001Morning all. My name is uh I'm a board member of Donald Harris serving as a chair today chair Aaron Benham who is on a welldeserved you all please rise for the >> to the flag of the United to the repellent or saint public participation. Uh we got four members We have two members signed up this morning. The first speaker is actually more and second speaker is Good morning. >> My name is Kathy Norler. I have been a certified teacher in Connecticut for the past 17 years. I am a parent of a child with dyslexia and a member of the coding dyslexia committee. The Connecticut State Department of Education in a December email to stakeholders from its chief of staff, Miss Stefen, stated that it has not delivered robust compliance measures, audit procedures, and therefore has
002not verified education preparation programs compliance with dyslexia specific legislation despite legislatively mandated requirements. We thank Miss Stefan and the CSDE for this transparent email has we have not known what has not been done. We request this board to ensure that any future action by the CSD develop the compliance measures and audit procedures to align with the legislator's intent dyslexia task force recommendations and legislation. We also request that the co-chairs of the deflecting task force work in partnership with CSTB and any external experts. This type of partnership will allow for continuity between legislation and development of the initiative. I want to give you a few examples of why an audit of education preparation program is necessary and needed. My own experience and initial preparation did not fully prepare me to teach students to qualify for special
003education with specific learning disabilities. What I have seen in our local schools mirrored my own preparation wherein newly certified teachers do not have the knowledge and skills to meet the needs of students with dyslexia nor have they had a practical. Decoding dyslexia Connecticut has a meeting scheduled with the commissioner and staff this afternoon. We hope to learn more about CSV's efforts to one leverage resources. Two, seek external experts, three possess capacity to support this work, and four provide clarity regarding anticipated timelines, roles of internal and external partners and opportunities for stakeholders engagement. We as we have not had any updates since Miss Stefan's email of September 18th. I leave the board and CST staff with this question from Kareem Lever. Do we have the political will and the moral courage and fortitude to use literacy
004as a vehicle to include all? I hope for Connecticut the answer is yes. Thank you. I live at 189 road. Thank you. My name is Leandis. I am speaking today as a teacher a parent with dyslexia member of decoding dyslexia and someone who cares about how educators are preparing them. I provided public comment last month before this board after watching the evening that a comment 85 commissioner resonated with me and with many individuals in our community. Commissioner Russell Tucker commented that if one special education student out of the 94,174 in the state is not receiving the services that they are entitled to. That is one too many. We are here to advise you that there are many students with dyslexia that are not receiving a appropriate education in Connecticut. We want you to be aware
005of the hundreds of pieces of testimonies provided by the stakeholders over the years in support of dyslexia legislation. These testimonies publicly on file with the Connecticut General Assembly outlined the pervasive and systematic failures of students with dyslexia are facing in Connecticut. In addition, after the commissioner's comments, the coding dyslexia CT launched a survey asking stakeholders for feedback regarding the continued failures within the state regarding students with dyslexia. The survey ran for only 14 days. However, we received over 50 responses from a wide variety of teams across Connecticut and comments from various stakeholders. Responses show a decade of failure with overarching themes running throughout, systematic delays and failures and resistance, inadequate services and instruction, adversarial and costly advocacy, lack of educator expertise and training, accountability, and legal violations. Survey responses are attached to this public comment
006submission. We encourage you to read each and every one of these responses as each response represents a child who has been failed by the system. This board of education needs to fully implement the recommendations of the task force including implementing compliance measures, audit procedures and verification of prepar educator [laughter] preparation programs to ensure accountability and effectiveness. Thank you. We have no executive discussion today. Next on our agenda is the consideration of our 14 minutes. Can I get a motion? >> Move and second it. Any edits, corrections? Hearing none. Seeing none. All those fail, please signify by saying I >> I report by the chair. here sent me a detailed report that I will um at this time. Uh Glattus uh uh in record Aaron Ben attended the February uh Nazby member exchange meeting. Kristen Records,
007Glattis and Paula Gilberto are also involved with the HQ I am group. Additionally, Kristen participated in the education summit last month held at the state capital and uh you'll hear some more from Kristen and uh and Paul a little bit later in our meeting. Congratulations goes out to uh Dr. Glass for who's in Chicago right now being inducted to the bilingual education multilingual education hall of class of 2026. Congratulations. A notice went out to all districts about the applications for student board members for the 20 26 27 school year. And as a point of personal privilege, uh, I'm going to, uh, point out congratulations to our own former deputy commissioner Nesmith, who was just recently appointed, I believe, on February 1. Uh, he is the new CEO of the Crack District. Congratulations, Debbie. Mr. Harris,
008if I may, >> can you have Miss Record um actually talk about her participation on the the panel she served? >> I'd be I'd be happy to. Thank you for that opportunity. Um I was really excited to be uh invited to participate in the 2026 Connecticut education issue summit. It was held um at the capitol building. It was co-sponsored um by cave and CASP CA and AFT. Uh it was a wonderful morning. It was directed uh specifically at legislators and members of local boards of education um to talk about all kinds of issues related to state of education and K12 systems and beyond here in Connecticut. Um I participated in a panel discussion about the educator workforce needs uh and issues specifically around educator pipeline and educator working conditions. Um there was also a panel
009discussion about improving educational outcomes. Uh we had Congresswoman Johanna Hayes as well as our former commissioner and former secretary of education uh Miguel Cardona speak to us um in two different parts of the sections and we also had panel discussions about um job protection needs for educators in the workplace. So um it was a really informative morning. A lot of engaged uh panelists and participants really um important questions were asked. Um and I was very grateful to see many legislators and members of local education. So thank you for anyone who attended um and I was very pleased for the opportunity reports uh academic standards and assessment. So we met on January 13th update. Our last meeting is scheduled for March 10th. And I would just encourage the board if they have anything relating to academic
010standards to come before the committee for discussions to please let Dr. Hughes Irene Kesley or myself so that we can plan an agenda that's reflective of what the board would want to hear. Accountability and support. >> Accountability and support met last week on Wednesday. We are super from uh two different schools. on their accountability and support of action. Um being candidates for accountability against the finance audit and budget chair. We have not met and our next meeting is February 24th. But again, thank you great job in keeping that department intact. Okay. Legislation and policy development. >> Thank you, sir. Uh we started our January 14 meeting with three campaigns from CAPS from the card solutions and from superintendent from sel on initiatives that they're working on with statewide college and career pathways. uh they shared
011that they look forward uh to working with the CSC on this initiative and we will be hearing from later today uh and what those uh we also heard from our Connecticut educated preparation and certification board uh uh they presented on their work and we received actions at 1:00 in May always [laughter] >> Connecticut and career system board information is in your supplemental folder plus there's a uh there is the video uh we are also happy to uh notice that Anita Hudge and Alexandra field. Students from Oliver Walcott Technical School were selected as speakers in the 2026 lead conference being held later this month in Washington DC. Congratulations to those >> I'm sorry. >> With a stroke of a pen, a new pathway to education and the workforce is created. It's a landmark partnership in Connecticut
012between technical high schools and community colleges >> providing you a clear pathway for how to through your experience at CEX and at CT State earn a post-secary degree or certificate through CT State at a low or no cost. >> The partners call this a gamecher not just for students but the local economy. They point to generational shortages across all sectors in the state >> from culinary to manufacturing to health care and beyond. Right? And the only way for the state of Connecticut to truly move that needle is through our CEX and CT state. While in high school, students enrolled in the program will earn college credit. Each will be issued a college ID, giving them access to a host of opportunities. >> Our library, our tutoring services, our advising, our mental health and wellness support.
013While the program is not new in the state, it continues to build on its success. Three years ago, 17,552 students earned college credits through dual credit courses at other colleges and universities right here in Connecticut. >> This past year, that number rose to 24,718. That's over 7,000 more students participating in dual credit courses. An equation these educators are hoping will equal success. Reporting for News8, I'm Ken Houston State Colleges and Universities. Uh Dr. job commissioner colleagues have some friends uh and from our from our system standpoint as we know she started last [clears throat] college as it relates to um agenda recogniz this short session today [clears throat] of the standard for standard. Lastly, national HR1. [clears throat] sure that whatever policies that finally support uh secure more funding. Um >> [clears throat] >> Uh
014thank you. So um as you mentioned in Aaron's report uh we participated in the nav member exchange last Monday. Uh we received a federal update on legislation and we received Friday budget situation at the national level. Uh we also had time to spend um in area groups shout out as he has been reappointed in the northeast area for NAS. So congratulations. So we were able to spend some time with fellow board members from the Northeast region. Uh later this afternoon, uh myself and Paula and hopefully Glattus also will be meeting with NASBY and CEO fellows in the area. Uh we're going to be talking with him about our HQIM initiatives here about how NASBY uh can leverage what we're doing in our state uh to help guide what's going on in public states in that
015area. We've asked it's an oddage both Dr. use um we report to engage them but we wanted to make sure that we were and are prepared this afternoon we share all that the state department that is with respect to high quality instructional materials with the board this is one of those priorities in the state for the education five years foundation education [clears throat] to facilitate curriculum training and I want to acknowledge the staff as well as participation staff. Finally on the committee reports uh and start um just a reminder that there is a full report and flower and flyers in your supplemental first of the commissioner the update. Thank you very much uh and good morning to our members and for hosting our audience uh and to vice chair Benham who uh is on screen
016so she's with us and she's got the ability to wag. Uh good morning to all. Uh my report the commissioner's report is in the supplemental packet and as usual activities the activities are laid out on the development board priorities. Thank you Paula for reminding us those priorities and then they're actually the death that you have I I put it there again as a reminder of the priorities of the state of education that we're working to make sure we're uh on a daily basis in the work that we're doing and enjoying uh that our students are very light and working on school. Uh the other reminder in your packet uh that we have is the the underpinnings of the state board comprehensive plan uh driven by our data transparency and we have lock and landlord potential.
017Uh we have those priority areas also that the agency uh is working on uh and you can certainly take a look at that. We're calling out today uh there and we'll talk about some priorities and updates here. But I also want to point out improving outcomes for all students. Uh is one of those strategic focus areas increasing access and opportunities for students with disabilities uh and those with community needs. Uh and we're continuing to do that work as we sat last week and listen to last month uh to the West presentation on the work that we're doing to make sure uh that we are indeed working on changes make sure that we can indeed achieve that goal. Uh on slide four of your deck, we have a updated enrollment and staff data and I think
018Nene Christian is in the room and if you can just quickly deal with us, you know, I always talk about a 508402 number. It just rolls off and tongue when I got to learn a new number uh now because we have updated number. I always say I use that number. I got to change the the number. So I just wanted to just very windy go through the changes that we have uh on the thing that I present everywhere because understanding our education landscape. >> Thank you commissioner. Uh good morning uh board members. Um so as you can see the enrollment number now is uh 497,764. Um it's u a decline from the prior year of about 2.1% in a single year. That's the second largest single year decline that we've seen um only at the
019time of the golden year. And we [clears throat] have about 10,600 fewer students this year than last year. And uh and we we are you know there may have been another year in like the early 19 maybe when it was below 500,000 was open into that and that was before we had sassids and we were doing that. So so that's kind of the uh the big change in terms of student groups. Uh students eligible for free meals showed the biggest decline uh single year decline of almost 5%. uh it's still greater than what we had in 21-22 um but it's a single year decline of about 9,500 English students among those eligible for free meals. Uh English learner group also actually saw a decline and that's the first that we've seen in in our memory
020um declining from 57,500 to 55 so little over 2,000 students or almost 4% single year decline. students with disabilities did increase slightly. So that's one group that increased uh slightly less than 1% about 800 more students pre-K through 12 uh that we see when we look at the alliance districts um all but two alliance districts have had um declines. So there and Winchester that had a slight increase but everybody else had had declines. Just to give you some numbers here, New Haven saw almost thousand fewer students this year than last year. Hartford about 900 fewer, Stanford a little over 800. Bridgeport around 650 fewer students in Danberry area over 500. Little 500 fewer students a year. Those are the the general numbers that we're we're seeing in the alliance district. The one district uh that
021see the largest increase was actually CPAX um and they had over 300 more students this year last year. Uh when we look jumping into some students get waivers overall for the students who are born seem to be enrolling but we still have to poke into it uh and figure [clears throat] this out. Just briefly commissioner do you want me to mention staff as well? >> Yes. >> Okay. So on the staff side um you know the overall capacity last year to this year actually grew a little bit like little about 1% when you add both certified and non-certified staff but certified staff did show a slight decline. It's the non-certified staff overseeing an increase. Um so for example the uh general education teachers which are like our classroom teachers and they account for about 35,000
022of that 53,000 number that you see there that declined about a little less than 1%. So about 260 odd fewer uh teachers. But then when you look on the special education teachers and special education pair of professionals, that's where you see the increase. So about a 3% increase in special education pair of professionals about 400 FTEES and then special education teachers little less than 2% almost 130 FTEES. So it's sort of shifting from general education to special education and that's also in line with the student enrollment patterns that so um >> I think that's that's it. We've updated our dashboard is updated now. >> Yes. Yeah. All the reports will show the new and yes >> a clarifying question. Um for the staff members the FTE are we talking about literally certified or are we
023talking >> it's employed FTPS so FTE is full as you in case folks don't know it's full-time equivalent so essentially what that means is that two people are working out time that would be considered one FTE and so when I present the 35 FTE is actually a count is that the truer reflection of capacity certified FD >> that's correct such that net is actually a little higher FD >> you know if the decrease if the certified FTE related to it >> we don't know that held that level we do have a vacancy dashboard where we do track what vacancies >> they have which >> which is um positions that are budgeted that they're actively looking to fill. So we wouldn't know if they change or eliminated are looking at that I figure trying to figure
024it out >> to speculate but that's >> yeah it's hard to it's I mean we can only speculate on the why I think our goal is to see is to really track the one thing we don't have is 2025 population numbers so it's hard to say especially school age population it's hard to say like what is the population so we tend to go back to the birth records and say how many born you Even though that's not perfect, we try to sort of see like five years ago, how many born are like does that is that close to where the kindergarten enrollment is? So, we sort of try to look for that and it's gotten a little messy with this whole the entry rule change and the waivers being given, but um but I think
025we're we're capturing it in kindergarten um when we get involved. >> But you know what? Um I believe that it across not Connecticut I need to say on that point I know also indicated to us that direct certifications of SNAP and those types of program enrollments are also down because that sort of connect jives with our reward prenal population. Thank you. Uh moving us along uh on uh specific activities and I'm going to have John on deck as well. Connecticut was awarded $154 million in cent's medicate uh Medicare and Medicaid agency and uh CMS to implement a multi- agency rural health transformation program and Connecticut has a the department has a piece of this that I just have John quickly share with you where what we're doing. >> Thank you commissioner. Yes. Um we were
026awarded $154,000 $154 million. Uh see year one it's a fiveyear grant uh from the center of medicare. Um there are many agencies involved. Uh there are about a dozen everyone from DHS department addiction services but also office of health strategies Yukon health center a number of programs. There actually 31 different projects uh in it and um environment has one. Um we are the focus of this are the rural health districts. So this gives you sort of a snapshot of who we're talking about. There are about 45 or 46 that are targeted by ERSA that are designated as rural on the federal level. So um the Connecticut program is building or the department's program is building on our behavioral health pilot um that we just completed with seven different districts. So, we'll be expanding that, doing
027um school level mental [clears throat] health assessments to see what types of infrastructure they have in place, the types of um programs that they're running, how successful they are, and the needs of the city with regard to behavioral health um and opportunities for referral. And we'll be layering on top of that a student level behavioral assessment. So, we'll be looking at school level, district level, and student level needs uh and help to develop systems of support for each district. So tailored to Easter sort of what are they needs in terms of developing systems in addition to working with some of our other partners for the provision of teleaalth behavioral health services. So we're kind of hitting all the points. >> Thank you. So that's all priority. Thank you very much. Moving on to elevating our
028curriculum frameworks. I just want to point out one initiative uh for you and I think Irene is in the room of Connecticut curriculum teacher leader fellowship uh program uh that we've uh we launched we launched that in October of 205 uh and we have leaders I mean could you come to the table please uh we have 145 teacher leaders participants across 60 districts uh within the state and very many views so if you can just quick to be clear on that. That'd be great. >> Thank you, Commissioner, and thank you for your support in this project. This is the right professional learning that we're providing to our teacher colleagues because we really are putting in their hands um the opportunity to come to the table locally about curriculum discussions. So we are working with them
029on the four phase structure within the universal design principles as well as the readiness toolkit to really diagnose where are we what gaps may exist and how might we prioritize that work so that we can get to those outcomes that we want for their teacher colleagues as well as the teach the students. So, um, we had a module last week. It was virtual. It would be in person in March. And we're really helping them complete that district's vision and again empower them to be the curricular leaders uh for their district and bring more to the table. >> Thank you. Uh, also uh that we're working professional learning providing assistance on assessments and sensible assessments uh for our our districts. You'll hear more about that later. after that is happening. And then finally you saw the
030the segment on technical high school and students are in the department working with um agencies for career options and so part of that and those partnerships and pathways for students and linkation uh later. Uh I also uh this past week that we joined the governor uh and west hardway superintendent local leaders and community partners at Smith's public school with Arthur to highlight the 12.5 million investments that will expand access and you'll hear a little bit more about that with our budget update. uh that it was going to join uh with under the governor's pro proposal. All students in school participating in a school breakfast program with free breakfast ensuring that an additional 164,000 students uh can start their day with a healthy meal. And we know how important that is. Uh as well as reduced
031price fees would be eliminated statewide, giving roughly 13,000 students access for lunch at no cost. the door already. That's where we were. Uh you can see some pictures on the screen for the startups for where we've been and what we've been doing. Uh also thanks to Irene, the 2026 Connecticut King Governor uh was named uh if you recall, we we met and had the previous king governor attend our board meeting. we will use the same stage uh and always Tessa uh and hearing from her and her cabinet uh and the work that they're doing. So we congratulate Tessa for being the governor that you know the governor didn't say of the state address and I wonder so let's move on to uh your Sundays part and uh next let's start with we get an update
032Corporate public schools followed by Dr. Hughes and morning everyone. I will be very brief this morning so you can see everyone this morning. I will not be brief later on. >> [clears throat] >> uh as a report on Hartford uh in a few meetings I'd like to update you on and speaking about on February 4th our department's accountability and support team which is as you know solely dedicated to Harford and [clears throat] and health public schools the recommendations um we met on February 4th actually with superintendent county and members of his executive cabinet to discuss the district efforts to fulfill the 4 recommendation. It was a very good meeting. We we filled the rooms with a lot of professionals that are interested in helping our effort move along and we have a really good working
033relationship. I believe the purpose of the meeting as I said is the coordination between HPS and HSP entities align the supports that we needed them. uh four takeaways from this uh more importantly the superintendent will add the 64 recommendations as a standing meeting and the item executive sub meetings which are also Wednesday mornings which are 9:30 um the ASG and HPS teams will share evidence of HPS progress towards the 64 recommendations regularly at the conclusion of each meeting actually to make sure that we're alignment and that the communication is really flowing and it all makes sense This DSB will also provide provide specific technical assistance to HPS through program requirements and planning for the federal and state grants. Um it's finding that AS will assist HPS with resources develop a shared understanding of multi-ter. This
034group will be getting together again in April months. Additionally, on February 2nd, the commissioner and members of the CSC leadership team met with the superintendent and three members before the occasion included the chair. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the CSB's threepronged review and recommendations. It was a very productive meeting. Um there were a lot of questions back and forth. Um some of the questions that HPE uh brought out to us were questions regarding the application process for magnet schools. uh specialized grant opportunity and some of the recommendations that were uh included on 64. We meeting the commission are reiterating our commitment and [clears throat] transparency and accountability as well as our convenience support for HPS and that wow I'm impressed. [clears throat] All right. Um good morning board commissioner. Thank you very
035much. This is the update of uh Bridgeport Public Schools and I'm going to provide you a highle update of key features that are listed in your supplemental packet. There was a lot that occurred over the last couple of months. On January 29th, uh the interim superintendent presented the proposed budget for the fiscal 2627 school year. Um the technical assistance team at public works as well as members of the state department of ed provided significant amount of support to the district and the superintendent in order to create a robust and transparent budget proposal. Um as many of you well know a lot of that uh conversation goes into this. A lot of data mining, a lot of strategic planning, a lot of discussion points where find opportunities to advance student outcomes relative to uh the fiscal
036um portion of that. So we we spent a lot of time supporting uh in that presentation. The outcome of that was the superintendent's proposed budget which is a 14.27% increase over this fiscal year which a total of 4.1 billion. Subsequent to that uh the commissioner and the department met with the superintendent to outline some cost efficiency items that needed to be uh addressed as well as the budget process continues. It doesn't end with the superintendent's presentation. We want to see that every last dollar is maximized within the district. And I believe that I shared that the last uh board update. There's uh a long list of items that the superintendent uh has been tasked with to go back to which our technical assistance team has been uh reporting and and raising as concerns or opportunities
037uh to find those efficiencies. I'll give one example. Um, one of the factors uh that every year a district should look at are the number of special ed students who are receiving services in in grade 12 who may graduate. You no longer have to fund that if they are no longer receiving services upon graduation and receiving their diploma. So that goes into um cost-saving opportunities uh if if the number of students at that grade level uh with disabilities who are receiving service is high. Right? So just one example of some of those costs agencies were trying to support the district with. Um subsequent to that uh was the February 9th Bridgeport Board of Education uh where the board adopted a budget uh that uh was approximately 36% above uh this fiscal year or $106 million.
038And the uh driver behind that what we understand is uh they wanted to restore a lot of the positions that were reduced since uh 2013. Other areas of highlevel um work certainly there the district has made some progress in the area of nutrition. If you all recall last year, they were concerned with food uh service uh basically restoring and and uh adequately utilizing all the funding. They the district team has met their training requirement has returned the appropriate funding that they needed to and uh is is really back on track in many regards with their statutoily required um requirements I should say. The district is also doing a lot of work with their chronic absenteeism to address chronic absenteeism in the district. They have a lot of success with their district attendance team. They've made
039a lot of good um campaigns. There's a 21-day challenge amongst December that really tried to advocate for kids to attend school. Um they are still challenged with their their numbers uh in the in the 30th percentile for December which actually exceeds the previous year. But there's a lot of good work laying the groundwork for improved outcomes relative to chronic absism that our team has been supporting them with um at the district level. And I'll I'll kind of close in saying that um there is there's been a focus on um some of the special education providers within the district. We're trying to our technical assistance team supporting the district uh visit make regular uh points of contact with external providers of special education. You can see that uh the technical assistance team did so recently at
040our direction to ensure that the district is monitoring the educational programming for those students and is maximizing also uh within the the contracted language the services that are being provided by those entities. Um so that's that's the next layer of work relative to the the programming for special education. And in final um the operational effectiveness of the Bridgeport public schools as many of you uh may be aware uh the Bridgeport Board of Education um has created a search committee for the new superintendent. Um it is still the expectation uh that the board is publicly representing their readiness to attract highquality candidates was the role and they can do so by ensuring that they have the appropriate structures in place such as adopting updated bylaws which dictate their functioning. um some evaluation and structural roles and
041responsibilities that outline the board of ed and superintendent so that superintendent applicants know what to expect when they're coming [clears throat] into the district and we can ensure that uh the board is supported with effective practices uh and operations the times will be and I'll take any questions. When will they know what? There's a few different steps in the process. Uh the first it will go to the mayor uh and the mayor's number will be able to identify uh what is recommended moving forward. Subsequent to that, it will go to the city council who will make a final budget number. I will have to look back and keep the exact date there. Um I do have it in my notes. I don't have it in the writing. Uh but it will be sometime in the
042spring as we typically follow and I get it. and they follow that in their support end up in town council is their support. So, I can't speak to uh the the response of the city, but what I will share is that in the vote uh by the board of education, um there were six members of the Bridgeport Board of Ed who voted permanent support of that proposed uh advancement of a a 36% increase. Two voted against it and one abstain from the vote. questions about the updated bylaw calendar or schedule that the board is offering. Um, thank you for the satisfy that requirement. Yes, the board chair has communicated with us just as a few days ago that it is on a February agenda to be able or she plans to put it on a
043February agenda which date I I have to I I'm not quite sure what you plan on. Um but they will they do plan to bring that forward as soon as possible. There has been regular conversation and we met with them as as is written here. We've met with them to discuss some of those uh required components for the search process that that we expect to be in place and and there seem to be a consensus amongst the board that that is something that they really do need to do in advance to say that by this time next month >> I think it's reasonable to say Thank you very much. >> Uh thank you very much uh for for that and as always you know we'll keep you posting there. I'm asking Brian Quinn uh to
044come to the pro update on the special of education systems review first coming back to you after the the report last month from West uh with recommendations. So Brian will provide that update. >> Thank you, Commissioner. Good morning, board members. Good to see you all. During the last board meeting, Weststead presented a finalized special education review which emphasized the commissioner and CSD's ongoing commitment to special education and improvement. As you recall, the system involved a vast collection of data which reviewed and summarized information collected from a variety of sources uh which included data individual and small group interviews as well as focus groups and uh statewide survey. The report recommended um conclusions grounded directly in the data which was reflecting the concerns and priorities voiced by educators, families, administrators and other interest holders throughout the
045process which led to these four areas uh strategic areas leading with vision improving infrastructure activities uh activating strategies for instructional impact ensuring effective accountability and continuous improvement. The report also acknowledged the interconnected nature of special education systems and underscored need for coordinated and systemwide approaches for enhanced outcomes for our students. The recommendations provide a roadmap for us for continuous improvement and emphasize the need to prioritize and implement those recommendations in thoughtful and faith in approach. The next slide will show um in your packets activities we complete since the release of the report that we wanted to highlight for you. As you can see, they're organized into those four strategic areas uh related to vision where um we have been and continue to be proactively involved um to kick off the legislative process this year in
046sharing data and information. Um specifically within the burden group um that is charged with reflecting on and providing recommendations for a variety of areas related to special education. and our continued internal coordination and alignment with the forge strategic plans related to improving infrastructure. We've engaged in preliminary activities related to talent mapping in our department as well as process mapping for our activities um which we've engaged in the last several years in documenting our systems of general supervision. And finally, we've had preliminary meetings with um public consulting group, which is the vendor who supports our CT set system on a usability study. relating to instructional impact. We continue our bi-weekly meetings with the talent office um to discuss rec ret retention and recruitment efforts across the state and um specifically reached out to since our last
047meeting to our advisory groups related to new dollars and investments to expand the risk recruitment efforts which will start on July one. We've been sharing the different options for both non-certified their educators to continue their um their track professional track if they're interested in becoming special education teachers as well as teachers who are in program grant for those activities. And finally, I wanted to highlight related to accountability and improvement. On February 2nd, we submitted to our federal um department of special education called OAP our reporting related to special education indicators which include graduation, dropout rates, achievement as well as combined indicators. And those data also help us in designing and supporting our district in professional learning and technical assistance activities. We coordinated just this past Monday with our partners at SER to um look at
048our data loss and understand who's better off for the activities that we're engaged in very valuable projects so that we can see comprehensively the activities that cl as a partner provides for us. I do want to highlight also and thank you for the commitment to expand our capacity. We have hosted a special education attorney position uh which is the posting is ending this week. Um that was very swiftly done and we're excited about slide to um go through the process with us. That position will support our complaints process specifically and um increase the bureau's capacity around special education laws. We also kicked off our first monthly meeting with board and parent attorneys. So, school boards and parent attorneys. We're doing those every Friday. During those sessions, we highlight all training activities and data related to
049due process and mediation. Our first meeting was very wellreceived and we received compliments from uh both court and parent attorneys and um which you might imagine much of the information we shared they were unaware of including the um payment structure for our hearing officers and we feel that that had a very positive impact. And finally, we um we had collaborated with one of our higher students at Yukon in our capacity with interns working with our department to look at trends that are coming into our office. As you know, our complaint process volume has increased significantly over the past two years and our interns are helping us uh analyze both the qualitative data that also help inform technical assistance. I'm happy to answer any questions or just know if you'd like additional [clears throat] >> Thank
050you Brian. Uh what I really want to see for those watching and uh that we are not hiding anything here. We've we've done the report uh publicly uh announced uh to everyone and we're also holding ourselves accountable on a monthly basis uh the work that we're doing in terms of the recommendations provided to us. So we continue to do it is kind of is letting you know one of the big things here getting that special letter attorney uh that will be the legal office. Uh we'll we're looking for that to be a game changer in the way that we and a commitment to understand we get recommendations action and we've done that strictly uh thank you Laura who helped to spearhead that work out of the door and so we will make sure that we
051share that information. um don't know if there are specific questions. >> Uh so thank you very much Brian. Uh final for my report is just giving you an update on the governor's bill proposals uh that uh are now out and wanted to go and share that with you. Good morning board members. Um I did first just want to remind you a few emails um that you've gotten for me. I did send two this morning. Um one of them has our agency bill which has now been filed as of today. We are Senate Bill 138. So this is going to have all of the priorities that were voted out of the board at your January meeting. It is in the education committee. I'm not quite sure when the public hearing is going to be, but I
052will keep you updated. And as always, we will share the commissioner's testimony after it's been drafted and submitted. Um the second email I sent this morning was um the governor's three bills along with the fact sheets that help explain um what their inclusions are. These bills are also um going through the education committee. The first bill is um House Bill 5033 and this is implementing the governor's budget recommendations for education. Um it has 12 sections. Sections 1 through three set a schedule by which magnets and vocational agricultural operators can increase the rate at which they charge tuition to ensure appropriate revenue to support the students who attend those schools. Sections four and five extend uh the cap on the adult education and health and welfare for private pupils grants through fiscal year 2027. Section six
053repeals a contracting requirement in statute in order to allow uh the department to make funds available for maintenance of our educator certification system. Sections 7 through nine clarify that certain state special education grants and programming are to be implemented within available appropriations by the department. Section 10 establishes an FPE operated teacher apprenticeship program which is funded at $2 million in fiscal year 27 and this will support 75 teacher apprenticeships across the state. Um this is a priority of the governors and of the diverments and we're very excited that it was included. Section 11 effectuates the transfer of um the office of student loan um budsman from the department of banking to the office of higher education and section 12 repeals 12 million in additional funding beyond the formula grant level for risk magnets. These districts
054will receive additional tuition funds through the statutory changes I've already spoken about that were proposed in sections 1 through three. The next bill, I'm actually going to take these out of order and do the last one next. So, House Bill 5035. Um, this is an act requiring districts to ban cell phones in the classroom. Um, as you are all well aware, in August of 2024, this board passed guidance recommending um that school boards uh put together policies to restrict cell phone use during the day um and to ensure that student engagement in learning, support emotional well-being, and strengthen interpersonal skills. Um this is the governor's proposal for a belltoell ban in schools. Um, it will allow for the use of cell phones if it is being used for instructional purposes or if you have um
055an IEP or 504 plan that allows for the use of those cell phones. Um, the department did work very hard to obtain a scan of all 202 school districts across the state. Uh, this scan included current board of education policies, student handbooks, and direct outreach. The summary of that, which I believe you all do have, um, is that 99% of districts, that's 199 in total, have a district-wide cell phone policy. Currently 67% of districts that is 136 already have a bell-to-bell band in at least one grade band either elementary, middle or high school. Um and then included is also um data on bell-to-bell bands by grade level. In elementary it's 70% with 128 out of um and 82 with elementary schools. Uh, middle is 71% with 122 out of 173 and high schools is 31%
056with 48 out of 154. Um, you also should have information on um 25 states uh that have K12 statewide bantob bills um or are currently debating them in their ongoing sessions. And commissioner, I don't know if there's anything that you'd like to add about this proposal. uh me to just say we wanted to make sure that this board worked uh and provided policy that uh mentions amongst those who know about the answer and so we now have that information uh that will be here I know that this will be debated uh widely uh in the legislature but it's important to have information and so we wanted to make sure that the statistics and the data are there not only for what's going on in our state but what's happening in states around us uh as
057Laura mentioned 25 states uh that's already present this work so just wanted to um bring that to your attention and the cities uh around so the last um proposal I'd like G if you could come up to um this is HB5034 an act reducing testing burdens and enhancing the math curriculum I think he is going to tee it up um please an explanation of the very robust work that you did um on assessments across the state being administered um not only the statewide assessment but also local assessments and then we can go into the proposal >> I didn't I didn't do it by myself Um so AP 1534 really brings together many different things and I just want to sort of give a brief overview of those things. So the key premise underlying all of
058this and educators know this is like one assessment cannot serve all medical folks know this too. If you want you know there there are screeners that are given that are quick to get a general risk model and then there are more in-depth assessment that you need to do to get more fine grain granular information actionable information. So our approach at this for many many years has been that the state's assessment that we give at the end of the year is more an accountability assessment that's really designed to tell us how kids are doing is growing on the broad standards for that we expect kids to know. But anything that happens between the state assessments really should be in service of teachers and teaching and learning. That's been our approach and our philosophy. The stuff that
059happens in the middle should not be test prep for the state assessment. Should not be trying to predict how kids are going to do on the state assessment. They will do as they do in the interim. We really need to focus on assessments that are different that don't necessarily look like the state assessment or or even function like it because that cannot inform what everyday teacher need on a day-to-day basis. You need additional different assessments. So that's kind of the that's kind of the point. And so we've put out guidance called the sensible assessment practices. We've done training. We've had numerous conversations with district. My colleague Bernice Seavoy is sitting in here too and she's been out to districts with me around these conversations. Um and so the legislature actually charged us to conduct this
060audit of assessments that are administered to students in districts. We know the state assessments. We know how many students take AP and things like that. But we don't know, we didn't know until this audit what are actually all the assessments that students are actually experiencing um in school. And so the report was sent to you yesterday as well and we finished it and it's went over to the legislature and you know the [snorts] state assessment in in a particular grade even if you take the fifth grade where science is given probably takes about five hours for a kid to actually take those assessments and there's setup time and all that but we were sort of measuring like how much time students are spending. Uh what we've seen is that there are many many additional assessments
061that districts administer. uh some are fine that actually serve instruction and then [clears throat] others are all over the place. The most common use reported by districts for their assessment was to track report students subgroup one not support instruction but to track report student subm assessment once a year. That's enough. What we need to do in the middle is assessments that actually help instruction. Uh and a lot of those assessments that districts use are what we would term broad assessment and broad assessments are things that assess [clears throat] what students should have learned let's say in a semester or a year not what they should have learned in the last two weeks. So um so the bill that we have so so the report kind of has all the data and the findings and all
062that. So the bill actually calls for a few things. The bill says we will establish an incentive program to encourage thoughtful reduction of the broad assessment that might be happening. And we're again we're having some convers many conversations with districts and [clears throat] we will continue to have that but now there is legislation to sort of allow us to set up this type of incentive program which is great that also charges us to issue new guidance updated guidance which we will given what we've learned um through this work. And um another thing we learned is that people were conflating uh the purpose the type of the assessment and the purpose for which they were using it. So when you admit a sort of broad assessment like the state assessment or similar type of test it's
063hard to actually get act actionable teacher information but districts would tell us that they're using these broad assessments to support teaching and learning and we're like how is that possible or how is that realistically done? So partly what we felt was that there is need for what we would call assessment literacy which is really what are what are the purposes of the assessments and how they should be in making that should we derive from it what are valid inferences you can make from the I think there's lot of parallels to the medical world here too sorry I'm looking at trying to make that connection so so what we have done is and if we could go to the next slide Kim And what we've done is we've actually engaged in a um partnership with the
064National Center for Assessment. They're like the considered the pre-minent experts in our educational assessment world. They're out of New Hampshire and they work with many states on this and our risks. So what we're doing is in phase one, we have sort of three phases. It's starting this year actually next month. Uh we're conducting first we're starting with sort of webinars for all district. Again it's not none of this is going to be required. We're encouraging and we think there's lots of interest in districts to engage in this. So, we're we're providing we're going to take the findings from the audit and we're going to actually give it back to the district. Hey, here's what you said in your audit submissions and here's what that actually translates to in terms of amount of time students are
065spending taking these assessments. And so, that's going to be led by the folks from the National Center for Assessment. They're actually going to help folks think about what does it mean to use assessments in summitive ways. And summative is when you're, you know, you're assessing if students have learned. You know, it's an assessment of the learning. But our focus through all of this is going to be assessment for learning. of assessment in service of learning. Not whether kids have learned, but how can I gather some information that actually helps me intervene and change what I teach, change how I teach so students actually learn. So it's really focused on assessment for learning. So it's called student centered assessment for learning or scale. That's kind of the acronym that we come up with. So this year
066we're going to do a couple of webinars. We're going to have some follow-up discussions with districts feed up feedback the assessment audit information. Next year is going to be a year-long PD effort. We're going to recruit districts who want to seek to be part of a cohort-based approach. There's going to be inperson two-day institutes. There's going to be monthly webinars and actual on-site coaching. And that's going to be a key too is experts are going to go out to the districts that and really in those critical decision- making times be involved with those provide that support. Phase three is really just the next step. It's really the handoff. It's going to be in instead of the center folks leading it from the center for assessment. Our rest currents are going to lead it. they're going
067to offer that that PD because they're doing some of this already with districts because districts get call them deal with them on these things. How do you connect the curriculum? I mean this is not devoid of curriculum. So I know we have mono curricula and and all the work that I shop does. So we are integrating this this is not happening in isolation. This is very much connected to the work that's happening in academics. This is going to be connected to the guidance that we're going to be coming out around our MTSS approach. So this this touches all of these areas. So it's not going to happen in isolation, but it's going to be focused on the assessment. There are many other pieces, the MTSS and academics. So we're going to come at it from
068the assessment side of it, but it's going to be tied into the guidance that our our colleagues. So uh in a nutshell, commissioner, that's kind of the the effort that we have ongoing. So I'll pause for >> I just wanted I just make reference to other committee. >> Oh yes yes sorry. Um but there's one other piece that's in the uh legislation the 5034 bill assessment reduction at the local level. For one thing, they need the districts need us to explicitly say that because we've heard that from our from districts and from rests to say we need to almost give permission. I'll put that in quotes to districts to say all these things that you're doing, you don't really need to do them. We want you to focus on teaching and learning and instruction, engaging
069classrooms. That's what should be happening. the state assessment will do what it does and it does it well and it'll continue to do that and it'll be our northstar but we need to focus on this but so so partly the the pressure that comes from accountability is another factor in this so um the legislature in parallel to charging us with doing the assessment audit also charged CA and AFT our teacher unions to review accountability practices and high school grading practices so there was a committee of stakeholders that was engaged in that work and I was on that committee as well and their report just got sent to the legislature as well. It makes me think we should probably forward that to the board as well. Um so as part of that committee's recommendation, one of
070their recommendations was to reduce the the weight of the high school assessment in the high school accountability model because the current federal law really forced our hand and uh the high school assessment which is the SAT for vast majority of the students or the alternate assessment that high school achievement indicator accounts for more than 50% of the in the high school accountability model. So we've seen an explosion of chasing that test score at the high school level when what should be happening is all the things we talk about right school dual credit and industry recognized credentials and pathway and all these things we're going to hear about that's what we should be incentivizing but because of the accountability model that tends to be a pressure to chase those portors. So the pastor, you know, it's
071important, it's an important measure, but it shouldn't have that oversight outside 10 a week the model. So their recommendation from that committee is actually baked into the bill. So the governor's bill actually acknowledges that work group and the committee and says when the time is right we seek flexibility because we are going to need flexibility from the ESA law and they actually forced our in to increase the weight that's a it was a little less actually forced. So that's the other piece that's in the bill, but it kind of relates to the testing reduction because it'll I think release the sort of pressure now for some folks. >> Thank you. I really just want you to see the work some of the work that's going on behind the scenes for this and and certainly appreciate
072the governor's funding proposal that really solidified 191 but it is informed by the work that we've done uh on on thank you for that and that was the information. Need a motion please to resume network extension nearby middle school Melissa Jennifer >> we're Hey, we're going up chair, vice chair, and members board of educations. The youth network is one of the state's most intensive school improvement strategies established to support schools facing persistent academic and operational challenges. The network targeted services targeted resources flexibility and co partnerships with us. We implement evidence-based transformative improvement strategy aimed at improving outcomes for community network following a rigorous selection and planning process all these years turn around plan grounded in talent academics and culture improved operations within while school participate with red. Statute does allow more of the additional years
073when more time is needed to solidify process and to ensure sustainability. Today we are bringing forward hand for fifth and final year. This request will be called progress of school at the nation. the importance of providing more time to closing and effective practices so that our sustainable down at the time will be able to office provide a progress update and provide a rationale for that. Um you will hear I think Morning everyone. Um good morning everyone. I'm pleased to introduce the leadership team of Hampton Middle School including Assistant Superintendent Erin Bailey and Principal Scott Tronor. Since entering the commissioner's network in 2022, Hampton Middle School has made meaningful progress in strengthening instructional practices, student engagement, and school culture. For a bit of context, Hampton Middle School serves approximately 845 students in grades seven and eight.
074Nearly half of the students is eligible for free or reduced price meals. 16% receive special education services and 10% are identified as English learners or multilingual. When the school entered the commissioner's network, their initial audit identified some significant challenges. Instructional practices were inconsistent. Student engagement was largely compliance-based. Professional learning lacked some coherence and behavioral supports would were unevenly implemented. This required some foundational work to stabilize their systems and establish consistent expectations for teaching, learning, and behavior. Over the past four years, the school has made steady progress addressing these core issues. The school's overall next generation accountability index increased by nearly six percentage points over two years with modest but consistent gains in both English language arts and mathematics, including for high need students. Academic growth indicators also show positive movement particularly in mathematics. Instructionally, the
075school has established some greater coherence and consistency. Our walkthrough data reflects regular use of clear learning targets and criteria and professional learning has shifted to structured job embedded supports aligned to their instructional priorities. Professional learning communities facilitated by content area specialists focus on standards alignment, differentiation, assessment design, and data analysis. And it's complemented by the bite-size PD that's embedded within the instructional day. In the area of culture and climate, chronic absenteeism has declined. Behavioral supports have strengthened through more consistent implementation of PBIS and restorative practices. and they have dragon pride days which supports studenting and inclusive attendance on half days. Family engagement has also increased to stronger transition supports and more intentional communication. Commissioner's network resources have been strategically leveraged to support both academic and non-academic priorities and it includes gapping key positions, teacher leadership
076stipens and extended learning opportunities for students. Importantly, the district has shared in these costs and they work collaboratively with us to align resources to identify needs. As Hampton Middle School prepares to enter a fifth and final year in the commissioners network, their focus is now shifting from implementation to consolidation and sustainability, ensuring that the effective practices are fully embedded within their district structures are sustained beyond their presentation in the network. Turn it over at this time to assistant superintendent Bailey and principal Connor committee education. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Aaron Bailey, assistant superintendent for Hampton Public School and I'm here to respectfully request the Bure of Commissioner Network funding for Middle. Over the past four years, the commissioner's network has been a catalyst for real, measurable inclusion
077in our district's only middle school. Hampton Middle School serves nearly 900 students representing a full diversity, energy, and the full diversity, energy, and needs of our community. This funding has allowed us to build systems that simply did not exist before systems for systems for high quality instructions made certain decisions. A learning environment where students feel connected, supported and seen. The results are evident. Our teachers are receiving consistent coaching around high quality instruction. Students are experiencing stronger tier one instruction every day. So early academic gains, but just as important, we are seeing cultural shift. They have hallways, common classrooms and strong relation. However, the work is not finished. The structures put in place are working, but they are still fragile. The additional year of support was allowed to fully institutionalize the core practices we deepening system
078so that regressive instruction is norming intervention models to accelerate learning, not merely remediate it. And better MTSS, restorative practices data cycle so they function reliably without external scaffolding. Ensuring that every student, especially learners, students with disabilities, and those historically underserved, have equitable access to challenging prele coursework and the social emotional support they deserve. Over the past four years, this partnership has transformed Hampton Middle School, strengthening instruction, stabilizing culture, improving attendance, and building meaningful. But this year, something has emerged. a schoolwide focus on high school ready. We hope for ownership and long-term success in giving our work new coherence and staff have embraced this trip wholeheartedly. This fall, the new voluntary committees, the high school readiness team and the new student monitoring team. Their work complements and amplifies our commissioner network goals. The high school readiness
079team has already made significant progress. They've communicated the on track for success in high school criteria clearly to students. They've begun aligning language expectations and appropriate policies with Hampton High School to create a more coherent secondary school district school walkthroughs department visits and regular attendance of high school leaders at Hampton Middle School meeting. They've initiated the groundwork for joint Hampton High School Hampton Middle School student mentoring program. We've identified executive functioning as a critical skill gap and rebonding by [clears throat] embedding executive functioning classrooms offering professional learning for staff and providing targeted small groupoup instruction. Commissioner's network funded executive functioning coach hosted a family engagement family executive functioning night extend support beyond the classroom. Perhaps the highest leverage effort are the studentled conferences centered on high school readiness, executive functioning, student agency, and self-reflection. These
080conferences meaningful enga engaged families and help students articulate who they are as learners and what they need with Ryden High School. A new student monitoring and support team out of data principles from analyzed last year while serving as assistant principal at Handen High School. Nearly 90% of the nth graders most at risk of repeated year had entered Camden public schools within the previous two to three years and they had struggled in comparison to their peers in middle school. That finding was just too important to ignore. In response, Principal Toner created a systemized approach after learning, one that includes early academic and social emotional learning with review of IEPs, intentional family outreach, and preparing students with strategies strongly supported in Don Hattie's research. This work does not compete with the network plan. It elevates it. It
081provides a unifying purpose for instructional improvements and rigorous cognitive engagement, discourse, tier one instruction. In many ways, high school readiness has become the lens through which staff now views the network. This is singularly critical in the middle school in our only middle school. Any progress or setbacks that back to the entire 7 through 12th grade lifeline. A sustained investment now will pay dividends for years to come in our high school performance, our graduation rate, and our students long-term readiness for college, career, and civic life. As we prepare for the right after the constraint network, one message from staff both in informal conversations and formal that has been unmistakable. The roles funded through the network have been indisputable. This year we were able to sustain the deans, climate adviserss and instructional specialists and add an executive
082function. All of which have fundamentally changed when possible in our school. Their work has supported teacher growth, stabilized student behavior, and allow classroom instruction to become consistently stronger. A fifth year of commissioner network funding would allow us to solidify these gains, sustain the momentum as students, every single one of them enter high school prepared, confident, and on track for success. We value this partnership deeply because we have seen the impact on instruction, alignment, and mostly on our students. We are not asking for a year in asking for time to solidify what we have built. Time to ensure sustainable, clean, and refreshing. Commissioner Network has given us momentum. This year will allow us to transform that momentum into last days of Senate. On behalf of our superintendent, Scott, students, family, staff, and the entire Hampton community
083support. I have the uh experience of having a very [clears throat] 30 years ago. This is near and dear to me. Couple questions. [clears throat] I'm all in favor of the gains bigger. Hopefully you can post the questions and some of the questions I have are because this is now and how we we going to address that how we question is how stable ultimate staff just there. We're [clears throat] putting all this effort into training them and making changes. Will the staff that are making staff train? >> It's already introduced. Yes. So the um the first computer of commission we had but since then we have hired quality staff to be those very very small >> those sort of become um um mild as far as um professional election that they're receiving uh climate and
084um you know I've been in the district for a long time and as I run into people they they often ask anything [clears throat] you want to come here and uh so and be part of that that's on muted [laughter] questions But then the 28% reduction in absenteeism it's statewide effort invest the the business standards up% um how that happen um I mean I think that there's a uh we have a great e staff for sure um they go well beyond on outside of the classroom in terms of programs that they've offered. Um we have a a before school program that is free for students to to come at 7 o'clock in the morning exercise with staff. Um and the intramural program after school has been um augmented and over the past year or so.
085Um and then we also have our our uh scholastic sports as well that have become very popular and try out this student just want to pledge and be part of that. >> Thank you very much. >> I'll also say that classrooms our student absolutely mostly engaged are out. So um the board teachers that that spearhead our PE department and the middle school are spectacular. They really understand our kids. I think this is getting an exercise in the morning. Have a great breakfast. Great start to day. So frame that around executive functioning. But one of our big questions in the school this year start your day officer. I'm okay with that throughout the day. Those in favor of the approval is signify by saying I >> it is approved. Thank you. >> Congratulations. appreciate it very
086much. >> Item adoption educator preparation and certification boards regulations recommended to be implemented as a motion. Just kidding. um elementary level. Happy Valentine's Day to every getting back to my class after this so we can celebrate Valentine's Day together. All right. Uh so we are reporting today um with our um the legislation in order. So um our regulations go through a vetting process through an IPO where they work with a third party uh legal consulting with children groups out of Washington DC comes to our board for additional public to get to the point we looking forward to getting done. We got a couple more batches for you in the near future reimagining. >> So with that in mind, uh do you have any questions on the packet of regulations that are before you at this
087time? All those in favor, please signify by saying I bent those car. >> Okay. Um item three, the adoption of CBDB's 2026 legislative proposal regarding sun setting regulations. Can I get a motion? >> Second. Um so this is really just to ensure that those um those regulations that have been identified in health act 2441 um that should they be in process in the regulatory process which many um that any of those that are in process will not set up July um whatever education in terms of We're requesting an amendment already in statute which would just allow that those regulations that have passed you all in and are in the system would stay in place until that process has been This has signified by saying I abstensions. >> Thank you so much. I just want to
088also let you know that the uh emergency authorization recently came through our February agenda for our board. We're having a special meeting to make sure that that is approved by our board in that emergency. Financial matters. >> [clears throat] >> No, I love [laughter] All right. Good morning, everyone. Um, I'm gonna hit this on a high level. Um, I just want to point out the governor's proposal came out last week. This is very early in the process of the budget cycles. Um, we start with the governor's proposal, but then it goes through the whole legislative process. Um, but I want to hit some of the high notes that we got here. Um, there's a lot of items that we put in our budget request that was approved by the board that we actually got in
089the governor's proposal. We got really great news. Um, a couple things I wanted to point out and actually mentioned some of these in her um, presentation earlier, but we got um, uh, establishing a statewide literacy strategy curriculum for $4.5 million that was part of our um, budget option that was approved by the board. Um, continuing the teacher registered apprentice program over $2 million. Um, providing the center for Connecticut education research collaborative uh, for half a million dollars. um continuing funding of successful schoolbased became real health initiative for five uh $5 million. Um and Laura also mentioned that free refits for candidate students for $12 million. Um these are all really great um increases to our budget um with increases there are always decreases um to stay within the spending cap. But a lot of those
090um were places that at least in a kind of been in a positive way were minimal impact uh to the way that we provide services. So a lot of them were um uh the the the places where there were decreases or were likely places that we uh were getting new money and it wasn't a decrease in funding. Those are the places that we weren't getting the new money. So, it's not that we're taking cuts, it's just a decrease in the additional funding. Um, so overall, we're looking at this as a really positive um budget option. Um, we are just based on the timing that's obviously this wasn't presented in the subcommittee. Um, but we're looking to talk about this a lot more in a lot more detail when we meet at our subcommittee meeting um
091in a couple of weeks. Uh, we can go through uh each line item in a lot more detail at that point, but we're happy to take any questions that you might have um at this point. Um if you have any >> thank you for comments for the big value schools onlineicient. charge that particular just curious if you would anticipate all of your implications there with respect to sending entities something that's counterbalancing of some sort. Um, it's not necessarily counterbalanced, but it's not a decrease in the current appropriation. So, this was new money that we were supposed to be getting in fiscal year 27. So, there's not a decrease in the appropriation. It's just a hold back of what we were supposed to be getting in new money. So, I'm we're hopeful that it's not going
092to be I know obviously people were looking towards this because it was in the budget. So, they were looking towards those money, but it's not a decrease in current expenditures, but we're kind of the same. >> Correct. Yes. under the baseline adjustments funding for aspiring educing based on access means that don't have aspiring educators me >> I will do the best I can but I mean you want a there. Um my understanding is that there are limitations with um for who is eligible to apply for that fellowship based on the way the legislation is written. Um so although we do best we can to recruit people for that program, there is limitations on who can be part of it. Um so that's why we haven't gotten as many people in as we would like for
093that program. [clears throat] >> Correct. Uh so this is a school scholarship for and so now two years in that not been utilized with full appropriation uh that was there. One of your proposals that my next question yes is to extend this uh to all of all districts in the state uh and to all our candidates that we already in our legislative. So we have that legislative policy. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So that understand now. Thank you. >> I just wanted to add in thank you Dr. because it is important. One of this expansion in the government budget that you have going forward >> and that is really important as we're focused on literacy uh across the state and the work that we've been doing now for uh and this is adding to we're seeing
094steady things. I recognize that it's not across all our learner groups and that's where we need to really really focus in but this is adding to the work that we've been doing in this state and I just wanted to something about that because I think it's important recognize something that this uh advocated for and that we um yes instructional coaching We'll [clears throat] learn on the job over time, but if we really want to accelerate um he's always the the bamed state across the the country um in their implementation of statewide coaches that had accelerated push also know it's also something we've heard from the field. Many of our educators across the state feel that whereas high quality instructional materials could also help our fit those make reference to our partnerships internally and externally though
095because this work this is work across we have the dyslexia the staff with the going on there. We have our literacy center and they are going to come together on so that coaching would not just be inside the isolation. I don't want to speak too soon but we have engaged with a partnership comprehensive research framework for instructional stand [clears throat] for item 11 a of the state board of education comprehensive. >> Good morning again. It's good to be back, but I'll try very I'm going referring to and I'll get to that in just a minute. >> I'm extremely grateful for the creation of our health careers academy pathway. Thanks to New Haven Career Connected Pathways for allowing the future health care providers to get a head start on the careers that lay ahead of us.
096As a result of this program, I am now a certified nursing assistant, graduate of the EMT program at Yale Center for EMS, two time CPR certified, and graduating with over 20 college credits for a nursing major. Alana, what a star. Now there is a student that is prepared for learning lives and work beyond school. The title of our very own is the strategic plan and that's what we're here to talk about today and one strategic priority in particular. While I don't read normally during presentations, I would like to just read this priority for you to kick this off. Create opportunities for all students to explore multiple career pathways with coordinated and rigorous programs that are developed in partnerships institutions of higher education and local regional employers and that align with economic opportunity advancing students in
097career student choice. And we're doing just that at the Department of Education now. maximizing opportunities for all 497,764 students in our schools. This strategic priority is near as one half of an office is dedicated to this current work as well as many others throughout the agency. This work actually began prior to the development of the state board plan, but has greatly increased in recent years, particularly with the convenience of the CSV career readiness workforce council. It's made up of CSV employees representing nearly every office in this agency. We've been invited here today so that you can see firsthand the strategic priorities and absolutely an agency priority across all divisions. If you standing, but you should [laughter] thank you very much. And we love numbers. So, we've added a few indicators of this. Um, we do
098expect by 2028 that 60% of our students, 60% will be earning three or more dual credits. And we also expect to see an increase in number in the number of students earning an industry recognized credential or IRC. We're going to talk a little bit more about how we're going to reach these ambitious but attainable goals in a few moments. The foundational work on the part of the agency has been key to the successes that we've seen thus far and that we will continue to see. This work includes partnering with southern state agency department of office of boards, department of public health, the CEC system, department of administrative services, office of policy and management and office of the governance who've been involved with our higher ed partners CSCU, CT State and University of Connecticut as well
099as private colleges and universities also partnering with businesses across Connecticut and their represent president of associations and numerous nonprofit organizations, not to mention many, many districts across Connecticut, including superintendent, school counselors, and everyone else that really I'm proud to say works in my office as the director of workforce development, career readiness, will now speak more about these critical partnerships as well as a gamechanging grant that was offered by the department, which helped launch district level and higher education work which represents the very foundation I'm referring to. But first, let's hear from another student. >> I'm grateful that I've been able or I've been eligible to get college credit from every course that I've completed so far. And that has really made me feel more confident going into my plans for a 4-year bachelor's degree in
100college and knowing that I'm able to really take these classes with confidence that I can complete them, but as well as helping me navigate what I wanted to do. I was able to take the ECE Yukon French class last year and um this year with environmental science and already have a Yukon transcript and that really demonstrates what I've been able to learn as a student and the continuous education that I'm going to get in college that they're going to see that I already have those classes under my belt and that I am ready to take on more classes in college. Good morning commissioner and board. Thank you for the opportunity to share some of the work that is out of office vision. Um before I speak to our foundational investments, I want to highlight and
101elevate the stakeholder engagement that really guides the work that we do. Um stakeholder engagement as you know and participation are crucial components in achieving successful educational and workforce initiatives. By involving a diverse array of stakeholders, we can ease the barriers and create more effective policies and programs that support the education pipeline. our partnerships with the Department of Labor, public and private colleges and universities, the Office of Workforce Strategies, the Department of Public Health, Workforce Boards, and employers make it possible to assist our districts in building robust pathways for students transitioning from education to successful careers. We are at the intersection of ecosystems prioritizing engagement through our CNC led committees such as the postsecondary success work group, our secondary success community of practice leadership team, the ability to benefit state teams, the public health workforce pipeline
102initiative, and of course the credential advisory council ensures that initiatives are making relevant, inclusive, and impactful ultimately contributing to a more skil build a prepared workforce. Uh you'll see that you'll have a CSD committee document in your packet. In terms of foundational investments, today the CSD has awarded over $8 million and funding to support and expand dual enrollment across 23 public and private colleges and universities as well as 89 public school districts. $4.9 million in grant funds was awarded to our IEGs, our institutions of higher education to strengthen their ability to offer dual credit and no cost enrollment for qualified high school students from lowincome families. Additionally, $3.8 million was awarded to 89 school districts across Connecticut to expand dual credit offerings in high schools, enabling more high school students to earn college credit before
103graduation through partnerships with our IES. Our mid-year progress reports from those grant recipients show that uh how funds were used among other things to improve teacher training and technology as well as to expand course offerings. And we're seeing that across the board. Again, you'll see that you have a handout referring to dual credit expansion grant recipients. And that's just a sample of the grant recipients that is important. So when I joined CCA, it was really helpful because I was able to talk to administrators and all the teachers that worked there. And they helped me to understand what the education pathway was like. And in doing so, I was able to really realize what I wanted to be and what I wanted to go into. for the dual enroll dual enrollment program. It helped me because
104I was able to not only stay in high school and do all the fun activities, but also take college courses and gain credits that I wouldn't be getting originally. >> You're enrolled in CCA. What pathway are you enrolled in? >> Um, engineering and manufacturing. >> Engineering and manufacturing. And um, engineering, manufacturing, do you know what courses you're enrolled in in that pathway? >> Uh, solid works and CAD. Solid Works and CAD. And are you working toward a certificate in a college certificate this year? >> Yes. >> Which one? >> Uh Solid Works and No, AutoCAD. An AutoCAD certificate. >> An AutoCAD certificate. That's awesome. Um are you enrolled in college classes? >> Yes. >> Which college? Uh how many college classes? >> Uh five in total. >> Five in total this year. So that's how
105many college credits? >> 15. It's a high school freshman. >> Are you going to stay with this program for how many years? >> Uh four. >> Four years. So, you'll have um maybe an associate degree by the time you graduate high school. >> Yes. >> And what do you plan to do with that when you graduate? >> Uh get a good job. >> Get a good job. Right out of high school, maybe. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. That's awesome. And um any other thoughts about CCA? >> Um I just think it's going to help me a lot in the uh long run and get it just easier out of high school to get a job and make money. >> That's awesome. Thank you, AJ. >> Thank you. great success stories. Violet following an education pathway of
106that uh through a dual enrollment program where also has the opportunity to meet talk with education professionals to help her better define her specific path. an AJ, a high school freshman taking 15 college credits waiting a well-paying job after graduation while leaving open the door to a college degree should he choose to go down that path in the future. It's ideal. And by the way, at the end of this year, JJ will be able to do a lot more than I can do and I've got a lot of opportunity. So you have to be on the phone. Um the grant program that Karen spoke of that the grants bring to our IT and to our districts. Um it is critical that that grant program as well as the hard work of the folks in our
107agency is already seeing results. More than 30% of 11th and 12th grade students have already earned care. Again, there were a 50% increase in dual credit sources taken from 2019 to 2025. It started at 30,653 and it's gone up about 46,344. An [clears throat] incredible increase and this is just the beginning. will talk about some groundbreaking work here at the agency and by one of our partners in success that all districts will benefit from and increase student access to career pathways in dual credit courses. But first, a word from one of our students. >> I've taken a few courses um of dual enrollment during my time at RHS. My first class was American studies my sophomore year. We were the first um grade class of 2026 was able to take it as sophomores in our
108school which was definitely very beneficial to all of us. We've been able to take much more ECE classes after that. I've taken seminar multimodal English AP pre-calculus ECE Modern Euro ECE Spanish 4 um and ECE Allied Health 1. Those were all from sophomore and junior year. Allied health one was probably the highlight of all of my dual enrollment courses. I want to go into healthcare um post-secary and it really helped me figure out which field I want to go into and modalities even I want to become a radiologist or radiologist technician and so we were able to go on many job shadows and get a lot of real world experience that not many schools offer so it helped me kind of navigate through different um fields and things like that. I originally wanted to do
109physical therapy which is very different from radiology and I'm glad I took the course because now it has helped me with college applications and things like that. Um currently I'm taking ECE calculus um CCP accounting with Eastern English 125 ECE and those are all for this semester. Next semester I'll be taking ECE gov as well and is also with ECE floral design which is an A class at my school. We're an ASTI program school and I'm not even enrolled in the AD program, but I'm still able to take it, which is awesome. It varies yeartoear, but with that availability, we can take more fun or different classes that might not be on our same track. It's not on the STEM track that I'm on, but it's still a fun class to explore all of the
110different options we have to offer. So, yeah. impact um this more difficult is really a problem connecting amazing work and taking advantage of the opportunity that exist. It brings me to my point around access and what students what you're hearing from our students is the level of access granted to students and we're not saying that students have to be at a certain grade level further along in their high school career to access college courses. We're saying when students demonstrate readiness, they should be allowed the access and opportunity to be as accessible as they can. So with that, I'm going to talk a little bit about access to workforce and IRC's. Under CSTE's leadership, the credentiing advisory council led the way in developing Connecticut's definition of IRC's and recognized credentials, curates curating, sorry, the first ever
111registry of 390 non-deree IRC's and developing the application and data inspection processes for accountability reporting. It is important to note that while the IRC's included in the registry are not complete still updating there are many more to add they are aligned to the clusters by offering consistency and transparency and the education to career pipeline to empower school districts employers and institutions of higher education work together seam the IRC registry will assist school districts in guiding students toward meaningful real world career pathways of ensuring employers have access to skilled talent pool. At the same time, our IES can align their programs with workforce demands, boosting students employability through IRC attainment. Ultimately, our work builds stronger connections between education and workforce speed. Talk a little bit about the access to higher education and the BT state model
112of reading. Recently the board of regions approved a policy to establish standards for cse dual concern enrollment programs in the system of UL. This allows eligible students to take college credit courses to the United States which can count towards both high school graduation and college degree. This initiative will enhance educational opportunities, accelerate degree completion, reduce educational costs, and support Connecticut's economic growth, and helping students gain advanced career training. The model agreement will simplify the process for districts by providing a standard template for CTE courses, eliminating the need for separate documents for each campus. We will utilize this template for a model agreement as required under statute. Finally, over the past four years, C CSD has implemented activities to expand dual enrollment opportunities for Connecticut high school students in the areas of communication and partnerships, accountability,
113and program quality, and funding support. That work continues for formal partnership with DSC. You're hearing a lot of meeting around schools and students their eligibility career application. [clears throat] versus pathway and under the leadership of my neck city for the first time we're advancing with technical assistance from federal help. We're very excited to see that there might be open up access for adult learners. We estimate around 5,000 of the 18,000 could benefit from this type of policy work moving forward. So we appreciate that partnership at least leading way for and I think that if as we transition we want to think about the funding sources that drive this. Certainly adult learners have to have access to financial aid, but we as a state have dedicated funding and the most recentations moved forward by the governor
114and approved by the general assembly suggesting that in fiscal year 27, we'll have $6 million to sustain uh the dual credit opportunity at the higher ed for our high school students. We also have $12 million annually that come through Perkins that that is directed to the local educational dependencies our our districts that is the those two are our main funding source for these work and we want to make sure that our districts have the greatest access to the uh pathways that exist for students which is where you see in in the presentations now we've expanded and adopted modernized career technical education pathways so the districts can actually fund these programs in the future. So I want to before I move on to our final student representative, I just want to capture some of the themes
115that you've heard from my colleague presenters and the work that our team have done here at this is about connections, partnering and easing the barriers that [clears throat] also includes our districts. We have to be able to support our districts in many of them are doing amazing work and I'm excited to allude to our future work which is to further their uh knowledge access with what we're referring to as our pathway playbook for districts. Much like what was mentioned before with our board kits um that have come out of the academics office. We're looking to in a field of advanced manufacturing first support districts build out programs if that's what they they so choose to do with all the ideas, tools, and methods uh that capitalize on to expand these offerings. So, we'll close with
116our last individual who has a number of incredible credentials under his belt. And it's it's interesting to say that he is one of two students that we know of in the world who have earned one of these credentials, but I'll let him share his own message here. Um, as as being our president, >> my name is Yvanni Bowden. I go to Albert I Prince Technical High School and I am studying aerospace component manufacturing technology. Learning a trade in high school has really enriched my experience by allowing me to be hands-on with what I do and take hold of my future. And it really has allowed me to study what I want to study while also getting the academic part of it. My plans after I graduate are to go to college for mechanical engineering and
117after college I plan to go to either the aerospace, maritime or automotive industries. So, the industry recognized credentials that I've earned so far are my Ocean 10, my NIMS precision me uh measurement, my certified Solid Works associate, certified Solid Works professional, then the sheet metal drawing tools, um sorry, uh weldments and surfacing credentials, and then I just got my expert certification. Those will allow me to be competitive when it comes to actually joining the job force and it will also allow me to further utilize my skills when it comes to college or academics. Being at AI Princech has allowed me to take college courses as a part of my high school career. The class that I took was Western history to the 1500s. And what that has allowed me to do is understand what college
118has to offer and what it would entail. and it has allowed me to understand what I would need to get through it while also having the resources available to me to help me through it. Mostly the adults in the room left high school and the college of a few accolades relative to the club and organizations they're a part of. Students in Connecticut today where we want to go. They're walking away with multiple industry recreations, multiple college credits, and opening up doors for them to advance their careers early or pursue secondary opportunities that they never believe in. Thank you very much. So, first of all, thank you very very very much for sharing this communication month. I think that it certainly expands on information we we've heard about last month and I am just delighted to
119see what happens having the Aggra science seat at this table and my love of anything allowing our students to really get career ready before they graduate is something that's really near and dear to my heart. So I I thank you for all the work that you presented. And I would I would add just in in my other side of my life, I do work up with the College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources at Yukon. We have the one two-year school at our at our state university uh around agriculture. And that two-year school, I think, would really benefit from maybe having some conversations by the ATB. uh the programs that we run in our two-year school uh again they get a two-year degree they get an associates degree uh around around plant science around argiculture
120around animal science and I just think that this is super exciting and we'll be carrying this right back to our associate dean of academic programs going we need to talk so so again many thanks for sharing this wonderful >> we find we are at the epicenter of this work those partnerships are critical find and discovered as we continue every time we interact. So, thank you very much. >> And another good takeaway is we had a student that was not going into that particular field. They took a cyber science course because it was fun. So, congratulations. Thank all those who are present, colleagues [clears throat] that may not even our appreciation. Um, I think this is fantastic. Um, I'm curious as to how best to connect with a disconnected population opportunity use those young adults that
121are disengaged. They're doing they're not in school. A lot of attention, a lot of great work happening with respect to that. Is there um how best can this be to reinate those opportunities? >> That's a great question and I'm I'll start with and if the team wants to feel free. Um one of the things that is very important to us when we pursue credential is to make sure that we leave all opportunities. There's a reason for that. students interest vary widely and they change over time if it's a microlevel learning right one credential that they pursue and either use that as a way to figure out that's what I want or that's what I don't want or if they just want to broaden their horizons as you heard from one of the students who certainly
122has a lot of accolades I don't think she would be framed as a disconnected youth what we want to do is open up opportunities for as much exposure as possible so the kids know what's available They didn't know that they could pursue something. We talk about barbering a lot, barbering certification. They didn't know that that was an opportunity in the school districts that that might engage them in a different way. And frankly, that has actually been one of a high level of engagement at at one of our um partner correction facilities for students who are incarcerated. Barbering is one of the most popular industry recognized credentials that students u are are pursuing. So it's there's a a wide variety under our ind industry recognized criminals that we exist and we've had some of this conversation
123justice system about how we convert about how can we disconnect acting backing from the districts. There was so much excitement when we got that $6 million creation last year. I remember at the retreat uh we went down how that came about. We really started with you disabled education proving this is priority we want to pursue but there was so much money that's exciting and my [clears throat] email was flooding I think were involved I mean if everybody wants to be there 6 million and that's why I probably say 6 million is fantastic I love 36 but I think that as we plan for the future and hopefully for creation in our We want to be in the facility. We don't want to within ourselves as we plan. Let's look at let's look at the dispending
124youth and try to be included in make an opportunity for all in those discussions. There is a monthly secondary success community practice meeting that we host and that includes our school counselors as well as our monthly secondary readiness week at each district. So we have a list of about 1,600 folks that are invited monthly to participate in conversation around topics such as the one that you're you're mentioning around disconnected youth but also opportunity to get access for all. So that means tearing up practices. I mean bringing in this month, I think next week. You have Willie Barber uh from General Dynamic and Dynamics and Electric Pro coming in to talk to our counselors virtually important. But those kinds of opportunities keep the conversation going. They also inspire. They also allow for conversations and discussion around
125career pathway development, expansion, who gets opportunities and why and what else we need to be doing. So those are ongoing every single month of the year including June July in August. Uh we'll see you with them. But that is one way that the districts and that type of work that you're talking about specifically in the community. I'm motivated to think about how leverage all of this opportunity our school I remember what a game changer it was doing the first first time to include enrollment at that only facility. Um going back to our previous presentation about chasing the test scores as an opportunity waiver to reduce that portion uh that waiting in our accountability. Um what suggestions or aspirational goals might you have for how we can um adjust that system to leverage these types of
126opportunities? >> A wonderful question. Uh we do have our performance office here is coming up. What >> he leaves over the chairs to get here the accountability portion. we've been but what I will say is our again the emphasis the to emphasize the interconnected work of the agency in this as well as across all the alphabet soup that we've listed that um it's really important to understand that as we engage in conversations we want to connect we have talked about data collections for industry max credentials at a minimum at least so we know where students are and that's one of your states indicators see that number increase, but I'll toss it over to a chief to talk about potential around accountabilities. Um, yes, that's exactly what's being discussed is reducing the test score and increasing
127the college career readiness indicator. And this is the dual credit uh credit attainment uh AP exam passing IB exam passing things like that are part of indicator six of our accountability system but that has 15 points in the system out of like 1500 or so you know and the test scores the SAT accounts for like 800 like 800 to 50 so there is a place for it but it's clearly not weighted so we want to sort flip it. I mean, not exactly, but like have some significantly greater weight for these kinds of things. This is what actually help students prepare for the next step. So, there [clears throat] are also discussions about some some of the other indicators in that accountability work week. So, on track to high school graduation is another one that we
128want to sort of potentially elevate. So those are the conversations and we should send you the report from that other committee because that actually talks about all these kinds of things and also talks about breeding practices and topics. So and may I also just give kudos to the office as well and your partnership with the department of labor and the uh earnings outcomes. We want to encourage districts. Yes, accountability exists, but there are so many other data sources by which to measure success of your students and your districts. Um, so it's been shared in past board meetings around those earnings income, earning outcomes of students, which is another piece of this this story. Um so we encourage access of all sort of [laughter] sort of it was great to hear students in particular in this
129presentation. I am really pleased to um I wanted to ask a question debate um I am looking forward but I'm sure will be all right outcomes for the students who have some expansion of the history preparation programs is seems great. It's always good to follow up to make sure that takes a while. Uh students in advance in their lives. So we got to give time think it's going to get back in scale up. uh at this point seem good. I would encourage us to ask ourselves spirit wonderful are these things related to that what other things are we or other things um as we uh that's a direction I hope veryity [clears throat] We certainly want to monitor the outcome data but we also look at leading indicator well right now we're actually number those
130are also helping us to very much create the data. Um just to add there was a study that just came out of center college research at Colombia that talked about differential impact of a value add if you will. It was not a value added model but the model was le but it basically showed like the the like the com the students who participate in AP versus those who participate in dual credit versus those who pay CT and then combinations there of trying to show like if you do CTE only versus CTE plus dual credit what are the what is the impact one year out of high school graduating and six years out sort of like our labor and earnings dashboard to show the added impact of taking dual credit offerings. So, so there is we're
131building on existing evidence, but I think you're absolutely right that we need to be checking and tweaking our models based on [laughter] [clears throat] serious I think in someone like >> [snorts] >> seamlessly seems seamless to me sitting here. I'm sure that there's opportunity. It's really remarkable that it's an opportunity to leverage that as you say to learn specifically that it's learning a gain. Thank you. We really couldn't do it without our department of labor partners and big link CT. >> Thank you. I know Dr. is going to jump in, but I just >> so I'm I'm trying [laughter] >> I just wanted to to go on from on said because so many times we're in kind of our own silo of the work that's happened but I can tell you that I get that
132feedback nationally about this particular piece of work uh that we are doing here and we have work to do that but but need to be able to have both sharing data getting that information and constantly listening to the field to say what else do we need to is really important for them how we support them that are how we support students but it's actually congratulations of education seeing higher outside. CSCU arth. acknowledge the expansion. Knowledge starts. Um, we got a chance. themselves that so often we do almost majority minority but CC Happy considering comment about the work that we did in law style um go through and I want to make sure that we um what we do about having to prepare educator plans and programs since we have a lot of work to do
133with our educator preparation programs. Um, I know some of my own experience mental health school. We would love to expand our nursing career, but we just can't find a certified teacher to hold this. And the same thing exists in our manufacturing pathways. It's very difficult to find certified high schoolers. And I think ours have a role in shaping the types of certain students that their students under. These are the types of these are the types of pathways. We have to incentivize people into the career of teaching in those pathways so that we can actually sustain the coursework as opposed to them being one in certain places that have special access to things. I would just encourage in the com in the growing conversations forget about the capacity of developing our teacher expertise and how that
134folds into >> you heard about 50% of a lot more opportunity certainly without that training piece but thank you for that >> thank you that was also one of the focuses of the grant that we handed out to the districts for allow grants to help teacher get the certification. There's a cost involved. This grant was going to offset the cost in many many of the district stats using it just for that purposes. >> Another question. >> So I'm challenged by your we only heard 50%. I probably was less than 50% so I appreciate that. But is there a way that we could put together um maybe a webinar or something for those of us that wanted to hear all% [laughter] >> and I don't want to ask commissioner to add you know one of these
135piece in the every meeting as a regular topic for us I would love a seminar and really dig into this. It's super what you guys are doing and and again, I like to think that I'm a little dialed in because of the whole aggra science and what we do with our two-year program and and [clears throat] our college. But um yeah, I think that if we could have either seminar webinar, I don't care what you call it, but um you know, I would just love to hear totality so that I can be connecting people to the amazing things that you're all doing. >> I've got it. I guess. [laughter] >> Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you. Let's see. And um I'm here just to give to remind folks about how we got here. Um in
1362024 um a bill was introduced in the education standalone bill um that was enacted concerning the development of a plan for the conversion of the state board of ed to an advisory board within this department. That bill did make it out of committee nearly unanimously and it ended up going to the appropriations committee as well. And what that the language in that proposal actually started as saying the commissioner in consultation with the state board of education may develop plans. So at the end of session on the last day of session I believe it ended up in public act 24-81 and it was section 121. So it was it was deep in there and the language had changed to say that the commissioner of education shall develop a plan um and not in consultation with the
137state board. We were also given $50,000 by the general assembly so we could have an independent contractor come in and do the the plan for us. And so that is um what Ingred and her team have done. I did present this to you um back in at your June meeting in 2024 to let you know when I was doing a legislative recap for any of those of you who were there then years. Um I did present then to let you know that this would be coming. So now we are here. Um and you have the the plan. Um it was done independently by CIRC and we transmitted it to this board and transmitted it to the general assembly which was the legislative charge. And so now I can turn it over to Ingred and Marjgery.
138>> Thank you so much uh Laura. Good good afternoon distinguished board members and commissioner education. My name is Dr. Kennedy and I have with me my colleague Marjgerie Davis who's the associate director for program of serve who uh was intricral in the development to see the project to the end. Uh Laura, thank you so much for that introduction. They said the context, the historical context of how we got here and the charge the serve was given to actually do review to actually do the the report that you have in front of you. As Laura mentioned, we received a charge back in 2024. It seems like the alliance when you presented to the board, it was in the summer of 2024. Now it mentions when it was presented to all of you. Um and you might
139ask why sir so we can go to the next slide. Um sir we are a quasi public and our legislation indicates that we are the quasi public for the state board of education to support all of your activities and equity and education uh on on behalf of the benefits of all children in Connecticut. As you can see, our legislation is very structured specific and targeted and it provide us with the specific things that we must do as a quaset public. One of the ones that I want to highlight for you today is actually we have to we have to and provide and develop publications research and evaluation. So what we have before you is one of those charges as a research and evaluation. The research that we conducted it was a specifically what is called
140a secondary research or a research review of documents. Secondary re research does not involve focus groups or direct interaction with individuals. The secondary research what it does is look at a blanket information of all public information available. So that's what we did the secondary research. So we can go to the next slide. According to the public act as stated, he actually said that directs the commissioner of education to develop a plan to convert the state board of education from serving as the department head as defined in section 45 of the statute to an advisory board within the department of education. And the second part empower the commission of education to serve as the department head for the department of education. So what we have to do it was research all the 50 states to determine
141which one of those states had the state board of education as an advisory board and which one of the states had the commission of education as the head. So we did a full research again secondary research for all the states and we can go to the next slide please. So we needed to do it this way. We needed equivalent because some states do not call the commissioner education commissioner they call them secretary of education multiple names. So all those equivalent we needed to examine the statutory structures of every single one of those models of governance in which either the commissioner was the head of the of the of the department of education and the board serve as an advisory to the commissioner. We also analyze all the benefits, the challenges. We have we have learned
142a lot of every single state, everything that needed to be in place in order for that to take place. We also looked at Connecticut, the unique unique unique position of our state. We needed to provide the report to the report to summarize the findings and provide with some recommendations based on the research that we conducted on those model models. what other states learn, what other states have done, and in some cases, what states have gone through a level of transition similar to what this legislation was. At the end, we wanted to make sure that we provided the commissioner of education as we were charged by with a very comprehensive analysis of what it is the blanketed aspect across all 50 states as it relates to each. And then when we went through an analysis and
143as mentioned since 2024, we did this huge state by state, how many board members, how are they elected, how are the commissioner elected, and then we began to compare those states with Connecticut. So the report provides you with the states they have um very similar explan and my colleague is going to speak to you a little bit more about the analysis the summary of the report that I would say we are providing five recommendations but before we go to the specific summary I just want to outline the questions that we needed to answer through our research. What states have a single head as the leading body? What states have the state board of education in an advisory capacity? As I mentioned earlier, what is the advisory board's role in those states? They do have them.
144What is the makeup of the advisory board and how are they appointed and what are the benefits and challenges to that particular model of robberness. So that was the questions that we needed to answer through our thorough analysis. My colleague will walk you through the analysis of those pieces. Um we will talk after the analysis through some of the suggestions and recommendations. We also wanted to provide recommendations with also some of the things of navigating what could be the challenges if the state decide to move forward with this conversion as a state by the legislation. So Marjorie afternoon I was going to say good morning but good afternoon and board nurse. Um I'm Marjorie Daniels I'm a associate director at CIRC and I'm pleased to talk a little bit about the analysis that went into
145producing this report and so um it was an extensive amount of time and drilling down on information. We looked at all 50 states and the presentative structure of all 50 states um in terms of uh the educational leadership power and the majority of the states um share that share that power between the state or the um and the commissioner or the equivalent state different names. Um and so we started there and then from there we drilled down even further to identify those things that had a single leading body. So a commissioner or equivalent um and an advisory board uh or a state board of ed um because some states do not have um a single meaning of ed as a commissioner. Um, so we narrowed it down from the 50. We narrowed it down to
146there were states that had a single leading head, but they had a state board of ed, but the state board of ed still had the governing power. They had policy power. So then we drill down even further from there and said well states have a single leading head and a state board as state board of education um that was an advis and advisor leader pack and that's that's where we can kind of look a little further if we can look at the next slide. So there were four states only four states that fit in that criteria or in that model. Um and within Florida you can data details and here are Maine um New Mexico, North Dakota and Wisconsin. And Wisconsin is actually kind of unique. Um so these four states have a commissioner or
147a a single head leading individual with a state board of education in an advisory capacity which means um that the the state board of education does not have policym power does not have governance but they serve in in advisory capacity um and and in different respons responsible for different things um depending on the state and that's outlined in New York as well. So um in some cases as I mentioned um that single heading by as Maine for example is the commissioner of education in New Mexico. He is the secretary of public education in North Dakota and in Wisconsin is all the states dependent of public instruction. Um so the full report goes into detail on the governance model um for these states including the structure, the responsibilities and the reporting hierarchy. So [clears throat] um
148so um there's a lot of information within this report. Um we drill down on each each of those four states. that I mentioned. We talked a little bit about New Mexico uh and New Mexico being a state that um actually converted back in um from having a state board of education that was uh a governance uh uh entity that was a policym entity. Uh and they they changed that so that the state board of education is now advisory only. and that's the only state that actually converted. Um so that information is also in incoming. So um we also researched and looked into the benefits and challenges of restructuring a model like this. Um some of the benefits uh include streamlined decision making. um you know with authority resting with a single head um perhaps decisions
149can be made more specifically. Um greater accountability for clear executive responsibility with single point of authority. Um governance consistent with other agencies within the state. Um uniform governance making inter agency creation easier. Um greater flexibility in leadership appointments. So it's firing efficiency crisis management perhaps um action and ability in emergency. Um so those are potentially some of the benefits. Uh but of course um there's potential challenges with uh ability to uh um uh changing the governance structure s such as um loss of independent oversight and public space. um potentially reducing independent public oversight of educational policy, reduction of broader perspectives that come with having um a full board uh with policy making authority. Uh another challenge potentially could be reduced stakeholder representation. The loss of the broad perspectives at the table um with respect to
150policy may change the policy changes um governor's terms u legislative resistance um and increased burden on on the commissioner. So those are potentially some of the challenges that we determined. So um as Ingred mentioned um this was data and information and research that we we conducted based on information that was publicly available and um we're happy to answer any questions. Um I'd like to move on to recommendation before we move on to um and so the recommendations of course would be to leverage the current board expertise leverage your expertise um engage uh the board in the process provide historical uh context provide insight best practices. So that would be the number one recommendation is to your right. Um and then of course establishing a timeline for transition. Um statutes and state board education bylaws would
151have to be revised. developing a communication strategy and plan um with regular updates in various channels um and monitoring and evaluating post and implementation. So establishing performance indicators using funings to refine models. Um and uh so those are the recommendations that came out of our our our research and I'm sure there may be questions and need to answer anything or clarify anything from the report. >> [clears throat] >> I have more common [clears throat] question I have. It's the problem that we're trying to solve. you change things and I know that it said research highlights that the similar effective leaderships support greater efficiency accountability strategic developments nowhere does it say anything about student outcome to of our government that's achieved and state it has to I looked up where we stand one of the one
152of the indicators why 25 great school they insert emails. They don't just use financial outcomes. uh academic performance about test score safety, class size credentials and just if you just want to read the small piece compared to 51 says Connecticut has the second best school system in the United States posting the second best act forming the country. In addition, around 6.6% of Connecticut public schools are in the top 700 public schools nationwide with sixth highest percentage. On top of that, they has the third highest share of students who receive three or higher exam and it also makes time in the classroom easier for both teachers and students with the AS ratio in the competition. Another area where Connecticut standard out of safety constitution state is one of the 70 states that require regular system. Additionally,
153it has the lowest prevalence of illegal drugs on school, the second lowest youth incarceration rate and the sixth lowest share of student carry any kind of weapons on school. So when I look at the states that have gone to change the force, they belong below Connecticut and then the report where you drilled it down says that following a couple years of analysis and development of various states education, New Mexico appears to be exam. They suggested as we model New Mexico ranks 51st in the United States at least in uh student achievement. This is not development that I see. You need to continue to be extended that regard. Furthermore, when New Mexico adopted Dip Card, I'll admit it nearly a quarter of a century ago that it seems to be in response to a 10 member
154board that experienced difficulty coming to consistent consensus of educational decisions that does not seem to consensus. So again my question is what probably and finally they uh had six years of 19. I'd like to keep this. So the disadvantages that you have on page 33 are huge >> and they outweigh this level in my opinion they don't even address I think the way to go really is to figure out that need so and we together figure out What about the make to be? >> So if I can just if I can just clarify one thing. Um uh when we compared Connecticut to New Mexico, it was strictly just because New Mexico the only state that actually converted um the state board of education in an advisory capacity to a governing capacity with the same. That's
155the only comparison. It wasn't suggest um you make a good point. My question, let me just throw this out there which I know are burning in the minds of do we have a choice in this? because you know I know that this law was by a retiring legislator. Uh it did not have you know and he was on his way out the door and it would ramrod it through. Uh I thought it this whole study was a study to see which was best. But it seems to me from my reading is that we don't have a choice. It's going to be done. >> Well, [clears throat] the charge that the commissioner um was given was to develop a plan. >> Um and it wasn't to to um do an analysis of whether or not um
156it it's the right thing to do or or not the right thing to do. But I mean, just to be clear, the status now is the plan is with the general assembly. And so they have it and if they decide that they're going to take legislative action, that's up to them. And if there's a bill that's raised, we will follow that bill um and monitor its progress as it makes its way through the legislative session. And members of this board certainly are able to go testify before the legislature when it has a sponsor hearing. this going to begin in the education committee? >> It well, they've already raised a concept. It does not have a bill number or any language yet, but they raised a concept bill and act um affecting the state board of
157education or something like that. >> Yeah, I have a [clears throat] thanks for the report. I have a sort of interesting exceptional question said so this It's hard for me to interpret this report charge uh really as you say to evaluate approach the right approach charge was to do some research then come up with a plan change right so when I read it I guess I can't tell it seems as though the writers of the reporting research didn't really have the scope to actually make a recommendation about whether we should do the but rather we're charged with saying here's some pluses and minuses but independent of that this is how we should do it. That was my read of what your purpose of this document was. Is that accurate? >> Very close. Yes. So we
158were charged with to do the evaluation, the research across all states, what the models look like, what the governance look like, what is the interests of the particular governing body and based on what we learned from the research that these are some of the challenges, these are some of the implications and based on that is if you were to move forward with that, this is the things that you need to consider. In addition to that is the mitigations of what could happen because we learned that through the research and as my colleague mentioned New Mexico and if you read the history of New Mexico all the challenges that the state went through in order to get to the place where they were and the multiple multiple commissioners the commissioners that they went through. So that
159was the the purpose of the report. We wanted to make sure that you were that the commissioner because I think that I mean we need to be clear when we received the charge that the commissioner was aware of the landscape in addition to challenges implications and also possibility of what a plan might might look like if the legislation move forward. I guess thank you for clarifying say that side of it. It didn't seem there actually would have been no way for you to really say that. >> Oh, correct. Because of the because of the new Exactly. the questions that we needed to answer. We base our report on the questions that we needed to answer. We added a section in the report and you will see it about the unique position of Connecticut. Legislatively right
160now we review legislation how many times the state board is mentioned how many times the commissioner is mentioned. So there is a legislation legislative educ education platform that need to come into play in order to understand for legislators what is the role of the state board and the role of the commissioner because they intermingle the roles positions and responsibilities through legislation that is enacted. Sometimes they give the power to the commissioner sometimes indicate the state board of education. We added that in the report because if the legislator decide to move this forward, they need to be pay close attention to all the legislative language they need to change in order for that to happen. So you were to ask this question in charge research what you actually think we should do. you haven't asked that
161so I thought I would ask now. >> Yeah, thank you for the question and and I will and I will be hesitant to answer that because we were not asked to do that research. So >> yes, so let let me what it was mentioned today how I think that is um what I do I observe and I build relationships. The question is what was the need? What what promote what was the inset? What what set the beginning? Why did this need to happen? I would like that question to be answered first. Why did this needed to happen? Because when a report is asked there is there's a beginning. Then when that is based on that we now are going to look into and engage a dialogue of why it needed to happen what is not
162happening and how do we make it better for everyone involved if we are placed second in the in the nation what are the things that we need to address from good to great basically if I'm going to J's work but the reality is why the request, why the need and that is to me what it needs to be answered. I sit every single board meeting back there watching the interaction of the members of the board and the relationship. I think it's you need as a board without answer to your question because I'm going to because I need to I cannot step away from the neutrality of the role that I represent at the state education resource center. I I appreciate that you executed the scope of work that you would have to execute. [clears throat]
163I just want to affirm what my colleagues spoke and raised. It's the starting point and it seems to me very prescriptive that it was not about how do we strengthen them etc. that the challenges that you've highlighted are very seen and it strikes me in my experience with state instruction and education that I can't think of any professional working in any school and beyond the team would necessarily approach something with a very prescriptive outcome that wasn't around it and what we do best for the students that I will echo what my colleagues have said and I guess further we're talking government's model that's one bad things better than you don't even have reciprocity certification in some of these things. So I think you can agree that how they certify teachers is on par with how
164we certify teachers. I'm not really inclined to want to adopt their leadership style or their governance style. Um but my comment really is for more for people the public or the legislator who might be considering this as you said that it is a conceptual idea now in committee. um a secondary research for what you did because that is your charge in no way provides the nuance information that is understand. I was privileged to attend the NASBY new member last year and I was in a room with brand new board members from all across the country and we had extensive conversations for hours about how our boards were similar, how they were different, the composition, all of the things that go into the different governance structure. And in several hours of conversation that was both formal
165and informal, you know, lunches, dinners, breaks, whatever, learn far more information that would be helpful than what is in this role because this is just what's publicly available and the devil is in the detail. And unless you have interviewed people within the process and had those conversations don't really understand what is what it is like. And so I would urge anyone that is considering reading this report up or taking action on this report to remember that this was done based off of information that is available websites and it was no interviews and no employs. There's a lot more detail into the reason that goes into this that's not a part of this report to be no fault of yours. You did what your charge was and what your charge was, you executed the court. But
166man, there's so much more that goes into this. And what's the meaning with my colleagues as well? [clears throat] Yes. I as newborn and although that world that's education but care this is deja vu all over again fixing something that's not similar to what immunizations in states right now you know for me uh when I did the background research two of the states I believe we do have pros who are intentionally ally not done this model similarly because of some of the work. [clears throat] I will I will add voice to what my colleagues have said as well and would hope that as the legislature evolves their concept that they would hear what was said here today with regards to let us let us hear what is the issues that prompted this legislation and how
167we can how we can systematically address those rather than going in for a full scale vision. on what state education looks like versus um Ingred and I'm mad at you. [laughter] >> Don't shoot the message. >> We will keep coming. We will keep coming. [laughter] >> But Laura, where do we go from here? uh if we want to mic this individually as board members or whatever. >> Sure. Like I said, um as soon as it's assigned a bill number, I will notify you. Um I'll notify the the full boards. I don't know when their next meeting is and I don't know when the public hearing. So, we're going to have to play a little of this by yours. Um but the public hearings will mostly take place over the month of March. We're guaranteed um
168that. And so those are obviously in the legislative office building. They do have Zoom options. You can submit testimony. You can testify in person because you are um heads of the state agency. Um you are considered um public officials. So you would be able to testify within the first hour um unless the commissioner takes up the whole hour. Um which happens a lot. [laughter] But uh but yeah, so that's just where we'll need to see what the language looks like. We'll need to see. Um I mean we really have no idea what the [clears throat] effects are. We just don't know what the the lang the legislated language is going to look like, but it should be out relatively shortly. >> I'll just say that these are brought up are the questions we asked a
169lot by just about every piece of legislation uh across many. So we don't always get the benefit. I'm not speaking to this about the when we go over and when we're looking at how to respond the legislation I suddenly ask yourself the question what is the problem that is being solved. We don't usually get that uh when we when we move forward. Uh but as Laura mentioned the report and talking to a couple legislators or whatever the next steps are and I will >> thank you. Okay. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Stay >> [laughter]