001Hi everybody. To start with our flagg to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> I have um realized in my my short time serving >> Dr. Mccanty Anthony please push to talk. So, I've realized a couple things um in my short time is in in the chair seat. One is that I have to press the button to talk. Um but two, the only real power that the chair has is that everybody waits for me to start the pledge of allegiance. I didn't realize that. So, very excited. Um so, welcome. So, this is our annual February retreat. So, it's not a typical meeting. Uh, for folks watching at home, there's no public comment. It's a chance
002for us as um it's a chance for us as a board to dive in a little more in depth to uh for certain or in certain topics. Most of what we're talking about tonight is not in public. Um we're going to be an executive session um to deal with uh to talk about several different litigation um issues. um that sounds more exotic and more interesting than it probably is. Uh most of what we'll be talking about is special ed litigation. Um there is the town litigation matters we'll be talking about briefly and then the third issue is around the stadium lights. So but there's not a whole lot. Um so that's where most of what we'll be talking about this evening. But first before all that uh we would welcome our um leadership team here
003and our academic team um to talk about um academics which we probably don't talk about enough the um so um you're on camera miss [laughter] >> I understand it's not going to reach tell us uh the um the the the challenges of the Havier infrastructure is not on tonight's infrastructure but exhibit 107 where the outlets are in this room. All righty. So with that said, we're going to turn things over uh to uh Mr. Demo and his team here um to talk about the the um um all things excitement around um academics here. So thirdly, um take it away. Do you want to do you have a I don't know. I didn't prepare I didn't suggest an opening statement this time, but but I suspect um you have something to frame our conversation. >> Thank
004you, chairman. Uh it's a pleasure to be here tonight and and it's always a pleasure when I know that I have my entire team. Well, actually it's not the entire team, but it feels like it because we take up this entire room. uh we have a a large number of uh administrators uh present tonight which is representative uh really of the way that we do business. Uh no one works in silos. The uh amount of interdependent work uh really is um the hallmark of what makes Greenwich special. Um, and I couldn't be more thrilled that I'm not sitting up here alone anymore and that I have my assistant chief, uh, Miss Terara Fogle, sitting alongside me so that when the really tough questions get asked, I can certainly just turn to her and say, "Well,
005it's time for you to show your stuff." So, tonight I'm hoping somebody asks me a question that I don't have the answer for, or maybe I have the answer for, but we're just going to see how Miss Fogle does uh, with this group. So, welcome, Miss Fogle, as the assistant chief. Um, but really, um, tonight all Lucy Pawkins questions. [laughter] >> We had a bet on how long it would take you to mention her name. >> Um, tonight it really is my uh, privilege and I'm incredibly proud of the work that we're going to uh, take you through uh, and share with the the community. Um, but I have to recognize that not only are the people in this room responsible for these efforts, uh, but all of our building administrators, our coordinators, and most
006importantly, our teachers. So, to all of them who may be logged in, thank you for your efforts, and most importantly, thank you for your trust. Um, Dr. Dr. McKanthony did mention Lucy Caukins and I know that there are some people out there who still have concerns about the fact that we use um some of the materials associated with her name. Um but I will gladly uh enter into that debate later on with Dr. Martin Anthony and the board conversation. Um, but our teachers trust this team to make good decisions not only for them but for their students. And we take that responsibility incredibly seriously. And over the six years since I've been in this seat, um, I've always reminded myself of where I come from. I was a fourth grade teacher for a long time
007and then I was a collab teacher. So I worked with a special education teacher. Then I had the uh privilege of working in the advanced learning program for a while. And so I believe that what's most important is that we give the teachers what they need to be successful. And so my mission has always been since day one to provide teachers with curriculum resources that are appropriate, that are thorough, that are consistent, so that all students in the Greenwich public schools can leave the Greenwich Public Schools uh ready for the world. And so I'm quite proud of what we've accomplished over the years. And tonight um we're going to talk about celebrations in terms of academic achievement, but more importantly, we're going to talk to you about how those achievements came to be. So, we
008want to pull the curtain back a little bit. So, as I said in the narration of the uh 30 minute flipped video, which I'm sure all of you watched, although I still can't figure out how to track whether or not it was all of you who watched it, but we did have 33 plus views the last time I checked. So, I'm feeling really good about that. could be a record. Um, but but really what what I I share in that video is that, you know, the collective work of the Greenwich Public Schools administrators and teachers is on full display. And we're proud of that work and the results that we're seeing. And I I firmly believe that last year's results are just the beginning of what we believe is a positive trend. And um I
009couldn't be more proud. So, uh, with that, actually, Chairman, I I I turn it back to you to I have a wondering about which way you'd like the direction of this to go. I know we have a hard stop at seven >> and we have 60 plus slides, >> right? And technically, so I appreciate I actually appreciate that you made it one um slide deck even though it's technically two agenda items. the um so that made sense especially since there's some overlap now but we probably I was thinking about this myself the um and since we have Miss Pocal here we probably should start is follow the agenda item the um in case people plan their evenings around it um um at home and watching so we probably should talk about math and science first
010and then we'll talk and then we'll go to ELA that makes no sense happy to do that and we'll be >> let me throw another wrinkle in that um not knowing which way you wanted to go. Uh, Miss Fogle did prepare an abridged version of the slide deck so that we could pull up uh any any one particular slide or we could take you through a series of slides, anything that might have piqu your interest or you have questions on. Um, Miss Fogle's driving so she can she can pull up anything that you'd like. Um, but if you have questions, we're happy to get right into that as well. >> And if you ter if you feel the um the slide deck can give like a a five the you know a three to five
011minute executive summary here or at least frame the conversation. Um how's that sound? >> I would say it's a little bit more than three to five minutes but I can certainly give you the overview of where that where our road map really came from and then I think it will make sense to break out into our into our individual content areas. So I'll go ahead and pull that up right now. Hold on one moment. Right. And Mike, can you confirm that you can see everything on the screen? All righty. So, as Mark explained, this is a Oh, I think I'm actually live. Yes. >> Okay. Perfect. Um, as Mark explained, this is a a little bit of an atypical report, mostly because we are not at the point in the school year where we currently
012have interim data to show you. So since that interim data is not available for us to dissect and dig a little bit deeper into, we wanted to pull the curtains back and help us better understand the achievements report that was presented in October to half of the board who is here and then we have half of a new board really educate all of our members for how we got those achievement results through curriculum management through uh the work of our coordinator team and our building leaders. So before we get to the road map of our overall success, it's important to set this in the framework of the six pieces of our district work that really move into curriculum, instruction, and assessment. That's going to be our levers for growth, our recap of points of pride.
013We'll dig into curriculum, instruction, assessment, and action by each content area. And finally go ahead and recap those achievement successes that we did in October. And if we look specifically at the six levers for our growth, we're first starting with our eyes on all students. We are focused on our students that are the highest achievers, the students who need the most support, and everybody in between. This includes pockets of students in the MTSS framework with tiered instruction, pockets of students in our advanced learning programs, AP courses, as well as our onle students. We established priority schools last year to help focus our supports where they're needed most. We have highly qualified coordinators and program administrators looking over content and supporting building leaders. We have a dedicated system of professional learning districtwide. And we have a
014renewed focus on using our building administrators and assistant principles as instructional leaders in the building. We support them with professional learning and consultancy supports. And finally, all of that is in the framework of the strategic plan that we were gifted by you guys. That plan brings us through 2028, and we're continuing to stay laser focused on the stretch goals outlined there. Tonight, I have a feeling we're going to dig a little bit more into these three particular areas. The road map for achievement comes from curriculum, instruction, assessment, and acting on those assessment results. We are going to go over our curriculum management planning and curricular investments. And I think the next portion of the this a bridged version of our slideshow is really where we will break into the math and science. My slides have
015ELA coming up first, but I'm going to go ahead and move right over to math and science. It is important for all of us to understand our curriculum curriculum management cycle. Our cycle always begins with a review or renewal phase where we have understood that curriculum areas have materials that are either outdated or no longer meet the standards that the state or or national government is requiring us to meet. Then we conduct what's called an internal audit. And internal audits can look different in different curriculum areas or grade levels based on the needs of the course or the program. We're collecting feedback from our teachers. We're overall looking at achievement results and seeing if our current programs are meeting the needs. And then we're also going to be speaking with administrators to see how they
016feel as though programs or resources are working in buildings. After an internal audit, we go ahead and determine whether or not we need to move on to look at other opportunities or if we're going to renew existing programs. Then if we are looking at different opportunities, we'll go ahead and purchase using a boardup supported review committee and then we'll bring that to the board once we decide on a recommendation to move forward. And finally, we enter implementation and progress monitoring where we check to see how is this going for teachers and for students are evalu and we are evaluating our assessment results based on the new curriculum or primary resources. Now, our district has continued to invest in curricular resources and associated professional learning across all content areas, and we're going to take a look
017at the past few years to figure out how we got to where we are today. Our curriculum management planning looks into the future, but we thought it was important to also look back to see how we continue to have these strong growth and achievement results. So, I'll fast forward through ELA and I will pull up to math. Do we want Mike to take it away or did you want to dig into some question and answer? >> Don't touch that. >> Good. >> Okay. Not touching. >> Okay. So, um this timeline actually lines up perfectly with my tenure in this role. So, my predecessor was actually the one who was chairing the committee that chose the program that we currently use now, which is Big Ideas Mathematics. And so I had the um fortunate experience of
018coming in as a new coordinator and having to roll out a brand new program which was um exciting and challenging all at the same time. Um uh so when you look here at this chart that we have up on the screen, you can see um we've like slowly integrated little refinements and other programs to support our learners. So everything is kind of built around big ideas and um and then from there we started to identify certain needs and things that we needed to have happen. Um we um integrated math interventionists into our staffing model and so Bridges intervention is a researchbacked um program that we use and and we started that in 2022 23. And then we started to trial um what we currently use now for math facts which is through the explore learning
019program. So reflex that's for math facts addition and subtraction facts for our little ones multiplication facts for our third graders and and up. And then um part of um uh reflex um sorry explore learning with reflex is the fra program which is helping students develop fractional sense. Um, it's important to understand that with these digital partners that we have, we don't have kids on devices all day long. We're using these to be very precise in the decisions that we make to support our students. So, um, for example, Reflex um, will meet students where they are. It will focus on the on the actual facts that they need to learn. It will give the teacher that data real time so the teacher knows exactly what they need to do to support that student. Generally speaking, um,
020in elementary school, we use a station rotation model. And that model essentially encompasses, um, three blocks of time. So, we use the math acronym to support that time. So, M being meet with your teacher, A being at your seat, and then the TH is technology or hands-on. So in that 15 minutes or so where students are in their technology or potentially hands-on meaning no technology station, they might be working on reflex, they might be working on fracks depending on the grade level or they might be working in to work on very specific skills that they need to hone. Um we then um started to um integrate building thinking classrooms which is a model um that we're utilizing to help um essentially transfer the cognitive load from the teacher to the students. If you all can
021think back to your time in the classroom, teachers were lecturers and they gave us a lot of information and we practiced a whole bunch and then we moved on to the next thing. Well, we want the kids to lift those sort of heavy concepts themselves and so um building thinking classrooms provides that framework for us and um I can get into more detail on that if people have questions about it. Um and then we um started to refine our our intervention process by um doing a bunch of professional development on discalculia which is essentially students with math disabilities that that struggle and um so we've been working over the last few years. It's quite a I would say a robust and long-term certification process and I would say it's it's a newer um area of
022focus and we're sort of right at the tip of the spear with that and so our math interventionists are are slowly getting certified in being able to identify and remediate students that have issues in in mathematics um you know more discreetly. Um so that's um prek to five in a nutshell. Um I'm not sure if you want me to continue on to the next grade level or if we want to. Okay. All right. So um in in 6 through 8 um you can see we have some of the things that are the same. Um but then we have some different things going on here. So the through thread across all of it is going going to be big ideas math and um building thinking classrooms. You'll see reflex in there. We've uh started to leverage
023that for our students that still have struggles with their facts in sixth grade. It's not really going beyond sixth grade, but we identified in in some of our buildings that we wanted to practice some more with our facts. And the reason why facts are so important is because it um it frees up working memory for our students to be problem solvers as opposed to grinding out. Do I remember what is our favorite new fact? 6* 7 in case you don't know. Um so um anyway so we have that and then um a few years ago um uh Western reached out about an opportunity to work with a company called Prisms where um it's a virtual reality and it's it's an opportunity to actually see the math in sort of 3D. And so we use that
024for things like um seeing how exponential functions work, quadratics, um systems of equations, things like that. Um, again, I want to be very clear. We don't have kids on virtual reality all day every day for 42 minutes in a middle school block. It's a periodic thing. Um, and you know, we're giving our students at Western an opportunity to really see some cool math in a way that maybe they might not be able to um, you know, based on their family structure and things like that. Um, so that's um, 68 math in in a nutshell. >> I think we'll pause here for questions. It looked like some people wanted to chime in. Uh, great. Look, um, before I dive into my question, I I first of all wanted to say, you know, certainly we're all incredibly
025proud of the overall district performance. Um, but when I drill down into the details, um, I notice a few concerning trends and I wanted to hear your thoughts. Um, when I compare Greenwich to other districts, I see a notable drop off in our SBA math scores in the middle school level that I don't see in other districts. And I'm happy to share the analysis I did. Um, you know, we go from our fifth graders, 83% of them being on target or above. We drop to 70 72% in seventh and eighth grade. When I look at the other districts, they're holding steady at their fifth grade levels. Um, and then you know also when I look at the math results on a school basis, EMS looks great, but about 40% of CMS and WMS 8th graders
026in their SBA testing are below target. 40% are leaving 8th grade going into nth grade not having mastered middle school math. So I have two questions. One is is big ideas math just not adequate to meet the needs of kids at in those grades or possibly before. And two, you know, is the strategic plan goal of getting 75% of kids into algebra by 8th grade pushing some kids faster they can go and then they're missing fundamental concepts that build and leaving them in a tough spot by the time they get into eighth grade. >> Great questions. Um so the first one um when you're referring to that that sort of drop off um as we go from elementary school to middle school um as you can see in our um in our achievement um we
027actually are um sort of stopping that slide slowly over time. So if you actually look at that um in sixth 7th and eighth you're seeing sort of um a steady trend going upwards. Maybe it's not at the pace that you're thinking, but if we look at sixth grade for example, um you know, in 2021, 61 to 64 to 69 to 72 to 76. Um so, um you know, it's middle school is a tricky one. Tara has always said to me, having been a middle school teacher herself, that um there's a lot of things that are happening in middle school, um the way kids grow both academically, social, emotionally, and mentally. And so, um you know, we do our best to keep them engaged. But what I will say is um when you're referring to Western
028and Central, we we have a you know a lot of things in place there to support our kids. We're doing things a little bit differently this year in Western. We've given all of our on level kiddos um uh essentially a math and a half block. And so one of the things that's important to note is that we have a pretty slim amount of time in our middle school structure for math. We have 42 minutes generally speaking. And in our middle schools, we usually have double blocks of English language arts in sixth grade and then moving on to seventh and eighth. So, the first thing I would say is the gift of time would be lovely. Um, because 42 minutes to to do the math is is kind of tricky. And that actually plays all the
029way down to elementary school as well. We have double the time if not more for language arts. And so, that's my little plug for math. You know, if we had more time, most programs are designed for 75 minutes. this program is as well. Um, and and a lot of districts have 90 minutes of math um in the elementary level and then when they get to the middle school level, I can't speak intelligently on every single setup, but I know um they they may or may not have have more time. Um um sometimes we run into staffing challenges, too. Um, uh, you know, I will I will say at Central, we've had a struggle with our interventionists over the last few years because we've had to use our interventionists to fill a spot of a teacher
030that maybe had to leave or whatever the case may be. And so, um, then sometimes we're kind of operating without that extra support that we may need. Um, so, you know, what I would say is I I feel confident that we are building uh, steady progress and I wouldn't even call it slow. I I think it's it's been pretty steady. And and also as we feed from the elementary school to the middle school, we are taking kiddos that are that much stronger and bringing them into the middle school level with more skills, maybe having their facts nailed down, things like that where we can focus a little bit more when it comes to big ideas math. Um you know really to me um math is math. You know, I think every program has has um
031you know, certain qualities that are wonderful and maybe certain holes where you have to fill things in, but it comes down to the instruction of our teachers. Um and so um I think so far Big ideas has been um something that's been really great for our district as you know, as I'm glancing at the um the performance as it's increasing. Um, but you know, I I would say that often times, you know, when we start to compare Eastern to Western to Central, we can kind of get into a point where we struggle with things that we can't control that are outside of the school day. And so, um, we do our best to try to support those kids when they're at school, but, um, the things that are happening at home is where it becomes
032tricky. I don't I don't think you addressed the sorry I don't think you addressed the second part of my question about whether the 75% of kids in algebra by 8th was potentially pushing certain kids faster than they can handle. >> I think the answer to that would be yes. Um there are some opportunities um sometimes missed when a a student maybe is accelerated too quickly. But that being said, you know, we want to set the bar high for our kids. And so when we put those kids into those tracks, um, you know, we pro try to provide supports for them. Specifically at Western with our staffing model, we're able to enrich the kiddos by putting them into a extra period on a pattern basis to support them when we want to push them up. And
033so, um, we try to take our kiddos that we think have potential. cuspy is sometimes a word that we use and we try to push them into a situation where they're going to be supported but also challenged at the same time. Um and so um you know I I think you know with the way the SAT is going now and and more higher level math on it I think it's a it's it's not necessarily um something that we would want to not push towards. I think getting kids through algebra by the end of 8th grade is an important thing for their success once they get to the high school. Um, that being said, I think we do a great job um, supporting all of our students where they are and we make adjustments when we
034need to, whether it's to push them up or to potentially lower maybe um, them down a level to support their needs. So, we try to work each little jigsaw puzzle as they come to us. >> I'm just I'm just thinking that Big Ideas Math, I think, was started about five years ago. So the students that were coming through the elementary school have really benefited from that basically since kindergarten whereas the kids that we see in middle school didn't you know they didn't have that sort of kindergarten first second grade. So I'm hoping that you know or I guess the question I have is do you attribute some of the success of our of our K through five kids that they've had the benefit of having that program in place and do you think that as
035a result they'll be more successful in in middle school? you know, because they've had it from the beginning. >> I I definitely believe that and I would actually um just like to remind you that we have it into the early parts of the high school as well. And so we have this uniformity now where the students are able to sort of develop a schema and an understanding of certain visuals and things and they're able to sort of rely on that from year to year to year as opposed to jumping from one thing to the next. Um so I think that uniformity that Mr. Demo has spoken about, you know, in the past um is a is a really important thing for our students to feel not only comfortable but successful because they don't have to
036code switch between various programs. >> Well, Sophie took one of my um focused questions and things mostly because I, you know, was pretty involved in doing the review when you guys uh picked Big Ideas Math. So, um, I also wanted to echo these results are really fantastic and I have a bunch of overall questions. Um, so I can just sort of I'll ask one of them. Maybe you guys can weave them in maybe as you answer. Just I know we don't have any additional state data from the summer. You guys gave that to us earlier which is where we've seen a lot of these great math and um, ELA growth scores. Um, additionally the fact that we have what is it uh it's what uh 11 or 12 of our schools that are you know
037ranked in this with the state um you know is as high growth schools but which is fantastic. Um I was going back to the pre-K5 math um and I was curious you started to briefly talk a little bit about reflex um you also mentioned in the document and the presentation fracks. Um I'm not really the these are new terms to me because we really haven't gone over these or discussed them in prior um board meetings. So I was just going to take a t a tiny little step back and just figure out are these apps um or programs. You know I know big ideas math came with a lot of those game based um educational supports for students to use at home and in the classroom for extra support with parents to help parents also
038work with our students. So, I was just wondering if if I assume these are not part of the big idea math um uh grouping of programs and um you know what led you guys to pick FLA frack and reflex um as opposed to the games and other skill building materials that are already included in in big ideas like where are you seeing the how this is supporting the students there? >> So, two two things there. Um I I'll sort of use the second part of of what you said. First, um, what we really like about it is the pinpoint accuracy that it has for our students. So, any one of us would go into that platform, be assessed, it would figure out what we need to work on, it would then help us build those
039skills and um, depending on the student, you might be working on 6* 7 facts, you might be working on your five facts, right? Whatever the facts are. Um, and so it gives us very specific data about what the kid needs to work on. that then helps us figure out how to support that kiddo. So, um, oftentimes when we're trying to learn facts, we don't actually just learn them rotely. We will break them apart into other things that we know. So, again, to use our favorite one, 7 * 6, we could break that five and that seven apart into a um, sorry, that seven apart into a five and a two, which would be things that we might have memorized already, 5 * 6 and 2 * 6, and then we can put those back together.
040Um, so we like it because of the data aspect of it. Um, why did we come to it? I had teachers all over the district asking for it. Can we try it? Can we try it? Can we try it? I came to the powers that be. I said, "Could we give this a trial?" And they said, "Absolutely." So, we tried it out originally at um uh Hamilton Avenue, [snorts] ISD, and Julian Curtis. And across the board, all three schools were like, "We need this." um because not only are the kids engaged by it, but we're noticing that their their working memory is now freed up to do more tricky tasks. And so, um you know, the average kiddo might spend anywhere from 12 to 15 minutes on it. Kids that have struggles might need a
041little bit more like 20 minutes on it. We do it a couple times a week. I know some teachers have started to send it home for homework. Um but um it's um having a profound effect on our ability to be problem solvers >> and it works in tandem with with all the programs and the the instructional techniques and things through Big Idea Math. >> Yeah. So so sorry I didn't address that part of it. So Big Ideas Math the practice for the facts is not providing specific data. They're just games. So it' be just like using your fraction cards. You unless you were putting them in piles where you're like we need to keep working on these. You're not getting real data back. Whereas in this case, we're getting data back that this kiddo is
042still struggling on their times nines. And so we're going to remediate that. Um, and it's not always through the program. It might be in a small strategy group with other kids that are also having struggles with their times 9. This is mostly happening in third grade. And what ends up happening is you're supposed to have those mastered by the end of third grade. And so by fourth and fifth grade, if you don't have them mastered, you might still be using the platform. But really at that point you don't need to be using the platform if you have them memorized. >> Um okay that works memor I I remember way back in Glennville memorization. But the one question I did have though is you know is this because we are seeing getting growth data from these
043types of programs and other assessments are given in school. Um can you see the increases in growth and stand out and the scores are they really linked can you show that they're linked to big ideas math because I mean that's would be fantastic. Like Sophie said, you don't have to answer the give us actual data now, but I'd love to be able to see that if if we can. [clears throat] >> I'm cognizant of the time here and we could easily spend all all all of it on Matt. Okay. All right. And Bob Bob had a comment, too. So, um, >> thanks. >> Okay, Wendy. >> Yeah, I have a question, too. Um are we concerned that util that utilizing games even if they have high educational outcomes in the short term motivates children to
044learn for the wrong reasons? You know, are we encouraging accumulation of points and rankings and stars and virtual stickers instead of fostering curiosity? Right? Like with reflex, I I understand that that they that it generates tokens used to to decorate your virtual tree. Is this do you really think that this might this is the best way for them to learn? >> All I can speak to is the success that we've had with it. It might not be the best way. There could be something out there that we don't know. Um but what I do know is that it allows the teacher to be able to focus on small groups of kids while they know that the other students that are focusing on their facts are getting very streamlined, precise instruction. Um and so um there
045could be something better out there and if we come across it, we will certainly utilize it. But um you know, right now it's been very successful. The teachers are are very happy with it. And um you know, I I I think just motivating kids to to want to do the math and memorize the facts is is a tricky thing and this does motivate them. Well, and I know I think these uh some of these uh questions are um well, the curriculum committee I know met earlier this week and I know one of the themes that we're going to be seeing probably over the course of the winter spring is this community cons growing community concern around screen time and I think that's where we're getting some of these these questions from. So, we're not going
046to solve all these issues tonight, but I suspect that's part of an ongoing conversation that we're going to having. Bob. >> Yeah. I just had a quick question. I'm not sure if it's for for for you or for Mark or whoever. just wanted to say that the the the missing interventionist. Do you feel like this might affect like some of the missing in some of the schools might affect some of the custoes and people as they can't they aren't able to break out for specific I'm sure this is not just a math thing at CLA. It's it's kind of across the board. That's why it might be more for you Mark. Do you feel like I guess some staffing issues might >> Sure. Staffing issues certainly uh have to be taken into consideration when when
047we're looking at overall student performance. You know, math interventionists were put in place because we recognize the need for their expertise. And so when we do without that particular role, you can expect there to be a negative impact. >> Does anybody have any um urgent questions to this topic? Um when it comes to um high school math, >> I I will I will note that Mr. Burn is um unfortunately unable to be here tonight. Uh he's boarding a plane with the students to go to Spain. Uh I I is that right, Mr. Mayo? Craig, >> don't forget Morocco. >> Morocco as well. So, uh he sends his regards. Uh Mr. Tada is here in his place. If you do have any um high school math questions in specific, >> one of them is mine is
048goes over for both ELA and math. And I'll just pose it now. It's not something that you can necessarily answer, but I'd love to have you guys wrap your brain, sort of give us some thought behind uh some of it. You guys were talking also about the 11th grade SAT, the improvements we've seen there, the the fact that we've seen more students taking APs um and getting higher scores there as well. I'd really love to know if we have tracked or can track the number of students that are submitting AP scores to colleges and the college credits that they're getting um for those. Um I know there's a lot of it's really valuable for a lot of students to have that understanding um especially when making choices on courses um where they can do you
049know show success um and see what they're doing in their PSATs and and the other training uh assessments that we're giving them in earlier years in uh high school. Um allows a lot of students to graduate early. It saves them a lot of money when they go off to college. um as well as allows a lot of students to have minors uh or a double major. So, I think it's really something that we should keep a little bit of an eye on um as we're moving forward, especially since it was something you guys mentioned in your presentation, but I don't think you'll have an answer today. I just want to put it out there. >> Thank you. >> You want to talk science for 10 minutes? >> I would love to talk science for 10
050minutes, but I'm sure um Miss Paladino would also love to talk ELA for 10 minutes. So, uh, I think we'll we'll kind of talk through the overarches with K8 science. K8 science is in a really good place. Um, and like Mike, I will, uh, nod to my predecessor who set us up for early implementation of NGSS and did a lot of the groundwork for providing teachers with instructional support to look at teaching and learning from three dimensions early on. Um, since then we have increased students hands-on materials both from the gener classroom K through 5, but also the integration with our library and media specialists and our maker spaces across our building. We have introduced the science side of the simulation platform on explore learning which we started in 2022 called Gizmos in 3 through
0515. We already had it in uh 6 through 12 and we started using it with our ALP learners in 3 through five first and they found such success because it so closely matches the simulations that are posed to students on the grade 5 NGSS test. I consider that to be one of the greatest levers for change in terms of our students ability to navigate a really tricky platform on the grade 5 NGSS test and I urge all of you to try out that practice test online. It's available for free on the state website. Yes, enjoy. Seven questions that are very tricky. [laughter] >> Um, we are currently in year two of our three-year realignment. And what realignment means is when my predecessor did bring NGSS to our district early on, she didn't want to change
052the instructional load and the cognitive content load of teachers at the same time. So, if content was in a grade level, she left it there and she just helped the teachers to teach it in a three-dimensional model. What I've been doing over time is following two cohorts of students, our current first graders and our current fourth graders to restructure and put the standards back in the right grade level. So, I've talked about this last year, this year, and then again next year. My successor will be able to finish that project as we have new units in second and fifth grade. And that will be the end of that project. In the 68 lens, uh we continue to see incredibly strong results in our middle school. We also have gizmos there which we have been using
053um for about six years now. Uh but we added an assessment platform last year called inner orbit. Inner Orbit is an exciting assessment platform because it does look at three-dimensional learning. And it's something that we can isolate strands of science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and the content that teachers teach to drill down to see skill gaps and content gaps and address those similar to the eighth grade NGSS assessment. And I think the only other thing I was add I would add is that we've also incorporated pocket lab which is a hands-on material to have quicker access to probes and measurement materials for our hands-on inquiry lab activities that are happening. Um I'm most excited tonight to introduce Amy Farnum who's going to who is currently working as our interim um 9 through 12 science
054program administrator right now and I would love for her to go ahead and share the 912 science if that's okay with you all. Absolutely. Thank you, Tara, and nice to meet all of you. Um, I was lucky enough to be on the development team um, early on with NGSS, and as Tara said, we were very early adopters, which led to um, our district being a leader in science education. Um, and I know when we visit NSTA, um, we all walk away saying we we need to be running the sessions. Greenwich is in a really amazing place. which is exciting because Amy is running one this year. >> Um, so we started with early adoption with three-dimensional units. Um, and we built on it as soon as Connecticut uh released released items for assessment. We added
055those in and we dug into what does a three-dimensional assessment look like? Um, and so tying in the crosscutting concepts with the science and engineering practices and then uh content. to making sure that our students can think and um perform like scientists. Um and then you could see that we added on um UDL supports. Uh Sean did a great job leading that and we put together um you know a website for easy access to UDL um supports for our students in the classroom. Um and then our newest uh projects with the um investment in pocket labs and veneer probes, we were able to have our students collecting authentic data around our campus and in our classrooms and really digging into analyzing that data. Um and uh with those new tools, we were able to um
056also begin to um introduce uh vertical whiteboarding and building thinking classrooms and throwing those graphs up on the board and really having great rich discussions in our science classrooms about um how do we display data? How do we make meaning out of data and what trends are we seeing and what patterns do we notice? Um so with the addition of building thinking classrooms we have and we then added switchetss with Paul Anderson which you're going to see the slide in a little bit. Um where you could see our students really thinking through problems authentically. They don't have resources in front of them when they do this. They are collaborating and adding on their ideas uh to show um all of the different connections. Um so in those pictures you could really see the crosscutting concepts
057come alive with the cause effect relationships and um tying together a lot of different pieces of information transferring their knowledge and um really being able to explain very complex uh problems in our classrooms. So this is what science looks like today. Um, oh, oh, and inner orbit, which Tara did mention, um, our formative assessment platform, which we can use both, um, as formative assessment. We take it in the beginning of the year and then we look at mid-year data and we look at end of year data and in analyze trends. We're able to see where are our students struggling. So right now I know that our students are working on asking scientific questions, but they're doing really great with analyzing data and constructing explanations. Um we also are able to use it in the classroom.
058You could filter out what is a classroom task versus what are these um really um meaningful assessments where we're going to look at the data. So students are able to take those assessments either collaboratively and really talk through answers which is exciting because they can build on each other and that's where they learn a lot. And that's so they're able to use the uh that platform both in the classroom with instruction. We use it with vertical uh whiteboarding as well thinking through those ideas because what the the platform isn't just um multiple choice questions. They have reading, they have graphs, they have data that they need to um use to solve really challenging problems. Um so that that platform is exciting. It's both an instructional tool and it gives us the data that we need
059to make informed classroom decisions. Speaking of reading, I I don't want to sell our our reading department short and and I keep looking at that clock knowing what happens at seven. Can we can we do a a a switch? >> Sure. >> Great. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank everyone. >> In Paladino and Bridget Barrett, >> you want to give us the two-minute executive summary? Well, I think I think reading deserves as much time and energy as everyone else. What I what I think might be helpful is if we kind of go through the the investments that we've made K preK12 because I think that is part of the bigger conversation here and look at and then directly look at those slides that have our scores from the last five years. I think you'll
060it'll paint a nice picture that will allow us to have a a short discussion. Um so as you can see we've made a lot of investments in our early literacy programming in the last six and a half years. Um notably we've talked about foundations which is our phonics program that we implemented over a multi-year implementation period. um and ending with a prek3 really consistent explicit um scope and sequence of how we introduce phonics um to our students. We've also um before that we had holes in in phonics instruction. We had holes in phonmic awareness instruction. As you can see, we've added in a phmic awareness um curricular component that the teachers feel have has really done a nice job aligning all of the other components of our comprehensive approach uh to reading. Uh we've talked
061about geodess over the years which for new board members are our knowledge building um decodable texts that align with the scope and sequence. So kids are getting accountable practice into quotable texts early on to build fluency early so that we can um move them on to harder reading comprehension um tests as we go. Um we have updated our K2 reading and writing units um that align more with the other components of our of our comprehensive literacy approach. um and all of those components weave together and teachers are seeing through lines to all of those pieces that we have in place. Um in our upper grades, we've implemented vocabulary workshop and grammar workshop. Um and we've also started to upgrade our writing units of study, which is what we're currently doing as well. Um we've integrated
062um use of IABS um in three through eight, which we'll see in a little bit. Um, but as you can see, we've made a lot of changes. And not only are we investing in our curricular resources that make our strong foundation of literacy happen is we're investing in our teachers and we're providing them professional learning opportunities in school, out of school, overtime. Um, coaching opportunities as well in which they have time to practice those new learning in an environment where they can ask questions, they can get feedback and they feel supported. And I think that that is um something we might not always talk about. We talk about scores, we talk about curriculum, but the professional development of our teachers um is our most valuable resource and they have um nailed it. Um as you
063can see as we kind of go into our next slides and we can maybe >> before you pass the slide. >> Sure. mind because I I think I think it's worth pointing out to um um both the public and everybody just how u remarkable this slide is. The um I I would I would argue that the um I I think I did in the email this morning that this is um of all the slides, you know, not to put shade on anybody else, but of all the slides in the in the 30 minute video, this is um probably the most impressive. and you don't realize it looking at it. I mean, I remember um as uh in 2017, 2018, um 2019 having conversations with parents um throughout the community and the conversations was what do
064you mean we're not doing this and what do you mean we don't have that and how do we not have that? There's no this program. Um and to say that this is a complete 180 from where the district has uh gone from um because of you know I think we can blame superintendent really is why because we had so many superintendents in so short a period of time right they uh but where we came we were behind the times really um to ahead um in many ways and a leader u is is is really remarkable in in a number of these these these programs. So, so >> well, we have to thank our ARP money, our board. We have to thank our teachers for taking this on in a very compressed timeline. We knew we
065needed it and I think the teachers will tell you that it was worth it in the end because of what they're seeing in their classrooms. And and when we get hopefully quickly to that slide, you'll see you'll see the >> you you'll see the scores to support all of the commitments that we've made to our town and our students and our teachers. >> Um >> I just had a quick one before we move on to middle school on debs because I know we talked about it. We've been talking about it for so many years, but we really haven't gotten any updates on it since like 2024. Um are we still using I just want to make sure are we still using it as a screener? has it helped with growth and are we catching more
066students early? I think that's really important for us to know because it was such a big thing. I know Mike and I were very focused on for a long time. So, I wanted to just >> Yes, we are still using Dibbles. We're in our third year of implementation of that and yes, it is helping us to catch kids earlier. >> Great. Love to get an update. Not tonight, but some point. Yep. >> In in six through eight, we um in the last four years have updated our reading units, our writing units, and accompanying materials. We've made a commitment to using um exposing our students to the IAB platform which helps them prepare for the SBA and we have put a lot of emphasis this year on making sure that we have targeted data through the
067EXL platform. We're getting targeted data so that teachers can know where our skill deficits are and improve um improve outcomes for students by understanding where students are, where they need to grow and what specific thread of English language arts is at a deficit so that we can fill those gaps and move on. Um you can keep going. Um sure. If you look at the 912 curriculum resources and professional learning, you you should note that a f a heavy focus is on ensuring alignment and rigor in all of the courses. Um so in the 22 23 school year, we worked on foundational structures. We made a um significant grammar framework and we worked on some literature circles. In 20 then the next year we focused on um our 300 level and our essay writing courses and
068grammar implementation. the actual implementation of the framework with fidelity. In the following year, we strengthened uh continue to strengthen alignment and we really um lasered it on SAT focused work in that year and attended national PD and um these plates are still being juggled. We haven't dropped anything the SAT the so um and so far this year we're um finalizing a new course. It's a non-fiction course proposal and we're refining the nth grade curriculum and study skills. And in the PD, we are focusing on um how to use AI to support instruction. >> I think it might be helpful. Terara's going to have to really scroll through, but I think what's important to note in all of the things that we've done preK12 is we've set our students up without having gaps and holes for
069the first time in a long time. And so you can see our improvement in our scores. This is just postcoid data. I will tell you that our three, four, five students have scored the highest they've ever scored on this assessment since it was created. Um our cohort growth between our elementary specifically is very very strong. If you look at the same cohort of kids over time um some fun facts our third graders are um ranked fifth in the state. Our four sixth gra fourth graders are ranked sixth in the state and our fifth graders or last year's fifth graders current sixth graders are ranked second in the state right under New Kanan. Our current sixth graders, fifth graders on this chart were our first cohort of kids to go through our foundations program. Our current
070sixth graders, fifth graders on this screen were the first kids to go through. So, it's only going to get better from there because we've filled other gaps and holes along the way. Our our middle school, our sixth graders, they're still killing it and they were 10th in the state. As we move, as we fill gaps and holes in sixth, seventh, and eighth, and as we bring up these cohorts of kids that have strong literacy foundations, you're going to see that improvement. And if you flip to the next slide, you we talked about dibbles. These are our last two years, end of year scores. So, we're seeing our kids with the current programming that is cohesive, that has been in place for the last two or three years. They're coming at end of year, year-over-year with
071high achievement, low risk um across the board. And I just got we just closed our window the other day. Our scores are on track to be on par with those red to meet or exceed those in each of the grade levels. So, I think we're seeing the the fruits of all of the labor of the past and pieces are coming together. Teachers are feeling more confident and kids are moving up in grades with a solid literacy foundation. >> So, let me let me go back let me go back to one of my my um my classic hits here. Um so, I agree. So for all these reasons, u I guess when we're thinking about ninth grade, right? Because we've got this wave of students with foundational literacy skills coming through in sixth grade. We've got
072a new ninth grade curriculum. We know we have, you know, certain students that join us later that don't have all those things. So for all those we uh for all those reasons, I can't help but continue to wonder about and because of the success we see about Dibbles and the Dibbles conversation, when we think about uh how we're building this nth grade curriculum and the place for a universal screener um in ninth grade to make sure we're catching not only um students that are lacking the reading ski, the low-level reading skills um on those foundational skills, but also the student in nth grade, we might be reading at a seventh grade level. You know, they um I think you mentioned, but we still have about 20 to 25% of our um ninth graders coming into
073nth grade um not proficient on the we're very high in state, but we still have a uh about a fifth of of our our kids not proficient coming into high school on that test. Not all of those students are classified. They um and getting direct specialized instruction. So, how we're shaping that program to meet students where they are, I think, is something I know you're you're working on that, but I I I can't help but think that's something we need to continue to think about. >> Well, we do have >> I'm sure I hit somebody's pool there. >> We have plenty of benchmarks and assessments and so on, but it's also the fact that we're not afraid to have more information on students, more data that will tell us make ensure no students left behind.
074So, I'm currently looking with our K12 reading specialist, Jocelyn Buckman, to see is there some kind of an effective screener we can use to give us another layer of data. And we've thought maybe the stars. She has another thing that she has fast bridge she's looking into. We just want it to be we don't want to take away a lot of time from instruction. We have a lot of other measurements as we go, but it would be very helpful to have something universal just to ensure as you said incoming kids, some student who's slipped under the radar. So, we are looking into that. Yeah, I mean I think I hear about the not taking away assessment things, but I think whatever you I I think whatever you pick, you got to pick something that gives
075you a reading level like as this discreet like and then that way you can drill down and use other screeners and things, but this student who's two years behind or the students who's two years behind something really specific is is helpful. But other questions? Um, we we've spent a lot of this session talking about the kids who are struggling and how we're getting them up to grade level. Um, can we switch gears a little bit and talk about what we're doing for our on track kids and for our students, our high achieving students who need ALP and honors and AP, are we making sure we're measuring their growth? I played around a little bit with the state uh what was it called? the trajectory tool and I could only see in aggregate it looks like
076we're falling off the curve that the state projects could we get more of a fine grained cut by cohort of special ed gened and then ALP honors and look at those growth trends by cohort and and just make sure we're serving all of uh the needs across the spectrum. I noticed a lot of the metrics were on on the struggling kids. >> We could do that. Can we look at the next slide as well? >> I just wanted to note you can see in the 11th grade SAT we had the um this last year was a four-year high. Um I I do want to note it's not we're working hard in our ELA classes, but the test is evidence-based reading and writing. So we're working with social studies, we're working with world lang. We're all
077we're all teachers of reading um and of looking for solid evidence and so that's a universal effort. >> Sorry, just to qualify my question was a math and English and and the falling off the curve may have been more of a math thing. So >> if >> I looked at it a while ago I just >> Yeah, if you want to email Dr. Jones with your specifics so that we can be comprehensive with our response. >> Go ahead. This is just a comment and and again it like I brought this up a little earlier and I would love to just sort of see some of the tracking especially like we're talking about we've given these tests to students you know to give them practice in in 9th grade the PSAT and so forth going forward
078um more and more colleges I mean especially this year are turning back to um standardized testing as a measurement of um impact for making decisions on whether to accept students. So, I really, really, really think it's really important for us to get to take another deep dive back into this um and to these scores because we want to make sure we give these students, one of our uh strategic plan goals is to, you know, increase graduation rates and and give them success once they leave our halls. Um how we're going to do that to support students here because for the past several years, they've thought they're optional. Even when colleges are saying they are optional, they are not optional at all. uh kids that are not giving uh tests scores are not getting it. Um
079and they're shocked. So I want to make sure we don't have our kids surprised by that by that fact. >> Dr. >> Yeah. I I just want to mention prek because we haven't mentioned them tonight. And I think when you look at the chart, um you know, we realized that our children coming into kindergarten weren't where we really thought that they should be. And it was very noticeable. And so in 2223 we implemented the prek fundations. Um and we also have heard at Hamilton Avenue and then I those of you that were on the board remember we put in prek creative curriculum um in 2324. And if you talk to especially in our title one schools um and ask them if they've seen a difference of the children when they're entering kindergarten I know at
080they will tell you it's like night and day. And so I just want to mention prek and David Raven uh who with the United Way has really supported a lot of early childhood programming from birth to three and then also at the prek level and he will be at our next uh board of education meeting to update us too. >> Any last questions? >> Go ahead. >> Um it's not a question. I just want to say thank you. I was so impressed by that slide and that video and everything you guys presented tonight and all the work that all the teachers are doing and all the thoughtful questions here. I was just really impressed and I wanted to thank you all. >> Thank you. So as a um as a board um the one wondering
081so there's a um we don't spend enough time because we've got lots of other things but I do know that um like I alluded to earlier some of these conversations are happening other areas like the curriculum committees looking at some things it might make a sense for some of the data you suggested for the strategic plan committee to um look at that because it's it's tied to that um um we will Um um we kept this on the agenda this year in this place. This was the math STEM report. Um and then last year I remember saying well why don't we just talk about math STEM every year and now I think the question is um why do we have it at this point in the year and not after we have like midyear data
082and things. So that might be something as a board we think about next year. I think this made a lot of sense particularly so many board members to go on the switch this year but it might be something to think about for next year. And with that, thank you. It >> was very helpful for us newbies. >> Um, just as we think about this for next year, I would like to suggest that we allocate considerably more time. I think educating kids is the most important responsibility we have and I think we should not be spending less time talking about academics uh than we do the pool. >> Thank you. Here. >> Thank you. Thank you guys. >> Have a good night. Thank you. Mike, are we are we staying in this this space? >> Okay.
083just because I want to make sure that if we close out this either we close this out >> or we you know >> if I had a couple of follow-up questions but I I my thought was that I could ask them >> I didn't need like the whole public setting for them so email them spec they were like specific to ELA questions I was just interested so I send them directly to you and then you >> right I will do that >> at some point >> that is that is the >> that is the Hersh County involved that we um we no we always we always send u we always have both of us generate a lot of questions and only some of them are asked publicly but they get more I usually >> yeah
084I usually send them ahead of time actually so they know what we're talking >> so it's not we're not we're not in the gotcha business so if I have questions I usually send them all out and they're like Tonight I might want to talk about this. >> It's still recording now. >> It's not >> as I was going through that video last night. One of the helpful I mean as I gather questions send them ahead of time. >> You can it's up to you. Yeah. Well, we're missing a few uh members, so when they come back, I can happily make that motion. But that's why I was asking if we were staying in here, if we were going to another room. >> Yeah, I didn't know. But then they >> I'm not sure. >> Hello.
085>> Um we are still in our uh retreat meeting session. We are waiting just for um other members to return to the table before we make a motion to move into executive session. Right. What reports are you getting? >> Actually, very few. >> Very few. >> We were launching Straws today. >> Okay. >> He's still in the Um, I was also gonna I guess I can make a little uh note that uh thank you for the budget and u more importantly I'm like I was going to ask uh I don't think we've gotten our parking passes for this year. >> Oh, >> we did. >> You haven't. >> Oh, okay. >> The first meeting we got them. >> It was a meeting I wasn't here. That's why. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, I was just
086trying to figure out if it was just me. >> I have >> No, you get you get you get a new one every year. >> Aaron was on Zoom that meeting, so I took hers. >> Are you trying to tell us your Karen? >> Um, we I think we have quum. Would you like I'd like to make a motion to move into executive session to discuss uh pending legal matters and special education. >> Okay. >> I can second that. >> Okay. Okay. Karen. All right. Seconded. Um all in favor of moving into executive session. >> Okay. Can you see the guys? >> Um, and we also need to make sure this is logged off publicly now. Or are we putting >> What is the final count? Is that uh 1 2 3 4 5 6
087>> I think it is six. >> I don't see >> I don't think Mr. Capali is is is on the moment. >> Oh, it's seven. >> Okay, it is. Yep. He just raised his hand. >> Okay, so 80 Yeah. >> Do they have other Wendy, are you there? >> Look, I'm not talking about killing a deer. >> Yeah, I don't know. Are they going to let us in? >> I would I would hope so. We just voted for executive session. >> Um >> I don't know. >> Michael's probably probably on. Yeah, if >> you can hear us. >> Yeah, I think they probably like him. >> Michael, are you there? Nacho. >> I don't know if I would have voted for executive session if I wasn't going to be involved. >> Exactly. >> Okay, I'm
088going to send a text. >> Okay. I can't hear you. >> All right. So, we have exited executive session on Zulot. >> Exit. We have We have exited executive session. No votes have been taken. Um, does anybody have a motion? I make a motion for sure. >> All right. Mr. Cheney makes a motion. Miss Hurst seconds. All in favor? One, two, three. >> So that is 10. That is No, that is uh six. No, Paul and Wendy have exited the meeting. Okay. Thanks everybody.