. Oh, hey. >> And where is California together from? >> It's from Stanford. >> No district. We'll put up. >> Um Joe, can we check for public comment online? >> Checking. >> No public comments at this time. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I guess are we going to adjourn it? Let's see. Um, yeah, I think that's it. Cheers. >> I'd like to
106make a motion to adjurnn. Second. >> Okay. Uh, thank you, Trusty H. Trusty Kim. Um, all in favor say I. >> I. Wejourned at 708. Great. >> Yay. >> Thank you. >> Oh, it's still recording, guys. always a