2026-05-14 Board of Education’s Teaching, Learning, and Enrollment Committee

001All right. Uh, this public meeting of the Board of Education's Teaching, Learning, and Enrollment Committee for May 14th, 2026 is called to order. Good afternoon and welcome. We have a full agenda tonight. After public comment, we will have our annual charter school report, an update on our interim assessment tool, an overview of the 613 social studies instructional resource recommendations, and a presentation on AI in PPS. First, we'll begin with introductions. I'm Michelle Chase Miller. I am the committee chair. I'm Christy Split. I am the board member that lives in zone one, which is in southwest Portland. Kimberly Armstrong, superintendent. >> Jay Biano, uh, chief of student services. >> Mary Kaine, senior legal counsel, >> Eve Thompson, uh, Franklin, student representative and the student rep on this committee. >> Great. Uh, oh, Director Englesman, do you

002want to introduce yourself? >> Oh, hi. Sure. Stephanie Englesman. I'm in Southeast Portland zone 6 representative. I am listening and I have a lot of um this is a great agenda. So I'm just listening in. Thank you. >> Great. Thanks for being here. Give director Lefort a second to join us and introduce herself. >> Hi, I'm Virginia Lefort. Um I live in Northeast Portland and yeah, that's representing all students in PPS. Hey, next we have public comment. Roseanne, do we have anyone signed up to speak? >> Yes, we do. I'll start with calling Emily Barrett, Kuranjo Cruz, and Beth Kavanaaugh. >> Thank you. Please make sure when you begin your comments that you clearly state your name and spell your last name. You will have two minutes to speak. We ask that once you hear

003the sound of the alarm go off, please wrap up your comments. Is it just me? Okay. Um, my name is Beth Kavanaaugh. CA N A U G. and I'm a parent of a sophomore choir student at Cleveland High School. I'm here to talk about the implementation of SB3 requiring financial literacy and college career readiness credit beginning with next year's seniors. I had a bunch of prepared comments to share, but then I received an email from Cleveland's incredible choir teacher this morning and her words sum this up better than I ever could. So, I'm going to start there. I teach choir at an IB school with a small feeder program and I can tell you with certainty for my students, SB3 is not a scheduling inconvenience. It is a program ending mandate with no when no

004alternative is being given. The IB curriculum is already one of the most demanding and credit intensive pathways a high school student can choose. IB students carry a prescribed course load that fills nearly every period of every school day across all four years. There is no slack in the schedule. There are no free periods to absorb a new requirement. When a new mandatory credit appears, something must go. And in an IB school, the only thing that can go is an elective. and our making our situation particularly painful. We have no IB music offering at our school. My program does not have the protection of being an IB course. It has no designated place in the sequence. It exists only because students want it badly enough to make it fit. My feeder program is small. That's a

005central v vulnerability. A healthy large music program can absorb the loss of a few students to scheduling conflicts and survive. Though not ideal, as all students who want music should have it, mine cannot. Every single student matters to the program. Losing two or three program students to an SB requirement doesn't thin my roster. It collapses it. I don't have extra teners waiting in the wings. When the singer leaves, that voice is simply gone. I've already had conversations with students who love music, who've grown up in the program and are extremely passionate about it, who are now being told they may not be able to continue, not because they want to leave, but because the schedule will not allow it. That is the human cost of a mandate. I'm skipping through because I have I had

006a couple of my own thoughts I want to add at the end of hers. Um I've been working with Laura Arthur, the public policy chair at OMA, the or Oregon music educators association to she's been surveying teachers and districts to come up with solutions and things that are being offered to live within the mandate in other districts in the state. And I've got some questions for you around what PPS might be able to do to equitably offer this student this uh some flexibility to the small number of students who are being asked to give up their four-year pathway in the the music programs that are so important to their their success. I'll email you the rest of the comments. Thank you. Thank you, Beth. Um, my personal suggestion also is to share your comments and

007this this teacher's uh email with Senator Liieber at the funding forum. She seemed uh open to looking at the unfunded mandates and this is a great example. >> And CC your own lawmakers while you're at it. Thanks. >> We also have Katherine Young and Erica Fringlick. Hello, my name is Erica Finler, spelled F as in Frank. R E U N D L I C H. I'm the mother of a senior at IDW Wells High School. Words matter. This is why I'm here today. I'm very concerned about the decision to consider Etiius or Sgage for world history as it relates to the history of Israel. Eticurius frames world history primarily around genocide and settler colonialism which I don't believe constitutes a comprehensive or balanced history curriculum. It lists 10 events as genocide, ranging from 150 deaths

008to 6 million without distinguishing differences in scale, context, or scholarly consensus. The Holocaust is effectively placed alongside events that historians actively debate. Meanwhile, the genocide of the Roma people is omitted entirely. This is historically distorting. Regarding Sengage National Geographics Israel content, the text describes the UN as quote carving an Israeli state out of Palestine end quote framing that misrepresents the actual history of the League of Nations mandate which was explicitly intended to establish a Jewish homeland. It also obscures the fact that Jews maintained a consistent presence, a continuous presence in the region for over 3,000 years. This was not a population arriving from elsewhere to claim foreign land, but a people returning to their historical and religious homeland. The text omits that Jewish leaders accepted the 1947 partition plan while Arab leaders rejected it. It

009presents violence during this era as symmetrical without acknowledging specific attacks on Jewish communities. It describes the 1948 war without clearly stating that Arab nations invaded Israel. And it treats Palestinian displacement as historically unique without contextualizing it against the more than 40 million people displaced after the after World War II, including 800,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries whose story receives far less attention. These omissions and framings are not balanced history. In today's climate, one-side portrayals of Israel can contribute to misunderstanding and put Jewish students like my daughter at risk. I strongly urge the board to reject these materials and consider McGra Hill as a more balanced alternative. Thank you. >> Thank you. My name is Kathleen Young. Y O U N G. I'm a retired physicist and a Portland grandmother. I participate in the April 13

010field test for the 6 to 12 social science digital materials. By the way, I agree with the lady who just spoke in front of me about the materials. I understand the recommendation for the committee's tci for grades 6 to 8 uh sen for and tci for grade 6 9 to 12. I'm here to wake make one specific request before the final approval. Please ask the staff to complete and publicly share a clear content searchability and the teacher resources visibility check for the recommended materials. I spent about four hours reviewing both studentf facing and teacherf facing version of the platforms that day. My question was simple. Can student a teacher efficiently find meaningful contents and teacher support? So I pick one benchmark. I search for material on the rise of modern China and the communist commun

011uh Chinese Communist Party because students need access to information about the world they are inheriting. My concern with TCI is that during my testing, it felt highly dependent on script lessons pathways that can support classroom activity, but it also made open-end inquiry independent content retrieve harder. My concern with synergy is different. The visual presentation is strong, but in economics material I reviewed, I struggle to locate visible teacher support resource such as instruction instructional guides or answer keys. I may be wrong. I may have missed resources or misunderstanding navigation pathway, but this is exactly why I'm asking for a verification, not asking the committee to rely on judgment. So my request is narrow and practical. Please verify before final approval where the students can find all the information they need in order to learn. Thank you.

012>> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you everyone for your comments. Chief Buno, would you like to introduce the next item? >> Yes. Thank you, Director Chase Miller. Um, I'd like to uh ask Senior Director Karina Wolf and Director Sento Sandos to come up and present for us our charter school update. >> Thank you. Good afternoon, superintendent, school board members, student representative, and community. We're here um this afternoon to provide an update. We provided one in December and we um per statute will provide um an update now that we have our performance frameworks um completed for each of our charter schools. Some of the information that we're going to is this this Thank you. Some of the information is similar, so I'll go over it fairly quickly, but we are happy to answer any questions. The

013district responsibilities um with the role of a charter school sponsor um include several things, but I'll just touch really on the top kind of the top four. So, every year we approve or deny annual applicants for the establishment of new PPS charter schools. We did recently um receive one letter of an intent to apply to become a charter school for 2027. Um it's the very first pre-application um beginning stages. Um and so that's where we are in that process. We will know more if the um interested party chooses or not um after meeting to submit a full application or not. We don't have that information yet. Um we conduct we conduct um ongoing monitoring, oversight and annual evaluation. We pass through state school funds and other funding. And we monitor and implement uh interv interventions

014for underperforming schools. A little of which we'll talk about in just a minute. Uh just as review, it's really a three-legged stool for our oversight responsibilities include academic oversight, fiscal oversight, and operational oversight of each of our um five PPS um sponsored charter schools. Our charter schools, as a reminder, we have three K5 charter schools. The Emerson School, Kyros PDX Learning Academy, and Portland Arthur Academy. We have two K8 charter schools which are Leond French immersion and Portland Village school. We also support um with some services and um pass through funding our two states ch our two state charter schools that um operate within PPS boundaries which are the Cotton School of Civics and Science and the Ivy School. Okay, this slide is an overview that you saw in December as well. We've updated the

015enrollment numbers and it's just a good reminder to see that all of our PPS charter schools are in the middle somewhere in the middle of a 10-year contract. And then just um to keep in mind that they are um have to find and maintain their own facilities and everyone of our five PPS schools is in um a secure uh stable facility at the moment. Um I think we can yeah shift to you were going to start uh the academic data. >> Absolutely. So every year what we're tasked to do is to compare the previous year's state assessment for the charter school performance in comparison to the district overall performance. And so that's what you'll see on this chart. So you can see that the Emerson school um which is again K5. So their three grades

016three through five OSAS scores are higher than the district average by 8.5% in ELA and.5% in math. Uh you can see that uh I'm going to skip to Portland Arthur Academy um is above the district in with 11.2% above in ELA and.5% above in math. Lamond French Immersion is 25 uh.8 percentage points above the district average in ELA and 33.3% above the district average in math. The other two score the other two schools have different um data. So, Cyros um PDX um is below the district average in ELA overall in ELA 34.2% and 33.7% in math. I want to note um that and we'll talk more about this in a second, but I want to note that Chyros PDX the majority of their students are African-American or black. And so we also share information and

017we there we made a correction to this slide uh an update to this slide earlier that the information with regard to um looking at the how the district um performs in grades three through five with our African-American black students um compared to Chyros. Chyros um last year for the last school year that we um have performance data was um 5.2% 2% below the district with regard to ELA for our African-American black students and 7.1% below the district for our African-American students in math. And um Portland Village school was for in grades 3 to five. Portland Village school was 18.4% below the district average. It's okay. In ELA can in ELA and uh 18.4% 4% below the district average in math for grade in grades 3 through five. However, in grades 6 through eight, Portland Village

018schools scored above the district average in both ELA and math. Uh above the district average in ELA by 3.9% in ELA and 4.6% in math. sharing just a little bit of what we do and how we continue to monitor all of our schools, all of our charter schools and what support um and process we have with regard to when charter schools fall below the district average is we follow what's outlined in statute. Um and um Sunni, I'm going to pass it to Sunnita who's going to talk about both Portland Village School and Chyros as far as the supports and intervention that they each are choosing and implementing with regard to uh their school improvement plan with this data in mind. >> Uh thank you. Um so in in regard to a a a school continuous

019improvement plan uh the charter schools actually submit what we call a performance plan annually and they have to set their own academic goal. Um so we are tracking that on an annual basis but I should note that both Kyros uh PDX and Portland Village school have put themselves on self-imposed uh improvement plans. Uh this data is not news to um anyone at these schools. And so uh of note, Chyros is in the second year of a three-year improvement plan separate from their performance plan that they submit to the district annually with their academic, organizational, and financial goals. Um that plan, as I mentioned, they're in uh the second year. the the first year of of that plan included stabilizing their staffing. So, we mentioned in December that um uh not that we knew we were

020going to be looking at this exact data, but we knew that they had been struggling to stabilize their administration and their staffing. And we are seeing the um the outcomes of the first year of the plan working in that they have stabilized their administration. They have a fantastic principal Karina Rogers. >> So I I I think we shared this in December also where Kyros had um kind of had a turnover in leadership or multiple turnovers in leadership for about the last two and a half or three years. And so Principal Rogers was hired last year. And so when we look at this data, Principal Rogers was in place for six months of the previous year of this data. He is continues to be the leader at Chyros and is um leading the school improvement efforts.

021>> Absolutely. And um we've also seen a stabilization in terms of their um teachers. There were a number of uh long-term and short-term subs serving in classrooms last year and there is hardly any teacher turnover as of this year heading into to next year. So this has been sort of their focused [laughter] uh focus for their first year of their improvement plan. Year two, which we're currently in right now, focuses on establishing high leverage instructional and behavioral practices with more targeted learning and support. Year three will focus on continuous improvement and sustainability. And uh another piece of that that I wanted to mention because if you look at uh enrollment for our charter schools, Chyros PDX is the one school that is showing decreased enrollment over past number of years. Uh they've made an intentional

022decision to not aggressively recruit students during the early stages of the improvement work in order to prioritize school stability, culture, and instructional quality. So they again were in year two. Um year three will focus on continuous improvement and sustainability. Um Portland Village School has um shared a plan um specifically for grades K through five because as you see their data suggests that uh grades three through five OSAs scores uh are not meeting uh district metrics or or benchmarks so to speak. Um so they've shared a plan in place that includes professional stabilizing staffing um uh professional development and then um continued contracting with reading results for high dosage tutoring services in grades one through four uh early literacy specialists being retained to provide one-on-one and small group interventions and a new ELA curriculum map um

023as well as adjusting tier 2 meeting process with focus on planning small group differentiated interventions at the classroom level and specific PD for their K5 teachers. So, we are hoping that we will see the results of those um improvement plans that the schools have put in place themselves. For us, as Karina mentioned, um we we rely on statute and if we are are looking at two years of declining um academic data, then we are to put in place our own um improvement plan for the school and work with them. So, while we're not there yet, we are staring this down and working with both of these schools currently to speak to what those plans would look like that the district would put into place and track along with the school as we move into 2627

024>> aligned with as as outlined by statute. The next um piece is just the last piece is just the demographic data um kind of the overall demographic data. So um again as we as we have mentioned before um we continue to look at um areas um where the in where uh specific demographics are how they are in comparison to the district um overall and those have been provided as well as at the bottom it's in comparison to our uh PPS K5s and then our PPS indistrict middle schools. And that is what we have. We are happy to answer any questions. I'm sorry I was giving y'all the crazy eye. [laughter] Um I I have a lot of questions. Um so my first question is [sighs] um my understanding is that uh stable staffing continues and

025and high turnover continues to be an issue at Chyros. Um, can you tell me a little bit more about the stabilization both in terms of permanent long-term hired staff who are not subs um but also Chyros's ability to maintain uh grade bands. Um, and for example, um, a few years ago they went from two fifth grades down to one. I think that's also happened in like the second grade and >> maybe some other grades. Um so I'm curious about um both the teacher tenure and stability but also their ability to maintain programming. >> Yeah, I I absolutely and that that's why I spoke to their decreasing enrollment because we you can you can everyone can look at the numbers and they have um combined their fifth grade. That is the case. Um, in staring down

026next year, we've got they've got an enrollment in the upper 170s and aren't anticipating any more combination of uh or blending of of classrooms. And uh last year at this point in the year, they were still um in three or four of their classrooms, they were not able to hire permanent teachers. they have this year and they're not their hiring for next year is very very limited and their in entire administration is also stable going into next year as well. So that's what we are hearing and what is being indicated from the administration. Um currently >> visits >> yeah and site visits um and being in the classrooms uh they they are not experiencing the teacher turn turnover that they were last year and their inability to staff their classrooms. >> Is the principal uh

027empowered to make the academic decisions at Chyros? I believe so in conjunction with the rest of the team. Um I will say that that principal Rogers works hand inand with um Terry who has been in um her role as sort of the lead um for the staff and the teaching staff for a number of years and they work in tandem together but I believe they are empowered to make academic decisions. Yes. Um gosh, I'm not quite sure how to phrase this question, but um at a school like Chyros with the express mission of existing to eliminate the racial achievement gap, but we see the racial achievement gap persist >> um and [clears throat] in looking at the um improvement plan materials um that we received, >> I mean it and and from what I've seen

028in past years, it just it seems like every year it's like we're going to do better next year, can keep working on reading. Um, and things don't improve. So, at what point um is there accountability to the children? >> Full disclosure, >> my oldest kid graduated from Chyros um and did not have the skills from middle school. Um, and I hear that from a lot of uh Chyros families and I've heard from teachers that they can tell which kids came from Chyros because of their skills. So, what I'm driving at is um how do we ensure that the kids that go to school at Chyros are graduating with the skills that they need to go into middle school? how are we ensuring that that mission to close the racial achievement gap um is met and

029what can we do to just not have a case where every year it's like oh we're going to keep trying to do better um but we don't see better in the outcomes. So, we're guided by statute. And so, what statute says is if there's academic um decline um comparatively more than two years, two years or more, then a performance plan, a formal performance plan is implemented with any charter school. And so, that's the guidance that we follow. And at this point, those are the conversations that we are having that this spring with Chyros and will continue to have. and a performance a formal performance plan would start in the fall as guided by statute and then and then and then there's statute with regard to how we're monitoring >> I'm going to follow up just

030on that sorry we're like talking over you and not listening to the end of your answer but I'm just following directly up on that particular question so there's basically no so like let's say a charter school came in and said we're this is just kind of a silly idea but we're going to be here to be a sports focused option for for kids in Portland. >> And then we heard later that they're actually doing absolutely no sports. >> Statute doesn't give us any recourse to do anything. They just keep doing what they're doing and they're the sports charter school with no sports and that's just the way it is. >> Is that a fair question? >> You want to I'm I'm just going to go back to the previous response which is we're guided by

031statute. >> So what >> just academic performance and that's it. Yeah. >> So what we talk So it's it's that three-legged stool. So it's academic performance and how are we monitoring that and we have an annual calendar of deliverables. It is our fiscal um oversight around how are they managing with regard to solveny. And then it's the third one which is operational management right which might be some some pieces of culture and a whole variety of other of of other pieces around how are they organized or how are they managing as an organization. And so those and then we use the national um assessment for charter schools in our performance framework. So we follow national practice with regard to um the performance framework that is completed every year on every charter school. But if we

032have concerns, that's part of what um Sunnita and I do in our roles is are out in charter schools with leaders just like we're with leaders in our indust schools. Um with regard to sharing concerns, talking about assessment data, looking at looking with our own for our own selves um um part of the um site review every year. Sunnita can go far more into detail but is talking about administration. It's talking to students. It's talking to parents and community members. It's talking to staff. So there's various focus groups and getting different information from various stakeholders in every school every year. And so to go back to your example, um if there was concern um there and um and we have a you know we have a complaint process this their their own organizations but as

033things come to us in our office though we follow up on those as well as we're working with charter school organizations and their boards around their concerns and around what remedies look like. um if we have multiple concerns expressed from any one school, we're having those conversations. Um one of the functions that Sunnita also does and I literally will stop and let her finish this answer, but is she also attends charter school board meetings um um multi you know throughout the year. So there's also really looking at what is the health of the organization and so that we're so that we as a district are also receiving that information. >> Thank you. you want to >> exactly what I was I was going to just bring up the the piece that these are um their

034own 501c3s. They have their own um each one each charter school has their own board. Um, and that is a big part of the charter school office's job here at PPS is to ensure that not only are we looking at the academic data, but of course that we're looking at the health of the organization and ensuring that um that their boards are strong enough to hold these schools and these organizations independent and outside of of Portland public. um because they have their own policies, procedures, they are beholdened to um so many of the things that our district is beholden to independently as a small charter school. Um so looking at the overall health of the organization is also a big piece of our job as a district um in the role of authorizer to to

035take that into account and to track their goals in regard to an organizational goal and a f financial is huge as well. and they're submitting um we mentioned in December that they submit not only their annual budget and then we're tracking that but they submit quarterly financial reports and quarterly PERS reporting so that we can ensure that um nothing >> and annual municipal audits um as well so that we can ensure that um nothing um is going off track um that we're tracking all along the way on a quarterly basis in those regards as One more question. I'll I'll pass the mic. Um my understanding is that there um has been a grievance filed um a sped grievance filed uh that applies to all of the charter schools. um what are we doing to ensure

036that kids who receive special ed services um are adequately having their IEPs met and that the environments and learning conditions are appropriate. >> So what I'll share is that we're working through our grievance process. Can I add one more thing? So, one of the um key partnerships that we have um uh is with our chart is with our special education uh department. And so, every the only um PPS employees that are employed at any of our charter schools, as you well know, but just for everyone's information, um are our special educators. And so we're also in ongoing communication with not only the educators but also our uh program administrators, our senior director of special education around issues such as anything that would come up with regard to special education. So we um Sunnita and myself

037share that responsibility with our special educators and our special ed those that supervise special education to work through any challenges and that's what we do with any personnel issue. I I'd also say I think we have a really good collaborative u relationship with our special ed education team here at PPS and our goal is to have we I run a meeting every week with our charter leaders um to discuss any you know relevant obligations and anything that's coming up on a weekly basis and on a monthly basis. Our goal is to have um someone from the PPS special education team push in and provide PD and or answer questions and or um address issues of space challenges in our charter schools. They're again they're required to find their own buildings and lease their own buildings

038or purchase their own buildings. So space is at a premium. uh questions about the supervision of PPS employees in your building when they're the only PPS employees in the building or the special educators. So, those conversations do come up often and I feel like our team has been um exceptional at being available to provide professional development to our charter leaders and also to answer questions as they come up um during the year. Yeah. >> Yeah. and our special education leadership team has really been present and super positive. >> I have so much confidence in uh your your teams. Um I I worry a bit about um you know those those PPS staff who are embedded in the schools and regardless of the guidance that you all are given um once you're gone, what is actually

039happening and what um building leadership is following up on or not um and how that impacts our our educators and our learners. Thank you. >> Sure. We will continue to keep you informed. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Um, couple questions regarding, and I'm kind of new to the charter school conversation, so this is, you know, drinking from a fire hose for me. Um, regarding the charter school contracts, um, does a sponsor like PPS have the discretion to pull a contract if a school continues to not meet, um, it stated goals or district academic benchmarks for students? >> Yes, we would follow statute and go through the process. There's t there are timelines. School improvement plans we mentioned two years of declining academic data and then they the school has two years to put

040things into place and we're following up. Yes, there is language um available to us if if >> um >> if academic outcome outcomes don't improve. So we're not stuck >> and or other things, right? That's all written into the contract and then we follow statute and go through uh the time frame in that way. >> Okay. Yes. >> Um I just thought of this while you were talking about the um uh to director Chase Miller's question. You were talking about additional sped staff coming in. I was wondering how the staffing formula worked. So can you tell me like I'm five how the staffing formula does work for a charter school? Do we have a baseline that I mean comes out of our regular budget. I know it's less because I've looked at the numbers. Does

041that include this bed staff or is that sort of like an as needed? like how how does that all work? >> I am going to let Chief Buo answer that question because he is all he has the best answer. >> Uh yeah. So, thank you. Uh for the special education staff that it comes out of our budget, so the budget that you um are looking at right now and we staff the charter schools in the same with the same ratios like same type of programming that we would as if it was one of our comprehensive schools. kind of because I feel like and I might be I might need to go back and look at the numbers, but I thought the c the the budget per pupil at some of the charter schools was actually

042less than some of our neighborhood schools. Am I not remembering that correctly? It's entirely possible. >> So it is less. So >> So that's outlined in statute. >> Okay. So when does that lower number include sped staff or is that layered on top of what we budget for per student? Does that make sense? >> Do you want to answer this? >> No, I'm sorry. >> Are you talking about over I'm sorry, can I ask a clarifying question? Are you talking about overall budget or special education budget? >> I'm thinking about like the the budget at the school level budget. Like when we go through the budget book, like budget book number two, and we're looking at each school and you know what the the number per student is, they're lower. So the so the payment

043to charter schools overall, >> I'm going to tag team with Chief Uno. So the payment to charter schools overall is outlined in statute. And then I'll and then as far as how PPS shows up with our sped staffing, >> so I I I will verify this for you. Um, I believe strongly that what you're seeing in the budget book is the schools staffing and then the special education sits on top of that in a different in different areas. >> It's part of a a centralized >> allocation. >> Okay, that's what I'm wondering. So when we look at the number like the per pupil spend for a charter charter school, it's actually for like let's just take Cyros as an example, it's actually probably higher once we layer on sped staffing that may not be reflected

044in the >> Yeah. So so I I do I know that the special ed staffing it sits separately. It's it's um the the specific technicality behind that I I need to follow up with you on. I wasn't trying to surprise. >> No, no, no. I know. I don't take it I'm not taking [laughter] it that way. >> It came up as I was listening. So, >> it's it's I'm not um when they start translating it into the per pupil allocation part in the budget book. I'm just not sure where all that's pulling from, but I can verify that. Thank you. >> You just >> Yeah. And I'm I'm not uh sure. I'll just kind of add on to that just as a reminder and and I may be repeating information so forgive me. Um but

045the the there pass through rate for charter schools in Oregon for K through eight the floor would be 80% pass through from a sponsor um and um currently for our >> and oh go ahead and 95 for for high school. Yes, we don't have any high schools currently, but it would be 95% pass through rate for um our high schools if we >> and then in addition, previous um charter school and alternative uh programs committee has passed board policy around um some additions to that with regard to the PPS pass through rate. So that's what would be my understanding is that's what would be reflected in the board budget book on any given year. So for right now for our um K5 and K8 schools that pass through rate is 90% and Portland public is

046keeping the other 10%. Uh and then for schools with >> and provides the services other services and staffing and oversight with that that >> and uh the other uh >> that's it. I I was going to mention Pyros or schools with 95% or more historically underserved student population. The pass through rate as determined by the PPS board a number of years ago is 95%. >> That was my next question. I thought that there was a differentiation there. Thank you. >> I'll probably send a couple follow-up questions. So, thank you. Make sure I understand it. >> Um I have a quick question if there's one. um how hard are we being on these schools when they're not meeting our expectations? like are we gentle parenting or like sorry I can't come up with a better phrase

047for it and I was trying to think of like how to say this but like I know that there's times timelines and that kind of stuff and I know how hard that is but I also do mock trial so I'm trying to figure out how the like how accountable are we holding these schools >> I think we're holding them accountable I as I mentioned I meet with these leaders on a weekly basis I'm in their schools on a monthly basis I'm in their classrooms. Um so why while we can look at um OSAS data as one data point, I also can speak to being in classrooms at Chyros and seeing uh you know learning targets, seeing students engaged, watching a lesson unfold. Um, and they I believe our charter schools I I myself used to

048be the director of one of our PPS charter schools and I understand I think all our leaders understand the relationship that they they they these schools have with Portland public as an authorizer. Um, we um they are accountable to the district. Um, and I I feel they have an incredible um level of accountability required of them in terms of Karina mentioned the deliverables that they have to turn in throughout the school year. Um, and not just um, as I mentioned academics, but financial and organizational and the the oversight from our office is is um, fairly robust, I would say. I yeah I don't I don't feel um that gentle parenting is happening in in our charter schools. I like your analogy [laughter] but but I think that was a good question. Yeah, thank you. >>

049I I had a couple questions. I don't know. We're trying to go in order now as a board and I just forgot myself and deferred next to me. Um I wasn't here in December. I think I was in Florida or something with my family. Oh yeah, I was. Yes, I was with my family in Florida and um so I missed our last conversation and did watch it. So I'm sorry if I'm not remembering if this already came up with this group as a bunch of newbies, but um what is the difference between the do we have any the state sponsored schools that are in our district's catchment are mentioned a couple of times but they're not our they're not under our oversight. Is there a reason why you include them in discussion? Is there a

050relationship that I'm not seeing between the state sponsored ones and and us? >> Yes, there's overlap in a number of different ways. First of all, the pass through of the dollars and the funds um go through our office. Um special education is another layer for for those schools. Um and then there's been an added layer of um oversight required from our office because as OD has streamlined their grant reporting um for SIA and early literacy um they have embedded the state sponsored charter schools into our district um application and reporting. And so our office is also required to work with those two schools to ensure that their reporting for early literacy for SIA etc. what's embedded in that work app um with the district's application and reporting happens and so there is an that added

051layer now um from our office in terms of oversight for those two schools >> and then just lastly I think we also share that information just for clarification sake because I think community members don't always know what's a state sponsored that that IV and Cottonwood are not necessarily PPS charter schools >> okay Um, my next question, I think I know the answer, but I could be wrong. Are the teachers in those schools PAT members and classified staff, right? Okay, that's what I thought. That was a no for those that are listening >> with the exception of the special ed >> specialized teachers. Okay, great. Thank you. That might help explain the lower cost per people. Um, and then the other thing, by by the way, I'm not saying I support lower pay. I'm just saying

052that might be part of the reason for that. And then the other thing that I wanted to ask about was um Oh, it just fell out of my head because I felt bad about the way I said that. Um this is a different Oh, okay. Um I know we have a pass through rate and it funds your work, your portion of this work, etc. I'm assuming. And then also the special ed, not the special ed, the special ed's just separate. Okay. Um, do we exceed if you were to take the let's say 95% pass through rate to Chyros as an example that goes they the 5% stays to do the oversight and all the other work does that cover it or are we exceeding? So like the maintenance costs on that building and stuff are

053all falling within that 5%. So if you're talking about um a lease agreement, if you're talking about Chyros in particular, then that's a different department. That's that's our um in O um OSM with regard to our our um our a lease agreement. So that's not in that that funding is not >> but otherwise the connected >> we did a cost analysis prior to when the board requested it several years ago. Um, so we did a cost analysis so to ensure that the bor that the district would retain enough [snorts] for that exact question. >> Okay, great. Okay, thanks. I might be interested in learning more about the maintenance cost too on the building there. But thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Our next topic is to hear about the interim assessment tool selection

054update. Chief Buuna. >> Yeah. So, presenting tonight uh on this update is Dr. Renard Adams, our chief accountability and equity officer. >> Thank you so much. Good evening, uh, committee members, student representative Dr. Armstrong and Chief Buuno. I'm pleased before you to share an update on our interim assessment selection. Our this is our learning target and success criteria. We're going to continue to model that and model what we expect to see in our classrooms when we're working with uh board members. And we're hoping that you'll learn about the OD requirement that requires this selection and that you can update you can articulate our engagement process and the rationale behind the choice. Wanted to start by talking about our PPS balance assessment system pre P preK to 12. This graphic represents our balanced assessment framework. We're

055working to actualize all areas of the framework. Assessment lives along a continuum of more qualitative and formative to more quantitative and summitative. This graphic is intended to show the continuum of assessments along with included in our balanced assessment system. The width of the rectangles are intended to show the relative amount of time educators and schools should spend analyzing the results for next steps. So, as you can see, our expectation is that educators spend the bulk of their time analyzing information gleaned from the formative assessment process, daily assignments, lessons, exit tickets, and the curriculum embedded assessments that are shown in yellow. >> [snorts] >> We want educators spending almost all of their time in the green and yellow areas of our balance system where the assessment processes provide information that can drive the analysis of student

056learning because typically there's time to respond in the moment whether that moment is that day, the next day, the next week. So let's talk about the 2025 Education Accountability Act. I want to start off by sharing that this act is yet another unfunded mandate. It requires all Oregon districts to annually assess students using one of four approved assessments. It uh it requires us to assess students in grades K through 8 in reading and mathematics three times a year, report that publicly to the board, and it begins in the fall of 2026. So, this is increasing the number of students that are taking digital assessments and increasing the number of times students are taking assessments throughout the school year. The OD put out a list of approved interim assessments over a two-month and two meeting two

057board meeting period of time. Those approved assessments included the MAP growth assessment, the I Ready assessment from Curriculum Associates, the Cambium assessment, which is commonly known as the OD assessments, and then Renaissance's star assessments. We wanted our selection of an interim assessment to be informed by stakeholder feedback. To that end, we re we re we we requested input and feedback from building leaders, educators, and families via a feedback form. And additionally, we held separate listening/feedback sessions with building leaders, educators, and families via the village table, which is the superintendent's family site council. And so, in all, we heard from 23 building leaders, most of whom were in K8. We heard from 90 educators, the majority of which were K5 and K8. And we heard from 488 families regarding uh input into the interim selection tool

058interim tool selection choice and options. All right, this is a lot of information on a slide. I'm hoping that it makes sense. We wanted to take a moment to share some assessment tool comparisons across some significant categories. Where a tool meets a category that it's highlighted in red and where a tool misses that category it's highlighted text is highlighted sorry highlighted in green and where it misses it's highlighted in red. First we wanted to determine which assessments covered all of the required OD grades of kindergarten through 8th grade. You can see that all save the OD cambium assessments cover all of those grade levels. The next thing we considered was whether the assessment was currently being used by PPS educators. You will note that MAP and I ready are currently in use. We also examine

059whether or not the assessment was computer adaptive, which is the assessment experience students are accustomed to having. You can see that only one of the assessments is not computer adaptive, and that's the OD assessment. Next, we wanted to understand if we could use the assessment to identify and track student growth via growth growth scores and student proficiency against standards using achievement scores. Please notice that all but the OD assessments provide both growth scores um provide growth scores and all provide some sort of achievement score. Our final two categories were teacher workload and cost. Teacher workload was examined across the assessments and we determined that teacher workload would increase when using the OD assessments, specifically in the mathematics portion where the that assessment requires teachers to handcore at um items off of every assessment and then

060enter that data manually into the system. Additionally, OD requires districts to screen students for dyslexia in grades two and grades K and two, which is also unfunded. This is another unfunded mandate. In the past, we've purchased a separate dyslexia screener and saw this as a possible opportunity to consolidate assessment tools, reduce costs, and build assessment coherence. Teachers are constantly providing us feedback about there being too many assessment tools. Especially with us currently having map fluency, map growth and I Ready. In terms of cost, we identified that I Ready, Cambian, and Renaissance Star would result in a cost savings over what we currently spend on map growth and map fluency. This is because of two factors. We would need to increase our MAP growth uh expenditure and contract from grades 3 through 8 to K through

061eight. and two, the OD required fluency assessment is built into I Ready and we therefore would not need to continue paying for MAP fluency which is an additional cost on top of MAP growth. This lead us this led us to our final cost comparison with the Cambium assessments. Yes, these the interim assessments are free to all Oregon districts and at the same time they do not require they do not cover all the required grade levels which means any district adopting adopting the OD assessments would still need to adopt one of the other three in order to go to cover grades two K through two. Additionally, uh this scenario creates an unknown cost because we don't um know most providers sell their assessments in grade bands and not necessarily in a few individual grades. Additionally, we

062are trying and saw an opportunity with this selection process to bring clarity and coherence to our balanced assessment system. And having multiple assessments across different grades is less than ideal when we could have a single assessment across all grades in K through 8. Based on stakeholder input and district uh district expertise, PPS has decided to adopt the curriculum associates I Ready assessment beginning in the fall of 2026. This is for a few reasons. I Ready, as shown on the previous slide, met all of the preferred feature categories and aligned with the following stakeholder feedback that we've received through our engagement sessions. Stakeholders asked us to have a single assessment across all grades and subjects. They also asked for us to have a system with robust reporting that fe uh which could all could report on

063both achievement and growth. And finally, they asked us to keep a primary focus on the usefulness of the assessment results to inform individualized student learning and instruction. I also wanted to take just a moment to differentiate between and among the components of I Ready as there have been many recent conversations about the product. I Ready has three components. There is the readymath curriculum component. Those are print materials that students interact with on a daily basis. There's the my path digital academic support component for students. Uh this is a uh use of the my path digital platform. It's recommended that students who need it are on it 15 to 20 minutes twice a week only. And then there is their computer-based assessment component which uh because of the OD mandate will be required three times a

064year. Those assessments take less time in the primary grade. So, we're looking at possibly 30 minutes in grades K through two and then the time increases up through the middle grades to where it could take up to 60 minutes. Uh, wanted to share this information to make sure we're distinguishing among these so we can understand when, where, and for how long students are interacting with textbased resources and when they are interacting with digital tools. And so that concludes um my brief update. I'm available for uh any questions you may have and also have some I Ready experts unexpectedly behind me. Uh so I'm happy to have them here. >> I guess I can go ahead this time. Um I'm wondering to what extent you built that entire slideshow being prepared for me to wish that

065we were using the Cambia one. Um, so, um, were you thinking of me >> always? [laughter] >> Anyway, um, I want to know a little bit more about how staff were engaged. So, I know you mentioned you engaged staff. I didn't even see I would have totally loved to participate in the family input because I'm a parent, not because I'm trying to have like undue influence, but I'm still a parent >> in the schools. I didn't see anything come over my email. So, I'm curious just how the outreach worked. >> Sure. Uh, we uh distributed a feedback form to families. We also distributed >> like on paper. [clears throat] >> No, no, no. It was it was it was digital. >> Oh, that's I'm I'm very curious that you didn't receive it. Okay. >> Um

066so I can >> I am also somewhat curious because I but we get a lot of Is it through the Parent Square, whatever that thing is. >> Don't make me lie. Um let me let me find out exactly how we distributed it. It would have been likely through parent square. Okay. >> Because that's our communication platform. We also sent out a feedback form to our K5 and K8 educators and we invited uh K5 and K8 educators to feedback and input sessions. >> Oh, great. Okay, cool. Thank you for that. >> Sure. >> Um I'm curious if I Ready is norms based or standardsbased. >> It actually can do both. >> Okay. And which one are we going to do? >> Well, uh that's interesting. I am looking and waiting for some clarification from OD on

067their guidance. Um part of their guidance that we saw which was just like a slide so it wasn't anything extensively written said that they would said that we would be required to report on growth. Um now obviously I have questions about if we're doing the assessment three times a year. The second and the third time seem like the times we can talk about growth and the first time it seems like we would need to talk about achievement. So I still have some and the team and I have some lingering questions that we need uh responses from from OD. >> Okay, cool. Um what is computer adaptive mean? >> Oh, great question. So a computer adaptive assessment um so assessments come in either fixed form which were which we were used to taking when we went

068to school where everyone gets like the same questions >> um no matter what right when you're in fourth grade you get the fourth grade test there might be two versions of the test and I have version A and you have version B and director Chase Miller has version uh A right assessments also can be computer adaptive now with technology meaning the items you are presented are are presented to you based on your performance on the assessment to that point. And so as you what typically happens with a computer adaptive assessment is it stretches below the current grade level and above the current grade level. So if a student is performing really really well, it continues to give them more rigorous content items until they stop doing well. And if a student is not doing so

069well, it backs down a little bit. uh to the prior grade level or below to give the student some items that they can then uh answer correctly and then the next time the student takes the assessment it typically picks up where you left off at the last time. >> Okay. All right. Interesting. Um you have gone to pains to explain growth in the past. So, I am sorry to ask again, [laughter] but like if we're trying to figure out if students are meeting the standards, that to me seems like an achievement yes or no question. >> It is. >> And growth. And so, I guess I still don't understand why like my achievement test at the end of third grade and my achievement test at the end of fourth grade, those can't demonstrate growth. So,

070I don't understand what you have to do differently rather than just look and say Christy got an 82 got an 82 was the 82nd percentile at the end of third grade and is at the 84th percentile at the end of fourth grade and therefore grew. Yay. Go Christie. >> So, what's the difference between that and growth? >> That's [snorts] a great question. So, the endofyear OSAS assessments are what we call criterion reference. You have to meet a bar. It's like taking the bar for example or uh the SAT where you meet a threshold and either you meet it or you don't. Um OD does provide some information to building leaders about which levels uh towards meeting or exceeding the standard students meet. So we can understand students that are really close and students who are

071further away. It doesn't tell us whether a student is growing. However, it used to they used to provide growth percentiles is my understanding. they no longer do that. One of the reasons we uh like to celebrate growth is because the end of the year assessment is a zero- sum game. You meet it or you don't. Um, when you're in a school that has lower achievement or and or and or students who are further from their grade level expectation, you could have worked really hard as a teacher and gotten that student up a whole grade level, but if they're two grade levels behind, the end of the year assessment is still going to show you that you didn't make it. Whether where a growth assessment would say, look how much progress you've been made, you've been

072making, right? And so we can look at growth in terms of growth percentiles and I believe we will be able to do that with the I Ready Cambium assessments. Uh but we will still also look at achievement as well because I am also curious um to look at and this is just my own morbid curiosity because I'm a data nerd. How what percentage of students are on grade level at the beginning of the year? What percentage are on grade level at the midpoint? what percentage are on grade level at the spring. I think that's a way we could look at those data and I would hope that we could look at those data in that way and I'm just waiting for additional clarifications from the OD about how we need to report the data to

073them. >> Um and then I'm just going to hold forth quickly. We have a very important reason to end as close to on time as possible. >> I heard >> um but um so I'll just say this. Um, I wonder about making sure that kids aren't on my path too much because then this testing is also the same. And sorry you're here. You're the I Ready guy. I'm so sorry because what I'm about to say is not going to like make it delight you. My reasoning is that I'm at school at an elementary school all the time and [clears throat] or every Friday. And I hear so much complaining about how much kids hate I Ready. They hate math because they hate I Ready. And so we're asking them to do more I Ready. And

074so it's like the only thing I hear kids complain about that's like curriculum based, at least in in my world for the most part, other than my daughter thinking we need to have more on women's suffrage, but that's another story. But um but I just worry about like if we do have people that are like on my path too much, then it's going to like perpetuate that burnout that they have with the system and could make them then just like be like trying to just get through the dang test because they hate I already. So, I just think it would be really helpful to keep just like keep that in mind even though I know it's anecdotal. My daughters are extremely different and if you want to like get them on the same page, just

075ask them how they feel about math at at their elementary school. They both do extremely well in math. So, congratulations already. My kids do excellent on tests on OSAs and everything, but they don't like it. And so, I just have this fear in my mind about it. Um, so I will just say it because I think it's important that you hear it from a parent. Um, and then the other thing that I just want to put out there is I thought it was so cool the idea since OSAS is what we get judged on by community and report cards and the media to like have kids be preparing for that test using the OD assessment. And you know, I felt that way, which is why I will continue to say that if the eye on

076the prize for like what helps us to look good and be a draw to community deciding where to send their children, um, helping them be prepared for that OSAS is important to me. So, I hope that as we're making this transition, we're keeping an eye on OSAS and like maybe randomly looking at kids or something to see like is it does it seem like since we've moved to these new assessments that they're still hitting that OSAS target? and maybe also be looking at some of the districts that choose to go with the state funded version, the cambium or whatever it's called um to see if they seem to be improving on the OSAS. And I think that would just be something to keep in mind going forward in the future. >> Sure. Thank you for

077listening. >> Thank you for Thank you for sharing. I can share a few things. I I'll try to be really brief. One, we can um we can and do receive reports on student usage of the I Ready My Path. Um, and I'm not saying that some students aren't on it more than they should be. Our current data suggests in the aggregate students are not on it to the recommended time. That's what our current data show us. Um, and I also want to share that we did I personally had conversation with teachers from a different district that use the cambium assess the OD assessments to understand the workload problem. As a former district negotiator at the bargaining table and is someone who meets with our teachers and educators once a month, one of the things we

078constantly hear is the workload. And so it was really a challenging decision to think about, oh, we could save a couple hundred,000 or and or and by doing that, we're going to increase workload on our teachers who are telling us that they're uh very much overloaded at the moment. So that was a a very serious consideration that we took into account as well. >> Thanks. Makes sense. >> Director Chase Miller, Director Englesman has her hand raised. Um just going to my kid likes path. >> Oh, good. >> I know. I don't know. Um, but just for for the I Ready people out there, >> kind of [laughter] reminds me of like there was this thing where the kids kept rejecting the school milk like two years ago, and I swear it was cuz like one

079kid said that it was bad, so it could just be like the cool thing at my kids school to like hate it. But yeah, good. Uh, Director Englesman, go ahead. >> Oh, thank you. Um, I didn't mean to butt ahead of anybody else who has questions. Um, so the first thing when I was looking through this is, and I'm glad that you started with this, Dr. Adams, about it being another unfunded mandate, and I had that question. Is that what it is? Because it certainly looks that way. Um, that's really disappointing because am I am I right in saying that we cover the cost for this and it comes out of the general fund? >> That is correct. >> I'm sort of saying this for everybody who's listening. Um, that's disappointing. Okay. So, uh, I'm

080looking at it and I had a question of how much time, three, it looks like three times a year, 30 to 60 minutes per um content area. Are the content areas, math, ELA? Is there a third one or is is it just those two? >> It's just those two. >> Okay. So, then three times a year we're looking at an hour or two um taken away from otherwise would be instructional time. Is that right? >> That is correct. this uh requirement increases assessment time across the state. >> Okay. And another sort of unfunded unmandate is that there was no increase in otherwise in instructional time otherwise. Right. It just is slashing another hour or two each year from our kids. >> That's correct. >> Okay. Um I had a question about uh one of the

081slides I read says it doesn't replace and then I put it in quotations curriculum embedded assessments. Are those what are those? >> Sure. So if you think about um I'm going to go to a different content area besides math. I'm going to go to English language arts. Uh there are assessments at the end of each unit or learning cycle. Uh in some areas those are written tasks because we want students to demonstrate their knowledge through writing. In some content areas and subjects those are actually uh those are actual multiplechoice selection assessments as well. So they're directly connected to the curriculum and aren't and came with the curriculum as a way to check for student understanding and learning so that teachers don't necessarily have to create things on their own. >> Wonderful. That's helpful. Thank you.

082And back to my initial I'm going back one question. Um we talked about taking away 30 to 60 minutes three times a year times 2. That's also um 30 to 60 minutes times 2 times three of more computer time that our kids are going to be on for these assessments. Is that right? >> That is correct. >> So the you know we've been hearing a lot about families especially in the early grades worrying about their kids being on computers. said this is this unfunded mandate is now pushing more computer time on our kids, our young kids. >> Yes, it does. >> Okay. Um, thank you. Uh, one of the things I talked about at the Tuesday meeting and a year ago even is how many assessments our kids are doing. Are we going to be

083bowing out of MA maps testing as well or will we still be doing that? >> We will be bowing out of that. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. It's probably in the slide and I missed that. uh it was not in the slide so that that's on me and I can actually my team keeps track of how much assessment time is taken by the district required assessments that are standardized and how much assessment time is required by the state standardized assessments and I would be happy to share that with you all because we we do have assessment standardized assessment language in our collective bargaining agreement with our educators around how much time we won't exceed need um and how much time we will not lose um to assessment. >> Perfect. Thank you. And I one more

084question. Um and I should say I'm sorry I'm off screen, but I'm um I don't I'm not in a position that I could be on screen, but I appreciate being able to tune into this. My last question is about the Cambium assessment costs. And I understand that it's free for 3 through eight, but there isn't one for K2. And so we would have to um look into cost assessment for K2s. Um, how can we do that? Is it worth figuring out? Because if the cost of I Ready for K to 8 is more significantly more than the cost of something just for K2 and then using Cambium for 3 through 8. Is that not something we should be exploring and at least have the information in order to make an informed decision? So, is that

085something that you can explore? We we did talk to the different uh companies uh to understand what their cost structure was and one of the reasons uh it is highly likely I don't have the numbers in front of me my apologies it is very much the case that our cost would go down using the cambian the OD assessments along with one of the other choices one of the things we heard from our educators and our building leaders is can we have one thing >> I see Okay, thank you for letting me ask questions. Um, that's all I've got. >> Director Lefort, you have any questions? >> One question you guys have all had really great questions. Um, for the Cambium assessments for the cost is that is it that the state doesn't provide K through2

086or that Cambium doesn't have K through2 assessments? >> My understanding is Cambium does not have K through2 assessments. >> Got it. Uh, student representative, do you have any questions? >> Not really. Um, I was Well, >> you know, I don't want to feel left out. No, I just I went to elementary school in David Douglas and so I remember I was also a TAG student and I got tested differently than everyone else um because of that. So, I was just curious about like if this is just a blanket test for like all kids, even special education, or if it's just like targeted to one. And then you answered my question about like um if it was like the SAT cuz I'm in the middle of SAT prep. So, yeah. So the uh benefit or one

087of the pros of a computer adaptive assessment is that it can go as far as the student can go. And so instead of um I was also a TAG student instead of uh only you know zipping through the 20 items and you're done because you know you know the content already it continues to challenge you until you um reach content that you're that you're not familiar with. >> Okay. Thank you. That's how it was in my middle school, but I don't remember it being that way in my elementary school, but I might have also been like it might have also not been a thing then. So, I don't know. >> Okay, I think that's all. Thank you, Dr. Adams. >> Next, we have the 6 through 12 social studies instructional resource recommendation. >> Thank you.

088I'm going to invite up Dr. Phipe. He's heist teach and team I think or he's going okay Dr. Heistache is going to do it. I'm going to get my timer going and stick to my notes. Um good evening. Um my name is Philip Pistach. I'm proud to serve as the senior director for secondary academics. Um committee chair uh Chase Miller, esteemed um board member, Superintendent Armstrong, Chief Buuno. Thank you for the opportunity to our student representative Thompson. Um I apologize. Uh thank you for the opportunity to present and thank you. Um so I'm here to present the recommendation for the 612 social studies adoption. Uh this recommendation is the result of a comprehensive review and engagement process. Um, I would also like to acknowledge two colleagues who helped lead this work. Uh, Anjen Bryant, uh,

089assistant director for 68, um, language arts and social studies, and Morgan Halibbran, um, assistant director for 912 ELA and social studies. This recommendation reflects uh their leadership, the work of our teacher committee and the thoughtful feedback we received from uh students, families, and informed by community members as well. So during this presentation, you will learn how this adoption process was organized, which curricula we recommend for use, and what our initial implementations uh entail. By the end of the session, uh I hope that you'll be able to explain how the recommended uh instructional materials were selected in alignment with OD and PPS um protocols. A little bit of our agenda. We'll talk about uh the background and the scope of the adoption. We'll review the process and implementation timeline. And we'll examine the recommendation in more

090depth. So why do we have curriculum adoptions in the first place? Um one of the foundational reasons for this uh work that we are engaged in is because we're required by Oregon or DE to adopt highquality researchbased instructional materials. This adoption cycle spans uh from 25 to and it aligns uh perfectly with the implementation of Oregon's newly adopted social studies standards which districts are expected to implement starting the fall of 2026. Second, our district has a clear set of expectations uh with regards to how curriculum adoption processes are conducted. uh our work was conducted in alignment with the board policy and the PPS adoption toolkit both both of which are linked here. And lastly and perhaps most importantly uh this work is about uh ensuring that high quality instructional materials um are available to all

091of our teachers and all of our students. And as such, this is part of our uh educational equity commitment and strategy. Uh we believe that all students, regardless of what school they go to, what grade level they're in, uh have highquality, culturally relevant, engaging uh curricular resources. So this is a little bit about the timeline for both the selection and the implementation phases. The selection process for social studies began in the fall of 2025 with the formation of the 612 social studies curriculum adoption advisory committee. This committee evaluated curriculum materials using researchbased criteria and district adoption guidance. By December of 25 uh the committee had identified materials that would move forward into field testing. All of those materials were approved uh by the state. The field testing phase ran from February through April. Uh during

092this time, teachers participated in professional learning, implemented lessons, and provided feedback. We also collected feedback from students and community members. We're here tonight uh to share our recommendation. pending board approval. The implementation work will begin really this spring and summer uh with development of contracts, ordering materials uh and digital resource setup. In August, uh social studies teachers will participate in professional learning focused on the new instructional materials and collaborative planning. We expect that much of that work will also continue into next school year. uh through intentional organization of uh collaborative opportunities for teachers to both provide feedback um and continue developing the curricular resources. Here you can see uh both what the scope and uh what the school participation uh was for this work. Uh as you can see the adoption scope included all grade

093levels from 6 through 12 and the participation included representatives from both uh middle schools and high schools across the uh district. So our teacher participation was strong uh during this process. It involved uh about 40 educators from across the district including educators from nine high schools and six middle schools. Participants brought a range of expertise and engaged in vendor professional learning prior to field testing. Teachers also participated in curriculum reviews, field testing and provided uh feedback through surveys and uh inerson discussions. Student participation was obviously central uh to this process with approximately 950 students participating across 612. Their input included classroom observations. Uh uh we um conducted a discussion with a student action committee at one of our high schools. students engaged in um providing feedback through surveys and our teachers also um solicited feedback

094through and an analyzing student work samples. Community engagement was also an important aspect of this process. Uh we hosted an in-person event where families and community members were able to review the materials, engage with vendors, and provide feedback. Asynchronous access to materials was also provided to support uh deeper review. In addition, we conducted uh both individual and group conversations to better understand strengths, concerns, and areas where the district developed uh supple uh supplemental resources needed to be um provided. This feedback was particularly helpful in identifying places where intentional support and additional instructional resources may be needed to strengthen and implement the um textbooks provided by the curriculum companies. So these are our recommendations. Um so for grades six through eight our recommendation is TCI also known as history alive. Uh the data strongly supports this

095recommendation. Student feedback was positive with uh more than 80% uh favorable sentiment. Overall, teacher feedback was also uh strong with 55 indicating strong favor or um 45% indicating favor with some recommendations. In addition, um 80% of students rated the level of uh challenge as just right um for this curriculum. In addition to the data, I think we uh also saw some real strengths in the curriculum itself. TCI emphasizes active inquiry and moves beyond memorization toward investigation, discussion, and application. Uh the materials also include several universal design features including strong language support for multilingual learners and students participating in Spanish dual language immersion programs. Finally, teachers consistently highlighted the intuitive digital interface and extensive instructional support available within uh this platform for grades 9 through 12. The recommendation is a combination of Sgage National Geographic and

096TCI materials for our ECON class. Student feedback was highly positive with 93% favorable rating. Overall, students responded particularly well to the literacy supports embedded within Sage National Geographic Resources and teachers highlighted the curriculum's inclusive uh inclusion of diverse perspectives. Because of Sgage's partnership with National Geographic, the materials include uh strong visual resources, engaging multimedia media content, and broad representation of global perspectives. For economics courses specifically, TCI offers highly engaging uh simulations and interactive learning experiences that support student engagement and application of content. Both resources include strong literacy scaffolds and extensions to support access rigor and differentiated instruction for a range of learners. Uh we believe these instructional materials will be an important level lever for advancing uh educational success and equity in our school district. Uh supporting implementation of Oregon's new social studies standards. uh

097and as I mentioned before, ensuring that every student has access to rigorous, engaging uh and relevant instruction. And I'd be happy to take your questions um or comments now. Student representative, do you have any questions? >> I do actually. >> Great. [laughter] Um, my big question is I know that, okay, I have to be completely honest. I've only taken AP history, >> okay? um while in PPS. But my my what I'm worried about is that I've heard from my friends that like the big like this may be just at Franklin, but that the big issues or like current events or events that tie back to current events aren't getting covered as much. like um our in our ethnic um studies class, they I've been hearing like they're ma they're making family trees instead of like

098reading about what's happening currently and that kind of worries me. How is this curriculum going to help with that? >> Great question. So we have not had a comprehensive social studies curriculum adoption uh in PPS for for a very long time. Um so what I guess three things that I wanted to to highlight. one uh when we adopt a curriculum, it gives us a shared starting point to have the conversations to engage in the learning that the state has indicated need to be prioritized in a classroom. So the curriculum provides a starting point. And then what we also recognized and what we also heard through feedback including students and families and teachers is that there are portions of the curriculum that will require us to do some additional thinking about what additional resources need to

099be included because the textbook doesn't do a sufficient job of addressing a complex issue. um uh um a a region that requires additional perspectives or or more in-depth analysis. Um these these curriculum offer u kind of a survey of a time period that often times spans hundreds of years, right? And so what we will need to do with our teachers and community partners is do some additional planning for how to address those gaps that need to be uh that need to be uh taken taken into account. But the curriculum should provide us some common experiences so that students at Franklin or at IDB Wells or at Lincoln uh have experiences that are more similar than different uh when it comes to social studies. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the question. >> Um, the

100only thing I um don't I've the only thing that I noticed was just that the slideshow like had a percentage of teachers that supported the history alive one and putting it the person up with middle school I guess. Um, but that piece um but then it didn't have like a commensurate number for the high school one. It just said that people liked Centage or whatever. So, what was the teacher [snorts] input for the high school one? >> It was like n like 100% think they do a better job of handling underrepresented groups, but I didn't get the overall. >> So, what you will receive uh prior to the next board meeting is a memo that provides a more detailed summary of exactly what you're asking for. I I can't remember off the top of my

101head. the the the positive response was definitely, you know, significantly more favorable for Sgage than for the other curricula, but we'll provide you the specifics. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much. >> All right. And our last topic tonight is a presentation on artificial intelligence in PPS. >> Okay. We have a a team of folks coming down. uh Dr. uh Kristen Moon, uh Dr. Benjamin Samuels, and I believe Senior Director Admonson. Good evening, Superintendent Armstrong, board of directors, student representative, Chief Bruno, and members of our community. My name is Loretta Benjamin Samuels. I serve as the senior director for professional learning and also the project director for PPS's racial equity centered pipeline initiative, recipe. Tonight I am joined by a few members of our artificial

102intelligent AI planning team which I will introduce him in a few seconds. This cross functional group represent a collaborative effort between teaching and learning, information technology and professional learning. We do this to ensure our students and our district we taking this approach to make sure AI initiatives are innovative and equitable to all. I'm going to take a step back in a second but I want to introduce the team members and I will ask them to introduce theirelves and their role here on the team. I also asked Kristen Moon to facilitate our presentation to you. So Melissa, could you please come up? [laughter] What am I? >> Uh, you get to introduce yourself, Melissa. >> Hi everybody. My name is Melissa Lim. I'm a learning technologies program administrator in teacher professional learning. >> Thank you. And

103then Ryan Hawky, would you >> uh hello Ryan Hawky uh IT training consultant with the Office of Technology and Information Services. And then good evening again. My name is Kristen Moon and then we're joined with uh Russell from IT this evening. We just want to take a moment to make sure that we recognize all of our members of our team because without the team that includes additional members from our information technologies um team, this work would not be at the place it is at this point. One of the pieces we want to keep in mind as we do this is this team and this work really started in September of this school year and this is a report on where we are at this time. This does not mean that this is the final place

104we are, but we wanted to provide progress and and information about what we're doing. And again, because we are leaning into what we expect for our educators, for our students in our classrooms, we have learning targets and success criteria. Uh tonight we hope you are learning how PPS is using the OD guidance and national standards to create a plan so that every student graduates with AI literacy ski literacy skills that they need to be successful in the modern workforce. And tonight by the time uh we all leave we're hoping that you can list one way AI literacy is helping our students meet the goals of the PPS graduate portrait. One of the sorry I was I wasn't expecting that slide right at that moment. Um one of the pieces as we were uh diving into

105this work is we thought it was really important to first ground in the PPS graduate portrait and then think about what this means for um in what is a current world that has AI in it. And so there's a lot of crossovers as you look between the two. A few that I want to point out is there's commonality around problem solving particularly for AI using AI as a brainstorming partner to generate new ideas and explore a wide range of possibilities is but one idea of what that could look like. There's also a part about being a synthesizer, a researcher, a storyteller, a connector, and a learner that you can all see our connections to our um graduate portrait to be an inclusive and collaborative problem solver to be um optimistic future oriented graduates. The other

106piece we started digging into is there's two essential questions as we really engage in this work around uh what AI means for our school, our school district and our students. First is a systems question. How might we make sure human expertise thrives in an AI enabled classroom? And second for our students, how might we evolve our instruction so that students graduate with the AI literacy required for the modern workforce? A piece around this that um our team really talked about is that AI is the lightning rod that's really um forcing us to consider not only what we're doing for AI, but what does educational technology look like in PPS now and in the future. And we really wanted to ground ourselves around three ideas. What does it look like to prosper, prepare, and protect? And

107as we've been creating our road map, we've been keeping these things in mind and what we need to do to move those pieces forward. In this work, we are not alone and we are so grateful we are not alone. PPS has been partnering with the Education Research and Development Institute, the National Eds Safe AI Alliance Policy Lab. We also work with our Multma ESD and Clakamus ESD and we're collaborating with uh the Portland metro area school districts. In addition, we've been able to work with and partner with Chicago public schools and New York City public schools. that has really been um on the leading edge of what this um what AI looks like in schools. One of the really important pieces around uh that we brought together is this tool that is the um AI

108readiness assessment and I know the colors can be a little confusing so give me just a minute or two to explain them to you. What we did as a team is we looked at where are we and this is in fall and September and we realized that we were in all of these categories uh that we were really in the exploring phase and we quickly realized that there are categories that we need to make sure that we are moving forward and making progress on those. So by now the spring of 2026 you can see that we've made progress in leadership and vision policy ethics and equity and instruction and assessment. And then the piece we want to talk about is professional learning. We are going to be be in the place where we have moved

109to investigating in professional learning um around some introductory PD basics that are going to be required at the pre of the required learning and we'll talk more about that later in this. This is a robust um tool for us to assess where we are as a district. And so there are additional areas uh student use and literacy operations and business functions uh community engagement and IT data technical and security. And what we're hoping to see is that you see that the the conversation around AI is not only around our classrooms but around many many aspects of what is happening in our school district. Again, we've made some progress in those areas. We've had some pilots around operations and business functions that we're doing. We've been engaging in some community engagement through their work with family

110and community engagement in the village table as well as we do have parents who sit on our AI advisory committee. And then we've been doing a lot of work around our IT team. In addition, by the fall, we will have some things in place to strengthen our governance, our student data privacy protections, our technical infrastructure in a better way to review our vendors who are um rapidly um incorporating AI into the digital tools that we have in PPS. One of the pieces we did really work around is to come up with an AI vision. This is an engagement through our AI advisory, our planning committee. We involved parents. Um there are teachers involved in this. And so I'm just going to pause for a moment to allow you all to read uh this AI vision.

111There are a few key phrases that we'd like to point out. One is that we're really trying to center humans in this work. There is a lot of fear out there that AI is replacing the work of humans and we really come from a position that we deeply value the work of our educators and their expertise in this and we do not want to lose that human- centered part that really is a vital part for teaching and learning. We also wanted to point out that we're looking at where AI amplifies human potential and strengthens but never replaces. There's a lot of fear that we want to replace humans and what they do in our district with AI and that relationships are at the heart. We do not want students interacting singularly with AI themselves. That

112relationship between a teacher and a student is critical. One of the things we did recently uh put out is an AI guide book. We were really strategic in deciding about an AI guide book. The guidance from OD required us to update our administrative te uh directive around technology use. But what we quickly quickly realized is AI is evolving at a rate that if we did all of our guidance and our policy within our board policies and administrative directive, we would not be able to be responsive to the rate that AI is changing. This is a living document which means that we are actively taking feedback on this and reiterating. So, at the point of this being published two weeks ago, we've had 21 people fill out our feedback form, and we've engaged about 10 others

113in in-person feedback, and that is already informing our next iteration of this. We also wanted to share about our work groups that we're moving forward. We have the AI planning committee of which you have learn met several of the members tonight. We also have the AI advisory committee that actually just had our last meeting of the year last night. and that it meets quarterly and that has uh building administrators, educators, uh central office staff, there's parents, there's professional learning, there's IT um on that team. And then we started uh at the beginning of the year with an AI explorers club really bringing in our educators and saying, "Hey, what does this look like? What do we want this to do? How could we do this?" And moving forward with what potentially a field test could

114um do. Unfortunately, um, with the budget situation that came during the midyear, this is one of the pieces of work that had to pause. One of the pieces we were specifically asked to talk about tonight is the student is the perceptions AI perception survey that we needed that we had completed this winter. One of the things that teams realized is there is a lot of assumption made being uh about what people thought about it, what families knew, what the usage looked like and what the priorities were. This is an AI survey that we partnered with our Panorama partners that also are our partners with our successful school survey. By partnering with them, this allows us to be able to um have comparative data because they also this is a national test that's being used with

115multiple school districts rather than us creating our own and only having that information. We just wanted to share also that we added some free response questions so that we could learn more about the perceptions from our stakeholders and these are the response questions we have posted. Tonight we are only sharing the student piece because that was a specific ask. But on the PPS artificial intelligence website, we have released this week all of the data from the perception survey. So if you'd like to dig further into what families and teachers and staff has said, all of that data is available. This is our response rate from the survey. One of the pieces that um I just would like to point out is that our survey no matter u which group we were surveying was our response

116rate was overwhelmingly white. So you can see that we're 75% response rates for white and we're very much low lower in every category for our um families of color um that are in our school district. This is one of the growth areas we've named for future work as we will be doing this survey every year that we need to think differently about how we're gaining this information. So when we are presenting this we are presenting what is majority our white students perspective on this work. So the this um the survey really asks questions around a couple of areas. Student AI usage and student perception of AI. There are two um questions around this. How often do you use AI? And what you can see right now is the majority of our students are saying that

117they rarely or once in a while are using AI. We also asked about how often are teachers asking you to use AI for academic purposes. And again you can see that the majority is once in a while and almost never. Then we are asking about their perception of AI around what how harmful or helpful this is. And what you can see right now is uh around a quarter of the students who responded to this survey are are reporting that they do not find um AI helpful for student success when your teachers ask you to use it or helpful around the academic success when you use this for school work. And in those free response questions, a lot of the response was about a fear of getting in trouble for it and that they would fail

118their classes for that around why they are they are responding this way. The other highest reason that they were talking about is there was a real concern around um this idea of not just like cheating that your teacher thing like is going to say you're cheating for it but that it their perception is that I'm cheating and I'm not doing the best and if somebody else's uses AI they're cheating and not doing those things. So we're going to end just on some further progress and achievements that are going to be launching with this. First of all, next year for our mandatory training for all of our staff in PPS, we um have added AI specific slides to talk about the vision, the non-negotiables and data stewardship as part of our information security training because what

119we realized um is that a lot there was a lot of misunderstandings about what it is appropriate to have in an AI generative AI platform versus not. We've also um identified as some tool governance that we are going to be using Google Gemini and we have taken very seriously the board policy around climate justice and our need to reduce our impact on the climate as well as our responsibility for data security and those pieces. And so we chose Google Gemini because that is part of our um Google school uh education for schools suite and a platform that we have. We have Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs and this is part of that and what we were able to negotiate as part of that supported platform is that the any use by any staff member or

120a student of Google Gemini will not be used to go back and inform the large language model that is used to uh that Google Gemini builds off of that. What that means for us is we're more able to keep information and that knowledge secure. It also means that it slightly well not significantly uh has impact on reducing our impact and on um energy use and uh the climate. The other part is that we did present as part of the village table to involve parents and we did we have been working from the beginning of this with our climate crisis response committee to think about this. So this is not work that we're moving lightly forward. We are trying to um also engage our students by conducting interviews about AI in the district. We've been connected

121with several of the high school papers. We've had lots of um classes, students reaching out to us for this. And as a matter of fact, tomorrow we're going to be at Roosevelt in their civics class um being interviewed and talking with them around this work. And at this I'm going to conclude and wait for some and let's talk about some questions because I'm sure there are a lot. Um, thank you. Um, I have some comments. Um, the me sorry I got up the wrong screen here. The slide at the beginning, the um profile of an AI ready graduate. Where did that come from? >> Yeah, that came from an organization and I always mix up the letters of what they stand for, so I may not say that, but it is referenced on the bottom

122of the slide as well. it is our uh it is the group that is the educators for uh around technology and education. Okay. >> Well, I'm looking forward to you know this is the beginning of I assume what will be many robust conversations around absolutely AI and PPS. Um when I look at something like this um profile of an AI ready graduate, I do not believe that students need AI for feedback. Um they don't need AI to evaluate claims. They don't need AI to synthesize information to meet their needs and they certainly don't need it in my opinion to generate new ideas. These are tremendous red flags for me when I see something like this as a guiding document. Um they need to use their own brains and with the support and guidance of their

123educators. So um when I'm looking at this, you know, we also know children developmentally can't distinguish between fantasy and reality until you know ages seven or eight. So I already have cons, you know, significant concerns about having it anywhere near our K through three students. Um, so I guess, [snorts] you know, I work in marketing and so when I sit here and hear a presentation like this, I worry that sometimes the adults are having trouble, you know, differentiating between differentiating between the two as well. Like I get excited about new technology. I love it. But we're being marketed to as well. there is a tremendous amount of money to be made um off of this technology and so it's it it can be a bit painful for me to listen to um and you know

124I'm someone who walks through my house every day and reminds my child that AI is not real um I think it can help us you know when it comes to you know adults you know sure with tasks like you know Grammarly things like that but when I see things like this and we're talking about curriculum integration uh it makes me real nervous. So those are just my initial thoughts. >> One of the things I would just like to share about our ongoing work that is happening that has just recently been released is um at the national level they have released what it looks like for digital for AI literacy for our grade banded K2 35 68 and 912. And at the K235 level it is not around using AI itself. It's about being aware of

125that and how to respond and understand like you were talking about the AI is is not a real person, right? That it isn't like what are the problems with that? How can you spot that? How can you know? Those kinds of pieces. So, it's really focused on that literacy piece of that rather than the usage of the tool. And what we're going to be doing is bringing people together, parents and educators, to really talk about because now it's on our responsibility as a school district to say, well, what does this mean exactly for a kindergartener versus a first grader, a second grader, and really get clear on that. And so I want to just share that we're not in the place of saying, "Hey, we want our K5 students to be using the AI tools,

126but we do need our our K5 students to be aware of AI and how to be safe with it." >> Yeah, I'd like to build on that for a second. I think the key word they used that Christian used was literacy. And to your point, our kids are marketed outside of the classroom 247, right, at all grade levels. So, one of the things that I'm super focused on as a technologist is how are we um arming them so that they can be continue to be critical thinkers, right? So, in my opinion, this is one of the things that at all grades all kids can be critical thinkers. How are we informing them? Because we're not talking about so much about the AI in the classroom. We're talking about the AI that happens outside of the

127classroom that we can't control. So, I'm super interested in how are we educating that educators in those lower grades to help those kids at the appropriate levels. To your point know what is real and what is not real, especially from an AI perspective. Yeah, >> I'm just really not in love with this profile of an AI ready graduate at all. >> I hear that feedback and it sounds like there's work we need to do to think about what that profile would might look like for us. Can you share what um what OD is saying about prepping for um schools and um just all things district on artificial intelligence? >> Yeah, I can share a little bit about it. I do want to be transparent that OD's guidance when it comes to AI is not very

128robust. Um and so what it is talking about is that guidance really focuses on data privacy and it focuses focuses on um making sure that students are aware and and know how to be safe with AI versus like um knowing how to use like being able to use that tool. They also focus on the importance as we move into um high middle school and then high school about how AI is used in the different workforces and those pieces. We do need to keep in mind that particularly when we're talking about CTE courses that AI use may look very very different than what we're talking about for a sixth grader or for you know that literacy use around our second graders. Um, I too had a very strong visceral reaction in the negative to the profile

129of an AI ready graduate from what it's worth and it feels out of step to me with the values that I think our community [clears throat] holds. Um, so I really want to make sure that we're taking the results from that survey. I look forward now that I know they're there to looking at them and seeing how that lines up. Um, right as you [clears throat] got up, my daughter texted me. She was out of screen time. She gets two hours of screen time. She's a fifth grader. She was on Roblox after school. Hi, Mom. I just got back from a walk. I need ideas of where to buy things for an assignment for school. Can I have some more time? And I said, "Not on Roblox." And she says, "I know." And I said,

130"And not chat GPT." Uh, fine. Got to think for yourself, kid. Fine. More time on Google then. So, anyway, just saying that this is something that we're dealing with in our own homes um and having feelings about. Um, I opened this computer when we sat down and the most recent chat GPT was ideas for I guess they call playing pretend roleplay or something now. Um, and so it was like literally my daughter chatting with chat GPT to figure out ideas in order to play pretend with her friends. >> It's deeply concerning to me that she's resting on this and going and using my laptop because she can't use chat GPT without permission on her own device. I probably need to take my password away from her and change my password, but I'm very reticent to

131ever change my password on my laptop. But um but she'll go and find it wherever my laptop is and find a way to use it. Um because and and I've seen all sorts of things that she's doing um that that make me nervous as a parent. Um so I think that what you're saying as a technologist about making sure that kids in elementary school know how to safely use it. Um, it is so omnipresent, like you have to add minus AI to just do a Google search without getting the AI response. And I can't even tell you how often I'm like, I'm reading the AI response. Like, go away. Like, um, even somebody like me who has major concerns with it. Um, so I really do, if I'm an outlier, cool. If the community is

132saying this is not where we are, then I want to make sure that we're um, reflecting that. Um, I just think my gut feeling, um, and I try to listen to my gut because it, well, it's just how I think I guide myself in life is just that more screens are not helpful for our development of kids as human beings. And AI is certainly part of that and is just intimidating. And so, I think it's good that we're looking at it and diving in, but I just really want to make sure that the district office is not racing ahead of our educators. I think we've all seen feedback that our educators have concerns. Um, and I want to make sure we're not racing ahead of our families and parents and caregivers. Um, so I just

133have to say all of that. Um, I did have questions. Um, like I know the climate crisis response committee is working on having input. They were here the other night talking to us and that's coming out soon. Whenever you present to the board, I would like for that to be something that is included. Um, I also [clears throat] wonder if we need to update the policy to be reflective of the changes. Um, I also was really grateful to hear you talk about the need to get better participation from underrepresented voices. Um, it's very common across our survey work. We're seeing it in other places, too. Um, so thank you for doing that. I also um really um want to consider um and and again I need to look at the survey because I think that

134was like my biggest concern was just that I feel like we might be out of step with our community and I look forward to seeing more about that. Um, but I am curious how you plan to integrate what you learned from the survey into what the board has already or the board the district has already moved forward on or if the board the district is like this is what we're doing and just interesting to see what the community thinks and I'll be done. >> Yeah, I think uh one of the pieces from the survey um when you look at that is um there's a lot of information. And so for example, in the survey, you can see something where a parent will say, "I don't want my student to um be engaged and be using

135AI." And that's very predominant in our K5 and very very clear and we're hearing that versus it's a little bit different when you um when you talk uh to and hear from our high school parents. Um but in the very next question, is it important for educators to receive professional development and know how to use AI? And that's yes, that is incredibly important. So, one of the things we're seeing is just kind of like these these responses that are sometimes I won't say at odds of each other, but we're trying to like uh make sense of how those pieces go together and then really think about what that means for grade band. So, it is becoming part of it. I also just want to say that K5 students learning how to be safe with AI

136does not mean necessarily screen time. We're not talking one-on-one on a tablet learning how to do that. It can be very much a guided lesson with teachers. It can be very much through storytelling. It can be very much through play. So, I want us to think about all those pieces that again are so great about our educators about the way we teach things. That doesn't necessarily mean we have to do it the way the edte companies are saying in marketing that we need to do it. >> She needs more time on Google. Yeah, I [laughter] know. >> I hear it. Yeah, >> I need to get home. My husband's not there, so she's just like in her screen. >> Director Chase Miller, uh, Director Englesman has her hand raised. >> Yeah. Um, go ahead. Go

137ahead, Stephanie. >> Thank you. I know everyone's trying [clears throat] to get out, so I'll be very quick. Um, I want to say that I even though I'm not on this committee, I have joined because I'm really interested in this and I too shared the very visceral negative reactions to the portrait but also to some of the information and one of the questions that I had was why are PK to5 academics on the planning committee because I was shocked at the idea that we would be putting AI in our elementary schools and certainly in our K to one to three year old or three grades. Um, I am, I think, also an outlier. My kids don't get screen time, um, at all. And they were bored when I was on this meeting and they they

138were told to put their roller skates on and go outside. Um, I went to law school what feels like a generation, many generations ago, where we had to take books out from the library and do research in the books and then learn how to do that. And today's law school kids get to do it online, but they still have to, at least before AI started popping up so much, they still had to think in order to find the answers. And um I have a lot of concerns. I I literally don't know whether it's chat GBT or PT. I I think director Leffort has laughed at me many a time when I say, "How do you do it?" I've never used it. Um I am also somewhat excited about uh technology gains because they can be

139very helpful. But I am ridiculously worried that we are marching our way towards what was that movie? Um Idiocracy. Um there's a movie out there where people don't think anymore and one person is the only person who's thinking in the whole wide world. Um and so I'm I'm really worried. I also wondered about the perception survey because as I read it, it looked like we had 955 responses out of 44,000 >> odd students. And so that seemed like it's not really a survey response. It's like, you know, a very small it's not it's it's not even um it doesn't even count. Anyway, um and the numbers of families also responding out of our 44 odd thousand students seemed very small. So I'm not sure that it is actually accurate of anything or telling us anything.

140And then I was also confused about the the harmful helpful slide. It loo to me it looked like there was information missing, but it seemed like 24 and 28% said it was helpful. Meaning 76 and 72% said it's harmful. That seems like a very very even though it's a slim sliver of people responding in the 70s is a very high percentage of people saying for whatever reason it is that they consider it harmful. Um I don't I I missed what director split said she would like to work on for the policy. I would like to talk about that. Um maybe it belongs in policy committee. Maybe we can look at that soon. But I missed which policy it was. Um [snorts] anyway, I just wanted to express similar concerns to some of the others on

141there, but I don't want to take more time. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I'm going to be the weirdo here who doesn't have a problem with the policy or with the profile of a graduate. It is profile of a graduate. I think what I'm interpret inter interpreting this to mean is by the time our students are 18 and graduating and ready to go into the workforce they know how to ethically critically responsibly use this as a tool and there are 13 years of education from the beginning to the end for them to do that in a developmentally appropriate way across the continuum. Um I am eager to see how we roll this out uh appropriately beginning with educating our youngest on um being critical thinkers with their own brains um and understanding how to

142recognize and identify AI um all the way through to our big kids learning how to use it as a tool. I use AI in my work um as a as a tool, but it doesn't replace my thinking. Um and that's what I hope for our students to be able to learn. So um I appreciate that we're moving this work forward. It is a new thing. New things are scary. I don't think we should make decisions out of fear. So um I appreciate the work that y'all are doing on this, engaging the community. I hope we can do more of that. I'm going to stop talking and see if our student representative has anything to say. Sorry, I'm trying to get out of here, too. I'm in driver's ed right now. I'm not looking like I'm

143not looking at my phone to be like, I'm paying attention. I just want to get marked as there. >> Um cuz I paid a lot of money for that. >> Yes, you did. No worries. No judgment here. >> Um okay. So, my I'm friends with a lot of debate kids, which probably doesn't mean anything to this room, but they're very against AI. So, I hear a lot about AI and the environment and all of that stuff. And my biggest I have a few questions, but to start um in my AP US history class, I was shown a AI generated video of the Stonewall riots and I've seen teachers using chat GBT to generate slideshows. how that does not feel appropriate to me at all because the Stonewall riots were very important and to show a

144AI generated YouTube short of one seems insane. So how are we ensuring that curriculum that teachers produce is not fully AI generated? Um, right. Like, yes. >> Yes. All the things you said. >> And it does mean a lot to me when you do say some of my good friends are like in debate club. I do understand what that means. >> I love the discussions you all are having. Um, >> the piece for us is that like this is why we're first starting off with the required training for every staff member to really understand around uh data safety about how to keep the humans in the loop. uh how we are looking and reviewing anything that if we do use AI for and it's why in the guide book we have some specific use cases

145that we do talk about there professional development is a real problem like a real challenge and this is part of what we're trying to figure out. We're in the process of applying for a grant from the AI uh policy lab the edafe AI policy lab to continue to engage our educators around this work and make a plan to think about how this professional learning can go forward. The challenge in PPS with our school district and with our calendar is of course we want our students in school and learning as much as possible. But we also with our um PAT contract included in their contract is the the time that we can have them and require them to be in professional learning and what that is and anything outside of that requires additional money for us

146to be able to do that. And so when we have things like additional adoptions and those things moving forward, we're trying to think about how we integrate AI literacy for our educators into that as we're moving this work forward because there just isn't the space to say, "Hey, we're going to do a full day or even an hour about AI and what that looks like." >> Okay. And then my next question is switching it on to students and then that's like the last thing I'm gonna say, I promise. Sorry. Um, okay. Are we like continuing to hold students accountable even with the AI? Like are we continuing to hold students accountable for plagiarism and for um making sure that all coursework isn't fully dependent on AI? Because that's also something I've been seeing. >> Yeah,

147I love that you're asking this question. Um, one of the things we've been working with the district student council and some representatives from there is about making our studentf facing um, AI guidance that we can also then train teachers around how to use that to clearly communicate. AI is not allowed to be used on this. AI can be used in this way or you can um, you're fully used to able to use AI but you need to like name how you used it, right? And so we've been really working with them about what that looks like and how to comm communicate those things. And our plan is to print out those pieces and have that available to them. We also um have a tool through our um ELA curriculum called Writable. and in Writable that

148allows um teachers on the kind of like the back end and quite frankly it does use AI to do this um to take those and compare that to what is out there and look for those those places where there may be some plagiarism happening. What we do really encourage our educators to do and our building leaders is that needs to start a conversation rather than jumping to um absolutely this means that you've been doing that because one of the things we do know about these kind of AI checkers is that they have um some real inherent bias in them particularly if you're um a student who's very advanced um that it can really trigger that hey you you know you've plagiarized this and it is also very biased for are multilingual learners as well. So,

149we really want to have that be a tool to start a conversation form rather than to be an edict of what a child has made a decision to do on how to do their work. >> Okay, that's it. Thank you. >> Absolutely. Can I can I add on I I would say to your questions. Um my son's a junior and I went to his back to school night. I made a point to ask every single one of his teachers what their in-classroom AI policy was and I got as many answers as there were teachers. And one of the things I walked away from is how are we arming these educators in this? Their answers ranged from absolutely no, they'll get an F if we found it to uh his creative writing uh teacher said AI

150writes [snorts] bad poetry. All of which are true, right? So, we need to make sure we're arming the the folks that are helping you get to graduation. >> Thank you. We look forward to ongoing discussions. >> Thank you so much. So, do we and this was really informative and it's hot topic. So, appreciate the presentation. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you very much. Um, committee members, I am going to ask that if you have topics you'd like us to consider at future meetings, you just email those to me because I have a birthday dinner that I am late to. And I am going to adjourn this meeting. Our next meeting is on June 11th. And at that time, we'll receive an overview of the multiple language learner services that we provide in PPS. Thank you everybody.