SMFCSD Special Meeting - March 12, 2026

001Can you lead it? >> I'll take over item five. Yeah. >> Oh, okay. Um, okay. Uh, we can all rise and please pledge 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. Roll call. Um, Trustee Brooks Oh, >> online. >> Okay. Trusty Ho >> here. >> Trusty Kim >> here. See, >> I'm here. >> Okay. Hello. Um, and I am here. So, we are all here. Thank you very much. Um, >> motion to approve the agenda. >> Thanks, Trusty Kim and Trusty Hoe. Uh, all in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Okay. Next. And I'll look at the agenda. Is it >> Public statements. Um, do we have any I guess we're public

002statements or I guess we'll be called on at the appropriate time or something. >> Um, okay. Take it away. >> You guys are first. >> Yes. Um, yeah. Uh, good evening, uh, President Trin and, uh, our trustees. Um we're excited here uh from Ed services to be able to share with you two important um um um items. One is our elementary math adoption that we're very excited to um share uh our pilot process and the um recommendation to the board um from our teachers and then we'll be after that talking about our early literacy program. All right. You want to Oh, I'm taking it away. I'm starting. Thanks. Um, so one of the things I always like to start with when we're thinking about the work that we do in our district that it that

003it sets in with our strategic plan and our building blocks. The math team has um developed over the last few years a math vision and a mission that really looks at ensuring that all of our mathematicians and all of our students are enthusiastic and proficient learners. We want to make sure that they're showing their thinking, that they have multiple opportunities to share the way that they learn mathematics, and then they have a joy in the mathematics. And so we kind of sum it up in taking risks, working persistently, and communicating productively. Um, as you know, this school year, actually starting last school year, um, we started looking at um, new elementary math um, programs and, um, the two programs that our teachers uh, decided to pilot are one was ANOVAT and the other was Amplified

004Desmos Math. Um, this came after the uh, we invited all of the elementary teachers to attend a a publisher fair. You'll see that a little bit coming up in the timeline. And from that publisher fair and getting input from teachers, we landed on five publishers to bring back to learn a little bit more about um those are the um ones down at the bottom of the screen. And after that, the team, the pilot team determined these were the two programs to pilot that would best serve the students in our district. Um, so again, I'm not going to read through the entire timeline, but we really essentially started this process in April of last year with the publishers fair, reviewed the materials. We had an amazing pilot team, you'll get to see their name shortly, that

005came in over the summer. Um, spent when you're when you're going through the pilot process and you're want to make the the right decision about the two programs to publish, you really need to hear longer from each um uh publisher. And so our pilot teachers listen to each publisher for almost an hour. And that you saw how many there were. So that was like a day and a half of listening to publishers, taking notes, really thinking about what our students um who our students are in our district uh and and what mathematic program would really support them with that. Um so um at the end of or at the beginning of this school year or at the end of last summer um after we determined the two programs we began a pilot process and that

006takes uh that entails meeting with the first publisher that we determined which was a NOVA to begin the school year and that took really intensive training from the publisher. Our TOSAs supported that as well and all the teachers were ready to get started on the program. So we started that within like the first few days of school, the first pilot. So that was so teachers didn't really miss a beat around that. >> Um in November is when we switched to the second um program which was amplify math. And um you'll see this a little bit later, but our team really was really thoughtful about how many weeks that we wanted to make sure that teachers had the opportunity to get to know the program so it didn't feel rushed that they really were dedicated to

007teaching that program only and um to be able to see the scope of like what would a full unit look like, not just a few lessons. Um so so in November we switched to Amplify Math and we went through the same process where we piloted that program. the teachers had deep training with the TE with uh Amplify and then just recently in February is when we had our consensus meeting. Um and um and tonight we're here with the school board uh information session. There'll be a community review of the programs where all of our u materials will be out for families to either view in person or online. And then we'll be back with you on March 26 for um to for recommendation for approval. I'm excited. >> Um some additional information we wanted to

008share with you around the pilot is um these programs are we we're um we're bringing recommendation for approval for a K5 program. Um TK teachers did try to pilot the programs, but a lot of the newer math programs didn't fully create a full TK. And so our TK team made a decision to wait and see when um when there's more um things for them to pilot. It was kind of difficult, but we thank them for joining us and they and um you'll see a little bit later in the literacy. There is a preschool TK learning foundation and they really we really want to look at programs that are aligned to that which is just coming out right now. Um our Matossa team really supported our pilot teachers by developing a year-long scope and sequence. We

009wanted to make sure and because this was a concern of teachers that when you're piloting especially in mathematics where things are very sequential they didn't want students to miss out on any of their learning. So it was a very wellthoughtout um pacing guide for the school year including the two pilots. Um we did have a lot of mid-pilot check-ins and calibration meetings um before the end of each pilot. So teachers had an opportunity to um talk with us about how's it going, what are some of their needs. we would find that oh hey this program said it needed this materials but we didn't get it or um it would be great if we had some whiteboard. So we we did that support um in these midpilot check-ins and then we offered which were optional and

010virtual weekly grade level collaboration meetings which many of the pilot teachers attended and really felt like that was a pivotal um collaboration moment as they were learning about the programs to meet with other teachers. So, we had a very large pilot team because it's elementary. Our goal is to have at minimum an upper and a lower grade teacher from every elementary school in our district. We were pretty close. There were a couple a couple of schools where we didn't um have that, but but we still asked for it. So, these were the volunteers um that decided to pilot. As you saw, it's a very thorough process and you have to really be committed to piloting. Um, but we're really thankful for every single one of these teachers and um that are on this um slide

011because they did a phenomenal job and I think I don't know how many times we kept saying like this is an amazing pilot team and I'm telling all them come back in a in a year and a half or so when we're ready to do language arts because it was so it was so amazing. Uh we also had our math TOSA team and we had two of our multilingual TOSSAs join the pilot team as well and we had um a representative from special education as well on the team. And drum roll I know nobody saw the the thing but drum roll what did we choose? Um so I'm thrilled to announce that our math um adoption committee is recommending Amplify Desmos math um for our K through five program. This is um a program that

012combines and connects the um conceptual understanding, procedural fluency and applications that the common core ask for. Um the program really provides teachers with clear instructional um outlines to build um on students prior knowledge towards um and beyond their grade level content. So um we're really excited. I forgot to press play, but we weren't going to like actually watch that video anyways. It was just going to show you how um you know the multiple pieces of the program. Um but just to share a bit more about our process um as you saw we had uh 34 classroom teachers and then our um math TOSSA team and some multilingual TOSAs also supporting um and this is the group of teachers who um you know not only piloted but also spent a lot of time building collaboration um

013asking one another questions and um really thinking through what would be best for our students and our system here in Sato Foster City moving forward. So, um we had a rubric of course that we used to measure um each of the pilot curriculum and I just wanted to show it's it's a three-page long rubric. So, we are not showing you all of the data that we collected, but I just wanted to show some of the um you know key components that were considered >> and our um 40 teachers feedback on those. So, you're seeing um I don't have I'm I can't believe it. We haven't put on the side. It's that's the number of responses on the side um on the y- axis for each of the graphs number of responses and then on the

014x axis it starts at um not evident and goes to the right to strongly evident. So um we used um you know the five components of the true framework which is a teaching for a robust understanding framework that um Dr. Alan Schoenfeld has done years and years of research around that um help us understand what really matters for our students to engage in robust mathematical learning. And so those those components are our first five here. So we considered the mathematics that are in the curriculum. um the cognitive demand. Um are the students the ones who are doing the the heavy lift of learning in the classroom, the equitable access like what type of opportunities are there in the materials to support each and every student um access to grade level content. So you can see

015the teacher responses there. Um the agency ownership and identity that needs to be in place. Um so that the teachers you know looked at the set of materials and said um in my experience these materials are supporting my students to um continue to grow their positive math identity and to name themselves and one another as agents in their in their own learning. Um and then formative assessments. Um beyond those five, we also of course looked at many other components of the curriculum and just wanted to share the uh math adoption committee's feedback again around inclusive and respectful classroom environments. Amplify math scored particularly high in in this one as you see um where the materials encourage and support teachers in facilitating collaboration. um the purpose of the collaboration is clear to both the students and

016the teachers. Um so we're excited to see that because we know that students learn best while working together, discussing ideas, listening to others, and building. Um also wanted to share the feedback from the math adoption committee around the support for language development. um the use of purposeful tools and technology. Um this program has manipulatives, it has, you know, student workbook pages, it has activities to do in collaboration and it has the option for a digital piece. You can see that our teachers um you know thought that those manipulatives, visuals and text were used to deepen understanding, not just as a cute fun add-on. Um and again scoring high amplify math for um the teacher guidance and coherence. We also asked um after each of the pilot programs um were in place, we asked our students,

017how did you feel about this? And again, there were many more questions than what I'm going to share tonight. And our committee on the 26th of February really looked at all that data as well and digested it. But I want to share um first this is only um third through fifth grade students who were responding to these questions. We didn't get gather data from our kinder through second. Um so just want to name that ahead. But um you can see we did ask the question for both of the um pilots compared to Zern. How much are you enjoying this program? And you can see you know so many of our students responded. I like Amplify much more. Um, we also after the second pilot asked the question, if you had to choose between these two

018piloted programs, which would you choose? Um, the majority of students um responded amplify math. Um, again, this is not including our K through2 students, but we um our teachers considered all data as they were making their decision. Um so yeah just to talk briefly a bit more about the Amplify Desmos program design um there are hands-on materials um there are workbooks and there's a digital component. We wanted to make clear um and this graphic is from the company um from the publisher rather that the percent of digital lessons that are required for this is zero. >> Okay. Um and then you can see on the graphic below um they do recommend that um classrooms interface with the digital portion but you know at at small levels and they grow through um through those years. So

019still zero and well we didn't we don't we're not moving forward with prek but maybe 10% of the time students might use the digital lessons in K and one up to 20% by fourth and fifth. Um and you all know of course but I just it's worth saying out loud like this is the program that our middle schools are using as well. So um we are excited to look at that vertical articulation and build upon the alignment that um we may now get to really um launch from with with this uh if if the um recommendation is approved. Um, this is a a slide holding some additional resources so that people have a one-stop shop to take a look at um the ED reports review and some overviews from amplified Desmos math. >> Just take

020a second and just explain ED reports just as what it is because that's a a major resource that guides just that just that reports. >> Thanks, Stephen. Yeah. Um just that that is a major go-to that um districts across the United States, they review all materials and there's a rating and system that um so you know when you kind of go to your DSM4 if you're a psychologist or maybe it's six now I don't know which one it is but that kind of uh source that you go to for reference the ed reports material um reference is is a key. So >> and there's a highly rated program on it. >> It's highly rated. It's all greens. So, we just wanted to make sure that that is um available. >> We do um successful implementation

021requirements. Um we are looking forward to training for all educators um and continue professional development organized by grade level. So, we heard very loud and clear from our math adoption committee that they want professional development and training not to be general. They want it if I'm a second grade teacher, I would like to be doing second grade tasks with second grade colleagues. Um, especially as we're rolling it out. Um, and I also just want to say, you know, training for all of our educators. We've had the opportunity this year to work um last year and this year with our RSP teachers and Paris on some professional development focused on math. And so we want to make sure as we're bringing in our new program that we're also including um every educator who gets to work

022with our students and with this material. Um we also are um planning for regular dedicated time for our grade level teams to plan and collaborate. Um that was something that came through again from the map adoption team as as um something that really strengthened their experience. Um we offered optional afterchool um virtual meetings um and each of the mathtosas facilitated those meetings once a week and we had some amazing attendance and really um deep conversation and especially when you're first getting started with something you kind of need those frequent check-ins and and um we have chats going online. So anyways, so we want to make sure that there's dedicated time for those grade level teams to plan um continue the math to support at sites and keep um keep us sort of with an expertise

023in one grade level um and to continue the alignment between services, special education, site leadership so that we're ensuring that professional development and collaboration opportunities for for all of our staff. I was just going to say that when you do an adoption, it's a really great opportunity to build teacher leadership. So, we said to the pilot team, we'd love to have you continue working with us to help us think about how to implement this over our next, you know, six years with them. >> Um, so we shared this a little bit before some of our next steps. Um, we'll have the materials available to the public here at the district office and online. Um we're currently uh finalizing all of the costs to bring back to the board. Um on the 26th we'll show you

024kind of where we are now. What what we what we're still working with the team on is confirming the professional development sessions. So on the next slide um you'll see what the current court uh costs are for the six-year adoption uh for the core material. So that's something we everything in there is something that um is the foundation for the program. And then the professional development is where we're still working with them. That's the cost for um an like a first year um professional development, but we're looking at talking about would we want to do a little bit more coaching over the first uh few years of the program and what would that look like? So we'll have a finalized um one for the next board meeting. Um and you know just one thing you

025know just last thing and then we'll turn it over um to you is that um you know our teachers know this too that uh u a curriculum is not everything that um a teacher will always need every single day in every moment. But it's really the work we're going to do with the teachers over the next um three to six years around the program that really helps them internalize it for themselves for their students and the unique needs at each of our schools. Right. With that, I'll pass it back to you. Um, President, >> I'm happy to assist President Commission um in facilitating questions. Um, I'll start with or comments online. Trusty Proctor, Trusty Brooks, do you have anything you want to ask before we get started here in the room? >> Um, I had

026a question. Um, one of, well, I guess one question, two questions maybe, but um, what are some of the key things about this curriculum that are different from what we currently have and that would um, you know, improve outcomes like that we're expecting? >> Um, I think that I would start by saying that um, Amplify Desmos math h is more problem based. So, it's it starts with the students, you know, um like having a problem in front of them that's going to grab their curiosity and allow for them to come up with, you know, an approach. And um I think that that what it provides space for is for the the teachers in the classroom to become more facilitators than what our current program has. Whereas um in Zern Math, what we've heard from many

027of our educators is that they're they're um presenting like a method, a strategy, a one way to solve a particular problem. And um I think that amplify math does not do that but it also supports the teachers because that that's a big transition that our um educators will be facing like oh how do I go from just telling them what to do to providing them a problem and then gathering what the students are doing which is going to be different around the room and then sharing that back to students and making sure everyone is coming to grade level like It's kind of a um it's really a shift in the approach through the through the materials, but also um the teacher guidance has that support in it. It has um types of questions you want

028to ask your students. If you it has like guidance for like if your student isn't getting started at all, you might want to ask this question. If you see these two strategies, you might want to pose this question to the class. There's a lot of guidance around facilitating discussion. And so to respond in a long-winded way, but now more succinctly, I think that um the the materials are going to provide um our stu our classrooms, our students and our teachers with like an approach that is researchbased, more aligned to the California framework and will allow our students to be the sense makers and leading the mathematical discussion. Right. Thank you. And then my just my other question was were there any um concerns or I guess areas that we should be aware of that the

029teachers brought up about this curriculum during the pilot? >> Yeah, we didn't have it wasn't um it when we did a consensus uh we did some polling before we got every teacher to kind of share um your like you know are you comfortable going with the program. We did a, you know, a 5 4 3 2 1 three meaning um I, you know, maybe this wasn't my first pick, but I I'm good going with it. And we did have some um threes um amongst the staff. Actually, um Amy and I met with all of them to just wanted to hear from them to say, you know, tell us, you know, why were you not a four or five and tell us what some of your um thoughts were around that? And I know Amy, I

030would say it's it's it's all great. It's actually all really good things. And every single one of the teachers that I would say was a handful really said, "But we're excited." And I might have just liked this piece a little bit better than the other one. They weren't there was no one that was that left that day feeling that I can't support um the recommendation. >> Yeah. I mean, I just want to make sure we all heard that like they all in every single one of these conversations that we've had over the past week, >> our math adoption committee teachers are saying, I'm I'm excited to support this program. I'm excited to, you know, work on math instruction across our district next year. And um I agree, you know, we got to the consensus in

031the in the space. and we celebrate it. >> I think that um some of the concerns that were raised were um you know like wondering about like is there um there's a lot of like excitement about the centers and the hands-on things. there was some concerns about um some of the um workbook pages feeling repetitive um which there's certain things that you can like work around right like and I think that um like that type of thing we can decide okay we well we are going to spend this large chunk of the math block on the engaging interactive um activities in the room and we will spend this part of the math block or maybe none at all if that piece of this curriculum isn't serving the students. So, um there were Yeah, I was

032just going to add one thing that was really interesting in this adoption that I haven't seen before is sometimes um because we have such unique schools in our district that similar type schools prefer one program over the other, but that was not the case. It was really a mixed bag. And so I think it was personal preference. Um, you know, it's it's something that they're going to be teaching every day. Maybe they some and I'm not saying it's like was the font, but like there are certain things that sometimes people like in a program a little bit over another. But I was really happy to see that. Um, it really was, you know, we had a lot of our title one schools, uh, foster city schools or, um, dual immersion school like it was like

033really a lot when we, you know, when we kind of made the had that conversation. And we even like stood on side of the rooms and when you saw the rooms you're like oh this is everybody. There wasn't like cuz we've had that before where oh there's not enough rigor this but it wasn't really about that. I think it was really about kind of details that are preferences around um curriculum and textbooks. >> And I think that they're all things that as we go into implementation we can um support and decide like what is the key component here? What do we know is good for our students learning? There are a lot of um you know options and things that are in Amplify. I think some of our teachers felt like that was overwhelming, but

034we as a district um are going to make decisions that are research backed so that we are for sure using the time that we have in the math block on the key components that we know are most impactful. Yeah. Thank you, >> Trusty Brooks. >> Let's see if she's muted. >> I don't have any questions. >> Okay. Thank you, Trusty Brooks. President, >> um, go ahead. >> Um, first, you know, thank you so much for the presentation. I really liked, you know, the slides where like, oh, the students were voting. >> I thought that was, it was always fun to see, right? because, you know, yes, we have this great team, but to see the students also kind of being in alignment with, you know, what the team just uh agreed with, I think was

035really was really telling. And my daughter had lots of opinions, too. She's like, "Oh, yeah, >> Desbos is so much better concerned." So, I was like, "Okay, so you agree with this little graph that you're seeing right here." She's like, "Oh, totally." >> Um, my first question is, um, you know, and this is part of, you know, something that I saw when I was going around different classrooms during our like school-based visits. you know, I was noticing when students were playing around, I mean, not in a bad way, but like using Zern, um, you know, there was a kind of a thing where, you know, if a kid couldn't figure out the answer, they would kind of like they like bested the system. They would punch in a whole bunch of different numbers just to

036get through it and move on, right? So, it wasn't really making sure the kids are actually learning the material. They I just w like I stood back far enough that I could knew I wasn't watching them, right? And so I guess when my question is you know is Desmos childproof right in that same sense right like can if someone is trying to beat the system right is it possible to do it through this >> I I think um and then you can share I think because we are not going to be um prioritizing the digital as like where you're going to begin this work like if I mean maybe maybe we have a few years and we realize oh it kind of works in this way um when you're the mathematics is going to be

037done in groups in tables some independent and so with that um Amy mentioned before like orchestrating discussions there's kind of a framework called launch explore summarize where teachers are going to launch the lesson for a little bit students are going to have an opportunity to explore the mathematics while the teacher is walking around but also pushing each other in it whether it's in pairs groups or sometimes individually and then uh in this framework the teacher kind of as they are facilitating the learning comes back at the end to ensure that there's understanding of the mathematics. So in that way I went you know and and teachers do an amazing job of also how do I want to pair kids? How do I want to group students heterogeneous or is this like an opportunity for you

038know me to work with a couple of kids while I pull them. So because I don't think you know I think that was the big piece that made us all look at looking for a new program is not to have something like Zern and I think we have something very different from Zern. Yeah, I want to add on that Zern had online lessons like taught by an online instructor and there were those pause points that you're referencing where we saw a lot of we called it bubble jumping, >> right? Um this program the online component is not a virtual instructor. >> Okay. The online component is um practice problems or maybe even an activity where again the students are we might be working in partners or we might be working individually putting our ideas on

039there and I know this from working with the middle schools for years. There's there's all this technology that you can um we call it uh select and sequence the student work as you're you can capture it on your you know on your computer and then you can show the class like hey person A drew this diagram person B drew this diagram what's the same what's different and so like it's it's a the digital component is so different from Zern that like it's not looking for an answer. It's looking for the process. >> That's great. Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean, we've heard, you know, some concerns about digital like making sure that the the times that we do use technology and and digital learning are like very carefully thought through. So, I'm I'm happy to see

040that we're >> um that we are considering that and making sure that we are using the tools in the way like in a in a way that actually like promotes the learning. Um so, and to your point, like I think it's really hard to make something childproof. Like I I'm just like hearing some workarounds like to some of the like restrictions that we have. It's like how did how did you guys figure that out? You know, and then they like all tell each other smart. >> So then the entire school knows how to like, you know, bubble jump or whatever it is like and so um >> um you know I think we like well before like I got here but the board adopted CERN at a time when we maybe needed more of those

041online tools. And um now that you know things have changed a bit, it's um you know I think it's it's good that we're like adjusting our approach and and making sure um that it is serving our needs now. So thank you for you know and thank you to all of the teachers and everyone involved in doing the pilot. I know it's so much work and so much um like a lot of really thought a lot of thought put into it. Um, so I just want to echo, you know, gratitude for everyone who participated in the pilot. Um, but yeah, I don't think I have I guess, yeah, I think, um, Trustee Proctor had basically the same question that I was going to ask. Um, so I'll toss it. >> I will echo everything President Tren

042said. I think what I really appreciate about this presentation, all the work that you all did is a lot of times, you know, you hear me complain about transparency in the process because we get questions constantly from parents and community members about why we do what we did. And I feel like especially the way you approached this you know question we know is very sensitive for a lot of parents obviously be part of what we do but the level of engagement depth the kind of different voices you brought in having all the teachers a part of your committee having the students voices part of it um the vendor fair everything you've explained out here I think is a really great example of the method we take what we do but again I say it's not

043that we don't do the work it's that we often don't brag about how much work went into decisions that we made we don't necessarily show that part of our decision-making and I feel like the charts, everything else here just did a really great job of laying out how thoughtful this process was, how thorough this process was, um, all the different voices that were part of it. So, I think that's always very helpful, especially on a conversation like this one that we will get feedback on from the community. Being able to point to this discussion, this presentation just shows the level of thought that we put into everything that we do. And I think it's a great example that I would hold up in terms of what we do really well as a district. Um, a

044few just follow-up questions. Actually, Trusty Proctor had the exact same questions that I had as well. Um I think on the issue of kind of what we were looking to solve in the transition from Zuran has already been addressed. Um and I think one thing that I thought was interesting I am the type of person when I read reviews online I always look at the one stars and so when we were looking at these charts there are folks who put in terms of the cognitive demand you know not evident in others and so it sounded like you were saying that you met with folks who >> were kind of on the lower end to address those concerns and those have already been >> handled and addressed. Okay, that's great to know because it always I

045don't know if it's a misunderstood the prompt or kind of how we ended up there, but I would always like to talk to those folks. So, the fact that it's already been handled again speaks to how thoughtful you've been. I think I honed in on the tech side of this too. Um, as President Trim mentioned, I really appreciate that the publisher themselves put out that chart saying it's 0% required. We know that it's something we hear constantly from parents about not mandating time on computers, but all our screens, but having the ability to go further on the tech side. I was curious for the supplemental tech. Have we done a deep dive into I guess the type of data that we're able to see from the back end? Because what I appreciate the superintendent to

046talk about some of our literacy programs that we can see how long it's been opened, you know, how many pages folks kids have read, how many hours they've spent on it because that gives us data points about whether or not the students who need those resources most are actually using them and if not gives us an ability to follow up and so to what extent do we have visibility data on the back end and how much I guess of our professional learning or approach moving forward is going to focus on how to really get the maximum usage out of those supplemental tools beyond kind of what's happening in the classroom. Um there's more to do around some of that backend piece. So we'll definitely take note of that. One of the things that um and

047soon as we knew we made the decision, we met with um the Amplified team the next day. And so they're working on um giving us like our actually we just met our like rep that's in the area. So we're going to be continuing bringing questions like this and working with them. They've been very responsive. Obviously they're very excited. when we uh when we met with them the next day, our rep was already wearing like all amplified clothing just to celebrate with us. So that was really wonderful. Um there are some components that we actually have a meeting coming up to learn a little bit more about which is their um assessment MClass which is also just when when you'll hear MClass again or you've heard it before when I talk about the literacy assessment. So

048it's the same company and they have a like a boost program an intervention that's connected with it. So, we're um it's it's part of actually it's part of the quote, but we're going to be meeting with a rep that's that specifically um can share deep information about how that works and what we'll do. So, that's coming up. >> That's really great. And if that's something we're able to get before the board vote, I think that'd be really helpful to address up front. Um on a similar note with you know Zern in particular one of our just I think a lot of our curriculum that we you know receive comments all the time about how we do a really great job for the median student but for the bottom cile top cile their frustrations about whether

049or not we're doing enough with the resources that we have. I guess to what extent does amplify help us address that issue in terms of addressing both students requesting more rigor or students who are falling behind? How does it do a better job of addressing those particular gaps than ZERN or anything we've used previously? Do >> you want to share a little bit? >> Yeah, I mean I I think my >> I can say that they have additional resources. There's behind me, you know, >> this is all uh this is just third grade by the way. There's a lot of resources. So um they they have additional materials. Um they have intervention um that is you know targeted for students. Um they have um you know some enrichment activities that are available. But I think

050that um what is really going to help our students who are um you know wanting more challenge and our students who are not yet accessing is the transition in the um in the in the in the teaching because I think that um having our students sharing their ideas and learning from one another is going to allow the space for let's say I'm the the student who is not yet accessing. If Pam and I talk about math every day together, she's actually going to be able to help me. you know, not because the teacher said you have to help Amy, but just because we're constantly going to be in math conversations and I'm going to share my idea and she's going to share her idea and I'm going to learn from her. Not just the time

051when the whole class is talking together, but all of those times in between and it's going to become more normalized that everyone is approaching it differently. And when we're really able to take those risks and sit in some productive struggle, that's when we all learn better. And so I think that there are specific materials we could point to, but I don't think that that's going to be the biggest change. I think it's really going to be the culture around learning math that this, you know, curriculum is going to help bring in for our students. Oh, I wanted to also echo kind of this conversation when I was looking at like, you know, like the more additional resources. I was looking through the overview slides just like kind of quickly and I actually really I pointed

052out I was going to say this for comment comment time, but I actually really liked that it allowed for differentiation just like we're talking about. They have like three pathways support, strengthen or stretch depending on where the kid is. >> Um, and so I was like, "Oh, I really like that." Because when we went to when I stopped by the math pathways discussion a few weeks ago, like that was one of the takeaways I was hearing from a lot of the parents was like, well, we want more flexibility. Like that was always kind of what I I've been hearing from community when it comes to math, right? And so to hear and to see it, you know, in the presentation um well, I mean in the slides um you know, about how that's just already

053built in, I thought that was really great. And there was also like a home component, right? So it was like it's called caregiver support series, right? So it was like tips for parents to do this at home and summaries and pract extra practice problems. So I thought that was really I really liked how this offered that in a way that you know Zern and >> I don't know what you know the other techn the other option was and what they offer but I really liked how this one seems to really allow more for that than I've seen with CERN. >> I think follow up on Trusty Ho's point. I I think that's something we should communicate broadly. Um we all know that's something that we hear from parents all the time. The fact that this

054curriculum that we've chosen has that kind of flexibility has it kind of explicitly built in with the language around stretching and supporting. Um I think it's something that I would very much advertise. I know we are going to make the materials available here in the district office. Um I know I'm assuming these slides or especially those previous slides and around but I think in our messaging I think it will be helpful to emphasize that aspect um for a lot of parents who are concerned about the range and options and I think a lot of this we'll have to fix as we go with professional learning I think to your point Amy we're going to have a ton of content the issue is about how we then package that prioritize certain pieces um see what's working

055and see what's not but I do appreciate that we have that in the scope and then just my last logistical question the costs on the very last slide >> um I know the PL Our PD is not finalized. >> Is that over the six years? Is that annual per year? What is that meant to be? >> That and well this is year one PD one year, right? That's what they >> Yes, that's year one PD. But the the value on the left that's for six years. >> So that's a value that's including like wear and tear, replacement, all those. Okay. And then the PD is going to be roughly somewhere between 80 to 100 annually based on at least our current >> we we're we're currently they we met with them and then they're coming

056back to us with a PD plan that they think would be good over usually you try to think about a three-year PD plan at minimum. It takes that long to get a good implementation and then we can you know then it's usually okay if you're new you get like an initial launch PD so we'll have that. >> Got it. Okay. We'll have more clarity on those specific figures. >> That's all from my end. Um, if there's no more board questions, are there any public comments either in the room or online? >> Seeing none in the room. Joe, do we have anything online? >> Okay, comments. >> We move on to the next item or any final board comments. >> Thank you very much. Thank you guys. >> Yeah, you're still staying up with >> All

057right. Well, um thank you guys um for um the wonderful conversation around the math and now we're going to switch gears to language and literacy work. Um I guess I can do this with you. Um so um I know at a previous board meeting we were looking at a lot of the um data or mid-year interim data for PATH but I wanted to show it on a nice pretty graph. Um you know as we've been um um you know spending time together looking over the last four years we continue to see each year with our um early literacy assessment that even in the mid year of the latest year we're still doing better than we did at the end of year of the last year. Um so that's really great to see. Um the same

058with our student groups as well from 23 24 up until mid year of 25 26 we're making really good progress again on our student groups. Some of the things that I think um um have allowed for that is as we've been able to focus on this program for the last four years that our teachers have become more familiar with it. They know like I said earlier even with the when you have a new curriculum everything's kind of unknown. Um, but with this program, with our path program and early literacy program, teachers have been able to adjust it or shift some of the instructional sequence based on their grade level standards and when they know that their students um are needing. Some of the other things that have been um we've been shifting and changing and

059looking at over the last um four years is the TOSA support. So where in the beginning we were doing a lot of you know the TOSAs were doing a lot of tier one because they were learning the program along with the teachers. So they were doing some sideby-side te teaching sometimes in different classrooms. But now when you're in all of our elementary schools, you see TOSAs either pushing into the classroom, sometimes co-eing, um sometimes providing and supporting teachers with tier 2 intervention, and every once in a while, specifically sometimes now in the upper grades with newcomers or students that are still struggling, they might be providing some kind of more um they might be providing some more intensive intervention either using um in some cases the path a lot of our we've found we were

060we have phonics for reading program. We also have a rewards program, but our newcomers, especially if they're coming in upper grades, PEP works really well for them. So, we've been um doing that for them as well. Um you know, uh one of the other things um is that we're finding that at our title one schools that uh specifically is where our toes are really moving into the upper grades and a lot of them have two TOAs. That's what So, that really supports that K5 continuum. Um I did want to take this opportunity because I feel you know we've spent lots of time talking about path um you know I will definitely share um as much around the early literacy when we are in discussion but I wanted to take an opportunity over the next few

061slides to talk about what we've been doing a little bit different because I think it's really exciting in the the language and the literacy work. Um so uh you know we always talk about K2 but our transitional kindergarten team has been doing some really wonderful professional development. I mentioned this kind of in the map. Um there's the California Preschool Transitional Kindergarten Learning Foundations or PTKLF because we always need a lot of acronyms. Um one of the things around this and it's being um shared uh AC broadly in California. A lot of our TK teachers have attended um PD on their own or in the summer to learn about it with our support um at the county office. And then what our teachers have been doing this school year specifically is taking those foundations um and

062they've been d and um I've been supporting them in their professional development days where they're looking at what do we currently do um in our TK program and what do the um what does this framework say we should be doing? What are things that currently align we should keep doing and what are things that we need to think about changing and will there be curricular materials we need to adjust based on those foundations. So um one of the things that I really want to highlight in our transitional kindergarten team is they're using this opportunity. You know there's a lot of playbased in kindergarten where uh transitional kindergarten where students are really using the language and what the teachers have um found that works really well is doing this kind of a crosscontent um connection. So

063um they're using our our twig science program and they're developing units of study around that. So, it crosses literacy, it crosses math, it crosses social, emotional, and it crosses play. You'll see kids doing a lot of hands-on um things in our um in our transitional kindergarten room. So, it's really exciting. And they'll be spending the upcoming PD day kind of finalizing a little bit about what they want to see because we want to have some plans for the upcoming school years around what materials might we want to use um or adjust or change based on the foundations. Um, another thing that you've heard that we've been sharing, you've heard about is our um, new screener for risk of reading difficulties. This is something that um, the state um, put out last year to implement first

064time for this school year. So last May we had a small selection committee and the committee chose the MClass Dibble screener. MClass is the same. It's it is under amplified so we have a one-stop shop with them which is really great. Um and um and so uh what we did this year, the the the states ask for um at the minimum is to do the screener one time a year. And um what I found um talking with a lot of other districts, if you if you kind of in year one try it once, especially if you have another assessment, you're going to have a lot more success do with the implementation than you necessarily would if you just try to like here everyone's going to do the screener three times. Um, so we're continuing with

065our test for single word reading. We're doing this um, screener in May with all of our K2 students. Um, some exciting things that we did to really understand the the screener is our uh, TOSA team did a field test of it in November. We did that because when you're working with K2, it's not like an upper grade where you can just give the students assessment and then they're going to go off. A screener is onetoone and it takes a lot of time and think about kindergarten especially and in the beginning of the year there's a lot that the teacher and the student need to be doing and the teacher needs to be listening and sometimes that's hard when you have the rest of the kindergarten class not ready in all of their routines yet. So

066the tossas field tested it. Um we did have a lot of teachers that wanted to try it as well. So of course we said yes please let's let's all do as many as we can. Um and we found out uh some really interesting things. The screener is an um the students are not online but the teacher scoring online. So that is also another piece to kind of get used to. A lot of the toes are developing paper binders for teachers to launch in May because there is a way to just do it on paper and then put it into the computer which might be easier for some of the um for some of there's a few different components depending on the grade level. Um, so right now in February through May, the principles and the

067TOSSA team are curating professional development for each of their sites to make sure that every teacher feels confident in giving the screener this May. We'll be notifying families about the screener in April, April per the um state. And then again, the screener will be in May. And then we'll be sending the results home to all of the K2 families with um supports that they can do and plans if students are um kind of show up as um struggling readers or risk of a reading difficulty. A couple of things just to share around this. Um you know, there are some timelines you see on there. Um one thing that's going to be really important that we're going to share um out is this not a diagnosis of a disability. It literally is a screener, but sometimes

068it could feel that way. And so um we've noticed because we've been doing the test for single word reading and we um field tested the screener as we actually saw a lot of similar data. So we didn't really see anything that really surprised us. May you know what I think it's going to do for us is it tells you a little bit more about maybe why the student is um struggling as a reader. And that will just give us a lot more information about um about the student, what we can do to support them. Um the uh you know well the other thing we're going to do this spring is gather teacher input K2 to think about well did we like you well we're not going to not do a screener we have to do

069it we have to do a screener once a year but do we like the information from the Dibbles or MClass screener do we want to do it a little bit more often there's an intervention piece with it as well that teachers can use but in year one our goal was to do the screener one time learn from it and then we could um work with teachers if they want some more professional development around um utilizing the program that we um have with um MC class. Um another Oh, that was your screen. Sorry. Um and I'll kind of move through the rest of these a little bit quick because I know there's a lot of text that I know we've um a lot of us have looked at it. Um a couple of other exciting things

070that are happening. Um Meadow High School is beginning an implementation of a writing framework. Um this framework is deeply researchbased with over a hundred studies that show that three that that roughly three to six times um that roughly uh that this this program this framework is more effective like uh double the amount than you would without using this framework. Um really what it is, it's not um a curriculum based. You can use it with any curriculum, but it allows students to really regulate uh writing is scary for students. And so this really not only teaches them how to write and organize writing, but you do actually positive self-t talk before you begin writing. you write yourself a little note on the top of your page and like I can do hard things and I because

071writing scares a lot of students and so this really kind of um lowers the anxiety for students as they're writing um they have a lot of um you know like terms like one's called tide which is you know which helps students organize their writing so it's like topic what am I writing about important what are the evidence and details um the d a d would be detailed explanation of my evidence and then how am I going to wrap it up the ending which is So this is just beginning. Other schools have been interested in it, but I wanted to share because I think writing is something that's come up. Um this is actually a K12 um framework. So it's something that um uh executive director Kenetta Cook and I have been talking about. There's some

072interest in our middle school to learn about this as well. And a few of us will be going over to Meadow Heights um in April to learn a little bit more about it from their team. Um, another thing that we've been doing around literacy is some learning walks with a um, partner that we have for this school year. Um, it's very literacy centered and focusbased. It looks at text complexity, vocabulary, academic discussion, writing, student agency, and engagement. And it's solely focused on third through fifth grade, which is I know something that we've talked a lot about the upper elementary. Um, we're doing this at seven schools, and you can see them um, on the right. They've been amazing. We have another learning walk coming up next week and our whole goal um for this is

073to visit the schools three times September, January and March and take the information and um share it kind of with share the work with the strategic plan work and see what are we seeing in upper elementary grades and how do we want to um think about um as we develop our strategic plan um what are some things that we learn from it as a it's been been wonderful right >> um and um another really a wonderful opportunity that we've had again in third through fifth grade at two of our schools, Bearsford and um Lead soon to be Cottage Grove. I didn't have an icon that said Lead soon to be hydro, but we but I'll say it. Um is our project based learning pilot. Um this has been a big connection with the literacy work.

074Students are uh reading text, they're um writing, you can see pictures there. They're that's all the things we want to see in literacy. reading, writing, and talking about text. Um, and so, uh, we developed at the beginning during the summer with the teachers two outcomes that we had for the, um, the pilots. One is, um, student thinking drives language development. We wanted students to take the cognitive lift instead of the teacher doing all of the talking. And, um, I've been to almost all of their um, presentations. And I can tell you now, you couldn't even see where the adults were because the students were really talking about their projects and what they did, especially they're working um either in partners, pairs, trios, or in groups of four. Um the other one is really ensuring that

075students are engaged and have a sense of belonging. Um and you know, not only like to have the authentic writing, but about writing about something that they're interested in. And um on the next slide, um just really quick, you could see some of the student um some of the things that the students have shared. We have a podcast that talks a little bit about it with some of our students from Lee soon to be Cottage Grove. But here are some um really exciting things that our students are saying about project-based learning. We're we're um having them after each unit um complete a form where we get this feedback from them and then myself uh uh Diego Perez and a few others. We go out and interview some of the students and then you and I

076said we brought them here for a podcast. So, we're getting really rich data from our students about um this pilot and also our teachers as well. Um it's not on here, but one of the best things I heard from a student was um I used to think history was just about things in the past, but actually now I see it's really part of the present and I'm part of it. And I just thought that was like one of the most amazing things that I heard from a student talking about um their experience with the project based learning and our projects. Um so looking ahead um we are you know I think we we've been talking about when we do the language arts pilot um we made the decision to do math this year. It'd be

077really difficult on a system to pilot language arts next year. I think I wouldn't get anybody on the team. So um looking ahead, we want to pilot a new language arts program in 2728 with a similar process um with mathematics which would probably begin with next spring um a materials fair as well and then follow a similar timeline and process Pat and that's it. >> Add to that point of how that aligns with the roll out of our next strategic plan. um very intentional to couple the innovation that we're hoping to see coming out of that planning with that ELA adoption and implementation. So >> right with that turn it to you trustee >> I will kick it back to the online trustees again first trusty proctor or trusty Brooks do you have any questions

078on this portion >> I don't have a question but just in case it doesn't come back to me I did want to say thank you for this presentation and I really um thought that the screener um piece that you mentioned was really cool and I I hope that families really um get a lot out of that. I think that's really great. But thank you. No questions. >> Thank you, Trusty Proctor. Trusty Brooks. Any questions or comments? >> Sorry, I was trying to write at the same time. And And um And can you I'll come come back to me, please. I'll I'll come back. >> Thank you. >> Um thank you so much um for the presentation. Um one piece of quick feedback and then a real question. Slide 22. Um the yaxis um is got

079a slightly different scale. So you actually the data looks worse because of this. Like it got scale goes to 80. I actually think this would make you look much better. >> Okay. I had to like go and check the numbers just to see when I was looking at it. So that just Okay, thank you. >> You're underselling yourself. >> Um my question was, you know, you know, kind of piggybacking on what um Trusty Parker was saying about the screener. Um so I guess a couple questions that I just wanted to add just for clarification. Um, I'm I'm supportive of it and like I was curious, you know, it's given to every student >> in K through two, like, >> you know, and I feel like this would take a long time, I would imagine. Like

080how long does each screening take? Um, you know, and is it shorter maybe perhaps for, you know, students depending on their levels or whatever? Like what does that look like? >> So, um, Kinder has certain components first and second. Um the purpose of doing it every year for every student is sometimes while someone might present in kinder that they you know know all their letters um as they get older and if something comes up in their reading there's a little bit more complex like phmic kind of sharing where sometimes you have to say like the the adult will say a word and then the student has to break up that word into um phone names and so that's why they want it for every student every year. That being said, um if students are testing

081out of certain components, they don't have to do that component again. Um so it it does kind of get shorter. Also, it it takes about well the pro they say seven minutes. I think it's little especially in the beginning when you're learning how to do it. I would say 10 which is a lot per student. So that's why we're which is why in year one we're doing a heavy TOSA lift on doing it. And actually the toastsas are going to do the two more complex screeners that are really difficult to do while you're listening to student online for this year unless a teacher wants to and feels comfortable with it. Um and and that's and all of that will help us when we get that teacher feedback on well we're going to still be doing

082it because it's a mandate from the state but what do we want to do with it and how much do we want to use it? So it does students a student would a student would have to take it at least once a year. If we move to a three time a year students will test out of certain of the certain components and a lot of it which is kind of and this is why it's a screener a lot of it's timed. Um so it's not they don't have as much like our current pro current assessment they sort of as much time as they need to do it. Um, so you have sometimes only, you know, like a 60 seconds for students to kind of um, and they, this again, the students have paper, they're not

083looking at a screen to like name rapid sorts of things. And so this is why we have to really think about what this means because sometimes if a student just looks away because I'm a kindergartener and I look back, that's like 10 seconds. However, there are ways we could reset it if needed and that's why we might do some paper pencil. So it'll be a learning year on some of this stuff. But yes, um it will take some time this year um which is why we chose to do it in May when the students were a little bit older in the grade levels and with um the heavy support will um support us with it and then we'll you know learn and learn what we want to do next with it. Yeah. >> Thank you.

084Um kind of piggybacking on that as you were talking I had more questions. >> Yeah. Yeah. For ELLL students um what will this look like? Um, so the the we have some um we have some licenses right now. The only two languages that um all of the there were four screeners that we looked at. All of them only have um English and Spanish right now that are approved. I think over the next few I think there'll be some shifts and changes. I'm anticipating with how the screener is rolling out. This is literally year one for every single person. And even if you were using dibbles, it's still year one because they've adjusted it a little bit as a screener. Um, so it's only English and Spanish. Um, fiesta gardens, we have licenses in in in

085Spanish for them to take the screener and English. And then we bought extra licenses in Spanish for students that um their home language in Spanish to take it in Spanish as well. And and you want to do that because you know if they're struggling in the English screener, you want to see do they have the the um the um skills in Spanish. You do have to you it's hard some of our some of the things our toasts is they if they were only if the tossa was English speaking they gave it in Spanish and I would say we have to you have you it's better to have someone that speaks Spanish to do it. So again that's another thing that we're going to um learn and figure out this year as we implement year one.

086>> Um lots of questions. Um it's fun the screener super fun. Yeah, I just was like, "Oh, wow." >> It's going to give it's gonna give good data, right? And I think I was also kind of interested in that piece of like, you know, parents will receive the results, you know, and I really loved your clarification point of like this is not a diagnosis of a disability, >> you know, how I guess, you know, in ensuring that they know that this is not a diagnosis of a disability. Like >> how how do parents receive the assessment? Will there be like is it email? there going to be links for them to understand this like or is it paper like I'm just asking how's the roll out >> I think I think it's going to be

087all of the things I think it's going to be as many things as possible especially and I think there'll be things that we're going to do great and things that we'll get feedback that we might need to adjust for next school year around it um it's the you know again we made a choice to at the end of the year so um you know there'll be that's not during conference time so that we might want to adjust for next year but we're going to do our best for this school year getting the families information, making sure all of the teachers, um the principles, the if you're a title one school, your CSS is that as many RSP teacher, anybody's available to help share it with um to help share with their families and um and

088yeah, it's going to have to be in multiple ways. >> Yeah, I think I'm also just thinking from the educator perspective, right? like you know if a school is you know like title one or you know mostly you know ELELL students or whatever or it's a classroom students with disabilities I don't want then the families to turn on to the educator and say like my kids failing because of you right >> so I want to make sure that there's protection for our our our faculty as well you know um >> you know whatever you know might come from this result so I think yeah I think it's really great that we're treading carefully you know I want to make sure that yes, families are empowered with this decision, but that we're also making sure that

089they understand it in the right context and that, you know, there's not a lot of fingerpointing as a result of it. We're definitely in I I anticipate some navigating around it. So, it's as much as we all share the same language, I'm excited to have an opportunity to share with you about it today. I um as I shared before like just from our field test we saw some similarity in the data that we have and um the piece I feel confident about is we've made a shift in the way we teach reading. So the things that the students are asked to do um pretty much is part of our reading program and it doesn't mean that every student's going to be exceeding or I forget what the terms are right now but at the highest

090level but it is going to get but I like I said with the toes of team and I as we pulled the data and looked at it really helps you go oh okay wait they've been struggling oh now I know it's because they just need this piece and that is a that is kind of a you know nuance conversation to have with families and other piece that's in um the state toolkit is it's really about and this will be part of the communication it's about interventions in tier one in the classroom tier two in the classroom first and what and that's why they're doing in K2 I mean the I think well the intent behind it is great but it is a um a tricky roll out but >> let me just add this is

091where actually the the TOSA structure is going to be very helpful because they're sort of >> leading edge of learning about it and building their expertise and obviously ly we're going to share the the professional development with them. But at each site there is a resident person who has a greater degree of expertise as we're rolling out and soon teachers will catch up to that. But um especially initially um it's going to be very important to have that resource available. >> We definitely don't want any of our teachers feel like you're out there on your own. Good luck. Exactly. It's a really heavily supported um implementation. Just curious, you know, and I'm thinking about this, you know, in relation to like when I, you know, release PSAT scores to my students, right? Like it's really

092helpful for them to see context as well, like, okay, what's the average in my classroom versus in my school, my grade, my grade, my school, the district, right? Like I think that would be interesting information, too. Um, so that a student can understand where they stand within the context, you know, because >> Yeah. And and so that was something that, you know, I think would be and I agree with like being very careful out. I think that's really important and sure that when is ruled out that people aren't I don't know. It's it's also done in a way that's um um honoring the and I don't know what the right word is like um >> each student and their confidentiality >> and just kind of you know maybe they don't want to share their results

093and so just sensitivity around how that's rolled out too. Yeah, it is a a nationally normed assessment. So there is some >> data that will be in there like how you compare to >> others. >> Um last comment um slide 25 the um think SRSD. >> I really loved just reading about it and like 10ear research match model you know how you know how it approaches writing and I just wanted to just you know really thank you for that. You know, I think this is honestly what I'm used to seeing. So when we see things like, you know, Lumi being thrown at us where there's like no research backing, it's very like it it's jolting to me. So when I see this as a great researchbacked model and that we're, you know, looking to do

094this, you know, with our students, you know, in writing, I I'm very happy with this. So just wanted to share, you know, my my thankfulness that, you know, we're looking at these research. >> Yeah. And I'll give kudos to uh Meadow Heights and their principal um for really bringing this um to us and sharing it. We've heard about it, but she and her team are are spending a lot of time with it. K5, we uh they have some collab days where they're doing this work and I know they're getting excited to share with us. We're trying to like, you know, I want to protect them a little bit from like, you know, don't worry, we won't we won't all come in and see it right away because I want them to have that time to

095um really get to know the program, but the framework. >> Yeah. Can I ask um the like when the screener result sorry to go back to the screen >> when the screener results come back what is the not I mean maybe you're still working out but like what does the notification look like? >> Yeah, there's a there's a letter that comes with it. So once we start because we have some examples of it from the November field test. So we're going to be looking so it comes straight from them. If we find that that it's not >> adequate enough or we get feedback that's not then we can make that adjustment. >> Okay. So there's like a template. >> Yeah. It's a report that comes from the program. >> And does it go to like

096all the students get the report? >> We're thinking about putting it in the ERI's parent portal right now. >> Yeah. >> You know how you can access assessment data through the parent portal? That's what we're think about right now. >> And then if we need to print copies, >> can I hop? Oh, may I hop in? And um I'm sorry. Were you done? Uh, President, >> um, yeah, you can go ahead. >> Okay. Um, I have a question um about um what structures are in place to ensure that students continue to see their cultural histories, voices, and lived experience reflected in the projects they are asked to engage. Oh, so for project based learning >> the project. Yeah, thank you. That's a that's a really great question. Um actually um uh David and I over

097the last couple of weeks because we only have two schools in um this pilot is we met with the teachers and we did a implementation timeline and we asked them to kind of go through this implementation and tell us you know what are the things that have been working in this and what are the things that have not been working and how we can continue to support them in to year two. Um, one of the things, I don't know if we shared this, but we didn't explicitly say it necessarily to all the teachers like, oh, let's let's think about innovative innovative teaching and learning in project-based learning. We said innovative teaching and learning. A lot of them sort of found this project-based learning, PBL works um framework and and professional development that we sent them

098to last summer. And a big component of PBL works is a lot of this um using history, using social studies, using science, using cultural identity to develop projects. So they've they've learned through professional learning how to develop projects um that are based on student interest, based in their culture. And then specifically from that the outcome that um that the teachers came up with that we sort of you know word Smith and brought it back to them was that piece like sense of belonging I belong and my culture identity is a part of this work. Um is it an you know the both both schools have done a different number of projects um you know we haven't necessarily landed on you know as a we're not saying as a district you have to do this many.

099They've been coming to us talking about like oh it might be a good idea um to do two to three projects and making sure one is a cultural identity project that really represents the students. The other might be a science and the other might go back into like a social studies text. So that's some of the things that we've been um talking about with teachers. >> Yeah. and and you know the the the learning around this um you know that uh we took a group of folks to Washington Elementary in Sacramento and which is a project-based learning school but it's also integrating the work of Goldie Muhammad um into um into the curriculum and and actually both principles of these schools and the teachers have talked about like that is a a next step as

100they see how the project-based learning sort of opens up this opportunity to really engage deeply in these questions of identity and history and cultural background. So um so that's uh that and you know I would look into next year to start seeing some of that um learning be showing up in the work that teachers are doing with students. >> Yeah. And I think after the Washington trip is when uh the teachers from the schools came back and really saw um because there was a lot of culture represented at that school and you really saw the students everywhere in murals and their projects and they came back saying because you know this is a third through fifth pilot. They came back saying, "I'd love to think about not that kinder necessarily needs to become project based

101learning at their school, but what's like a component of the c specifically the culture cultural identity piece that they can do um K5." Very exciting. >> Yeah. Um because I did hear um one of the um I think that was trustee ho that may have mentioned um Lumi and it's um uh curriculum that uh is all based on um cultural relevance uh individualized for each culture that um is represented. um from my understanding of the of that particular um uh platform. But it's important for me to um understand that the that it's you know the inclusion is there and the belonging uh of the students and that they uh benefit from the supports of being able to learn as it relates to their cultural relevance as well because that is a proven way um of

102success to be able to relate to their curriculum. So, thank you for sharing. >> Thank you, Trusty Brooks. Um, I don't have too much more to add. I think my fellow trustes did a great job of kind of addressing some of the questions that I had. I think particularly on the screeners, I think a lot of us honed in on that because that is a very unique and interesting data point to be able to have in that level of detail. Um, I think my question not so much for today but down the line is I would be very curious to know whether or not the information we get from the screeners deviate significantly from what we already kind of thought our benchmark was. Um, just to kind of see why we may have had that

103gap or if it aligns and at least give us a sense that we're where we think we are. Um, and then I think my second question again not for today but for down the line is how we then adjust with the data. If we have a situation where two neighboring classrooms, you know, one class is >> like 80% at level and the other class is 20%. What does that mean in terms of how we allocate our resources if we have that happen across different sites, whether it's through the TOSAs or some other interventions that we have planned, how we use the data? But I think for starters, just knowing we're going to get it in that level of detail with the amount of time it takes for each individual assessment, I think it's just going

104to be really great as a starting point for us. I think my other broader question was on these pilots that we have which are really exciting whether it's project based learning or I think SRSD especially the focus on the writing about the how of writing the focus on the writing stamina precision all of it I think I really appreciate that approach especially as we've been talking about fears about how technology AI screens are going to hurt students ability to really be generated think of their own ideas um be faced with a blank page I think this is really the kind of thing we should focus on but in our own internal analysis. How do we determine whether our pilot was successful or whether it's something that we should scale? I think a lot of times

105we have these theories, we get to test them, we get this feedback from students or from u teachers, but how do we know that this is something that there's enough evidence behind there's enough there there to then think we need to scale this out across the entire district? I guess I'm not always clear what that measure of success looks like and also it'll probably be with the color of but next time we would do this differently. And so I'm just curious at least for these pilots, how are we measuring and deciding that these are successful and it's a go or a no-go to scale beyond the sites that they're currently at? >> Sure. >> Yeah, I think I could start with project-based learning. Actually, we're doing a couple of different levels of data gathering. Pam

106mentioned the, you know, the the interviewing that's kind of the the deepest sort of most qualitative, but that actually that interviewing is based on looking at um survey result data that we're getting from the students after each of their units. >> Um and and again, given the the goals that we set for project-based learning, we're asking questions about how their students are experiencing, you know, the um the rigor around language and the and the experience of engagement. So we have that data that we're looking at and and we're seeing as with each unit sort of the the the data is constantly improving especially you know just just to the extent that students are feeling joyful and engaged in classroom. This is a you know that part of the day that part of the month is

107is you know they're very excited about. Um and then the other layer of data is is the teacher data that we're gathering on like how are you experiencing this implementation? uh what is supporting you? Um how is your level of confidence building? What would you you know obviously today I sat with the Bearsford group and we spent a lot of time think thinking if we went back to the beginning you know what would we do differently? What would we make sure we do again? Um and we're using that information to think about how we would support another round of schools going forward. So um so yeah so we're looking at you know sort of those layers of of the sort of the survey the quantitative data and the qualitative data around project based learning. Um

108SRSD I think is just is so new >> that we're not there yet. Um there's a tremendous amount of excitement about it but um we're trying to make sure we give them an opportunity to to pilot it and and get some good feedback. I think up to you. >> Nope. No. >> I was say if we do I guess reach a point you know down the line when we are thinking about expanding this beyond I would be very curious to know the specific learnings and kind of rationale but I do think these are really exciting initiatives that we have. Um and then I guess my last question actually this this is going back to our first topic. Um I meant to ask this for the math curriculum but not that it affects what we do

109but I was curious are any of our neighboring districts or the bar districts using amplify currently >> for amplify math? Amplify >> math. Oh yeah, we did ask. Yes. Are >> it's it's new for K through. >> That's right. That's right. Okay. >> Middle school. Yes. >> Middle school. Many districts. >> So they're still they're piloting in districts in the area. They just we did our um there might still be piloting or piloting in the next school year. So yeah, it's a new program >> and everyone uses dibbles in class. >> It's the most commonly used screener. >> Got it. That's all from mine. Do we have any other comments or questions from trustees before we open up to public comment? All right, seeing none, um, any public comment, Joe? >> No comments. >> Right.

110I think with that, we'll take a motion to adjourn. >> Motion to all in favor? >> I meetings adjourned exactly at 7 o'clock.