001Next on our uh agenda, right, we're ready to move on. Good. [laughter] Is our work session item um our equity topic, our long-range plan overview from our secondary schools. Uh we get to hear our action plans. So, I'll turn it over to our panel of guests here today. >> Before they start and I uh sets up the presentation, Maria, just do a quick overview of the focus of our work. I know that our board understands it, but for our audience >> and good evening. Um, we are really excited to have our amazing panelists here, our secondary leaders share tonight their action plans. As you can see, the core of the work is based on our vision, beliefs, and core values. Um the board is very well aware of what they are and um it all
002centers on our mission which is ensuring excellence for all students through uh through equity. Um, as Owen mentioned this evening, the importance of cohesion between a preK12. And tonight, what you will be hearing is the secondary uh continuation and the building on the work that our colleagues a couple of weeks ago presented uh in our with our elementary team. So, I leave you with these amazing leaders uh this evening and we are talking about just to build on Mary's prouds. This is definitely a proud this evening. So, welcome. >> All right. I will kick us off with some um information about AMD. So, as you um can recall, I wanted to take a moment to just recap the past few years um under our team's leadership. So during the 2023 2024 academic school year, our
003primary focus was on relationships, safety, systems, and structures. And I think systems and structures has become my middle name as I look around the room. Um but it is so important. Um they are so important. So uh then last year we shifted to sustaining our systems and structures in order to foster a culture of academics here at AMD. This year our vision is to foster a culture of academic excellence which we really see as that notch up on the work that we've been doing. And prior to the start of this year we actually explored what does excellence mean with our staff. So, we had a shared understanding going into our work as a team this summer with our own leadership team, with our curriculum coordinators as we brought our action plan to life. Um, and
004so our two goals for this year, which you can see outlined here, really capture the focus of maintaining and enhancing our systems and structures, particularly as they relate to instructional practices and continuing to show ensure that all students experience a sense of belonging here at AMD. Let's do that one. Um, so I'm actually going to turn it over. um to Jared who's gonna talk a bit about teaching and learning. >> Okay. Hello everybody. Okay. So for AMD teaching and learning, our instructional work is centered on helping students grow as readers, writers, and thinkers in every single classroom. One way we're doing that is by making vocabulary and language visible and accessible using strategies like the Freyer model and illustrated word walls. These give students the language they need to talk about their learning with confidence.
005We're also deepened our use of AVID strategies like focused note-taking and critical reading so students can break down complex tasks and build habits that will support them well beyond middle school. This year we're excited to offer an eighth grade AVID elective giving students even more structured support in organization goal setting and academic ownership. Finally, monthly PLC's using the PLC plus framework will be key spaces for collaboration. These will help us define and implement common instructional practices by content area, building consistency for students and share language for teachers. To share more about data informed practices, I'm going to turn it back over to Dr. Novver. >> So we are so fortunate to have so much data at our fingertips ranging from Panorama to NWA, New York State assessments, the NISTEL and the NISLAT. We have access
006to the data. But data sitting in these repositories will not unlock student learning. So we must be strategic in our use of these sources of data to enhance our instructional practices. And our plans for this year show how we are going to do that to particularly enhance instruction at the tier one level. What you see here is a snapshot of our schedule this year. Through our work with our scheduling associates consultant, Michael Reddig, we were able to carve out common planning times for core teachers. This is a strategic element of our action plan to support tier one instruction. Just to kind of show you, oops, nope. I was trying to get the uh right here. This actually talks that line where it says professional shows each period um that teachers are available to collaborate together.
007So now um with the exception of a very few teachers who teach across grade levels. So they might have an instructional block during that time. Sixth and seventh grade teachers have a common planning period every single day. And eighth graders eighth grade teachers have a common planning period every other day. And part of the reason for that is the um earth science lab and the way that that rotates, but we were able to work to create that. And what this allows is for our teachers to meet formally and informally to review data, have MTSS meetings, and most specifically use the data to plan for instruction. We're continuing to leverage our partnership with Kathy Connley um to support our teachers capacity to understand and develop their instructional plans based specifically on NWA assessments and our New
008York State assessments including the NISSIS Lat. Um, most recently on Monday, our ELA teachers, social studies teachers, special education teachers, and AIS providers met with Kathy to review the fall NWA results and New York State remediation reports for individual students. The goal of this work was to utilize data to support tier one. Specifically, how do you modify the learning objectives to align to the needs of all students in your class and or create small groupoup instructional plans that are taking place in your classroom. And that data and that session provided that support. And all of this work is possible because we work as a team with ourself as a leadership team and our coordinators um on a strategic professional learning calendar which you see um just a snapshot posted here in the slide. This calendar
009was developed by our leadership team in consultation with our curriculum coordinators and directors and we were able to take our district focus or our PLC's connect it to our action plan and ensure that each month has a focus aligned to the action plan and now at our leadership team meetings and our monthly meetings with coordinators we come back to our professional learning action plan assess how we're doing in line with our action plan and then re-evaluate valuate. So just today we met with coordinators to ensure our professional learning plans are set through our December um through the winter break. So um all just a one of some of the ways that we're utilizing data to inform our instructional practices here at AMD. And I am now going to turn it over to Will to talk
010about equity. >> Good evening, Board of Education. Our equity work is at the center of everything that we do and it starts with knowing our students very well. We are looking closely at subgroup data so we can respond to the needs of multilingual learners or other groups who may need more targeted support. This means language support strategies are happening in every content area not only ENL so all students have access to grade level learning. We also partnered with Dr. Goldie Muhammad in social studies to strengthen our culturally and historically responsive literacy practices because we believe when students see themselves and their histories reflected in the curriculum engagement and belonging grow. As we expand opportunities, we are increasing algebra 1 enrollment for eighth graders, making sure that access to advanced coursework is open, equitable, and student
011centered. We also offer diverse star enrichment programs across athletics, the arts, academics, music, and by providing these multiple pathways for students to explore their strengths, they develop passions, and they build confidence. To share further how we're partnering with families and the community in this work, I'm going to turn it over to my colleague Roda. Thank you. >> Good evening. Thank you, Will. Our partnerships with families and the community are a big part of what makes all of this pos work possible. We really want families to feel informed and connected. So what we did was we created simple curricular snapshots that show what students are learning and how they can be better supported at home. We're also continuing to grow our collaborations with groups like Gross Wellness, PEK, Andress, and Youth Bureau. These partnerships help us
012facilitate programs that support students well-being and open doors to opportunities beyond the school day. Another priority for us here at AMD is celebrating identity and building belonging. Like Dr. Novver talked about, our calendar now includes cultural events and guest speakers that uplift our students and highlight the diversity of our community. And through our MTSS work, we're reaching out earlier and more often, especially around attendance and academics. So, families are really and truly true partners in helping students stay on track. And I'm going to transition us now to those intended outcomes and turn it back over to Dr. No. So, as um you may recall from previous action plans, the idea behind as we build our action plan is if we do all of these things, this is what we believe is possible for our students.
013So, on the slide above, you'll see our action plans in different areas. Thinking about our expansion. So, we believe by doing all of our action steps, we can lead to these outcomes, including um expanding how many families access Infinite Campus this year. Um, a team of us went out uh to I almost said Orlando. We were not in Orlando. We were in Anaheim. Um, at the AVID conference and in in our during our time there, we actually set some very specific goals related to our AVID courses different for elective experience and schoolwide. So, the elective is that eighth grade course that the students are enrolled in every day. Um, and they are co-enrolled in both algebra and earth science with that. The AVID experience is our sixth and seventh grade every other day course that
014the students engage in. And then our schoolwide goal is because all of the structures, as Jared highlighted, extend to all of our students. We've also are looking to decrease our chronic absenteeism and utilizing those strategies that Roa shared about early and often communication, including our partnerships with family engagement specialists. I met with um Carol Delonte and um Denise Domar today who are incredible assets to our team who are going to continue to support our current um clerical staff in that reaching out in reaching out to families. We've got our measures of school belonging as informed by our panorama data. Um, and our main area, if you recall last year, is the idea of in our academic areas to squeeze the toothpaste, as Kathy Connley said. So our goals for this year that are that in
015every academic area as measured by NWA we will have a decrease of 2% 2% of students performing in the first quintile and an increase of 2% performing at the fourth or fifth quintiles from the 61st to 100th percentile. So this was our spring data and our goal data. But I do want to share as you are looking at those numbers hot off the NWA presses, I can proudly report that in our Spanish literacy um as of the uh assessment closing on October 17th, we have 34% of students performing at the 1st to 20th quintile. So we are currently exceeding um our goal by 8 percentage points and we have 19% of students performing at the 61st to 100th percentile. So again exceeding the end ofear benchmark but we have to be careful we don't change
016benchmarks because of um the ways in which over the year that standard shifts. So we're in a very good spot though to support our students instructionally. Um currently in ELA we are still at the um we are kind of on target with where we were 26% of students performing in that first quintile and then um 35% performing at the upper quintile. So we're getting we're taking a look at our ELA instruction and being strategic about that. And in math 18% of students are in the first to 20th quintile. and 38% are performing at the 61st to 100th uh percentiles. So we are exceptionally proud of all of our educators, all of our students. Um but we are seeing that growth and we are excited to continue to implement this action plan to see what this
017brings for our kiddos. So thank you. >> All right, good evening everyone. We're still at evening, not night yet, right? Okay. Okay. So just a really quick I just want to kind of highlight the goal that we had for last year and kind of bring you into where we are right now. So just a reminder our focus for last year really centered around literacy and attendance. And while our goals don't speak to that specifically, I want to help you to understand how we arrived at where we are now. So you'll still see literacy and attendance embedded in our plan, but it's more of an action step rather than being a focus. So, if you see um up on the screen, you're going to see throughout our presentation little icons of us um as construction workers
018because we started off the year um with our faculty really talking about the fact that we want to build the school that we want to see for our students, what we're ensuring that we want to see and how we're creating, as Dr. Novver would say, those systems and structures. You'll hear some of that. So, as we have become more and more aligned, you'll hear some of the language that has been interchangeable um within each of our schools. Um but meeting with uh Kathy Connelly this summer with the team, with the curriculum coordinators and looking at all of the data, um one of the visions that I set with the building is that I wanted us to think about our vision statement, something that everyone when you walk in our building, you know what we're working
019towards and what the expectation is. And so this year we started out with every student ready for college career and the future that they choose. That is where we started. Um it's morphed into a little bit more that I shared with our ninth graders during PSAT day which is along the four E which is not something that I created but it's something important that I want them to know which is that by the time they leave we want to make sure that they're prepared to actually go into um employment, enrollment, enlistment or going into entrepreneurship. So the vision that was set was every student ready for college career and the future that they choose. At the high school, I wanted to be clear, it's a little bit different where we want to measure our growth
020in many different areas. I think that superintendent Fox Alter said it best that in every other grade level um they are working when their their work is represented on a a report card. At the high school, it's very different. their work is represented on a transcript that really helps to show what their post-secary experiences will look like. So for us, it's how do we make sure that we ensure that all of our students are ready for college, career, and whatever it is that they choose to do thereafter. And again, all of our students. So you'll hear in our presentation that we're building on much of the foundation that our colleagues in the lower grades have established. Um, at the high school, one of our focuses, we want to make sure that our students in each
021of the classes across the disciplines, that they're speaking more, that they're writing more, and that they're reading more. So, you'll hear a little bit about how we're doing that throughout the throughout our um building. Um and then also for us it was important that we work collaboratively um with all of our outstanding teachers, curriculum coordinators, the administrators, counselors, but also our directors in making sure that the work that they're doing within our building aligns to our action plan. So in a building as large as the high school, you have to really make sure that everyone is rowing in the same direction. So as much as possible, I continuously went back to our directors, went back to our curriculum coordinators. what does this look like in your content area? What does this look like um just
022really in in their specific areas in order to make sure that we were all aligned. So that is some of the focus that you'll hear as we move through the presentation. So for our first goal, it is to establish systems and structures that prepare all students for enrollment in higher education, employment, military service, or entrepreneurship. Again, at this point, we're establishing the system. So we looked at it by way of if we are building that house what are the systems and structures that we need to have in order to make sure that this is a possibility. So one of our focuses is that we want to make sure that our work remains aligned with the nice inspires New York framework um which the state has recently begin to um publish. So using that as our
023compass and that guides some of our our decisions and our pri priorities as we move forward. both myself and assistant superintendent Myers along with Mr. Ducos, we've begun participating in some of that work around the county just understanding what that looks like at the high school level and we've begun to have some of those conversations with our faculty around professional development also target instructions and how we make sure we stay on path with New York inspires. We're really hoping that by aligning our efforts as a system and focusing on academic achievement and real world readiness that our students will really be prepared to pursue their goals and succeed beyond the high school. Our second goal um our second goal um if you can just go to the next slide. So, our second goal, I'll read
024it first, is for 100% of our 9th graders to be on track for graduation by the end of their freshman year in the 2526 school year, we aim to reduce that existing gap by 20%. So, let's talk a little bit about the numbers and how we arrived there. So last year with our ninth grade students, we realized that 20 out of the 344 freshmen that started last year, 260 of those students earned at least five or more credits within their freshman year. We're looking at five or more credits as being on track because of the fact that if you look at the board policy, when you have five or more credits, really that's what the board speaks to being in the sophomore class. So, if they want to make sure that they're progressing, at minimum,
025they should have earned five credits within their sophomore year. There's a tracker that you have there, this beautiful graphic here. I will not take any credit for it as I started creating my goal. Uh, Miss Mauricio told me she worked on this eight years ago. And so, I went back and looked for that graph. And so, this is something that she created to help us to know when students are on on track. So we're not only looking at just credit acral though we're also looking at the fact of in order for them to be on track they should have earned at least five credits in freshman year and they should have passed two the two regences that they have to take during that year which is the math regions in addition to the biology regions.
026Now the reason why we're really focusing on our ninth grade. So I talked about the systems and structures of the house and for us I said to the team like we're starting on the ground level our ninth graders understanding that if they are set on the right track if we make sure that we build that foundation with our nth graders then they will proceed more and that ultimately impacts our graduation rate. So last year 260 of our studentu 260 of our students earned the five or more which is about 76 credits. Um but we realized out of the 260 only 177 actually pass both of the regions. Okay. So that's where we're looking at right now at least 51% of our students are on track. That's looking at not only five or more credits but
027also the two regions that are indicated in nth grade. So, when we're thinking about closing, looking at that gap, the gap is about 49%. 20% of 49% is um I think the difference is about 9.8. And so that's why we're looking at making sure that at least 60% of our students in this current cohort are on track by the end of um by the end of their freshman year. Looking at the predictors, we know that our students, if they remain on track, like I said, it sets the foundation, but it builds that academic momentum. It gives them confidence as they enter into the 10th grade. If they remain on track, they're able to take some more of the advanced level courses and electives that they would love to participate in. That means it requires fewer
028credit recovery interventions, and they have more time for enrichment and post-secondary planning. And we also believe that that means that our students will stay engaged and connected because they know that they're moving towards graduation. By moving from 51 to 60% we believe we're really ensuring that our students have a solid foundation for future success and that we're laying the groundwork towards graduation. So that is an overview of our two goals and right now I'm going to pass it off to Miss Mingo who's going to talk to us a little bit more about teaching and learning. You need I can project [laughter] >> who hopefully she tells you I went through maybe five different iterations of an emoji just for her. [laughter] >> Here it is. This is how we landed. She's being generous to tell
029you it was only five. It was probably a little bit more than that. Um I think you landed on Yep. That was really well landed on. [laughter] >> Um good evening everyone. So really to echo a lot of what Miss Langley said um and I'm not sure if we're tallying how many times we're saying um systems and structures but I'm going to add everyone everyone can add a tally. [laughter] >> We could add a tally mark. Um we're really going to start to look at our New York Inspires plan and really start to develop that shared understanding of a portrait of a graduate. um really looking at those specific attributes, being academically prepared, being a c creative innovator, a critical thinker, an effective communicator, a global citizen, and being reflective and future focused. And a
030lot of what our goals are really align very closely with these attributes. um this shift really and and the focus that we have is really to think about how the shift how we are shifting from simply earning credits to really creating more experiences for our students um and really helping to prepare them for life beyond OS. Um, when looking at that New York State portrait of a graduate, it's it's really highlighted that how we are equipping students to learn and grow and then contribute meaningfully to society, which I'll speak to in my um next action step. But part of this work is really assessing what current action steps and current systems we have and then how we begin to align our work and build and building as specific departments as not just a building but
031also specific departments. Um as an extension of that work and you'll see this in our second action step is really piloting the generation citizen program. Generation Citizen is a civics readiness program and it's really a hands-on program in which students are able to explore how they can make an impact on the larger society and help inform and shape decision-m really the units are a passion project. So students choose a unit of their choice that they feel passionate about and really start to conduct a root cause analysis of how they can explore factors that result in some of these issues that are might be local to the community. The next step is for students to help develop an advocacy strategy and really start to think about how they can make meaningful change in their community. Um
032so when we look at the portrait of a graduate um and really start to align with some of our curriculum framework in our participation in government classes we are really looking at how this could be embedded throughout um future classes in in some of our um in the upcoming year. So at the very end, students participate in a civics day where they can really share their passion project and talk a little bit about how they themselves can implement some change in the community. And what is so wonderful about the generation citizen program is that when you compare it side by side with the seal of civic readiness, you see that those components of civic knowledge and civic participation really are embedded throughout each of the units. Um so one of the highlights that you know
033we really want to hone in on is last year we had about 55 graduating students uh graduate with the seal of civic readiness and we're hoping that with incorporating this pilot program of uh generation citizen we can increase that number to over 87 plus. So students who are graduating and participated in both our senior capstone in internship program in addition to the pilot class of participation in government will all qualify for the seal of civic readiness. Um, and then just in addition to that, right, as we continue to branch this out and expand into future participation in government classes, we will hopefully, and maybe it's reaching for the stars, um, hopefully have almost 100% of our students graduating with the seal of civic readiness. I will now pass it off to Dr. Barbach, who will
034speak a bit more about data informed practices. [clears throat] >> Project to There we go. Good evening all. Um so when we look at utilizing data to ensure that our students are on the right path for life after OS, we want to make sure that we can quickly and efficiently identify the students and continue keeping track of this data. Now we already have this this data at our fingertips um in the repositories as Dr. Nor had already said. I'm going to cite her every time we use her. Um, what we're looking for is just finding a more streamlined way to access this quickly, especially in our house meetings because we want to be able to recognize at a glance who continues to be on track and who continues to be off track so that we
035can continue to intervene as a house team um and kind of overcome whatever obstacles we see may be um confronting our students. One of the most uh integral components of that tracker would be attendance. Now, we've already done a great job kind of highlighting and celebrating our 9th grade students um on PSAT uh PSAT day. We highlighted those by giving them a snack because who doesn't love snacks? Um with the stay with the saying clip to it, it must be hard being this perfect. So, we want to make sure that we're giving as much positive reinforcement to those who continue to attend and continue their interest in their courses um and stay on track both attendance-wise and grade-wise. So, we're monitoring these attendance uh this attendance in our house meetings along with our deans and
036with our attendance officers. um making sure that we're communicating with families, our house teams are on the same page about these students and making sure they receive the necessary support in addressing any obstacles because we know that when they're here today, they are ready for tomorrow. And one of the reason we put this picture of Miss Langley up on stage is that we've addressed our freshmen uh when we first had a conversation with them is that we want to ensure that in June 2029, each one of them walks across this stage and shakes Miss Langley's hand when they receive their diploma. So that is equity. So I'm going to pass this mic to Miss Haristen who's going to address equity as long as we don't break it. Okay, >> thank you. Uh hello everyone. I
037hope you're all doing well tonight. Um I'm really excited to speak to goal number one as it relates to equity. Um so in order to meet our goal of preparing all students, and I mean all students for all the different pathways after high school, one of the first things we're going to do is analyze data to identify opportunity gaps. So why is it important to look at data? I'm gonna give the the one second the two seconds 5-second teacher wait time. [laughter] Um just kidding. So why is it important to look at data? Um we strongly believe that in order to create equitable um systems and structures, we first have to identify where the inequities are. Um so you know we're going to be looking at data such as you know which students have access
038to college level courses. um which students are getting all the information about the different pathways after high school and essentially which students are not taking these pathways or getting access to these pathways um and most importantly finding out the why right like why aren't students getting access um to these uh pathways. So once we have all the information and all the answers, um we can do things or we will do things such as looking at our course study guide and seeing if there's any changes we can make there. Uh looking at our scheduling and the way that we uh assign courses to students. um training all of our staff members to ensure that you know they know the right information and all of the information to share with all of the students so that all
039the students are getting access to the information about the different pathways after high school. Um bringing in programs and partnerships uh that truly reflects our students wants and needs and doing check-ins so that you know we can stay on top of any of the barriers early on. Um, so that's looking at the quantitative data, right? And we love quantitative data, but we also think that qualitative data is also equally important. And so that's why our second action step um is going to be increasing student voice through talkbacks and community circles. We really want to hear from students and their perspectives and their real life experiences to be able to uh make decisions uh based on their uh wants and needs. So recently uh during PSAT days, we did community circles and uh talkbacks. Um so
040we had our ninth graders uh split up into groups and they all sat in circles. Um and they were able to really engage in discourse about what the transition is like from middle school to high school um and answering questions like you know what are some of the things they're struggling with, what are some of the things that they need support with and etc. And then we also invited some of our seniors um to ask questions and the you know the ninth graders were really excited to ask questions about like organization and time management and how they can be part of the school community more uh which definitely aligns with you know preparing them for um life after high school. Um so both of these action steps uh we really feel like will help us
041create more equitable systems and structures um that is inclusive, responsive and truly student centered. So thank you and I'm going to pass this on to Miss Kos for family and engagement. >> Just before we move on that I just want to say thank you for the talkbacks. We talked about the fact that we had some of our seniors um speak to our freshmen and we talked about really organizing that. That was really Owen. So Owen, thank you so very much for making sure that we had the seniors there that day. >> Thank you. >> Um, okay. So, good evening everyone. So, now regarding our pillar of family and community engagement, our work aligns closely with the district's mission to recognize and strengthen the value of family school community partnerships and supporting all students. To support
042this goal, we'll continue hosting grade level parent nights. These events give families a clear picture of student pathways, graduation requirements, and post-secondary opportunities. They also make sure that families and caregivers know what's expected of them in supporting their students. At each of these events, we have translators available so that every family can fully participate in the conversation. I'd also like to highlight uh the work of our family engagement specialist, Alicia Eningga, who has created strong partnerships within our community through home visits and conversations with students and families. It's been a really great addition to our building. Furthermore, we're also working to increase opportunities for students to get hands-on experience through internships, volunteer work, and employment with local businesses and community organizations such such as Oprime. These experiences give students real world real real world learning
043and help them build stronger connections to the community. We make sure students have access to classes and careers that match their interests. For example, in the future health care healthc care leaders course, students learn through the school health center, guest speakers, site visits, and they research in the fall and com and they complete healthcare internships, research projects in the spring. In the senior capstone internship program, skip students explore a topic they are passionate about and complete a meaningful internship in that field. And for Project Thrive, something that has happened this year, they've collected gently used clothing for a popup thrift store at the Austinine Public Library. Also, through Oprime, we've partnered with community organizations where students can volunteer and complete their seven required hours for each year. All in all, we're committed to engaging families
044and the broader community in our students educational journeys, honoring their diverse perspectives and support that they bring to our schools. Now we'll hear from Miss Mingo regarding our pillar of teaching and learning for our second goal. Okay. So when we look at specifically at our second goal, one of our first action steps is to look and to really hone in on teaching and learning specifically at the tier one level. So the hope is that we are enhancing tier one instruction by focusing primarily on lesson design, vocabulary development, and the idea and concept of disciplinary literacy. This goal really will help support all learners and promote mastery of meeting grade level standards. So similar to what Miss Langley mentioned earlier, much of this work really aligns closely with our goal last year, right? So you'll see
045a lot of this work embedded in this action step. Um and when we when we speak about lesson design, we really are focusing on how we are enhancing content and language objectives in our lessons as we as we plan and prepare curriculum. When we look at vocabulary development, it's much of the work that we are doing with Dr. Mson as it relates to tiered vocabulary words. looking and and intentionally planning tier one vocabulary, those high frequency common words that we see in content areas, tier 2 vocabulary, which is focusing uh predominantly on academic words crosscurricular and then those tier three words that are really content specific. So, a lot of the future work that we'll be planning in future PLC's will be focusing on intentional vocabulary building in each of our content areas. And then
046lastly, when looking at disciplinary literacy, it's really thinking about how each of our departments are really focusing on on promoting and fostering a student's ability to think, read, write, contextualize as mathematicians, scientists, right? historians um in the work that they do each and every day in the classroom. Um I'll speak and I'll highlight our English department just you know as comes off the heels of superintendent conference day. The English department did some phenomenal work in really aligning um the current curriculum into our new district scope and sequence and really you know had wonderful conversations and collaborative dialogue really looking at vocabulary. Um it went so well we're actually continuing the conversation at Monday's department meeting. So um really just thoughtful dialogue has really taken place um in in the spaces that we've had thus far.
047So it's just really exciting to see where the work will continue to move forward. Um and then you know I speak about the English department but in in future and upcoming PLC's this will really be happening across and throughout the building. Um secondly, uh which I just previously highlighted briefly, uh we will facilitate monthly PLC's throughout the course of the year. What will be a little bit different this year is that last year colleagues from across multiple departments came together in a PLC. The intent with our planning this year will be that PLC's will be department specific. So it will really provide teachers ample time and additional time um to really discuss curriculum, curriculum framework and really touch on um and have [snorts] dedicated time to go into lesson design, vocabulary development and really promoting
048data and disciplinary literacy. So this these PLC's um that I speak about that will really focus on curriculum will also provide time to work on common assessments and quarterly exams which Dr. Borbach will be speaking to next. >> Thank you. In our efforts to reduce this uh this gap by 20%, we're really looking to align our assessments um by examining performance data that's specific to the New York State learning uh region's learning standards and skills in our core content areas. Uh [snorts] so the data is not just going to be used to identifying to identify learning gaps, but it's also going to be used to guide our teaching practices. It's also going to give us the opportunity to monitor progress as we continue on through the year. We've recently signed on to a new program
049called formative. In this program, we can actually tag skills and standards within our formative and summitive assessments, [snorts] which this program will quickly analyze and display data surrounding these tagged skills and standards that we've identified. That's going to give us uh the opportunity to see certain areas of need as well as help to guide our professional learning communities that Miss Mingo had mentioned. Right. [snorts] So therefore, it's not just about identifying who and what we're targeting, but it's actually going to help guide um where we are looking to grow. Uh so we're really excited about utilizing uh this program that we've signed on to um and how it's going to continue to help us utilize data. Um and I'm going to pass it to Miss Carol. So now turning to our pillar of equity. Uh
050for our second goal, we're focusing on embedding culturally relevant teaching practices using Dr. Goldie Muhammad's Hill framework, which helps promote engagement, belonging, and representation for all students. Our staff has already been doing a lot of work around historically responsive education. Last year, for example, we held community circles throughout the year. This year we will sustain and deepen our learning through our monthly equity committee meetings, our student equity meetings, and district level meetings. We're also working to enhance access and engagement for our English language learners and students with disabilities. This includes targeted training on the SCOP model and ICT instructional model as well as co-eing strategies for our ENO and English partnerships with Dr. Dr. Andrea Hanikfeld. Currently, our ENL and English teachers have co-planning built into their daily schedules along with dedicated time during their
051trainings with Dr. Hanikfeld. To make sure the scaffolds are in place and we need to make sure that all students can fully participate and succeed for our students with disabilities. The district has partnered up with GNR inclusive group to monitor and improve our inclusive practices with ICT settings. In addition, we've partnered up with Growth Wellness Services, who will be working with some of our English language learners to provide additional support, which will help students explore their values, experiences, and personal narratives, creating a literary journal that celebrates their evolving identity and culture. And having seen the truly meaningful work they've done with AMD students, we are very excited to see the impact that will happen to our students at OHS. Now you'll hear from Miss Langley regarding our pillar air family and community engagement. >> So
052again just focusing on our second goal and how it relates to the ninth our ninth graders. One of the things that we're hoping is that we would create a ninth grade parent um explore and learn a Saturday event for our families. So we really are trying to be intentional about planning this event right after the first report card. So, we'll take an opportunity to walk through the rapport card with our families, help them to understand what it means. Um, and maybe if the student is already showing some signs that they may be falling off track, having that conversation and also speaking to some of the resources. I've already begun tapping into some of our directors to make sure if they can present um during that day just small items so it helps families to understand
053what students are experiencing as they continue to move through the um aciding school system or through the high school I should say. The other one is talking points. So we began piloting talking points at the high school this year. Talking points is a communication platform. I think back to a conversation that we had I think at the ending of last year. It was at the board meeting with our trustees just around communicate versus notify and what that means at the high school level when you have teachers that have upwards of 130 students on their roster. How we can have those conversations. And so one of the things that we looked at for talking points is how can we have more conversations with families around data around academic updates and really be able to pro provide
054them with the information that they they need in a timely basis. What we found is that so many of our students um they were taking advantage of the fact that maybe families needed their support in maneuvering phones. I'm trying the best way to say this that we were realizing that our numbers were blocked on certain family phone numbers and that we couldn't get through. And so this became a platform that we could use that families would have to opt out. They were using it's connected to um Infinite Campus. So families are automatically enrolled and they would have to opt out if they didn't want to participate. Um right now it's optional for our teachers but so far 37% of our teachers have signed on and more and more are trying to get involved in the
055sit the the use the system. One of the things that we love most about it is that when we send out a message, so for example, I sent out a message to all families for back to school night and immediately I can see that while I typed it in English, it was translated in English, Spanish, Arabic, Filipino, Portuguese, Russian, Erdo, Farsy, and Turkish because those are the family com the family um languages that we have right now currently in Infinite Campus. So, not only is the message translated, if they respond back in their language, it comes back to me in English. All of the documents that we send out can be translated immediately. So, talking points has definitely been something that we've been able to use to really see how we can enhance communication with
056our families. So, that's the end of our presentation and thank you so very much.