001Thank you, Mark. All right. Um, today is August 8th and it's 2020 uh 2022. It's 6. It is 608. Um, and I'm calling the committee of the whole board of education graten board of education to um order the which is the first call to order. Um the second um thing is I would like to at the end add a quick discussion. I did not catch this and I am so very sorry. Um is just to talk about process um for um our our interviewing for the vacancy for the candidate um position. So, I just need um I think I need twothirds um of a yes um for us to for us to be able to add it to this is a regular committee the whole meeting so it's not a special meeting. I'm just wondering
002are people in favor of that? >> Yes. >> So moved. >> Okay. Thank you. Um is there anyone who is opposed to that? All right. Thank you. And so that will be our new number six. Seven will be adjournment. Um, >> M, you need a second. >> I'll second it. >> Thank you, Miss Joan. >> Are you going to do that after suggested future topics? >> Yes. Or or it's either going to it's either going to be I'm going to put in number six right before we do a adjournment. That's fine because that's what I've said. Um Okay. And so the second is um the approval of the committee of the whole meeting minutes of July 18th. Um can I have a motion for acceptance? I have Liz. Can I have a second, please? >>
003Andrea has seconded it. Um, any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor of the approval of the committee of the whole meeting minutes of July 18th, please say I. >> I. I. >> Oppose. Abstain. That motion has carried. Um, as you did not know, um, we have moved this to be a shorter, more condensed so that we could, um, hit our second, um, meeting at 7 o'clock. So, um, but we are going to be hearing some information about K5 reading data. And I believe that that's why Tom and Susan are both here. You're always here, but Tom gets to join us. >> Interesting. >> It is interesting. This is the data in reading that we use for our children in um really K through grades K through five. It's also very useful um at the
004middle school and can be used all the way to adulthood and and teenage. So our reading >> Hey Susan Susan, can I ask you right off the bat what does FM&P stand for? >> Absolutely. Great question. Fantis and Panel, Irene Fontis, Fontis and Gau Panel. Um, Fontis is from Leslie College, Leslie University, and um, Gau Panel is from Ohio State. And they were early on innovators um of this kind of um assessment and also teaching strategies with guided reading and really understanding what are the instructional levels at each grade level that teachers need to be teaching students reading, you know, at. And then also what are the independent levels that children can read on their own and they need to have lots of time to be reading on their own. They need to be read
005to. It's so important that parents are doing read alouds and we're doing read alouds in school. And then the instruction when it happens, it typically happens sometimes in a mini lesson for the whole group, but it'll also happen in small group. Sometimes it even happens one-on-one when the teacher is conferring and sitting right by the child. And besides the three times a year that we give this particular assessment, we do something called running records. And in the lower grades K through two, that is happening kind of all the time because children move up in the levels. The levels are A to Z and they really move up by grade three to LN OP. So, you know, they really accomplish a lot of growth. And the thing about the FM&P is we do it three times
006a year, but the expectation is different each time of year in order to make growth, let's say in first grade to get to a JK that children start out, you know, sometimes um at an uh CDE. So that first grade is such a huge growth and it changes over the course of the year. It's kind of a moving target. So when you look when you get ready to look at the graphs, you'll say, "Well, boy, it seems like the same percentage at the end of the year as it was in the beginning." But that's good because that means that on the higher level, they're still at the goal. So that means they've me made measured growth. Um, and then I thought these guidelines were really pretty cool. I would like to actually put them up
007for our parents to see and have our teachers speak to this um, you know, during conferences. Um, maybe even be able to hand these out to parents when and, you know, be able to explain what level their children are reading at. And what are some of the books in the middle? you see all the different kinds of books um that kids are reading at this level and what are some of the questions that parents and teachers can be asking to really build up their comprehension. So besides this level of teaching and assessment um comprehension is really big but we also monitor um the word attack that children are doing the decoding so the phonics is very important especially in the K through two three levels um and it also is important when they're writing you
008know with their spelling so we are very much aware that you have to have you know this combination of teaching strategies. >> Susan, can I interject? >> Um, I was just thinking as you were talking, you're saying like the teachers >> we were, one of the things, if I remember correctly, was, you know, we we used to do like um little presentations to parents at night, you know, like, okay, so all the all the kindergarten or all the lower elementary parents will be invited to this. Maybe instead of having it be on the onus of the school or of the teacher to for it to be a district thing and that we would go and have these little workshops for parents, right? >> And that might be a little, you know, something for them to
009become, >> you know, take that off of that their plate but put it on, >> you know, >> the our plate type of deal. Just a suggestion idea. >> And I think we were doing a lot of that prior to I know >> but I don't want to use that as an excuse. I you know we've named it Kim and I K Tim actually named it coming back to community and that's a perfect example of coming back to community. You can do that with literacy reading and writing you can do that in math with the NGSS science standards. It would be wonderful to be able to have a science stem and our schools with their magnet themes I think will be doing much more with that those either daytime or evening um presentations where kids
010are actually presenting the things they've learned. So, I'm looking forward to that for sure. >> This is just the next guide. >> Okay. So, this is um Yep. And then the RST. So, this is really kind of um late elementary, early middle school, and the kinds of questions that are being asked. Um what were the major events that led to the problem? Um in the and the solution. So you see that they're really expanding their their talk about it and having more in-depth thinking. They have to show evidence of their thinking from the text that they've read and that correlates also with the ESPback and what they're asking on the SPback for comprehension for reading. So um that's something I'd love to bring to the board at some point, those kind of SPback questions. So,
011I'm going to let Tom take over from here um to show us the data and the shape of the data. This looks pretty impressive for Kay. Yep. >> So, I just want to orient everybody a little bit. Um what we had tried to do and obviously it's hard for this kindergarten group is we wanted to show the last piece of data we had before the COVID pandemic so you could compare. Um we're comparing as a rough cohort. So to be clear, um we are not tracking who has left and who has stayed in the district over that time. We're just tracking the grade level over time. So it's it's possible the students within that group have changed slightly as students have kind of come and go throughout the district. But within a rough cohort, that's
012our tracking. And you'll see that in the next couple slides as those groups have been with us for that long time. Um here in the middle column, you'll see this is trimester 2, that's what T2 stands for, 2122. So that would have been in late winter, early spring. Um and then T3 is trimester 3, so the end of the school year. So you can see pretty significant growth um with the kindergarten reading scores from the winter to the spring with almost 60 63.3% of um the students reading at or above grade level. And as Susan said, this is a moving target. So not only are we increasing the number of students who are at above grade level, we're increasing the rigor that they need to the level they need to hit them. Absolutely. >> So,
013this might have been more of an AB in the second trimester, but it's a CV in the third. >> Exactly. >> And they weren't in school. Many of them weren't in school full-time in preschool, but they might have missed a a year or two of full-time, you know, or part-time education as a preschooler. >> Absolutely. >> But that's about it. So, they were coming kind of coming in fresh to kindergarten. >> Yep. Absolutely. And this is roughly in line with what we've seen from other kindergarten groups as well. uh grade one again they were not with us during the uh you know in the pandemic year. Uh here we see a slight decrease. So we had 61% of our students uh reading at grade level in trimester 2. That did drop to 54%. Um the
014largest increase came in our middle band for students just below. So that is one letter below the grade level kind of target. Uh so that's our most significant increase. We had a 2% increase in the students reading more than one letter. And those children were in school, remember, in a hybrid fashion for kindergarten. And before that, they went out in March in preschool. So they had some significant losses. >> Absolutely. >> Did you have a question on this slide? >> Yes. So Rita, >> I have a question. Yeah. I'm going to start with kindergarten. Y >> and um you know, when you look when you look at this these things, Yeah. There has been an increase in their scores, but we still have 37% of the students not on grade level or above grade level.
015And the the same is true with um it's even greater in first grade, second grade, the whole thing. It's almost very consistent. So what are the what is the staff doing to increase these scores and help the children out that are reading below grade level? >> So I would say the best thing that we do is the tiered intervention and also the first tier is actually in the core instruction. So we have purchase more of the fountain and panel guided reading the newest guiding reading kits that the classroom teacher can use or reading teacher can come in. So beyond the core, most of our students are getting another level of instruction. On top of that, for children who are like in the yellow, and that's for the kids in the green, in the yellow band,
016I would say that they're getting additional support as well from either um an intern or a um a reading tutor or a reading specialist um or interventionist. And then the ones in the red are, you know, either in special education, remember we have about 17% of our students who are in special ed, or they might be a 504, or they might just need significant support. So, they're getting sometimes two additional um examples. And then we also have before and after school tutoring and summer tutoring that's occurring. and the math and the literacy specialists are looking at that group of students to see who is who is in need of that kind of intervention. >> It's it's fairly consistent straight across the board for all our all the grade levels. Um it's it's you know except
017when you get to fifth it's a little discouraging. Um only went up to 54.3%. So >> you haven't seen it yet. more and more I feel that our resources need to go because if you don't get if you don't become a reader and understand phonetics when you're in K1 2 and three it's you're going to struggle the whole rest o of your time till through 12th grade and beyond. So to me what we need to do is focus more of our resources on these children to get them at grade level or above. That's just my feeling. Thanks. >> Thank you. Thank you, Rita. I'm gonna recognize Matthew and then Liz. >> I think my speaker is on. Thank you. Uh I share some of the same concerns that Rita does and you know, I look
018at the percentages and I think to myself, what are the human numbers behind the percentages? how many kids are represented across the three grades by that just shy of 40% number and I I hear clearly about the 17% that have special circumstances but we want to bring them along as well. What is a reasonable or what are reasonable benchmark goals that we're setting to accomplish in the three marking periods coming for this year? uh rather than just collect statistics, do we have goals and is there some way we can use goal setting as a motivation? >> We actually do that as part of the um the GED process, which is the evaluative process. The past two years have been flexible. They've um really zoomed in a lot on social emotional learning, but teachers are very
019familiar with using um goals and goal setting for students. I think when we get to the slides that show what happened in 2019 to you know that gives us a little more of bearings and especially when we look at ESPback data because remember that was the data that the state was coming to us saying we were ready to graduate from alliance because we had made progress. So there are you'll see in my goals that really if we look out to 2024 or 2025 there are expectations from the state state when it comes to state data that we should we're trying to tackle. Those are our goals. >> Okay. Perhaps I wasn't clear. Thank you for that. That was very helpful. Um I I don't want to thrust a number at you because I'm not qualified
020to do it. But are we looking are you hoping can we attain 75 or 80% in the green area? Can we drop the red area from I'm looking at grade two from 27% to 15%. I mean what that's what I meant by by targets, >> right? Well, that's kind of how we do it, Matthew. We look to decrease the red, you know, um decrease the yellow and really amplify the green. That's what you're hoping to do and accomplish. Do we do we have specific benchmarks is my question. >> So I think m >> benchmark benchmark goals that by by this time u you know in five years we hope to be 90% in four years we I don't know what the number should be but do we have benchmarks that we can work towards? >>
021That's something that we're typically setting at the school level or even the classroom level as Susan alluded to. Most of these were set at a smaller level. Matthew kind of going getting back to the human level as you're talking about. Um we certainly could set a district overall average, but we've been hesitant to do so over the past couple years just based on the fluctuation with the COVID numbers. Um so we certainly could look to to kind of move towards a benchmark that we may have, you know, previously set before the pandemic, but typically speaking, we haven't set overall benchmarks close at the district level at this time. Mhm. Would it would it be fair to say that now that we have uh our new elementary level school system which are not neighborhood schools any
022longer but uh focused schools that each school can set a benchmark and that the board can know what they are. >> Certainly I think that would be part of the school improvement plan process the principal to go through this. >> Thank you so much. >> So Beverly I'm going to do Liz and then you. Okay. Susan, I was just wondering um can we get a like a midyear report as focused on the two lower bands to see if those students are moving, how they're how they're progressing. I would like to see, you know, we got this is from last year and great because I know we've been out of the loop for and I I I totally appreciate it. >> But my concern, one of the concerns I have is I know you said we're
023not tracking the students per se or the class, but maybe we need to especially now to see >> to see that like this grade two like I or whatever correct grade. Okay, so next year let's look at grade three and compare how they're doing compared to how they did the year before. >> So what happens with the principles and their school data team is they are looking at it at a microscopic level. So they're using this data to provide the interventions necessary for children. They're monitoring it. In between these scorings, teachers are doing what they call these running records. And if you were an elementary principal, you probably remember that, you know, where you're really listening to a child read, looking at their accuracy, and then checking for comprehension. So, um, that is going on
024and and our principles are doing a really fine job in collecting that data and looking at it. So, we could certainly have a midyear check and have them come to show you their improvement plan and and where, you know, what it was set out to do and what they're seeing happening for their students >> and also what they feel would be beneficial or where they're where they need improvement or where they need more support. >> And that's probably good doing it during um our budget season, >> right? Because that's what I was just thinking if we because like Rita was saying about resources if we need to allocate more resources we need to know where we're shifting >> right >> monies in order to support our kids because I totally agree if if our kids
025can't if you can't read it's just not a good thing. >> Can I ask a qualifying question? Yeah. >> So before you had mentioned I want to be clear we do track individual students but it's not showing that here. Would you like to see kind of a student by student I don't even know how to explain it necessarily but say here are your list of students here was their levels or here are all your yellow band students for example where do they end up at the end of the year is that what you'd like to see >> I would love to see that but I understand but what I would say is you assign every kid a letter or a number or something like that so that you know it's not we don't identify a
026child you know I know you can't do that that's what I'm saying but just I would love to see how you know child number 642 starts the year here and how that 642 ends the year over here. I would love to see that. >> We can certainly do >> and that's what the principles and teachers are looking at. >> But I think I would like us to see it too. >> Oh no. And I can show you the whole district. We can show you every kid in the district. >> Absolutely. >> Um I'm going to recognize Beverly and then Rita. I believe your hand is back up. >> But Beverly, >> thank you Kim. I just want to say I agree with Rita and Matthew. Um I especially with Matthew, I like to see the
027district have some goals and I like for the board to be see those goals so we know what the goals are. Um and also Susan, I'd like to know how much money in our budget are we spending to help these students that are struggling? Maybe you can get that information to me. In our budget, how much money goes towards students that are struggling? >> Threearters of that $77 million is for teachers, for tutors, for paraprofessionals, for their benefits. So I, as I've always said in the budget process, the majority of our funds go to the people who are doing the teaching and the servicing of our children. But if you wanted to look at those tutors and interventionists specifically, those are and and special educators, those are the people who are giving more of the
028tier 2, tier three intervention. >> Could you review the what tier two and what you don't have to do it now? Okay. >> Yeah, I can go over that SRBI process with you and explain that more. >> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. for for some reason for years this isn't something new where we've been struggling with our lower level students and having a hard time moving them forward this is see it we have to get at the root of that problem what is the root of the problem why can't we get these kids moving forward it always see it was this way like 15 years ago when I was on the board we still and we continue have the same problem and Um >> I think we have to root >> in in the past
029several years prior to co when um the district was really making some strides and we had two blue ribbons in five years we were seeing measured growth but I think that with this we've had to take a back step and we've just got to get them accelerated and moving forward again. So, I agree that, you know, we really have to pay attention to the kids who are really struggling and make sure that it's accessible to them. >> You're right. You're all right that reading and writing and math are all so important for a child and a student. Do um Susan, do we have um I saw in one of the handouts that we received about um family engagement and uh do we do um I know you you have activities at night, but do you
030have activities to specifically talk about reading and teaching parents how to help their students how to help their children with reading? I mean, at one time I remember Deb West doing this at night and she had some kind of program and she was helping parents >> with reading. Um, do we do any of that now? >> We've always had that until COVID hit in 2020 and we went out. So, we were engaging parents though through um the use of technology. you know, oftentimes they were paying attention to their child being instructed or the teacher or, you know, principal or support staff would talk to the parent on Zoom. But you're right, we have to get back to we have to get back to that. That was really important work. >> Thank you, Susan. And I
031I I like to see the goals. What are our goals for this year? And even for the board, the board should have goals, too. measurable goals, not a rigorous curriculum. It should be measurable goals that we have. >> Well, I have my goals ready for you, so I will be sending them out. We've got a retreat coming up and that's where we're going to be setting our goals as well. So, um Beverly asked for the information about the percentage of monies. Maybe that could be thrown into um the board notes so that all of us can have access to that because I think that's really interesting. Thanks for those um good questions, Beverly Wita. >> Um yes. So um I would really like to hear from the the staff, the teachers, the interventionists. It's one
032thing to have administrators present this material, but I would like to be able to ask teachers questions. you know, the the ones that are really in the trenches doing the work with the students and asking them what they foresee would help increase these um scores and help our students to be able to read um on grade level and above grade level. So if when you bring back the teachers, you know, when the teachers come back and we address this topic again in the fall, hopefully we'll be able to hear from staff, not just principles, but actually the people that are in the classroom helping the students. I want to find out what type of resources they need um for the, you know, what type of funding and definitely in the fall before we do our
033budget. That's it. And our goal should be I mean 10% you know across the board at least everything should be going up. Thank you. That's it. >> And I think it'll help for you to see what the state expectations are as well. >> So we can move on to grade two. Now, here you're seeing where um we actually have students who happen to be with us in kindergarten when we went down and shut down in March 2020. >> Yep. So, this is students uh who were currently grade two students. They were kindergarteners during the year of the pandemic. Uh remember again, it's a moving target. Uh so, these students uh were at 57.5% were on grade level. This is trimester 2. This is right in the spring. A lot of them took this test in
034February and then obviously we went under quarantine in March. This is right before the pandemic happened. Um that group was roughly, you know, very close. 57.5 again were still on grade level even though that that expectation had increased several years later. Um but we had um had less students who were close to grade level kind of that approaching category. We did have almost 30% of students who were significantly below grade level. Um those numbers did improve at the end of the year. 62 just over 62% of students were at or above. Another almost 11% were just one level below. Um so we do see with this group of students that there there overall is some growth um from prior to the pandemic with over 57 and a half over 62% are at or grade level.
035Although we did see an increase in the total number of students who were significantly below grade level. So more than one level, but this is certainly, you know, we can attribute some of this to the impact of COVID. These were kindergarteners who went fully remote uh for most of the end of that first kindergarten year and a lot of their first grade year they were remote. >> Before I recognize Beverly, does Andrea or Dean? >> No. Okay. >> I I had questions before. >> I didn't see your hand in there. >> That's okay. You can't see her. Do you have do you have still have questions? >> It'll apply to everything. >> So if you go through you can go through the grades at the end. >> Okay. All right. Be >> I just have
036a comment that um Tom, you're calling it growth. I'm not calling it growth. I I think these scores are still horrible. And that's all I have to say. I think what he means, Beverly, by growth is in kindergarten, at that time of year, a child is reading at an ABC level. In second grade, in term two, they're at a level of KL M and and in third grade. So that, in other words, the text complexity that they're reading independently is so much greater, the questions we're asking. So it's not like they're, you know, they're not reading better. And we certainly have more kids reading at grade level. Do we are we satisfied that 27% at the end of second grade still were struggling and were, you know, not near the um measured growth? No, we're
037not satisfied. And so the principles have the data and they know every single child and what their performance looks like over time and we'll be you know working together with teachers and interventionists to make sure that kids have the support systems that they need need going into third grade. So just that's just an explanation of why we call that more kids making the goal at a higher level. >> All right. Thank you. >> But we're discussing third grade right now. I thought >> No, this is second. Go back to third. >> Still on second. Okay, >> we'll move. >> We can move. So this is our third grade. Uh so again they were grade one uh when the pandemic struck. So at that point 71% of students were on grade level. Uh just over 7%
038were approaching so one uh kind of band or a level below and about just over 21% were significantly below. Um we did see some growth from T2 to T3 but again this is uh overall a decline from prior to the pandemic. 60.5% of students were at about grade level uh just over 11% are approaching. So one man below and just over 28% are more than one level below where their target should >> and Matthew when you said would the expectation be 75% near or at goal this is an example of yes that's that was happening prior to COVID in this first grade group. So, we we would like to see 75% of the kids at goal and we we'll get them back there, but it does take, you know, a pandemic set in and it
039does take some time to do that work. And this has been one solid year that we've had them full in person with a lot of chronic absenteeism because a lot of our children suffered COVID. They were out for the illness and then they were out being quarantined. So, they were missing some school. So coming back next year, hopefully the attendance will be better and we'll be able to move them forward even better. >> May I respond? >> Sure. >> Uh with the limited number of times I've been in the schools, what I've seen has been really very impressive. The teachers have been working well with the kids. I'm making a judgment. Sorry about that. It's a personal judgment. The kids seemed very engaged at whatever grade level I observed. So, what follows is not a
040criticism. It's just a I don't know exactly what it is. You can characterize it. Here's an analogy that may not work. If you and I are both driving from here to Boston or New York and I'm off one degree, it's not much at a mile out or two miles out, but the second year and the third year and the fourth year, even though it's just a a degree or two, the distance between the ones who are heading straight to the goal in proficiency and those who are off track can get to be mighty large. And my only desire is how can we are there ways we can do course adjustments that can make a significant difference. Can we it's the administrator's job to make the choices I of how to do things? I get it.
041But can is there a way we can access and tap into the teachers ideas of what resources in a perfect world which we don't live in they would find useful that would allow you and us to make whatever budget adjustments we need to make so that we can you know a third of our kids being below grade level at at fifth grade more than a third 40 45% below grade level at fifth grade that's Gary and I don't know what we can do but that's what I'm looking for is and I think that's what many of us are looking for. What can we do on a structural basis that will reverse this trend? I'm sorry. Thank you. >> Uh so fourth grade as you can see just over 65% were at grade level for the
042pandemic. they were in grade two at the time. Um, in trimester 2, so two years later, they were at 53%. Um, we did see growth from T2 to T3. Um, and but again, it is not on par with before the pandemic. Not as large of a drop as grade three currently, but um just under 64% of students are grade level and over 24% 24% of students are significant. And then for grade five um so this group this cohort a rough cohort which in grade three prior to the pandemic they were at just under 57% were at grade level 30% um 30 sorry just over 31% were significantly below grade level and at the end of this year just over 54% were at or above grade level and 33% just above this >> just this group
043is going to be going is is the entering middle school. >> That's correct. >> And all right. So, um that's going to be quite a challenge for those kids. And I'm glad that we have the support systems up at the middle school that I know of that are reading supports. And um I I I have hope. I'm just saying I have hope. But that you know the the this is just the evidence the pandemic was very um debilitating. >> Mhm. >> And my own grandson's going into sixth grade this year and I see definite things where yeah there there are gaps but it's at least we're acknowledging and we're trying to find the ways to help our kids. And I I have I have hope. I just want to say that. And this particular group
044is of concern and it one of the things that's important in this district is that this data gets passed on and Tom has been instrumental in helping us secure our longitudinal data and make sure that we have a platform that's very accessible to teachers so that they can retrieve this data and that we can pass it on from year to year so that those students one at a time, those starfishes one at a time teachers know about ahead of time and we'll be able to, you know, take this information and help support children in their core classroom. And then for the additional, as Liz had said, at the middle school, the model is that the re the literacy teacher and the math teacher teach their own children support. So they have an additional 42 minutes
045every other day knowing the kids to be able to support them. And kids in tier three have the reading specialist or math specialist working with them. So, and they've got that time carved out beyond the core. So, they don't miss any core instruction. And the same thing is true in elementary, but they get this additional instruction um during the school day and then beyond the school day if needed. I'm going to recognize Dean and then you Beverly. father worked for a publishing company sales. So the result was we got a lot of books when I was growing up and he spent a lot of time trying to find places to put the books. That's an extraordinary situation. But years ago before we had kids, my wife and I go to open house and I think
046we've all done go see somebody else's house and she struck she and I noticed something. was struck by the absence and a great number of houses of bookcases or there may have been a bookcase with five novels in it or something like that. The rest was sort of for decor or knickknacks that people collected. You don't expect people would have odd bookcases or father bookcases again. It's extraordinary but there seems to be there has been for many years a I don't know if a decline or a lack of development. uh I don't know whether it's peculiar to this country or just the developed world or I don't know but for a great number of years people have been wondering why don't we read just the kids why don't we read when I was in high
047school I had a month and a half at a market research firm I just tally the ones and zeros and one of the surveys that had been done don't ask me about the quality of the survey was how many books does the average American read in a year it was less than one that was the average. Take that for forever whatever it's worth. Some teachers that I've known that work at the elementary level say you can tell when kids arrive at school for the first time in kindergarten who's already been exposed to books, who has books at home, who may have been read to their kids that arrive at kindergarten not even knowing which way to hold the book. The pictures may be oriented, but they've never seen the words before. >> Some kids are
048more precocious than others. They're not all the same. But what you're fighting with a lot of this, especially the earlier grades, is if there's reading, there isn't any reading at home. The school is having to do a lot of catch up. And it's especially debilitating for kids who may not be precocious readers. There are kids who are just selfarters. They're gonna no matter what's going on at home, they're going to handle it. They're gonna they're gonna going to overcome. Most kids need to see somebody reading at home. They have to have this exposure so they're ready to come. This is why you start to see these spreads. And Beverly's correct. This has been going on for a lot of years. Maybe not these particular numbers. And we're going back to CO, but I suspect we've
049seen numbers like this precoid. I don't expect to see everybody in the green. You're going to have some sort of a bell curve. Uh some kids, even if you cut out the special needs kids, for example, you're going to see a bell curve. When I was in fourth grade, teacher gave me Born Free to see if I could read it. And I remember that to this day. Didn't put me off of reading, but I cried over that book. I just couldn't get through it. So that was a bridge too far for me. So the uh so that's that's my comment on I think where all this is starting. you're really fighting against a lack of preparation, if you will, from uh from the home, from where the kids come from. Some are just better prepared
050uh than others. And some guests have native talent. Uh I would going from grade to I should say grade to grade, but level to level. We go from the AB, we letter them. I know that's meant to be as get us as close as possible to a quantitative >> understanding. You know, where is the kid? Um, I wouldn't I wouldn't marry that. Um, it's no reused word for me anyway because unless your instruction and your materials are are unless the complexity grows at a steady rate, it isn't true that one level above another level is two levels above the level before that one. That kind of thing. It's approximate. So I don't get too overworked with comparing one grade necessarily with another grade in terms of percentages. A trend within a grade or a trend
051maybe over years that may be more useful. But yeah, if if they're if this is what they're doing by grade five, this again without regard to how it's happening. We have 50% maybe better than 50% going into middle school ready to read and the others still struggling with it. That's a huge chunk of kids and middle school can't very well let them alone and say well the laggers will catch up somehow but most of the class barely most of the classes at reading level when they when they go into sixth grade and a huge huge morality are not ready to handle the material that they should be handling in middle school. So if they don't get the training, if they don't catch up, then what happens? Do we, for lack of a better term and
052a a more elegant term, dumb down the middle school curriculum so that a huge chunk of the kids can actually keep up? What happens to them? What's happening in sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade? Are we graduating? How many people do we graduate from high school that are barely literate? I don't mean have they enjoyed war and peace, but are actually barely literate. I've met adults, people from my generation that are barely literate. This has been going on a long time. I just don't know what the answer is. I'm in favor of applying resources, but I'm also wondering whether it's sort of an uphill or a downhill or we I don't know what yet. I probably never will figure it out, but it ain't good. >> Well, one of the things I look forward
053to sharing with you is the ESPback data. And while it hasn't been made public, we're expecting it in a couple weeks to be made public. So to take that data which is you know based on Connecticut core standards and you know look at it through that lens of literacy reading and writing to see what is what does that story tell us too you know is is it as dismal as this or is it even better I don't know so >> Beverly >> thank you Kim >> absolutely >> Susan that half a little less than half of our fifth graders reading, is that below um grade level? I I'm wondering with your new My P program in the middle school, how how's that going to affect these students that are reading below grade level? because the
054MYP program is supposed to be a vigorous program and if they're struggling reading h how are you going to help these students be successful in middle school? It goes along with I guess with what Dean's saying also. >> Those are really thoughtful questions, guys. >> They are very thoughtful. One of the things I've seen with the MYP and the reading that's happening in the middle school is that kids are enjoying reading more. They're reading more books. They're getting more instruction in reading and um you know they there is a rigor to the level of questions that are being asked of them and they're talking about when they're reading these different books. They're reading some books that they choose to read that really engages them. they they have some books that the teacher chooses and you
055know and reads um with them. So I would say that um definitely you know it our students are are very smart kids. I just have to say this and while you have the majority of them almost there and there and there's a a section of kids that definitely need that big additional support. We need to accelerate learning. We need to give them that extra support beyond the core. But we expect them to be in that classroom with that rigor, with that relevance, with that excitement for reading and writing. Um, you know, I see that when I walk through these classrooms, especially by eighth grade. And I know Amy McKenna seeing the program in literacy 6 through 12 is really looking to have that, you know, same kind of thinking all the way through and that
056same kind of work that students are doing to understand and interpret what they read because um it's the amount of reading that they're doing as Dean had suggested. You know, we really want them reading lots of books and we want them interpreting and understanding author's purpose and being able to debate and show evidence to their thinking. So, that will continue to happen, but those students that you see in the red will need some additional support and it will happen from their ELA teacher or a reading consultant type, you know, specialist who's highly certified in the area of reading. So you're telling us that >> So you're telling us that in the sixth and seventh grade that these numbers, these percentages in yellow and red should be decreasing because the program in the middle school, the
057reading program so vigorous and so forth and so on >> and the support they're getting. Really what what my goal is is that that green area grows with any students who's in Grten over time and they get better and better at it. Even though the work gets more challenging, we want to see kids really reading a lot, you know, at an independent level being instructed at a higher level and be able to be really thoughtful about what they've read and understand what they've read. Okay. So, >> so that would be the goal. >> Uh, so the goal is that those those numbers, those percentages in red and yellow would be decreasing in the middle school year because the program is so rigorous and the reading is at a higher level. Is that what you're telling
058me? >> Yeah. All the way through from Okay. from prek, you know, so the elementary curriculum that we have by design and then also middle school and into the high school. >> All right, I'm gonna be looking at that. Susan, >> I will be too, Beverly. You bet. >> I'm going to recognize Matthew >> Tom. Would it be possible to have a grade six through 12 broken out with an FNP score or if or some parallel instrument? Is there some way we can >> I I'm really the comment that Dean made was was I think right on. >> Yeah. >> I I'd like to I'd like to know where we are and the the data here. The only grade that seems to have really improved over time to get back to where they were before
059was grade four. >> Yep, we saw that too, Matthew. >> Um, we we do only administer the FMD currently up to grade five. Uh, that being said, we do have the ESPback um, which does, you know, it's not the same assessment, I want to be clear, but it does provide us a window into the students reading ability, especially comprehension wise. That is something we administer through the high school. We also have SAT data. Um, as Susan alluded to, we expect that data to be released publicly within the next two weeks and we're happy to come and share that with you. >> And we have the Lexia Rapid, which is three times a year. Y >> and so I know Tom's working on that so that we can take it looks at Lexiles, not these A
060through Z's, but there's still a measure of what kids can read independently versus what they can read um, you know, with instruction. >> Yep. The aspect scores. Oh, sorry. Matthew was just the ESPAC scores also currently do a projected Lexile. This will be the last year that they do that. Um, but they do give a projected Lexile score as well. So, we can roughly track the students Lexile growth over time. >> Yeah, if it's if it is possible and it may not be possible to be able to graph this having the different grades as different color lines and tracking how we're hopefully the graph is rising. Um there there's not a criticism, it's just a worry. And I think it's good that we're worried about our kids. >> That's right. >> No, absolutely, Matthew. I
061can tell you we're working now. I'm working with both the middle well the elementary, middle, and high school. We we want to have one longitudinal tracking system where basically we can track a kid's progress from kindergarten through 12th grade. and that any administrator, you know, can pop in at 9th grade and see what has this kid done over from K to 8 and see where this kid is a snapshot. So that way we're not playing catchup at the start of nth grade. We're not playing catch- up at the start of sixth grade. We know exactly where this kid is and we can intervene right away. So, you know, I'm meeting with representative from each level next week. We're hoping to commit to a system and build this together. So, we're making progress, but to your
062point, we need to be able to see the growth over time. >> I'm very excited to hear you say that. I think that'll be a most useful tool for everybody. >> Before I recognize you, I'm going to recognize Andrea um in that she has not spoken during this round. >> Do you want to take down the graphs so you can see each other? >> Well, actually, >> sorry. >> You my question really is about how the test is. Who writes the test? In other words, we don't have a national curriculum. So maybe I'll give you an example of an experience that I had at at the academy. I was um helping a first year, which is a senior prepare for the GRI. And I'll have to tell you that the logic that you had to
063use to get the answer was something that was not in the scope of anything that that they had prepared this young man for. And for example, if you if you if you haven't read donkeyote, you don't know what Grixic means. So who makes these given that we don't have a national curio? Where do the questions come from? Maybe they have nothing to do with what the kids have studied. I would say that with Irene um Fontes and Gay Panel, they have studied literacy and our literacy experts for years and years and work with lots of teachers in crafting the questions. When you look at those little charts for parents, you can see the types of questions that are being asked and they do relate to the story, but they could relate to multiple stories actually.
064And then the answers that are you you know that we're receiving from children there's some flexibility in that. There's not just one answer. There could be multiple answers and that's really given to the teacher ahead of time. And then they've written um the continuum of learning which is this wonderful document that really goes back to at that level instructionally at that level um you know independently. here are some instructional tools and some ways to teach the child so that they can make improvement. >> So in other words, the teachers have access not to the test they're giving this year but access to maybe prior test to see how the what the thinking is. >> Yeah. And they do these running records all the time too in a very casual with any of the books that
065the children are using. So our teachers are highly trained in how to assess the child's decoding skills and their comprehension with the questions that they ask. So it's really important that that our teachers working with the child every day know how to do this. >> So when the teachers are interacting with the children, they're they're using the kind of thinking that you need to have to to answer this. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. And the instruction that in the mini lesson the teachers are instructing that way too. And then they're off you go and they want and they listen to them read and they >> well then why then why the scores that's not making sense. >> You got to remember they've been two years and as Dean very eloquently said when they're at home and
066we don't have them full-time in school learning. We have these beautiful libraries in their classrooms in their schools. But Dean also said >> they might be home without a lot of books, >> right? And Dean also said though that this is a continuing trend that goes prior to >> Could you speak a little louder, Andrea? I can't hear you. >> Dean also said that this is a continuing a threat a trendist priorist to >> to co I don't think this just happened, >> right? Exactly. Yeah, >> I would agree. >> Okay. Yeah, Rita. >> Um, I had some other comments, but I was going to ask if we could um move along our meeting and postpone the um alliance tracker feeding to another CO and move on to top at 6 so we could um
067then have our executive session. >> I don't think we should be spending It's already 7 o'clock and we were supposed to go into executive session at 7. So, I really wrote about it in um board notes. Anyway, Rita, I gave you all the little sheets. So, if you wanted to discuss it further in another meeting, but that's what we have so far. I'm hoping for more for you in two weeks. >> That I think we should on this I would have to >> Dean, what were you gonna say? No, >> I I should have asked this before and I don't think there's an answer here and that is I am aware even though I am not a teacher. I am aware that over many years there have been competing schools of thought with respect to
068how to teach reading. I can recall phrases like whole language of the word phonetics there have been battles and unlike cosmological theories which are kind of settled with the discovery of background radiation these debates go on. We are I think living in an era that in which one of these schools of thought is dominant. I don't know what's going on how how reading has been being taught in school. So I profess my ignorance in that respect. Could we be looking at a situation where the method that we're using to teach kids how to read has run up against certain barriers and maybe we should reconsider again? I don't expect an answer tonight. we should reconsider how we teach kids to read. Maybe it's not the right way after all. Maybe it's not as as effective
069or maybe it's not as effective with our children. >> Just a throwing it out there. But I am aware that there are differing schools of thought on how to teach kids to read. If I can just in a sentence or two. Um when I when I learned to uh to read, we were in the whole whole home whole word um method of teaching and that has stayed with me for my life. I still buy books and never read them because of the way I learn to read. So you you're very correct. >> Okay. Yeah. I don't know how long's been going on, but I know that there's probably different Yeah, >> we um we have a a motion on the floor from Rita to uh move number four um to a uh to another CO
070or another discussion time. Um >> Matthew, did you say second? >> I did indeed. >> Okay. Sorry, sir. I didn't quite hear you. Is there any discussion about that? Okay. All those in favor of moving um the number four to a different um committee. The whole please say I. >> I. >> All right. Oppose abstain. We have moved that forward. Okay. Thank you. Um and um suggested future topics which was be um we have not moved. I just want to let you know that what I've gathered from this conversation that we just had, which I it's so nice to finally talk about data and it's so nice to talk about learning and it's so nice to talk about all that stuff is that Susan and I could come up with a plan on um and
071maybe start with a middle school because we all identified grade five as something that was concerning to have the middle school staff come in first to kind of talk about um their their improvement. plan, what are they working on, what are they seeing, what are they not seeing. Does that make sense, folks? And then just kind of march through. The good news is that we're down to a smaller population. So the days where Beverly and Rita and I were sitting in the 9hour meetings listening to really good information, but it was very long and very dense. We don't have as many schools that we can kind of do that, but we'll start off on that middle school so that we can capture the fifth grade. Does that sound like that that that makes >> I
072love that. >> Okay. And then and to your point, maybe um some teachers can be identified um to kind of come in with the administr administration to talk about that. It's been a long time since we've seen the teachers. So, you're right. It would be nice. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. Um Matthew, >> um in January and again in April, I mentioned mentoring, tutoring. Rita threw in the idea of homework clubs. Uh I would love to have an update on that particularly since in the last uh four weeks the White House has issued a new program with funding believe it or not uh to get 250,000 volunteers across the country to do math and reading because they finally have the data sets that are showing what the effects of the uh corona virus has been
073on education. Uh I'm particularly concerned because we hope that the virus is over, but if it's not, we're going to have to pedal very hard. Uh this program, uh provides access to what in my day was called Vista, I forget the new name, volunteers, and they will allow use of s er funds or esser funds to be used as the as the matching funds. So we don't even have to come up with matching funds from our budget. we can have the entire thing paid for. I'd like to put that on the agenda to share that again. Learn about what we're progress we're making on mentoring, tutoring, homework clubs, and any other great ideas the other colleagues have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Matthew. Beverly, >> are you on suggested agenda future topics? >> Yes, please,
074ma'am. >> Okay. Um, so I've been watching a lot of the town council meetings and they and a lot of the people have been coming up and talking about Brit Mana. I'd like to know how many students do we have from Brford Manor and how does mold affect our children? And maybe Susan, you can get back to us on that >> because they're complaining about mold and how many and asthma and all that stuff. So I want to I want to get a hold of how many students do we have from Brford Manor and how is this affecting our kids educationally? >> Well, and I'm kind of curious what Ledge Light Health um has done. So that's something that I can even pick up the phone and give them a call to see what data
075they have on that. Beverly >> Beverly, just to just to qualify that, are you asking like how many sick days student from Brandford Manor take versus students who aren't >> Well, you can give me that information, too. I wouldn't be able >> I'm trying to think of how we could discern that. >> How would we quantify except that the health department would have to share some evidence that they have too. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. And if if mold affects them, if mold affects their learning. So that I mean I Beverly I I love your question and I and and I think that you're what you're getting at, but I'm not quite sure how to narrow that scope because that would take a lot of research in terms of um medical information about finding out
076what what mold does um sick leave and then you would have to have someone um evaluate whether it's a respiratory um issue and also what is the research for mold. So, I'm not I don't want to over complicate it, but I'm not quite sure what how to get that information in a way that makes sense um about that. >> Let me start with Ledge Light Health and ask some questions, Beverly, around that and then Tom and I will look at some of the attendance data. >> Okay, that'd be a good start. Thank you, Susan. >> Okay. Yeah, Beverly, I'm not trying to be difficult. I just want to make sure that your your question gets answered. All right. So, any other future um agenda topics? All right. Hearing none, we're going to be moving. Um
077so, I just wanted to talk a little bit about the interview process um for our next candidate. We have um four five. >> Yeah, >> five. I'm sorry. We have five candidates so far. Our end date is August 12th. So um it could be five plus but at the present moment we have five. I have um today I um amasked um the resumeumés in their cover letters and I will get um Joyce to send them out to you so that you will have that ahead of time. What I'm thinking is since it's five, five is somewhat of a manageable number um and that maybe we could spend um a night um where we can just kind of interview the um the candidates um either in a hybrid version, in a Zoom version, what have you,
078but just to to kind of get to know them. But I'm thinking that we should have five or six questions that we ask each each one, which is a normal interview process. And so I'm not quite sure if how you guys wanted to have that done, whether you guys want to just send me your questions and then I will um uh put them out what we have. Um and that maybe we can quickly look at them at the next committee of the whole for quick agenda items to say, "Yeah, I like this question. I don't like that question. Yes, let's go ahead with that question." Does that make sense? >> You have to go into executive session for figuring out the questions. >> I don't think so. No, because that's not an executive session. Okay.
079No. >> Does that make sense, folks? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, what I'm asking is that if you guys could send me um some ideas for questions. >> I just want to make sure that we ask >> or send questions. >> Send questions. All right. Any other questions about that? >> What's the next part, Kim? In terms of um when the interviews would take place. Um, so thank you. That would be that that I might have an answer for that. So I think when um I think Joyce is going to be contacting all of us looking for some dates and times for availability, one for availability for the interview so that we can get that done so we can get a board member on um and in seat um as we start the school year.
080And the other would be um to find a time where we can meet together and on a retreat um to go over our board to develop our board goals um and our mission statement which is what came out of our conversations um from last night not last night last Monday when we did the superintendent um and then also when we did our self. So that's what you should be hearing very soon is hopefully Joyce will be helping me out. She did say she was going. Yes, she's already started working on it. She's good. Matthew, >> two questions. Uh, are you thinking that for question A, we'll listen to the candidate response to question A and then we will rank our personal feelings on that person's response on a liyker scale. uh and or in the
081so we can score it and come come try to see what consensus we have and or do we want to do voting on a ranked a ranked uh voting basis with five candidates and only eight sitting members now it's going to be it may be eight in favor of one person it may be scattered all over the place and ranked voting would help come up with consensus I think would do the board like to discuss that >> that's a um that's an interesting thought Matthew thank Do people have um thoughts about that? I just kind of figured we would interview and then kind of come up with um after after they left have a conversation about about each of the each of the candidates or one that we felt like made a lot of sense.
082We would then come back. Can we have that in executive session? I think we can because it's personnel. No, >> a personel. >> Is it a non-me but negotiations? >> You know what you could do? Tell you what, I won't be part of the meeting. Democrats can meet. It's a caucus. >> Well, that means me and Andrea. >> So, so five of you could >> No, that that that doesn't work. >> It's one option. >> No. >> So, I will um So, do people want a liker scale? >> I think we just do it the way we hire people. We don't do it with a scale. I so I don't know if you could hear Andrea, but she kind of said that she kind of likes the idea of just having a discussion. >> Me
083too. That's what I like. >> Okay. Thank you, Beth. So, it looks like we're mostly moved towards that, but Matthew, that was I had never even thought about that end, and I once again appreciate you picking something up that had fell off the platter. >> All right. >> What What about our vote, our final voting? So, we would have to have um a motion. It would have to be um I'll set up the agenda, Matthew. It would it would kind of say that we would interview candidates and that the board it anticipated would have a vote um on that on that matter. It would be a special meeting anyways, right? I'm looking at Dean who I sort of have now deemed our parliamentarian. >> Too long, but um yeah, no, you can you can do
084what you want. That's my >> Okay, that's that's >> Kim. Can I make a suggestion that um we give the candidates, you know, we plan out 10 or 15 minutes, however long we'd like to do. I mean, I wouldn't ask too many questions. I believe they need to write an essay about why they want to be on the board of education that we'll have all read ahead of time. But I would like to have our discussion right after we hear from the candidates. >> You know the absolutely >> the same meeting that same meeting. Absolutely. Um interview with the candidates with an anticipated vote after um after that. >> Absolutely. >> And they all get the same questions and they all get the same amount of time. >> Absolutely, ma'am. Absolutely. Um and they all
085have been asked to write a letter of intent which I think serves as >> I've read I've read those. Yeah. But it's a little different than really talking about you know what are their backgrounds and what why they want to become a graten board of education member. I don't know. The intent is a little different to me, but that's just or we could give them actually an essay to write on, you know, a topic. >> I that can I >> Liz? >> Um, this is filling fulfilling a position of a vacancy that would normally be elected. if it's not like a job. It is a job, but it's not. I really think that would be excessive. Um, I didn't have to write a letter of why I wanted to be a board member. I just
086went to the Democratic town count the Democratic town committee meeting and said, "I want to go and and be a candidate for this." And I had to tell them why. And I said, "Okay, I think that's all basically we, you know, we should require." It's it's just because I just think it would be too much. I I still don't think it's right. It's like none of us had to sit there and do something like that. >> Why would we expect somebody that has to Well, >> did I had to write something? I thought >> Did you? >> Yeah, I did. A letter of intent. >> Well, I had to say why. Yeah, I had to write something. I have at some place I had to write something. I had to >> for the Republican town
087committee, not for us. >> No, not for them. >> You didn't write >> because I was the only idiot who was willing to fill the vacancy. So, it was easy choice for them. I didn't have to convince that. >> I don't remember writing. >> But there was there was a twostep for this for you guys. >> Really? >> Yeah. I could be wrong. >> See, I I don't know because >> Beverly, what are your thoughts? >> Okay. Um, as far as what Liz is saying, I think, um, sometimes the town committees don't ask you to write anything because they just have enough people to run for that office. So, they're glad to have whoever they have and let the voters decide. So, um, >> my other thought is let's not complicate it. Let's keep it
088simple. I always believe in simple. Simple is better. Let's not complicate it. It's too much. >> So, So, can you um clarify what is simple for you? Just just coming and showing up answering questions. >> Uh right, just we have everybody's going to submit their questions. You're going to pick six of the questions. They show up. We already have their cover letters or whatever you want to call their whatever they sent us. Why they want to be a board member, why they want to um you can ask that question if you want to. I always hate when you go and interview and they ask you questions that was on your resume already. Why you ask me that question? I already said it on my resume and now you want me to regurgitate it. You know,
089ask questions that are different than what they already told us, you know. >> So, u >> that's what I'm saying. >> And Beverly, I'm I I am 100% on board with you. Sorry, Reed. I love your idea, but I just feels like that would be a very cumbersome um and it would elongate the process, but I love the idea. Um so, um I am going to I am going to keep it simple. Um silly using a kiss and a phrase >> simple, >> silly. Um and I will um ask that you guys give um give the um questions to me. I will choose um six or seven um to make sure that we got it and then um Joyce will be calling you for times and also she will be um making sure that you
090guys get all the information that was sent to me and if anything else happens before the 12th um someone else um comes with information I'll make sure that you guys get that as well. All right. >> Can can I make another suggestion? We have there are five um in August there are five Mondays. >> It's possible that we could have it on the 29th rather than have Joyce send out all that and go through all that. I mean could we just have a little vote like little ask people are they available then? >> Oh I love the fact that you're thinking thank you. >> Thank you >> no. >> Yep. Thank you. or or or like the six which is after um Labor Day. >> Thank you. >> If that might be better is always
091thinking. >> Yeah, >> always has. I appreciate that. Um all right. Any any other questions or comments? Okay. Thank you. Um I will take a motion for adjourment. >> Oh, so we're not going to have a little open talk conversation about a date rather than have Joyce go through all that. I think August 29th is fine. And what I'm going to do is I'm just going to send that out. Um we're also relying on the fact that we have the five well five plus possibly candidates um to do that. So the 29th looks like a very good idea and quite frankly if we can't get candidates I might want to steal it for us to have a a retreat. So so stay so stay tuned you. So what I'm saying is that your thought process
092is thank you for looking at the calendar. Um it makes a lot of sense to go ahead look ahead sibling for the moment. All right. So that so yes the 29th makes sense and so it either will be for the interview interviews and and vote or it could be the start of a a retreat. I don't know but it's it's a good idea. Um that was a discussion. Uh uh do I do I have a second? >> Second. >> All right. Any further discussion? All the va all in favor of a motion for adjournment, please say I. >> I. >> All those opposed abstain. Okay. Motion has carried. This meeting um is been cancelled has ended at 7:20. And I'd just like to thank Tom for his good work and your support in having a
093student data manager because he certainly helped with us being able to see clearly.