001All right, well then let's call this meeting to order. May I have a roll call, please? Mr. Lee? Here. Mr. Farah? Here. Mr. Thomas? Here. Mrs. Dollar? Here. Mr. Balerski? >> Here. All right, would you all please join me in the pledge to the flag? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, thank you. I don't understand I don't love the flag. >> [laughter] >> There's a reasonable table that front of you can't see it. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's why you're okay. I wondered. All right, may I have a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Second it. I'll do a roll call. Mr. Farah? Yes. Mr. Thomas? Yes. Mrs.
002Dollar? Uh yes. Mr. Balerski? >> Yes. Mr. Lee? Yes. Thank you. Okay, that's all I can do from memory. Uh >> [laughter] >> Ah, and we do have someone. All right, so we are ready from for um recognition of the public and we have one person here. Uh this Napora. You got I'm sorry, I don't have my reading glasses on either. I I I don't know who knows what that Come on out. >> [laughter] >> It would be helpful. Yeah, stay there because then the owl will give you a walk. Uh Go for it. My name is Tonya Napora. I live at 230 Wilmeth. Um I have two kids in the district. One is a sixth grader and one a ninth grader. And I uh came tonight um uh because I wanted to uh there's
003been a a lack of information circulated from the about a high school an incident that happened at the high school last week um that I view and others uh for the parents as well. View as an anti-black, anti-Jewish hate incident. Um and we learned about it only from our kids. Um and so I because we learned about it only from our kids, and I know that many folks uh I have spoken with over the last couple of days didn't, you know, either don't have kids in the high school or you know, the the sort of the they didn't hear about it from others, uh don't know about it, and I can't I decided I couldn't assume that the board does. And so um I thought it was important to come and uh and make sure
004that the board knows, and also ask uh for the board's assistance and um and a response. Um so, my understanding of what happened um is that there was uh uh graffiti, uh threatening graffiti, um found in uh the middle school bathroom um at the high school, and um because I think um transparency and uh accuracy is important to combating uh hate, um I think it's important to that it be said what was what was written, um and that we not dance around it, and not be vague about it, because vagueness and ambiguity do not, in my view, um effectively combat uh uh uh lack of education and hate. And so, my understanding of what was written was uh "Make Wyoming Aryan again." Uh "Get rid of the Jews and the N-word." Um and my understanding
005is that there was some response taken by the school. I'm not exactly sure what, but shortly after this happened, was the next day again, I don't know, and that's part of the bind here tonight, um is because we should know as community members. Um the um the there was further graffiti that said you will not catch us. Um so I I maybe everyone here already knows about this. My concern is I guess probably threefold. Um one we should not be finding out something we should not be finding out about threatening uh acts at our schools from our children. Period. And I am looking forward to understanding from either this body or the principal uh why if if if if if if if there's disagreement on that. Um and why. Um second uh I I guess
006to to to that point. I understand that the principal made an announcement um to the student body something along the lines of there the there was graffiti, it was racist, it's unacceptable. Uh that's I get that's better than nothing. Um but it is a far cry from what needed to have been said. Um and so the there two two pieces. One, there's no communication with parents about a security incident. Uh two, the communication to the to the students was vague. It wasn't it wasn't and and it didn't and it was essentially like don't do it. Um it that is not the message that I want my kids to hear. It's not the message I think this community needs to hear and it's certainly not the message that the um that will that will communicate anything
007effective to the perpetrators of this. Meaning that what needs to have happened and there's so much data to support this, unfortunately there's a tremendous increase in anti- Jewish and anti-black hate incidents in the country, and Miami is no exception. And so, we don't have to invent this wheel. There is a lot of research that goes that supports that there's a there there, you know, we're not going to we're not going to end it all, but there are good ways to respond, and there are less good ways to respond. And one of the clear good ways to respond is to first name what happened, and and and then unequivocally denounce it, and be very clear on what the consequences are for this for for for these actions. Um, and and a less good way is to
008say nothing to the community, and vaguely address it with kids. Um, and and so, there's a real lesson to be learned here in my view, and I hope that it is learned. Um, I hope it's discussed. I want transparency and proactive, you know, proactive, positive, unequivocal, and strong um, movement is required here. Um, and and just uh, to to, you know, to that end, to be transparent, I communicated with um, the uh, the principal, and um, in his defense, I just just sent an email about an hour ago cuz I thought we could have one more day to like let us know what's going on, and I didn't get it. And so, I don't have a response from him, but I'm looking forward to hearing from him. Um, and what I hope what I'm the
009reason why I came to this board is A to to ensure that folks know what's going on, uh, cuz again, >> [clears throat] >> you know, you don't know if you if if your kid in the in the in the in the classroom is going to tell you. Um, but also, um, to ask this board's support of of the principal in his response, which I very much hope will be uh, swift. It'll be equitable. It'll be clear. And it'll be anti-bias informed. And and to and and because I I try not to be someone who complains without offering assistance. I I offered my assistance to the principal. And I offered to this board. But I am also like I am a lawyer, but I'm not that kind of a lawyer. I and so I But
010I also am someone who has, you know, who has done anti-bias work and is very committed to it. And and so certainly I'll put myself up, but there are others in this community who we can rely on. And let, for example, the Wyoming Community in Action folks who unfortunately have experience with this. And and should be tapped as a resource. And but there are also other local organizations like the JCRC, which are well-funded and well and very much ready to offer their assistance with both resources, like people resources and funding, for the for the the anti-bias education and response that is required. So, thank you all for listening. I really appreciate it. And look forward to the to to the support of the board. Absolutely. >> Thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you for bringing
011that to us. We do know a little bit and we are we know this is an ongoing situation that is This is not come to any conclusion yet. We will we will be working on this. All right. Thank you. Um Uh the science department is here to do a to talk about the science textbook adoption presentation. So, if they would like to begin now, that would be a good idea. I I am I'm Brooke Becker. I am kindergarten department chair and I teach full day kindergarten at Hilton and I'm going to be talking about the design of the textbook adoption process that we went through and of what we are recommending to the board that we would like to purchase as far as our new curriculum moving forward. Just to kind of start off frame
012the conversation. Our main area of focus is obviously the Ohio's learning standards and the model curriculum for science which serves as the basis for what all students should know and be able to do in order to become scientifically literate citizens equipped with knowledge and skills for the 21st century workforce and higher education. Our standards, whether it's kindergarten all the way up through 12th grade, are lumped into three strands: Earth and space science, physical science, and life science. As we're thinking through this, we are thinking where are we headed with our kindergarten, first, and second grade students? And as we all know, we build the foundation for third and fourth grade, their final years in the primary to expand their understanding, their inquiry skills. And it also introduces the children to the 5E learning cycle and
013instructional framework that supports learning through engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation. So, we are proposing that for K-2 we adopt the Science Weekly program. Studies Weekly is a curriculum that is based upon our Ohio science standards. It does encompass grades K through 5. However, we are looking at it just for K two as far as what our needs are in the primary. So, it's engaging, it's an easy-to-use magazine, there's an online learning platform for both educators and students. Um, there's so many different ways we can access um, their learning. There's learning videos to connect those things that we just might not have the time or space to do in our classroom. It will also support our English language arts English language arts instruction during our literacy block. K through two loves that we can integrate
014the two, the language arts and the science together. It's also organized through themes, which is what a lot of us have been doing with interactive read-aloud or the Wonders program that we adopted a few years back for science of reading, and it's very student-friendly. So, we're talking about adopting this again for kindergarten through second grade. It does meet all of our standards. It also touches on the scientific literacy and competency competency dimensions of scientific and engineering practices, cross-cutting concepts, which are scientific and engineering practices that kind of embed themselves together so that children can make connections between the different areas of science that they learn throughout the years, and it meets the cognitive demands of science. As you can see, I'll flip through three slides, but it shows that this program is fully aligned in
015kindergarten, first, and second grade. Um, which is great because we all know we have tons of resources, but it's nice to know that we're getting the meat and potatoes of our instruction from a new program. Um, there's also extras that we get included with this. Um, we have the online platform which includes the video library that I talked about. There's also an audio reader. So, should a student be homesick or they miss some an instructional lesson, we can pull up their Chromebook, they can listen if they're not at that reading level, especially my little kindergarteners. Um, they would be able to listen to the content if needed. There's a reward system for completing activities within there and it's also customizable by us as teachers for what we would give students access to. And then there's
016also principles like this lab safety one that helps to reinforce and extend student learning. But, what we really loved is that the magazines that come with Studies Weekly are the main thing there and there's just extras should we need them or if we want to make curriculum connections. Thank you. I'm going to pass it off to Christy Robinson who's going to talk about third and fourth grade. Um, hi everyone. I'm Christy Robinson, like Brooke said. I um, teach third grade at Hilltop. Um, I see a few parents here, so um, I'm actually a community member too, but I'm here to talk about the third and fourth grade um, textbook that we decided to go with. Um, it's important to note the reason that we didn't go with the same one from kindergarten um, and sec-
017through second grade. Um, currently third and fourth grade uses um, Studies Weekly for social studies and so we really felt like we needed a different platform to kind of make sure that the students were staying engaged. Um, love love love the um, the the format of that and we think it's great. We just felt like third and fourth grade really needed something different. Um, so Brooke already talked about that how there are three main strands um in the the science curriculum. Um So, one of the things that was really challenging for us, and I know middle school, too, is that the um the Ohio learning standards um are um are different than the next generation science standards, and a lot of the curriculums are written for the NGSS and not our Ohio learning standards. So,
018when we were looking at some to fulfill the Ohio learning standards, um we just had a little bit of a challenge. There was a lot left, not to say that what we ended up with isn't still fantastic. Um it just definitely it limited us. Um so, that's what I talked about there uh the curriculum challenge, that how it's primarily aligned to NGSS, um but absolutely still um a lot of overlap with the Ohio learning standards. Um they both emphasize inquiry-based learning and the study of observable phenomena. Um the key difference really is that some of the topics occurred at different grade levels and sometimes in a different order. What we decided to go with was the Sadlier-Oxford text. Um it is the closest aligned, and it talks about um or it covers all of the
019Ohio learning standards to some extent. This next slide just really goes into the specifics of um of the Ohio focus and then the NGSS focus. Um I really looked um the overlap between the two. So, for the third grade, the overlap they both emphasize life cycles and using data to predict weather, but the Ohio um learning standards standards place a heavier emphasis on specific earth materials like soil. And then when it comes to fourth grade, again a lot of overlap. Both grades look at fossils and the history of Earth, as well as the transfer of energy through the specific content elaborations. In Ohio, it may require more detail on local geological features. Um So, this is what it looks like what we're looking at interactive science. It's a super fun engaging classroom experience for students
020that teachers can easily manage. Um it the students will get a write-in edition that makes learning personal, relevant, and engaging. Students will be able to interact with science through the many labs and hands-on activities throughout the student work text. And then um the the publisher has thought of this and that is currently what our math interface is through and so it'll be a very easy transition for teachers to be able to to use this and integrate it into their classrooms. Um Brooke talked talked a lot about the analogy. She mentioned the 5E learning cycle which I have here on the left and then I just put one I know it's really hard to see, but um for those of you who can't see it the the sample lesson plan talks about all five of the
021different ones. So, it has the engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate and it really um pinpoints that for the teacher to make sure they're talking about all of them. So, we felt like that was really really nice. Um so, teacher focus skills I just put a big outline um this is just one of the area, but essentially, you know, where are they coming from before they get to third and fourth grade. So, then also what skills are they going to then take um this foundation from third and fourth to continue to grow on. Um differentiation not only the different types of learners, so like audio-visual and hands-on, but then you know, there's ELL lesson plans, there's different differentiated instruction, um and then even an RTI. It actually made me think of um Gina if I
022worked on something with her right when I first started and it's like an if then um as far as like intervention. I thought that was really cool. It was um you know, so if students are having difficulty then and then it just is really nice for the teachers to be able to like know what to do next. And then like I said, they have um we'll we'll get science kits with all of the materials that we need in order to do the um investigations, which again will be that hands-on learning and really get those students you know, involved in in their own learning. And that is the third and fourth one and actually fifth grade is doing that um that same program. I don't know if you guys have anything to add to the fifth
023grade one, but thank you guys so much. Good. Thank you. Yeah. Hello, I'm Julie Krister. I teach fifth grade math and science at the middle school. I'm Keani Brogden. I teach sixth grade at the middle school. Okay, so um adding on to what uh Chrissy said, the this is really tricky with fifth grade specifically. Fifth grade is the first year that science is a tested subject and while we all don't love to focus our attention solely on those tests, it is something that we are held accountable for and so we do need to look at that and it is imperative that we meet all of our standards. She mentioned the fact that the NGSS, the next generation science standards, are different than Ohio's. Ohio is one of six states in the country that uses different
024standards. Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas and two others I forget. >> [laughter] >> But yeah, we're so lucky and Yes, exactly. The textbook we're currently using, why we like it, is going to be going out of print. And so we needed to find something that fit the bill. So we decided well, okay, let's step back a little bit. We also have the same strand you can see a little bit better here. Earth and space we get to go in space in fifth grade. Life science again interconnection between ecosystems. And physical science motion light and sound are main focus topics. Again, the NGSS and the Ohio science learning standards it was a really big challenge for us to find something and it's kind of it was kind of surprising I have to say that there wasn't more out
025there especially considering that it is a tested subject in Ohio. But that's you know we kind of looked around and there were some that were close but there were big chunks that were missing and we really needed something that fully aligned to our standards. So we we chose Savvas and I kind of think that fourth third and fourth jumped on to have some continuity. It fit their purposes as well but then they kind of said hey what are you guys doing? What did you choose? And we're going to go along with that. So it most closely aligned to the Ohio state standards. We also would love to get a program called Mystery Science. It is it goes up to fifth grade and so in middle school it would just be for the fifth grade but
026it provides opportunities for differentiated learning through activities that go along with guided videos and they actually do this activities. Some of the labs and things in our text we are not getting kits. We would purchase materials and things that we would need for the labs with department money. Um but otherwise this Mystery Science would definitely help to supplement our uh curriculum. So, we really appreciate having that as well, if possible. Uh fifth grade also builds, obviously, on further skills for sixth through eighth grades. Eighth is the next grade that science is tested. And so, we do feel uh some responsibility for, you know, laying a foundation in fifth. Um Earth and space science, they talk about that as well. The atmosphere and different uh uh spheres, right? You talk about that, don't you? Um Physical
027science, they talk about vectors and things. >> [laughter] >> Let's just skip to eighth grade. Yeah. Okay. Well, I just different things that we have to, you know, that they're going to talk about later on. Anyway, it all builds. It's always constantly building, as we know, from kindergarten on. So, we like to help each other out. And that is it for me. I think I've said what I needed to. Mhm. Go ahead, Candace. Um for grades six through eight, um we So, she wraps up fifth grade, wraps up all the primary's work. Sixth grade, I get to start like the middle school grades of standards. And between grades six, seven, eight, we just kind of build upon each other. So, I get to be the foundation for seventh and eighth grade. Um and then we're
028like in our own little band. It's like this one. And through, I mean, I felt like we didn't need another NGSS slide here. Uh I'm going to save the song and dance. But, we were fortunate enough, the last time we had a textbook adoption, we like personalized our textbooks to match our highest standards. So, we picked all the lessons in order to how we teach it. Um and so, after shopping around, it was still the best Ohio aligned option for us, and we were fortunate that it was not like a workbook style. It's old school textbook. Um, but we did lose their online access. They like This company doesn't do that anymore. Which is why, back up, pause, we also still have this that came with the old stuff that we use for differentiation. Sorry.
029Um, great tools. We have like every subject, every little um, topic that we need through this. And this is where my brain went. Um, so, since we are really good at all the things that we already have, we are looking to supplement the textbook with some digital resources. So, we're very fortunate. Our school always has BrainPop for us. I don't know who started that, but we love it. We use it all the time. Let's keep it. Um, but we are looking into three other resources, Mystery Science, Generation Genius, and Explore Learning. Um, Explore Learning Gizmos is Okay, I'm going to go to my notes. Like, I made it shorter so that I don't have to like read that whole third thing what I want to say. Um, yeah, so our textbook alone cannot meet the
030needs of all learners. So, we want students to be able to actually do science, and this is a great resource for that to happen. Um, back of the page. We have This brings abstract science concepts to life. They do interactive simulations. It allows students to manipulate variables, um, in real time. So, one of the labs is like growing plants, which is a great thing to do, but takes forever to measure the growth of a plant in the time I have to teach the unit. So, it's like that type of thing to do a real lab, get this real data, and then have them instant feedback for the teacher. Like good data for us to collect to know where the students are. Um she touched on Mystery Science. Mystery Science is phenomena based. We've started purchasing
031pieces to build the kits that it has to offer. It's really great stuff. Um make it helps make it hands-on. Is there anything else that you wanted to add to that? >> Um it's very that is it should say just the Yeah, fifth grade. Okay. It's That's okay. It's a It's kind of a The guy Doug leads you through real world situations. And you know he's from Illinois, and you know that he found this fossil in his backyard, and you know that you know, where did it come from? So, he he kind of like does a short little blurb, and then you'll do an activity, and then he wraps things up. So, it's very um personal. It's like a person It's not just a video you're you're watching. You're engaged with it. Um you came
032in, Mr. Weber, you came in and saw them doing the sun. That was from Mystery Science. Yes. The sun and the Earth interactions. Just space. Um and last we have Generation Genius. It does go through grades 3 through 8. I'm going to put it in there. >> Yeah. Are you guys getting into it? You guys excited about it? Um so, that's really great. Yay. Um and we've been looking at it, too. It has standards aligned videos. It comes with just great discussion questions. You can like make it into a quick Google Form if you're checking for understanding. Um it's engaging. They do the crazy explosion things. They have a good quiz. >> Yeah, they build straight Um But it's just great engagement for these kids, you know, especially the middle school, getting them engaged and
033getting them curious and excited for science. This is a very helpful tool for that. Um yeah, I just hope all of those things prepare us for the high school ones. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, yeah. >> [laughter] >> This is more technology than I have. Okay, so at the at the high school level, um essentially what we needed to do is because we all teach different subjects and we're all specialty in our own little fields and everything like that. We pretty much gave it up to my teachers saying, "Hey, look, you need to and go go get it." And as department chair, I just put this stuff together. So, what a few of our teachers have decided is that the resources that they have currently are perfectly fine for what we're going to do for
034the next few years. Some of the textbooks, like especially for like AP physics, hasn't changed. So, I mean, we need to get new textbooks and everything like that, but we've been getting the same textbook and they're in decent shape and everything like that. So, what what what we did is we prioritized who needed books and we also quite honestly prioritized biology because biology is the tested subject at high school level. So, we had to make sure that biology was well prepared. So, as we were going through this and everything like that, we were trying to make sure that we had the right amount of rigor for the standards that were given to us and then also have enough resources within in within to have accessibility, readability. I mean, like science is hard enough to read
035and then you put in all these big words like momentum and mitosis and meiosis and some of these are terms you have to know and everything like that, but at the same time making it difficult to read is not what we're trying to do here. What we're trying to do is we're trying to adequately prepare the kids for um the tests or life and and and so on. So, um uh the successful textbook was closely aligned to the standards, so we kept the standards in mind both state of Ohio for biology and chemistry and physics and then after that it was AP stuff. Um um So, as we were looking through them, we were just looking did these books cover the standards and everything and did they have online access because that was important to
036quite a few of our teachers in terms of get getting the kids the ability to look at things at home. Um some kids just aren't very good at having books, so uh text text to voice and things like that so that it helped them uh just with some of the some of their needs and things like that. So, I'm going to go through the books that we're adopting here real quick. Um we can try to spend too much. Biology's probably the most important. This is for CP and honors biology in the ninth and 10th grade. Um sticking to the standards um We are This is the book that we currently have. This is the most up-to-date book and what we're buying is online access to solve this in order to get into all the extra
037things that they have like the simulation labs, the videos, uh the read the text to read um and some inquiry-based virtual labs um cuz sometimes biology, like has already been said, takes a while. Okay? And when biology grows, it just sometimes it takes a minute. Okay. Whereas chemistry we can have an explosion in like 2 seconds. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Um we don't we don't Don't do don't do unplanned explosions. No. >> [clears throat] >> That makes sense. >> [laughter] >> We're not we're not talking about that right now. No. Uh okay so continuing on AP bio AP bio um again um the textbook uh is in pretty good shape and everything like that so we're buying online access. Um the digital access gives them more practice with AP exam type questions, text to voice,
038um and some digital simulations and videos that help see things a little bit better because um for biology sometimes you just can't bring it into the classroom. Um AP environmental um which is 11th and 12th um textbooks and online access. The current textbook that we have is I don't know 10 12 years old. We needed to update it. Um it has um Environmental science is uh an AP class for kids that struggle a little bit more with math as opposed to like physics and chemistry. So it has math tutorials that are that are really helpful um for those kids that struggle a little bit more with math but want to take an AP science. Um Full length AP practice exams and um case studies that and from what I'm told for this they're actually whenever
039they come up with a new issue they're trying to include that in the online resources and everything because with environmental science it's a it's a science that's constantly changing and everything like that. You have to have like the newest information there. Um and then we have environmental science as well and the environmental science is focused on um readability and personalized instruction for targeting knowledge gaps for the students. Um we obviously have some of the heavy technical jargon, but it's more readable than the AP book. Um we could have gotten two AP books, but again, this is not the same class. An AP class and an and a CP environmental science class is not the same class and we don't teach them the same way. So, got to make sure that we have the appropriate materials
040for for those activities. Um Uh with AP Physics C, um physics hasn't changed in like, I don't know, 50 years or something like that. Ever since Mr. Counts started teaching. So, um I don't think that's 50 years back. Okay. Um but um what he what he wanted was WebAssign, which is um the ability to um assign critical thinking questions, technology literacy, productivity, and other tasks that are individualized for the class or for individual kids. This class is um doesn't have I mean this is AP physics calculus-based physics. Yeah, so you only have 12th graders really in that class. You really get the 11th graders, but again, what the idea here is for differentiation for cuz being able to assign different kids different problems depending on where they are. Um Anatomy and physiology, the current anatomy
041and physiology book that we have is very is very heavy. I mean, both literally and figuratively. I mean, it is a big big book. This book is quite a bit more readable. Um it doesn't um It it it you still have to learn all the all the terms and everything like that, but it's not written for college. The book that we have right now is written for like third-year college students and everything like that. So, we have that resource still, but this book is quite a bit more readable. Has uh fully tagged videos, visual simulations, um and data analytics for teachers, which is nice because the data analytics allows to see what the kids are doing and then help us evaluate where they are and where they need to go. Um Okay, so those are
042the books that we're adopting. Um uh the other teachers felt pretty comfortable with the resources that they currently have. Um most of these book most of these online I mean, they all of them have online access. And all of them provide online quizzes, uh problem-solving opportunities, additional practice, uh they encourage critical critical thinking, and then there's some with some lab work in them. And then um I hate to say all, there it's not true for all of them, but most of them have differentiation uh abilities um for for kids and stuff like that. There's text-to-voice in in um in all of them. Uh some of them uh I think like four of the six have personalized learning paths where kids start answering questions and then it adapts how what questions it gives you to uh
043extension prob- and then extension problems, you know, really AP Physics C is extension, I would hope. So, um those are the those are the things that we have. So, we're adopting those six textbooks or online resources. They're not all textbooks. Right. For any of those. Below here. Yeah, here's your pen. I do have a question. Yeah. These online resources, are any of them to your knowledge attempting to integrate any kind of AI features? generative AI or AI created content? I don't believe so. I don't think that that's the way that the high school ones are approaching. I don't know about the middle school ones. Elementary school. I don't believe so. In the use of the digital things versus the textbook, is it something that teachers are using to sort of is some of the content
044here versus there and kind of adding to it or is it something that people go into to kind of get engaged or have a different thing of engagement? It feels like something online where you would be able to be something you could go in your own direction or do a little bit more of independent study or kind of go deeper or whatever. Is that how it's set up or >> I I don't I can't speak for my people. They use it a little bit for both. They use it a little bit as as, you know, if you need a resource at home and you need something a little bit extra at home or videos or whatever, but I do know that quite a few of them are using them for, you know, actual activities within
045the classroom. You know, you you witness a video, you witness a lab or something like that and then you're then then you have to make conclusions based on the data that's collected. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you. I know this is a lengthy process and you all have been putting the better part of this year into getting to where we are now. These items stay here for 30 days before we do any kind of a vote but that will will then come in and be ready for next year. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, thank you. The next thing on our list is also a presentation and this is our second presentation from the CAC. See, um this one is on homework and study. So, if all I can just turn it
046over to you. Thank you. Who's kicking us off? Okay, wonderful. All right, and you should have in your folders Well, you should have a copy of these presentations and there's also reports and an additional document. Two additional documents. >> Two additional documents, key concepts and definitions. >> Right. All right. Like a glossary of some of the terms. I appreciate that. And then, I'm also a copy of some survey questions that we sent out that you'll hear us reference that. I'll tell you when to send bring this up. All right, thank you. So, Just to introduce our group, um to start with, we are the CAC study group for designing school work that builds study skills and executive function for lifelong learning. Um I'm Stephanie Denton and I am a Wyoming grad, um a Wyoming resident
047hopping on for about 15 years and a parent of a Wyoming High School. Um And I'd like to tell you Sandy C 3. I'm English pathology at Kennedy Elementary School and I am also a uh Wyoming resident. I'm Emily Burton, um Wyoming resident, somewhat new Wyoming resident. I have kids in the district, I am a nurse practitioner, not education at all. >> [laughter] >> Throwing that I'm Lori Schreiner. Um I am an English learner teacher here in the district and I have children that go to school here in the middle school and live here in Wyoming. I'm a Klingman, uh uh also a Wyoming resident, a parent of three, but two of them are at the Hilltop Elementary um school that's right now at Friendship, um and I work for Procter & Gamble as a
048scientist, so also known as teacher of the district. Okay, I'm also not a teacher. >> [laughter] >> Um I have owned a professional organizing business for 30 years. That's my background. So, the objectives of this study were that we were given were twofold. Um mainly focusing around homework and home learning, but identifying best practices for designing and assigning and integrating homework into the learning process. And then, along with that, looking at what are the best strategies for students to become independent learners in terms of note-taking, executive functions, study skills, um anything that's related to that. And we were also tasked with uh looking at making sure we were looking at current brain research, and also talking about what would be the potential role for AI in supporting all of this. So, this is how our
049presentation will go. Oops, excuse me, that was my bad. This is how our presentation will go. Uh we're first going to tell you about the methodology that we used. We are then going to tell you about the current home district homework policies. Uh we will talk about a survey that we sent out to teachers in the district and the results that we got back from that. We'll talk about copious amounts of independent research that we did, and then we will tell you what our recommendations are for the board. I'm going to tell you up front that our recommendations are coming back um in these five areas. Design of homework, um teaching study skills, and teaching uh executive functioning, talking specifically about note-taking, talking about aligning study practices with evidence for what uh what are the
050best strategies, and then talking about technology and AI. So, we're going to go through our whole process for as to how we got here. It's we think an extremely nutrient-dense presentation, which is one reason we gave out the glossary. Um and then at the end, we'll come back and tell you more about our recommendations in these five areas. So, our methodology, uh first thing we did was to look at current district homework policies and see what information we could find that was published uh for parents and for students on that. We did a teacher survey, uh where we sent that out in February to all of the teachers in the district. We got 25 responses. And uh we're going to talk in more depth about this, but we did ask them what are their current
051thoughts about homework, their practices, um their beliefs that guide what they assign, how they assign homework. And then we also asked them their uh for their input on these executive function, note-taking, time management, planning, study skills. You know, what do you explicitly teach now in the classroom? What do you think students are doing well with? What do you think in your grade level um is underdeveloped for what the children might need as they pass to the next grade. And we asked them um a about AI and gave them some open-ended space to add any other comments. And then the third part of our methodology was uh a lot of academic research divided into four areas to look at current and historical cognitive science, and to really study what are proven high impact teaching and studying
052strategies. So, we sort of divided that into study skills, note taking, homework, and executive function. This is This is an excerpt from the student and parent handbooks at the different grade levels. Um and this is what is currently published as being the policies about homework. So, in the primary level, um quality of homework uh quality homework is an an extension of what's being learned in the classroom, of course, and the amount depends on the subject or how the grade level, but it's published to say the first, second, and third grade students have 30 minutes or less per day, and fourth graders may have 30 to 60 minutes a day. Um from the middle school handbook, this is just an excerpt to the the full quote is in your report that you'll have handed out, but
053um again, it just says the amount is depends on the unit, the subject being studied. It does make mention of they're not supposed to be more than two tests per day in the middle school, you know, in two different subjects, and that homework is not addressed in the high school handbook. Okay. So, I'll have you turn your attention to the printout that we gave you about the um CAC survey that we did. Um and I just want to kind of orient you to it. This was a survey that we did because we wanted to understand that teachers are our audience, right? Our main audience. Um how can we make sure that we're actually answering the questions that they they Um we also wanted to understand more about what they were already doing. So, some of
054the questions allowed us to break out by grade. Um, but a lot of the questions you'll see are what I call open-ended questions where we're really seeking just what they believe today. Um, we had 25 um responses from teachers, which is actually a a small sample size, but the amount that those 25 wrote was I think it blew us away. Um, I know that when I send out surveys to people, right, for my job, I do not get the length of response or the richness of response and the detail um from everyone, but all of these um were so detailed that the 25 probably is more like a sample size of 50 based on the richness of detail. So, um I will say that that using some of the percentages seems a little silly in
055this case, right, because you're only looking at 25, um but truly we got so much out of this with having a lot of these open ends in here, um and we were really thankful to the teachers for doing that. Um, so there isn't a whole lot of like statistics and numbers that I'm going to provide, but I will just share a few things so that you can kind of have the background. Um, when you look at grade band, we had six responses from those who would be at the elementary school. We had eight responses from those who would be teachers at the middle school. And we had 10 responses from those who would be teachers at the high school. So, not exactly even, but a a fair enough representation across. Um, 20 of those of
056the 25 were classroom and content area teachers. Um, we had two specials area teachers, and then we had three intervention specialists, um or or some sort of related service provider. So, again, the majority were true like classroom content teachers. Um, so as we're looking into this, we found that um based on the the teachers, they said what is taught most often is test-taking skills. You know, when we look at that it was like 83% of the teachers of primary say they're explicitly teaching that. 50% of those who responded for the middle school said they were teaching that and 70% of those teachers who responded at high school level are doing test-taking. What's taught less often is note-taking, studying, and planning and time management. We also allowed the the teachers to kind of write in things
057that they felt like were were things that they were looking for. And so some of those were things like resilience, perseverance, right? Rigor, independent work habits. So some things that we didn't have listed they were able to write in in like an other area. Even just content understanding of complex texts, things like that. But when we asked them about what was the most underdeveloped skills, um, for sure at the primary and middle it was planning and time management. And then at the high school level it was about study skills. And so when it comes to planning and time management from the primary and middle, it was things like organizing assignments, managing your time and deadlines, breaking larger tasks into manageable pieces. At the high school from a study standpoint, it was effective review strategies, preparation,
058right? For for tests or assignments that get graded. And deep kind of understanding of texts and materials, right? Like really really understanding it to the point where you would be able to tell someone about it. We had a lot of interest from teachers across all grades expressing a desire for research to really help them know like what is an effective homework practice, right? How should I be be making decisions? And 84% of those teachers of the 25 said I am very or extremely open to changing or modifying my homework policies, right? If if research supports them. So we felt like we were really doing a service both to to this group as well as to the teachers. Um there is a belief that that homework should serve an educational purpose, but again, I think they
059wanted more. Um in all of the grade levels, um but especially at those where they're really more graded or or kind of like completion assignments and more homework assigned, um there was areas of concern like potential for cheating if it's just a completion task um or a completion assignment. Um and then also obviously with more of the older kind of middle into high school, there was this idea for what is the role of AI, right? Um is there potential dependency? Do we need to teach responsible use of these tools? Where should we integrate and where should we not? Um and then the last thing that we also heard again across all levels was teachers are really thinking about students' well-being. They know that they're juggling a lot outside of school and that potentially the school
060day could be very taxing, right? Um for for students who may have to go to a job or go to extracurriculars or go to sports. And so, there was a lot of uh kind of desire for a balanced homework approach, um equitable homework, right? Not having to one teacher do one thing and another teacher do another at the same grade level. Um and so, they were kind of aiming for consistency and equity in homework expectations across the board as well. Okay. So, um I'm going to go over some of our deep research findings. Um the first one was probably one of the the more significant ones we looked into, John Hattie's Visible Learning research. Um definitely gives us one of the clearer answers for for student achievement and learning. Um John Hattie drew on more
061than 1,400 meta-analyses. Um and he uses an effect size to measure his impact. So his benchmark is what he calls the hinge point. It's 0.4. Um which represents roughly 1 year of academic growth um in 1 year's time. So anything above that threshold has a significant, meaningful, positive impact on learning. Um across all the grade levels, all the subject areas, there were um six I think there are six strategies that that kept coming back. Um peer learning, feedback, metacognition, spaced practice and interleaving, and then retrieval practice. Um and these are among the most validated findings in the learning science. Um so we'll come back to this. But um where does homework fit in within this research? And we used Harris Cooper's research to help us clarify this. Um as Emma had just spoke on, homework
062does have a positive effect on achievement, and that effect varies by age. In elementary school, it's relatively small. Um middle school and high school, it becomes more moderate um and meaningful, especially as their uh cognitive capacity increases. Um but the key takeaway I think is that quality matters far more than quantity. Homework only improves learning when it is purposeful, developmentally appropriate, and aligned to the instruction in the classroom. Um the research identifies four clear purposes for homework. So practice is building the fluency with the the recently learned content. Uh preparation, activating that prior knowledge before learning new skill sets or new learning new information. Um extension is applying the learning into new areas. Um and then reflection. The reflection piece is huge. So that is supporting the metacognition as well as consolidation. Consolidation is how
063that learning is stored. Um kind of the process of of memory, so to speak. Um So when these when these assignments are clearly serving one of these one of these purposes, they are effective. Um And and another piece of this is being able to explicitly label these practices. So when you have an assignment and the purpose is um the purpose is to build fluency, you explain that to your students and say, "I want you to go home and practice this so that you can become fluent." Like glossary words and flashcards, like you have to know these, right? Like um we want to build up fluency and then the students understand the purpose and they're they're more engaged um in that in that learning process. Um All right, there we go. So um two of those
064concepts that I think were Some of the other ones are pretty self-explanatory. [clears throat] Um but I just kind of wanted to to unpack these two um not that they're more important than the others, just that to try and understand them better. Um metacognition is a thinking strategy. So it's it's how we think about our own thinking. Um And and it and it takes planning, um like how to approach a task. It takes monitoring, your your ability to monitor how you're understanding that task and then going back and evaluating afterwards, um was that like did I do a good job with that or do I need to kind of adjust that process? Do I need more practice? Um I think that metacognition is kind of it can be a negative cycle, too. So, it's um
065you know, if you're struggling in an area of math you you shouldn't just assume that you're bad at math. I think sometimes we get in those cycles. You have to you have to really pull that reflection piece out and say, "Look, I'm not bad at math. I'm just bad at this one part." So, teaching students how to do that, I think, is huge, um hugely impactful in their learning if they're able to to appropriately reflect and adjust. Um and then interleaving, by contrast, is more of a practice on how how our learning is constructed. So, instead of completing you know, 20 algebra equations in the same sequence, interleaving is the concept that we we kind of integrate different subjects while we're studying. Um it makes our brain constantly switch gears. Um and the research supports
066this um this process to to make things feel more difficult at the time, but that that difficulty it it it's productive. It's an active um way of learning and and and it helps strengthen retention. Um keeping that memory over time, and then also being able to transfer that information over time, too. So, um I just wanted to make sure those two concepts were well understood. Um And then when we think about homework and sometimes how it can backfire on us, um I think that that needs to be well understood, too. And And we looked at John Sweller's cognitive load theory to help us understand um, how how we achieve um, long-term memory. So, we take the working memory, and that working memory goes to short-term memory, and then that long-term memory is where we're it's
067the knowledge is well retained. But, we can't get there if we um, if our if our task is overly complex, poorly structured, or lacks clear guidance. Um, that becomes overwhelming um, and that mental effort that is required to navigate the task exceeds the capacity. So, that becomes cognitive overload, um, which was an interesting insight, and I think that we can all probably um, relate to that. So, um, effective homework design reduces the risk of cognitive overload. Clear instructions eliminate unnecessary confusion. Modeled examples show us what the success looks like. Um, and then scaffolding tasks move students from guided guided um, structure to independent practice. Um, scaffolding is a progression. So, you watch the teachers demonstrate, you practice with support, and then you you go on to kind of an independent approach. Um, and that looks
068different from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. So, so, but it but it very much is um, something that is, you know, maintained through through the learning progress, too. And then chunking breaks up assignments into more manageable um, steps. Like, you don't just say, "Go home and write an essay." You know, you have to brainstorm, research, outline, draft, revise. It's a whole It's a whole chunk approach. And that helps for that working memory piece. Our working memory can only hold I mean, it's very limited. So, you have to constantly work with what your working memory is able to to kind of do. Okay. So, then when we looked at the research for high utility strategies versus low utility strategies, high utility were were things that were very actively involved. Retrieval practice, self-testing, flash cards,
069those types of things for that that retrieval practice. Space practice is distributing learning over time. And I think that the the district, you know, those timed guidelines for you know, smaller chunks of time for the primary school and then as you get into high school, that's space practice is a little bit different. Interleaving, what I already explained about mixing topics, mixing problem types. And then elaboration is being able to explain the concepts and connect new ideas. Um Again, all of the high utility strategies are active and effortful. They require students to think, retrieve, and process information deeply. Um and then low utility would be things like passive summarizing, rereading, or highlighting, even highlighting. Uh that might feel productive, but it's it does not produce strong retention. Um is what the research says. So, um and
070this this all of these concepts relate directly, we felt, to note-taking. Um for note-taking, we looked at Mueller and Oppenheimer's research that found that how students take the notes matters more than how much they write. Uh so that generative note-taking um where students are able to summarize and process and put their own ideas and words um produces that deeper level of understanding versus just, you know, verbatim transcription. Um it also said that handwritten notes encourages a deeper understanding because you're having to filter and process that information. Um uh in and let's see here. And then there's there's structured approaches such as the Cornell notes. Um I had never even heard of this prior to this project, but it's been well researched um and it and it's just a simple approach to actually teach students how
071to take notes, which is something that I think the teachers brought up. Like they said this maybe is a area that we're lacking in. So um we felt like this was an actionable thing. Like if we can kind of use a structured method, it doesn't have to be Cornell notes. It's just like finding something that works cuz I think obviously learning is different for everyone, but um I think I put the Yeah, so so with the Cornell notes, it's it's more of an active process where you're taking the notes during class and then later on you're reflecting on those notes. So the keyword part is is at a different time. So you write those after class or while you're reviewing your notes. And then same with the summary. So it's more of um notes over
072time and then you if you um review your notes within 24 hours, the the research also was suggesting that that boosts retention significantly. Um so if you used a more structured approach to note-taking, I think that that review would be an easier thing to get done. Um retrieval practice. That's That's what I was Yeah. And organization. So it's a huge organizational task to to be able to take um effective notes. Uh so then we move on to our research with the executive function and academic success. Um which is a a pretty intense topic. Um but it can also explain why some students really struggle with homework and why it's not effort alone that is the issue. Um executive functioning refers to the cognitive skills that allows students to manage independent work through planning, working memory,
073inhibition, and cognitive flexibility. That's a lot of things. Um and in the Just to reiterate this, too, working memory very very very limited, and that's the prefrontal cortex. That's not developed until we're like 25. So we're we have a lot of factors here um to consider. Uh research by Diamond and Best showed that these skills are among the strongest predictors of long-term academic success. And they develop they just continue to develop past high school. So um a lot a lot a lot of homework challenges stem from not from a lack of understanding, but a lack of executive function skill. Um or or expectations that exceed a student's particular capacity. Um so so they're not not doing the work because they don't understand it. It's that that time management, organization, the ability to self-monitor, um and
074reflect on those things. Um so, that that was something that was that really stood out to us. Um and then, we live in this modern world that is changing and developing very quickly in terms of um technology and AI. Um and those we'll get into that, too, but those can be very helpful in some aspects. But, when you're thinking about executive function, they can be really tricky to navigate, I think, too. Um and they can take away from learning these skills and developing these skills independently for students and in these growing brains. So, it's just something to consider, too. Um executive functioning skills are very much skills that we all have to practice. Um so, so finding ways to effectively support students um by breaking things into smaller smaller um steps or tasks, using routines,
075checklists, modeled planning and organi- organizational strategies, um and then providing the guidance practice before independent work, um and that's all, you know, that's the scaffolding that we had talked about, too. Um Students learn best when homework and study practices are designed to teach them how to learn, not just complete the task. Um And then and then I do want to make sure that this is connected. So, executive functioning and cognitive load are very very connected. Um Both of them depend on that the limits of the working memory and when a task is overly overwhelming the cognitive capacity, um it's disrupting the the students' ability to plan and organize and monitor their own thinking. Again, even if they understand the content. Um through our research, we were in contact with Erica Simmons through the district. Um
076so and she helped just kind of clarify the current work that's underway and the areas that are still, you know, needing to be developed. Um the district has identified this executive functioning as a priority um and they're looking at different ways to kind of support students um either through, you know, structured embedding these, you know, skills in every single classroom or should we look at it more of like an elective class to offer students or like even like flex time. Um I forget what it's I think it is called flex time. So so um that this is a huge topic and there's so many ways to kind of dig into it. Um we didn't make a direct recommendation to to study this further, but it would be probably a very valuable area of research for
077the future. So thank you. Okay. All right, I'm going to take us back again to Hattie's research. Um and the visible learning research. Um Hattie based his information not just on 1,400 meta-analyses, but he used 1,000 research reviews, 50,000 studies that he looked at With 250 million students, so we didn't just pull these strategies out of a hat. There was a lot of forethought and a lot of research that went into behind these things. And the district has been looking at Hattie's research over the past couple years. So, what um I'm going to go back and really talk about those um four or four to six areas that we identified as really beneficial across all of the grade levels in a capacity that was developmentally appropriate in each one of those things. The uh first
078thing that I want to talk about is peer learning. Um peer learning is a 0.55 um on Hattie's um Hattie's number for that. Um so, it has a significant positive impact on um students' ability. They're going to have It would surpass surpass a one year of expected growth by making sure just by having students learning with each other and explaining their learning to each other. Um it's it's a collaborative learning that just fosters a deeper understanding among students with the material that they're learning at this point in time. Um that peer feedback that they get from and give to each other in groups just their critical thinking and their self-assessments goes really looked at their metacognition, which is the next really high strategy. If they can uh explain it in their own words, if you
079can teach somebody that, that has a 0.69 effect size. So, you know, much higher than a lot of these. And then the next um one is feedback from teachers. Actionable feedback from teachers. Feedback that is specific, timely, and actionable. So, not just, "Hey, you did a great job." I really like how you supported your thesis with three uh three reasons why to support that. So, that you were clearly telling them what that is. That feedback is a 0.75 effect size. So, really, really big there. And then, the other effect size that I really want to talk about student expectations. So, when we are telling students that, "Hey, you're going to do this today because of your working on retrieval practice so that you can be more fluent in this area." Student expectation is a 1.44
080effect size. The only thing higher on his list is the collective teacher efficacy. So, if we can tell them why we want them to do it, that is like major major key that to their being able to learn and move forward with that. Um the other two areas that we talked about that Emily did a great job explaining was that space practice and interleaving. So, we know that if we are having students um study for a test, we're not going to cram for the night before because then you're just going to remember it for the test the next day. But, if you have them study for that test small amount of time, small amount of time over time, then that is what leads to that down cognitive change and remembering those things. And that's interleaving.
081So, that I I A good example of that is in math class. So, you're not just doing the addition problems, but you throw in the addition and the subtraction problems in there together. And then, oh, let's put in a word problem in there, too. So, not only do they have to do the math, they have to read and comprehend that to figure out what that math problem is going to be. And then, that has their brain really having to focus and like, oh, yes, so I have to do this. Like, really helps with that learning process there. And then, that retrieval practice. So, once they have learned something, it has to become automatic. So, how do you And then, a good example at at a primary level for retrieval practice is our lasso words. Those
082are the words that you can't sound out. The words that you have to memorize for that. So, we have to use this memorization tool. And then, you take that home and you practice that, and you get faster and faster at recognizing those words when you see that. So, but you're not going to just tell them to go home and memorize it. You have to tell them why you have to memorize that. And we need to know these because you can't sound them out. So, when you read a paragraph, it can come out faster and you can look fluent with that. So, a lot of it is labeling what we're doing and using these high-volume strategies to ensure that instruction, but that instruction that we are giving that is really sticking. And if we're able to
083um give them those expectations from kindergarten, start labeling that. Hey, we're doing retrieval practice right now. And they might not get it right away, but if they hear that time and time and time again all the way throughout their their schooling career, then they're really going to understand what these four different ways to learn and remember information are so that they can accept it better. Okay. So, we've spent a lot of time telling you about how the best way to learn is to think a lot, right? Um we need to actually be engaged in thinking um and generating our own ideas, right? Um so then we run into this challenge of AI um and the fact that AI kind of does the thinking for you, right? Some of the time. Um so we wanted to
084touch on the AI piece and there has been some great work done around AI guidance already and I'm going to give you a little taste of what that is. But we also feel that it's like it is a separate thing. It it affects studying, so I'm going to try to be relatively brief. Um one of the things that where teachers are very aware of is that it's here, it exists and we got to figure out how to use it and integrate it responsibly. Um the big concerns of teachers and I think probably parents and all of us right now is, you know, how do we how do we keep it their learning, right? How do we keep the academic integrity? How do we keep them thinking, using their brains instead of relying too much on
085AI? And um then the flip side of that is there are some great opportunities that go along with having this tool and um the there there are skills that are that we're going to need to develop as uh citizens of the world, right? >> [laughter] >> And then using technology is not going away. Um so the the four bullet points there uh the digital citizenship, the academic honesty and integrity, critical thinking, and responsible innovation are all things that they can learn and that that they will become better students um from utilizing AI. Um and then so how how do we use it? What's some responsible use for it? Um for for students um trying to use it as a tool to enhance their learning rather than doing the work for them. Um you know, and
086that's the core role of your note-taking practices or helping them think through uh a reflection or helping them improve upon something that they've already done. Um I do have a couple good examples too of how AI's been used. Um so my son is in um a cowboy town class where they work on they create like a city, an imaginary city, right? It doesn't exist at all in the world. They decide where in the world they want it to to be and then they they create all of the things, the the government, the um the infrastructure, um and one of they they love like planning out like the restaurants and the transportation and everything. So one of the things they use AI for is they they generate these really interesting images of these restaurants that they,
087you know, like underwater restaurants and like restaurants that are like on the top of this giant peak and like they can make those pictures with AI. It's like their ideas, their creative ideas come to life. That's really cool. Um and then another thing that I personally experienced has been amazing is um the the support tools that are available now that AI has developed so much. So, um like this the text-to-speech is so much better. Um and just a lot of the the other supports that can be in place for struggling learners have become so much more effective with AI being incorporated. And um just things like you can take a website You can be looking at a website and you can ask it to generate bullet points for you. Um and if that's not the
088task at hand, right? Like if if if the student's job isn't to take notes in that time, but they want them just to have them to refer back to later, right? And they're not being graded on that, and it then then what a cool option for them to be able to have it generate notes for them. Um also like AI can now translate everything for, you know, my newcomer English learners that are trying to do, you know, junior level science. Um so there are really some awesome benefits to AI. Um and then as a teacher as well, the I think the biggest benefit is is that differentiation piece, the ability to to adjust the instruction to the needs of the students. Um like your you have again, since I teach English learners, the easiest example
089for me, you have a student who is, you know, a beginner English speaker, and you want them to have a text to read that's at their level. You can tell AI that you want this text made at this level, and it'll do it for you. And and then you can read over it, adjust it, change it, make it the best that it can be, but it's a great tool for teachers to be able to adjust um individualized learning for students. Um so the So there this little uh quote on the side, "Students should use AI to support their thinking, not to do the thinking for them, is kind of the the main idea of what what we've been telling students so far this year, right? And and so there is a committee that worked on
090providing guidance for academic integrity and and just best practices. A group of teachers and administrators and I think an instructional technology consultant worked together for to create some guidance. And I'm going to show you just a couple like images from that guidance site. This is a cool resource that they offered to teachers to help show students when they're allowed to use AI and and when they're not and how much they're allowed to use AI. And so if teachers show their they could say, "Okay, this is this is the time where you can use AI assisted editing." Or "No, this is the time I want just your writing and I don't want you to use that tool." for example. So that was provided to teachers to try out and try to use with students this year
091at the high school level. There was some disciplinary expectations in place as well this year for for students. They were given a presentation at the beginning of the year letting them know what's acceptable use of AI and what isn't. And you know, there is a disciplinary policy that that the high school at least is following. I'm not as sure about the middle school how far along they are with AI, but I know for sure at the high school cuz I saw the slides. And then one of the things that I thought was really cool and um connects back to that idea of metacognition and and also helping students become, you know, citizens of the world is that, you know, okay, so we're using AI. We just have to be honest about it. We have to
092have the integrity to say, I used my brain or I used the computer. >> [laughter] >> And or we I I did both and these are the things that I did. So, another thing the committee worked on was just sort of providing teachers that that example of what that might look like for what they were looking for in the task. So, I think the the work that's been done so far is providing AI guidance that is really pretty and I think we're on the right track and it's just I think the next step is to really help teachers figure out how to incorporate AI into their instructional time in a way that the kids are learning the integrity piece and also just letting them use it in a in a responsible way. All right, we're
093almost there guys. All right. >> [laughter] >> So, given all of that, now we're going to come back and give you our recommendations in these five areas which as I said earlier are going to be about designing purposeful homework, teaching study skills and executive functioning, teaching note-taking, aligning study practices with evidence-based strategies, and supporting use of technology and AI. So, in terms of designing purposeful homework, and we really felt that homework was the overarching topic that we were challenged with looking at for this study. What we now understand is that homework is most effective when it reinforces core learning processes. And there are four of these basic learning processes which are listed at the bottom of this slide. One is practice which is building accuracy or fluency with skills that you've recently been taught. One
094is preparation. One is extension, and one is reflection. And if a if a student can understand which of those four they are doing on any given assignment, that will help them understand better how to approach that work, and will help them understand what kind of learning they are doing in the moment. So, if a teachers can consider identifying for students as they provide assignments, which of these four processes uh is being activated, that could help students understand the why of what they're doing, and therefore give them more information about how to do it. the assignment. Um going a little bit further on purposeful homework, um we've put in your report a proposal for refining the K-8 homework policy. This is just to give an example of how the district might start to be more specific
095with the homework policies, and how they communicate to the parents, and um and and eventually to the students about uh what are what the expectations are, and what are the best methods that they might use. So, our proposal talks about aligning the instruction for the primary students with high-impact practices, and based on the cognitive science that we have researched. And so, making sure that there's not uh an emphasis on task completion as much as there is an emphasis on thinking, retention, and independence. Um the traditional worksheets, volume-based practice um of yesteryear have minimal to low-impact in the elementary grades. Um but really we're better off with an approach that emphasizes retrieval practice, feedback, and the meta-cognition that we talked about. So we're talking about having short, purposeful, repeatable routines, emphasizing thinking over volume, and basically
096building making sure that the the homework in the primary levels builds a foundational knowledge that can eventually move into that long-term memory. So that allows students to use the full capacity of their working memory to learn new things and expand their skills as they go all the way up through high school. A second recommendation is for the district to explicitly teach study skills and executive functioning. And as I think Emily said, we're not making a proposal about how this should be done, but that it should be done. So whether or not I I'm certain that many teachers, and they certainly reported this, weave this into their own classrooms. But does this perhaps need to be a stand-alone? Um it's something to be explored because the executive functioning skills are very very part of academic success.
097And they continue to develop throughout adolescence and beyond high school, but they don't develop automatically. And so providing um explicit instruction and structured practice in executive functioning skills, such as examples we put planning study schedules, organizing materials, breaking down assignments, and providing some scaffolds to help um students learn these skills can go a long way into developing them into independent lifelong learners. Our third recommendation is to teach note-taking as an overt skill set. Um, without being taught how to take notes, a lot of students are just passive transcribers, or they miss keep miss uh key points that are being communicated to them in a lecture. So, we recommend considering adopting a district-wide note-taking approach where students are explicitly taught a generative handwritten approach to note-taking, um prioritizing the quality of the notes over the quantity.
098So, the point is not to be typing on your laptop and recording every word that the teacher says, but to be able to grasp the concepts and summarize them in your notes. The fourth recommendation is to um align study practices with evidence-based learning strategies. So, as we talked about from our research, there are some strategies that significantly improve long-term learning outcomes. And so, teachers can consider designing assignments that include retrieval practice, that are take advantage of spaced practice, distributing learning over time, interleaving, elaboration and self-explanation, and feedback and reflection opportunities. Our fifth recommendation is to then support the use of AI. Obviously, it's here, since and um students are well aware of it, as are the teachers. We do recommend that AI usage be taught to both teachers and students, but just two totally different
099curriculums. You know, students can learn, how can this be something that it can help you with a study practice? How can it help you with retrieval practice? Can it generate a quiz or flash cards for you? Um and also, what are the responsible and ethical uses of it? Whereas, teachers can have curricula that not only explains to them all the ways that students might be using AI, but also can show them um some of the examples that Lori gave us about uh how it can help with their instruction and their differentiation. Um and see you know, as AI develops, we do recommend teachers take into uh consideration AI tools when making homework decisions. And perhaps giving explicit information about whether or not students should or shouldn't or could must must not use AI on any
100given assignment. And special thank you as we did all of this research and work over the past year to Tim and Erica and Susie for the help and the background information and support that they gave us. I'm sure this group would be happy to answer any questions. No, thank you. Um so, quick question on the recommendation for number three, the last bullet point. I'm I'm assuming that's mandated 24-hour review cycle. What Did you say something different? The hour was omitted. Oh, yes. I I kind of figured, I just wanted to make sure. >> Sorry, sorry. Yes. Okay. 24 hours. All right, thank you. >> No, no, sorry. I've got a question. I know several of you are teachers. Uh how much do the recommendations differ from what you experience homework and studying to be right
101now. That's a great question. Um, I I was just thinking actually as I was listening to some of the recommendations. I can I can generate examples of all of these things already being done in in different places throughout the district. So, it's not like we are, you know, way off um, in terms of what these recommendations are. Um, you know, I think the teacher could probably look at it like a checklist and be like, "Oh, I do that. Oh, I do that. Oh, this is an area where maybe I could have I could improve." For example, um, you know, you do these over time. The fancy word for that is index things things >> [laughter] >> Um, like the adoption of the use of Membean and and that is a vocabulary practice uh, resource and
102the students do most most teachers are asking their students to do 15 minutes three times a week, right? So, and they're the same word. They're being, you know, until they until they've mastered them and then they generate a new word for them to master and it's adaptive in that way. So, I mean, that's a perfect example. And so, I think there there is a lot of that kind of stuff happening already and um, a lot of these recommendations are are aligned with what teachers are doing in in different spots. It's it's just uh, sometimes you don't know what you're doing that you're doing the right thing even, you know? I think I would add two things to that. Is that certainly teachers are doing these things a lot [clears throat] if not all of them,
103but two things that we wanted to call out were one, that the students will learn best if they understand how they are learning if they're taught how to learn, not just the content, but actually how to learn. And they probably are sort of thinking about how to learn, but they don't realize it. And we feel like if that could be called out for the students and named for them, learning processes and study strategies. Four learning processes, five study strategies, you know, and then shown examples of the study Okay, this study prac- strategy for retrieval practice. Have a friend quiz you. Make your own flash cards. Have AI make a quiz for you. You know, if they can really have these things labeled for them, which is why we're encouraging perhaps this explicit teaching of these
104skills and processes. Cuz they probably have all had them throughout their, you know, from K up to 12, but they don't know that they've had them. So, they're not as conscious of what they're doing. If I need a common language for Yeah. Yeah. clear that it's that's what they're doing. However, it's there. And sometimes I'm thinking of the seniors uh survey that the other group the other CAC group did, where one of their Help me remember exactly what it was. One of their comments was that they had done a lot of note-taking and research that did in fact did prepare them for college. And they didn't perhaps know it until they got to college and saw, "Oh, wait. I can do this." >> They Yeah, a lot of them have and also a lot of
105people have told us um just as a side that I got to college and I really didn't know how to take notes. So, I mean, I think probably people coming from a district with a lot of supports and you know, parents and needed to get pairs may have more skills in that going in, but a lot of them even from Wyoming are saying, "You know, I got there and I just It was like a fire hose." You know, it's such a a level up. Um Talking about how how much is taught or not and how do you teach what works well. Cuz some people are more intuitive naturally and so when they think about what do I capture from this, they might take notes more in that way. Other people are more specific in sensing,
106they might try to get every word. So that learning about what approach to taking notes helps to retain, etc. As well as how to rehearse and practice and review those are just things that can be shared intentionally in ways that helps raise that water level for any student and they're also >> Right, I think that word intentional is something that I need. And that maybe like I'm reading into what the science presentation was this evening. A lot of the comment like one remember one of the teachers said something about we're just going to stay with the old fashioned books and paper and pencil because that's that's what works here. So maybe we are we're not being intentional in that we're saying that uh this is an executive functioning skill but we are indeed I think
107I think it is there but I think as the students get even as they are young but as they progress especially as they're older and they get into high school and forget about you know, they have the jobs and they're starting a family and they you know, go home and it and it and it just like seems like a bundle of work but if they are going to be intentional about understanding what they have and why Right, that would benefit them. Going back to No, no, go ahead. Going back to the first recommendation about designing purposeful homework, I love how you laid out the four categories that makes it purposeful and effective. Um What are some examples of ineffective homework that could be assigned? Not that we would ever do that of course but I'm
108just like you know, some some common examples that you could think of in terms of what homework is that doesn't fit into those four categories. I think well, specifically at the K through 4 level because we started really diving into that in order to kind of propose, right? A draft if you will of what that might look like. Um I think what we found is anything beyond 5 or 10 minutes is really not effective for like K through 4 students, so just speaking of time. Um, for example, sometimes even just doing the uh worksheet for example where it's about completion for example is really less effective than making sure that you're looking at how quickly could you answer that, how fluently do you know those math facts, right? Like really building the foundation. Um, same
109with reading. Being able to know that the word the is the will help you read a text and comprehend a text. Um, just going home and reading the text and then there's no like just read this to your parent, but there's no comprehension question or no no kind of look at how fluently did did they read it, how quickly were they able to read it. Things like that where where it really helps to know could they retrieve that from their long-term memory or not? Are they still very much using their working memory capacity? Those are some of the examples that we need we kind of shared actually in the how do we turn something from a worksheet into something else um and how do you get the most out of even a shorter period of
110time really um than what it might have taken you to do a a worksheet. Instead of having to do 25 math problems, >> Right. explain to a how you solved Just one. How how do you solve one problem? Like that would suggest again this idea of quality over quantity. If you can explain it, you can probably solve 25 problems, right? I love the intentionality of of looking at the research and the impact and the effect size that that some of these strategies have. And we we talk a lot about being intentional to know what strategies impact students in the in the greatest ways and so doing those things and and so, Mike Driskoll, who we studied before, has often called that being consciously competent. Sometimes we're unconsciously competent, we and we it's kind of our
111gut, and I think sometimes those strategies just kind of come out because it's kind of who we are. But, when you really do some of the research and look at a lot of the things that you brought up, then it becomes consciously competent. And I know that this is a hyper back for kids, so I'm going to be making these choices when it comes to it. Homework, for instance, so all the good reminders. Even you know, what we're saying for the students, too, for them to become Yes, yes, exactly. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, some of the meta-cognitions. Yeah, and that's what that is. Yeah, meta-cognition is knowing why you know, and knowing how you know. That's right. Right, you're looking Yes, exactly. I mean, even at a K through 4 level, I think a kid could
112say, "This was hard for me, right? Like, this is what this is what was hard, like this problem, right? This type of thing." Where maybe it's a a word problem where you have to comprehend and create your own, you know, your own math problem. So, I think you can do meta-cognition at at lots of different levels and in various ways, and I I'm sure the teachers can and facilitate that. Someone mentioned the word "nutrient rich" earlier It really is something that we always are thinking how do you leverage what learning is in the recommendations, how do you take them forward? There's so much in here as we think about, you know, the depth of the why behind some of the recommendations, so I do think it'll be important to really look at this as you
113think about how do you apply with personal development, different things at different levels. There's a lot of valuable content here, so I really appreciate you bringing it up. So, like we we want to make recommendations that are meaningful and specific, and yet not overstep the bounds of allowing teachers, for example, to figure out how it fits, because again, I don't do their job, they don't do mine, right? We wouldn't be able to really effectively tell each other how to do better. Um, but we're hoping that this gives some really concrete things to go off of. The report is even more rich than what we presented. Um and we even provide suggested reading if you should choose to do that. [laughter] Um the books are really great, I'm going to be honest, but but if you
114want to learn more, it is something that you kind of can dive into, but we're hoping that the the teachers can really use it to make it their own. I'm glad Nathan asked the question about how much of this is already happening, too, because, you know, sometimes by the nature of it being a recommendation, you might assume that the teachers aren't doing it and I I don't think that's necessarily We had multiple conversations where we were like, "Oh, you know what? My my my child's teacher is doing this." Yeah, there was not the assumption that it's not >> these concepts are not existing. We didn't assume that either. Thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. A year's worth of work. I appreciate it. All right. There's the thing with me. I think this
115is the densest report that I've gotten. >> Richest. Richest. I agree. I There's a lot to go back over and take notes on. >> We had conversations with Tim early on. We were like, "There's a lot to Where do you want us to focus?" Yeah. Good work. All right, thank you. Uh if we go on to the committee reports, we will find that uh we can move on down to facilities. The other three have not met or are just getting ready to meet or DAC we've just heard from. So, facilities, please. Yeah, okay. We had um I'll jump off and if uh if anyone wants to fill in, if anyone wants to fill it, please uh feel free. Uh we had a facilities meeting on April 1st. The main focus of that that meeting take
116your eyes with them. Oh, We're going want the lights on. It'll be bright. We had our focus was athletic facilities. And so the athletic director Matt Webber joined the the committee at that time and and just walked through all facilities that are connected to athletics and shared some of the recent improvements that were made to various athletic facilities and then transitioned to areas that we think are are going to be a potential need have potential needs for upgrades in the in the future. We talked about high school locker rooms. We talked about talked about padding in the Champion Center and then the high school softball field. It has been a topic of conversation because it was connected to potentially alternate school site. A long way in time. So that was our most recent meeting of
117the of the committee. And I will share we have two important community meetings coming up very soon. One is this Wednesday. We've got a meeting with the residents who live along the property line of Vermont Primary School. Mhm. And we'll be we'll be talking about the site plan specifically and how that impacts families who live along that property line. And then on May 20th we've got a Elm Building Retirement Open House celebration. So that should be exciting very exciting for for Elm just like we did with with Hilltop. And so and the other the other exciting news I would share is we had some vehicles being dropped off on the Hilltop site. And so we're going to be seeing some action there very very soon. Which is which is great news. Good. You think they
118are? All right. That was it for my update. Okay. No Finance Committee meeting and no Policy Review Committee. So let's go on to the Treasurer's Report. And Stinney I have a approval of the minutes the regular meeting of March 30th and the planning meeting of April 7th. Item B, approval of the statement of revenues and expenses for the month ending March 30th. Item C, accept with appreciation the donation from the foundation for our DECA team who is traveling this weekend, I think. Uh does that sound right? This weekend? Where are they where are they going? Yes. So um this program just continues to grow and just the students just continue to really have a incredible amount of recognition and we're excited to have that donation to support their uh their travels. Item D, uh the
119appropriation adjustments for the month of April. And item E, accept approve the treasurer's report, please. All right, do we have a motion to do so? So moved. Seconded. I have a roll call. Mr. Thomas? Yes. Mr. Zeller? Yes. >> Mr. Blarsky? Yes. >> Mr. Lee? Yes. Mr. Ferrar? Yes. Thank you. Superintendent? All right, thank you. Uh we have several, you'll see lots of personnel items and and before we we walk through those briefly, just to say, you know, this is um it's exciting to see renewal of contracts. Um you'll see lots of individuals on there. All of these folks play very critical roles in supporting students and so we just appreciate the hard work that goes on every single day uh to create great experiences for for kids from these staff members. Um the first
120personnel item there um is a recommendation to approve resignations that have come in recently since our last meeting. Um number two is recommendation to approve the renewal of administrator contracts. You can see the time frame for those contracts is from August 1st of '26 to July 31st of '28. Number three is for a annual renewal of a technology coordinator contract. That has the same time frame, July 1st of '26 to uh to actually to June 30th of 2018. And then number four, we have five continuing contracts that we are recommending for your approval and and so here we typically pause and and just talk about continuing contracts and these are these are people who have fulfilled all the requirements that are needed to to have a continuing contract and so we like to just mention
121a few things about these individuals. Inspectors and share some highlights for these people. Yes, absolutely. So excited that we have five of our outstanding staff members. They're all outstanding but you know to be able to reach that level of continuing contract as as we stated just an application process and and being able to fulfill not only just your tenure here, your time here being here for enough years but also completing studies and and being able to kind of prove that through your transcripts as well as the evaluation process and and just bearing very well throughout that process over the last several years. So Amanda Mamonti is one of our staff members that we're recommending tonight for a continuing contract just a wonderful resource there in our research and innovation center at the high school. Collaborates
122very closely with the teachers and and just the work that she does is tremendous there in supporting our students. And just offering just professional development also really um taking a leadership role along with Mrs. Adams at the middle school and and supporting our library aids at the primary school and so she just again does a tremendous job in the high school. Um Molly Williams, one of our art teachers, also at the high school. Uh just some of the comments said about her, just very passionate about her craft as an educator. We have um our um focus on art coming up very soon here in the community. Excited about that. Um and you know, very highly involved with that work. Just super creative and and just her ability to um bring out the gifts and talents
123of our students um who um have the opportunity to pass through their classroom. Ariana Sanders, um our third um staff member there at the high school. Um social studies teacher also, um leading the work of financial literacy um there at the high school. Um very highly involved. Um one one area that sticks out also for me from Sanders is she leads um um just really organizes the work of the volunteering um that our students are involved in. And um really uh leads that work um very connected um at Hamilton County through her leadership as well. And so she just she is so a a wonderful resource. I know she also um participated on our um AI district team as well. Um so again, just a just a very positive impact that she has there at
124the high school in so many ways with not only um the students, but also with the staff. At the middle school, Bailey Fear, one of our intervention specialists. Um she really does a great job of of just implementing a structured and organized approach to reading instruction. Um really supporting the work of a number of our students um who she works closely with, but also um in collaboration as well with the teachers um and different staff members there at the middle school. Um, one of the comments that were shared about her, um, just the way that she provides opportunities, um, for students to be able to share their thinking, um, and providing, we talked about scaffolds here, you know, um, through our study, and and she does a great job of ensuring that students are able
125to be successful, no matter, um, the level that they are working at. And then at the primary school, Bonnie Grace, um, one of our third grade at Elm School. Um, very committed to personalized learning and, um, um, really making sure that her lessons meet those individual needs of the students, and so we are just excited, um, for all five of these Yeah. Members of the school district. Thank you, Lydia. Thank you very much. Absolutely. Awesome. Okay, number five is a recommendation to approve the renewal of certified limited contracts, and so we can see those individuals both of whom are here. Again, we just say thank you to all of these individuals for the impact that they they make on on our students throughout the district. Number six is a recommendation to approve to approve the
126renewal of these individuals, um, and this contains clinic aides, educational aides, library aides, and registered behavior technician aide. Um, again, critical roles in the district that that really just go above and beyond, um, to support students in in very unique ways. Um, number seven is recommendation to approve, um, staff members whose children will be attending William City Schools for the upcoming 2026-2027 school year. Number eight is recommendation to approve this staff line supplemental contract. That's for middle school boys tennis. And then number nine is a recommendation to approve home instruction, um, and that is for additional hours of pay for this individual who is supporting a student with this need. And then we have several other items um being recommended. Item B is for an overnight field trip, and this is the middle school Power
127of the Pen, and that's the state tournament. You can see that's scheduled for May 17th and 18th. Uh again, phenomenal success of our students. Item C is for summer camp proposals, and again, some of these are step one, and that is the approval of the camp itself. Some of them are step two, and step two is the approval of the the stipends for those camps. So, you can see there, we've got application boot camp, girls basketball, two separate camps there. Thanks. Model UN, and volleyball, and then also the Wyoming Science and Technology Camp, that begins right after school is out. Item D is a recommendation to approve the Sterling Grey Cleaning Services Agreement. You can see on the agenda that is for a three-year term. That would be from June 1 of '26 to May
12831st of '29. We appreciate the the incredible work of Sterling Grey, and we're looking forward to continuing that agreement. Item E is for a classified salary schedule increase, and that's for the '26-'27 year and the '27-'28 year. And then item F is for administrative compensation increase, and this is again for the '26-'27 and '27-'28 school year. And then items G, H, and I are for the approval of school fees. You can see each one of our buildings has the school fees updated and ready to go for the upcoming year. All right. That is a lot. Are there any questions from the audience? Mhm. No? Uh looks like there wasn't a huge change in student fees. Right. All right. So, thank you. On that note then, may I have a motion to approve the superintendent's report?
129So moved. I'll second it. May I have a roll call? Mrs. Oller? Yes. >> Mr. Blazek? Yes. Mr. Lee? Yes. >> Mr. Spera? Yes. Mr. Thomas? Yes. Thank you. All right. Superintendent's report. Okay. I just as I was sitting here, I was just thinking about what, you know, what's one of the things that makes Wyoming so special and we say it's people all the time. And you saw so much of that happen tonight. You saw our staff members who have done so much work throughout the entire year researching textbooks and sharing their learning learning with us. You saw the CAC, which is this great combination of staff members and community members who put obviously a ton of work into into the research studies that they bring, which helps to to make decisions for our district.
130That was here. You you saw contracts renewed for the amazing work that happens within our staff. And and we had a parent and a community member speak to us about a concern and offered her support as a resource. And I just think all incredible examples of the best thing about our district and that's the people that are here supporting supporting the district, supporting our students. Just a great demonstration of that. That's my update. Uh pretty powerful. Okay. I'm in a dilemma here. Part of me would like us to go into executive session to