2026-02-12 Board of Education’s Teaching, Learning, and Enrollment Committee

001Hey Terry, let's get started. >> This public meeting of the board of education's teaching, learning, and enrollment committee for January 8th, 2026 is called to order. Good afternoon and welcome. I'm sorry I'm not with you all in person today. Um, everybody at my house is sick, including me, but thank you all for being here. Today's agenda includes curriculum deep dive on math and literacy. We will also hear throughout the presentation um information on technology use. So uh let's begin with introductions. Uh my name is Michelle Chase Miller. Uh I reside in uh zone 4 and I'm the committee chair. >> I'm Virginia Fort. Um, I live in Northeast Portland and I'm I'm on the committee. >> Hi, I'm Christy Split. I'm the third committee member and I live in Southwest Portland. Thanks everybody for being

002here. We really appreciate having you. >> Um, now we have actually Jay, do you want to introduce yourself? >> Oh, sure. Sorry. Uh, Jay, you know, I'm the chief of student services. Okay. Um, next we have public comment. Rosanne, do we have anyone signed up to speak? >> Yes, we do. Uh, we have Roxy, Jean Ratic, and Reagan Wadsniaak. We also have Crystal Hilton and Nico Bule. Um, 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. And we ask that once you hear the sound of the alarm go off, please wrap up your comments. These are fun chairs. to spell your last name. >> Am I supposed to start now? >> Yes. >> Okay. My name is Roxanna

003Jean Ratic or Roxy and my last name is spelled R A D I C K. >> Can I start? >> Yes. >> Hello PPS board members. I'm here on behalf of all MLC high schoolers, middle schoolers planning to save for high school, and all the students who could attend MLC in the future. There is an effort to shut down our high school program next year. The way it is being done is extremely shady with the people behind this effort trying to say our high school is a program and not a school so they can get away with shutting it down without all the proper votes and processes. Metropolitan Learning Center is a remarkably unique school with a tight-knit and self-sustaining community while also being welcoming and supportive of new students. The way we run really

004benefits many marginalized groups. We as a school are made almost entirely of queer and disabled students and a lot of these students came here because uh due to who they are being at another public high school is not a reasonable possibility. Many of us have been bullied and will be seen as and would be seen as different me included. MLC's environment, small class sizes, and our close student teacher relationships allow for students to grow both socially and academically. These factors are very important for bringing up and supporting students in these demographics that would most likely fall through the cracks in a traditional school. We were told in the school meeting this past Tuesday that we would have to go to our neighborhood schools or to other charter schools like Benson. But these environments are incredibly

005different and many current students would not be able to succeed. Personally, I can say that my autism makes change very hard for me to handle. At MLC, we don't have bells that ring between classes. We call teachers by their first names. I have classes with students in all of the high school grades, friends with both freshman and seniors. A school like Benson has roughly 800 to 900 students. Lions, the other one has been compared to MLC, has 200 students. There's also not enough space for all of us at Alliance. It would not be such a small school anymore. Here we have kinder buddies, chances to TA for other classes, and unique social opportunities to connect with people in other grades. This is incredibly special, and MLC will not and has not been replicated. If you

006are shutting it down now, it will not come back. Portland Public School is shutting down our high school is shutting down what makes us different and taking away our place to feel safe and express ourselves. It is also unbelievably ironic to shut down our high school on the basis of low enrollment. is a small school partially because kids here have issues that interfere with their abilities to attend a larger school and uh every single student who is here to support MLC today has struggled with the voice in their head telling them they do not matter. Well, we matter. MLC matters and I hope you take that into account when you vote on the budget. Thank you. All right. Um, good evening. My name is Reagan Waznjak. Regno Z N I A K. I'm here speaking.

007Uh, I was asked by students and here I am today. Good evening. My name is Reagan Waznjak and I am here today as a parent, a teacher, a community member, and an advocate for equitable and alternative education. Speaking on behalf of Metropolitan Learning Center High School since its founding is an institution for experiential and alternative education for students grades K through 12. It has produced graduates that include authors, artists, activists, and at least one PPS school board vice chair. On Tuesday afternoon, the families of MLC's high school students were coldly informed that as of next year, MLC would no longer be their academic home. The district administration is closing their school. This announcement was a lightning bolt out of a clear blue sky. The families who gathered at 3:45, more than an hour before the

008end of a traditional workday, were the ones lucky enough to hear the news from district representatives in person. They were only a small representation of the decimate the dedicated families who have fought so hard to transfer their students to MLC. I myself am the parent of an MLC student who could not succeed in his neighborhood school. MLC High School until ear earlier this week was an option for my neurode divergent son whose needs closely mirror those of so many of my students. It has become clear that the process outlined by the district's own policies was not followed to close this school. District officials attempted to clarify that this decision was being defined as a programming change. I would like to make clear Metropolitan Learning Center is a high school. When I print transcripts for my

0099th through 12th graders, they do not say Metropolitan Learning Center. They say Metropolitan Learning Center High School. We are a high school and these students are owed the same rights as those at Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Wells, the neighborhood schools they fled. I'm a realist. I know that numbers matter. The budget deficit is being used as the reasoning for this closure, ignoring decades the the decadesl long campaign by district administration to hide, limit, and ultimately erase MLC. The budget that will be presented to the board for a vote, which PPS would like you to believe is written with equity in every line, will be the tool used to destroy the first safe and welcoming school so many of our high school students have found. One number I would like you to consider is the immeasurable number

010of current and former students who attribute their time at MLC High School for being alive. listening to student responses on Tuesday, hearing their stories in my classroom, and reading their testimonials on the student created change.org petition you can visit at bit.ly/savemlc. I am over and over struck by the harm caused to my disabled, neurode divergent, trans, non-binary, and anxious students by PPS and their neighborhood schools. I fear that losing MLC means that the world will lose these beautiful humans as well. Does PPS really want that number added to their publicity? I wonder what monetary value the district budget has assigned each life put at risk by this closure. Thank you. My name is Nico Buer. N I C O B U E H L E R. All right. My name is Nico Buler and I

011am a junior at Metropolitan Learning Center among many of my other classmates. I want to talk a little bit about my experience and what makes MLC so special and the reason that we need communities and schools like this. Before I came to MLC, I was in a really difficult part of my life. School was never somewhere that I felt welcome or safe at. Throughout my academic experience, I constantly felt like an outcast. I was bullied for many years by many different people at several different schools. By the time I came to MLC, I had lost hope for a lot of things in my life, especially my education. To me, someone who was struggling immensely, coming to MLC felt like a light at the end of the tunnel. I was immediately welcomed into the school, and

012I finally felt like I was part of a community when I had not been before. My experience at MLC has helped me grow academically, socially, and as a person. And to lose this place would be devastating not to me, but to others and future students who could potentially come here. Myself and many others are there because it was our last option because we had been failed by this school system multiple times before and had already tried our neighborhood schools. I am urging you to reconsider this decision to take a step back and look at the huge implications this will have for those who will be unfairly and unjustly displaced. Students like us matter and there are far better solutions than completely axing our school just because of budget reasons. We are asking you to explore

013other options before making a decision that will cause irreparable harm to many students who are vulnerable. Thank you FOR YOUR TIME. MY NAME IS CRYSTAL HILTON. C R Y S T A L H I L T O N. I've been a parent in Portland for since 2008. My son, River, is 24 years old. He's a white cisgender male and he had a very different experience growing up in Portland than my daughter who has brown skin is um queer and gender fluid and just they they live in different worlds. Um and until that is not the case, we've been trying many different schools in Portland. It's I mean she's been to Hayhurst, Capitol Hill, Robert Gray, Kellogg, Portland Village School, which was amazing. She finally got to a place where she was nurtured, treated as a

014human. The difference in I mean, in one year, she learned more than she learned ever. her uh her scores on standardized testings went up by 90% which is I was told the maximum increase that is possible from that one year at Portland Village school. I was terrified what was going to happen when we have to go to IDB Wells because I can't afford to send her to a Waldorf high school. I was so grateful when we found this place just this term. She just got there. And so now to think that she might have to go back to IDB Wells, well, she's already been treated with racism this year by the librarian, the PE teacher, the art teacher, just not racism by the art teacher. There was a different thing. She teaches special ed kids

015differently than other kids. My daughter's not even in special ed anymore. She has been in special ed for social and emotional support. So when she's in a nurturing environment, uh she doesn't need that. She wasn't in any IEP or any kind of thing. She was in general ed and succeeded, excelled. And if that is taken from her again, I can't even imagine. I don't know what to say. Thank you. And we have one more speaker signed up tonight. >> Oh, we have one more speaker signed up. Steve Bule Horrible treated, but it's also horrible that they're thinking of. >> Thanks, Steve. I timed this down to two minutes. So, tell me when to start. >> Ready? As soon as you say your name. >> Here are some ideas to help elementary school children learn better

016in our schools. In math, we need to have older children work problems regularly, maybe 150 days out of 170 or so. Conceptual understanding which takes so up much of the time now is critically important of course but it needs to be lended with actually doing problem solving. Without problem solving at a high level it is extremely hard for children to obtain a math sense. PS every general education child should know their times tables by the end of third grade. In teaching writing we need to have children write daily including creating compositions and essays. By third grade, they should know how to paragraph. Their work should be corrected. Along with this, we should teach grammar as a system since it is a system. PPS has begun to improve their reading teaching as they seem to be

017making sure we are now teaching phonics. Two things that could help even more would be to create a complete reading curriculum, which included such things as making sure there is reading time, teaching children how to choose good books, and assessing and helping children with pronunciation, meaning, and syntax. It would also speed up children's learning by giving all teachers a copy of the specific phonics they should teach. Teaching technology is a fourth basic skill with standards developed so that students are taught the technology itself not just how to respond to it would be a good idea. Right now there is a lot of argument over technology and how is used and how schools should respond to it but little discussion of what specific technology should be taught at what grade level. Thank you for listening. And

018I already had PS closing Metropolitan Learning Center High School is a BIG MISTAKE. THANK YOU FOR JOINING US and sharing your thoughts regarding the upcoming changes in MLC. I'm a graduate from an alternative school myself, one that is very similar to MLC and I understand the importance of alternative school options. I speak from the heart when I say that we hear your concerns and want to ensure that you have a direct line to leadership and the board of education. The superintendent, senior chief of academics, and chief of schools will be hosting a listening session for all MLC families and students on Wednesday, February 18th at 6:00 p.m. This will be an opportunity to discuss the reasoning behind these decisions and more importantly the specific supports the district is putting in place for our students moving

019forward. I've confirmed with staff that every student currently enrolled in the high school program will receive individualized transition support. This includes one-on-one counseling, assistance in exploring and enrolling in other in other high school options within the district, and ongoing family engagement throughout the transition process. This is a moment when our district is faced with significant financial challenges. This year we're cutting $50 million from our budget. Um, this will contribute to over hundred million in cuts over three years. I encourage you all to reach out to your legislators and share your experiences and ask them to fully fund public education in Oregon so that we can have educational options that meet the needs of all of our students. Thank you all so much for being here today. Um before we move on, I want to uh

020correct uh the date uh and confirm that today is Thursday, February 12th. Okay. So now on to our topic of today's meeting, a math and literacy curriculum deep dive. Chief Uno, would you like to introduce our presenters >> be before we get started? Uh, Director Chase Miller, I just want to clarify. I've just heard that the date of the MLC meeting will be February 18th at 6 PM. >> Thank you so much, Rosanne. >> At MLC, >> really, thank you so much for being here. I know you don't want to stay and listen to the presentation, which is fine, but thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate you turning out and really appreciate noting our school. >> Okay. Um well, tonight as we uh begin our conversation and um focus on um

021our math and language arts curriculum, I'd like to invite up uh Dr. Emily Glasco and uh uh Dr. Phipe Haste to uh lead us through this conversation. >> Maybe you start with introductions while I work on getting our slides up. >> Um sure, vice chair. Thank you for the um or committee chair I should say. Uh thank you for the opportunity board directors. Good evening. Um Chief Yuno, uh thank you. Uh my name is Philip Pistach. I'm the senior director for secondary academics. I'm joined by um Emily Glasgow, senior director for PK5 academics. And I just want to take a moment and appreciate the amazing team uh that I get to work with. So um assistant director Anjen Bryant uh is in the audience and supports language arts and uh social studies. Uh assistant director

022Tuton Dwan who supports math and science is also in the audience. Uh Morgan Halibbrurn supports uh high school uh language arts and social studies and Noel Gorbette um supports math and science at the high school level as well. Both of them contributed to this evening's presentation but are unable to attend unfortunately. So thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having us this afternoon sle evening. Again, I'm Emily Glasco. I want to introduce the team behind me that helps lead at the elementary level. Um, so we have director Melissa Shakner who oversees K5 ELA and social studies and Patrice Woods who's the director of K5 math and science and Elizabeth Martin who um is the assistant director of K12 academic interventions. They're all here on hand. since they helped us prepare the presentation and um should

023we have any questions weigh in the weeds, our content experts are in the room. So, we'll dive in. We have a multimedia presentation for you um with some videos and things to to keep it interesting hopefully. Um here's our agenda. Um we have a lot of content to cover. We're we're charged with talking about K12 mathematics and language arts. Um so, we have kind of have it chunked. We want to go all the way through K12 mathematics and then see what questions you have and then go all the way through K12 language arts and see what questions you have if that's okay. Um our guiding question this this evening is what does math and language arts core instruction look, sound, and feel like in K12 PPS classrooms? And then upon your request, um we're sort

024of integrating into the conversation where and how does technology show up to support that learning. So, I'm going to start with K5 mathematics. Um, and then I'll pass to Phipe for secondary. Um, our core curriculum in K5 mathematics in all classrooms is called I Ready. Um, and it's a suite of, this is just an image to sort of show you everything it includes. Um, there is a digital teacher toolbox that is teacherfacing. Um that is where teachers find everything they need, all their lesson plans, um all their data, all videos, tools, resources, um information on how to do differentiation for different students. Uh there is a student work text or workbook that you see here in this image. It is used for practice. It is not used all the time. This is not kids in

025workbooks all day long, but it is the place where students practice and apply their learning. Um there is a you can see on the slide there are manipulatives. So all those little tiles we call manipulatives. There are lots of different ones besides those pictured here. And every lesson calls for things that students can manipulate with their hands um to practice and learn more mathematics. There is an online practice tool that I'll talk a little bit more about called my path which is studentf facing. And there is also a diagnostic assessment which we'll talk a little bit more about. You can see on this slide how many minutes per day students at each grade level spend on mathematics. Um I'm not going to spend a lot more time talking about that. You can see what it

026looks like, but it's expected that those many minutes happen every day in every classroom. And then because they say it better than we do, I'm going to show you a very quick like two-minute video that kind of goes over um what the structure of a lesson looks and feels like across a week um and some of the core instructional routines that are part of I Ready in particular the try discuss connect routine. So we'll watch this quick video and then we'll talk a little bit more about what you heard. Hopefully it'll work. Let's give it a try. When it comes to mathematics, the key to long-term learning lies in developing deep conceptual understanding along with application and procedural fluency. I Ready Classroom Mathematics takes a unique yet proven approach to get these results. Our lessons

027span multiple days to give students the time they need to dig into the concepts, develop their understanding, build procedural fluency, and apply their learning to new ideas. Each lesson is comprised of multiple sessions. Each session or day takes about 45 to 60 minutes to complete. There are three different session types: explore, develop, and refine. The explore sessions are the first sessions in every lesson. They set the stage for the new concepts the students are going to learn. The session uses an engaging task that helps students connect previously learned concepts to the new ideas of the lesson. In develop sessions, the class uses the discourse-based try discuss connect routine. Through the routine, students develop, discuss, and compare strategies to solve a problem. By discussing one rich problem in depth, students make connections between strategies and better

028retain what they learn. They then apply this learning to new problems. The refined sessions are the last sessions in a lesson. They provide built-in time for students to practice and deepen their understanding. At the beginning of the refined session, teachers check student work on the start activity and observe their reasoning on questions in the lesson. As teachers monitor students understanding, they can choose from the reteing resources on level practice or extension activities to further address diverse student learning needs. The flexibility of the refined sessions provides dedicated class time for further differentiation. The multipleday lessons in I Ready Classroom Mathematics progressively build student understanding and provide the time students need to process new ideas. This thoughtful approach deepens conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and the ability to apply the learning to new situations. The instructional design of

029I Ready Classroom Mathematics helps students connect to mathematics in new ways and sets them up for long-term success. Let me get back to the slides. Um, so here's another way of sort of capturing what you heard and saw in the video. Um, what should be happening in an IR mathematics lesson is that every day or definitely across the week there's whole group learning opportunities or small group learning opportunities and there's some independent practice or application time. Um, people often ask like what makes this different than the old math, right? The old math. So I think some of that you heard in the video. This is a very discourseheavy curriculum, meaning kids spend a lot of time talking with one another about strategies. They play out their strategies on whiteboards and share them with partners. They're

030encouraged to make mistakes and learn from their mistakes. Often a teacher might even call up a student who made a mistake in their thinking and the whole class will kind of talk that through and think about how to help that student rroot because again there's a belief that we learn through mistakes. Um, and then I think you heard also there's opportunities as the week progresses for teachers to differentiate and use data to determine if they need to work with certain students to retach and do small groups while other students are moving forward or doing more problems. It's a less is more approach. We're not doing pages and pages of problems. We're going deep into less problems to really make sure there's conceptual understanding. The other piece I want to just emphasize before we talk about

031assessment is the individualized online my path practice. So there was a specific question your committee had about technology usage. There is um this program called my path. Students take a diagnostic assessment um three times a year and the diagnostic assessment places them within this online practice tool um according to their skills. Um it's recommended that students do 30 to 45 minutes a week on this. So it's not very much. It's definitely not even every day. Um, and it's a supplement to the teacher instruction, to the small group instruction, just to give kids those added kind of atbats at their level to build skills up toward, you know, the grade level standards or beyond if that's where they are. Um, the research in is clear that kids who do that 30 to 45 minutes a week

032are much more likely to meet meet their um, growth and stretch targets that are set within the diagnostic. And the last thing is assessment on this topic. So in K5 mathematics, just like you'll hear across the board in K12, everything, we have a balanced assessment system. So we have interim assessments that we do fall, winter, spring. That's the diagnostic. There's ongoing assessment that's just kind of baked into the lessons. Um it might look like a quick exit ticket on the way out the door as kids are wrapping up the lesson. It might be a lesson quiz or a comprehension check. These are quick and they're just like little dipsticks to give teachers information about where kids are and what they need to retach and support. And then there's end of unit assessments again um for

033teachers to sort of check at the end of a unit where are we? What did kids master? How did I do as the teacher? What do I need to maybe circle back and do with some students? I'm going to pass for 612 math. You want me to slip here or you want? >> Okay, >> great. Thanks, Emily. >> Yeah. So in uh secondary uh mathematics, we use our adopted curriculum uh which is mid school math for middle school and illustrative mathematics uh to bring the focus, coherence, and rigor of our math standards to life. And we anchor what strong instruction looks like um by using core actions as a shared framework. And these actions really speak to uh what we teach uh how we teach it and how students engage in learning. At the middle

034school level, we use middle school math as our core curriculum. Students receive uh 45 minutes of math instruction per day, providing consistent dedicated time for grade level learning. Uh introduction is intentionally uh focused on one um sorry instruction is intentionally focused on one priority standard at a time allowing students to develop deeper understanding rather than moving quickly from one topic to another. The midschool math curriculum uh includes several integrated components. So, uh, much like our K5 curriculum, our mid, uh, middle school curriculum is, uh, predictable. Um, the midschool math curriculum includes simulations, structured practice, uh, printables, and quick checks for understanding. These pieces are designed to work together as a coherent lesson sequence, supporting consistent instructional practice across classrooms, and ensure students are engaged in math in a variety of different ways. I know we're

035supposed to wait for our questions, but I don't understand that slide. So, can we go back? >> Um, what is a math simulator? >> Um, I'm going to talk about in the very next slide. >> Great. >> Yes. And I appreciate the question. Um, so >> in case it's not going to get covered, I also don't know what a clicker quiz is. So, thank you. >> Great. Uh so every um every lesson begins with a a storybased uh thinking task. So students encounter a meaningful problem first, discuss their thinking and work towards solutions before formal instruction. So this is also very different certainly from how I experienced math um in middle school where my experience and I think the experience of um many other students was watching a teacher demonstrate how to solve a problem

036then doing some problem solving together and then having homework to solve problems on my own which really focuses on procedural fluency but doesn't necessarily allow for the possibility of developing deep conceptual understanding. So in our middle school curriculum and similar to our high school curriculum, we begin with the problem and we create space for students to engage in some thinking about problem solving. Um so this uh approach positions students as thinkers and sense makers from the start and would like to illustrate this by showing a brief video if that's okay and hopefully this will Hi, I'm Jacqueline Johnson, director of professional learning with Mid School Math. Each standard is introduced to students in an investigation. The first part of the week is that conceptual immersion, building that opportunity for productive failure, struggling, and collaborating. For

037the math simulator, they just get to start out with a great story. They give kids an opportunity to really think about what would they need in order to solve this problem. >> I just know it's going to be one side of the equation equals another side of the equation. It could equal like the same amount he makes. We need to see like how much burn he has first and how much he's on each of the first four. >> We didn't know how many pickles are in the jaw. We need to find out what they're using to make them and what that costs. Once we've gone through that discussion, we grab the artifact which then gives them um numbers, any kind of information that they would need and they start to just work with that information.

038>> So I multiply right and I got 120 and 720. So 720 is definitely much greater. >> Yeah, we got to add these together. So if we multiply it then add those together. But this is the one. >> I think >> it's so much fun to watch my students process through that, come up with things you would never think of, have great discussions around the room, and so it's just a wonderful way to start the week with my students. Nice. And we can come back to any other questions you you might have. So, uh, assessments in middle school, uh, are closely aligned with our, um, with the standards and what's been taught. Uh, standard checks occur at the end of each, uh, standard and provide some of it, summitative evidence for standardsbased, uh, grading, while

039post milestone assessments help monitor progress on major grade level expectations and often include uh, more than one standard. uh at the high school level um they experience a different curriculum but there is definitely continuity in instructional experiences. Uh we continue to emphasize uh reasoning, problem solving as well as conceptual understanding um in math instruction. Students at the high school level must earn a three at least three math credits um at the algebra 1 and above level in order to meet graduation requirements. And then we also encourage students uh to take uh the fourth year of math as well. High school math is typically taught uh on a block schedule providing between 180 and uh 270 minutes of instruction per week depending depending on the week. uh illustrative mathematics or I am uh lessons follow a

040consistent structure that support supports student discourse. So again the the idea of like predictable structure is um really important. Uh these lessons support student discourse uh reasoning and reflection. Students engage with challenging problems first explain their thinking and refine understanding through discussion and practice. So you would typically see at the beginning of a lesson the introduction of a problem and the time and opportunity for students to grapple uh with those problems before they transition to small group um or uh instruction and small group work. Um at the secondary level our literacy uh sorry I'm uh getting ahead of myself. Uh let me just find this is the video but I want to introduce the uh building thinking classrooms which is a an instructional approach uh separate from the curriculum itself. Uh and we're seeing our

041middle school and high school teachers quite excited uh about uh some of the professional development that we've offered around building thinking classrooms. So this is a researchbased instructional approach that focuses on getting every student actively thinking um during the learning time. Students work collaboratively on rich accessible problems often using vertical uh whiteboard uh erasable whiteboards. Um and we're going to show you a brief video from Emma Georgetta's algebra 34 class at uh McDaniel High School. Today we're going to start with bringing back some stuff from yesterday and then I'm going to send you into some new territory together. Snag whoever you want. Thank you, David. The blue one. >> You know what I'm going to have you guys do? I'm going to have you please. >> Oh yeah, we're waking up. Will you please find

042your board and bring your notes? You might want them. I'm not sure. We'll find out though. >> Beautiful. You're on page four. You were answering all those problems on a whiteboard WITH YOUR PARTNER. YOU'RE TALKING through it. How did you get that? Which craft did you use? What do you think? And then there's some bonus problems with >> Okay, we have fig. Well, can I'm gonna invite, if you're willing, Anthony to be the writer and you have to explain what you did to hear this. >> And then make sure you're asking a question so you're like, where did that even be? >> What are you guys thinking about? >> Cool. How come? >> This is where I got confused cuz when yome It's >> probably not too bad, right? >> Step slices bottom two or

043extensions. It's all for the variable. >> Nice. >> So, >> cool. Then check it. Right. How do you know if you're right? >> Um, put it back in. Plug it back in. It works. Take that next one. Poke it through. You guys have lots of good pathways. >> Cool. How do you guys know you're right? >> Oh, what's a way to figure out if you're right? >> Yeah. >> Oh, it is. >> Where's your equal sign? >> For right there. >> Tell me about this symbol. I'm worried that the symbol went over too many things. Just don't know where it ends. >> That actually doesn't matter. >> Wait. So So >> let's go back on. >> Yeah. >> And we're going to keep stairstepping upwards. You guys have such great thoughts on your boards. >>

044It's very exciting. >> All right, you guys. I'm gonna move you. So, uh you may have noticed that the teacher is asking a lot of questions. Um how would you check? Uh how did you get that? What do you think? Uh students are working with each other. They're making their thinking uh visible and public. Often times uh in lessons like this students will actually rotate uh from one station to another and we'll respond to each other's uh work and uh rather than learning being kind of private and kind of transactional between the student and the teacher it is collaborative um and very very public. Uh lastly, regarding assessments, um high school assessments also include formative checks um such as um uh readiness checks and cooldowns as well as end of the unitit assessments uh that

045synthesize the learning from the entire unit. Uh these provide common evidence of learning and support uh across uh schools. So, I think we can um answer any questions you might have about math and also maybe our math um to Patrice can help as if needed as well. >> Come up. >> They're pretty comfortable. I don't know. You're welcome to. >> And any questions before we transition to ELA? Yeah. Um, I have questions. Um, but do those of you in the room want to begin? >> Let's defer to you being virtual because it's harder to like prioritize virtual people, you know? >> Thank you. Um, okay. So, I was curious, um, what feedback are we getting on these curriculums from teachers? >> That's a great question. um at the elementary level I would say so this

046is our I should have started by saying this is our fifth year in Ire mathematics implementation so it's no longer a new approach or a new curriculum in the district um Patrice please come down if you have anything to add um I would say largely though um teachers like it um we like everything else have a range of implementation across the system but um I almost never I almost never go into a classroom where I don't see a teacher very much trying to teach already and trying to use the I Ready materials. There's there's no resistance to the concept of I Ready. I think there's just, you know, continued learning on on behalf of teachers. But, uh, Patrice, please flesh that out. >> Um, only thing I'll add to that is, um, for kindergarten and

047first grade educators. So, initially when we adopted I Ready, um, again, you saw that it's, you know, discoursebased. And so there was a lot of feedback that this is not developmentally appropriate for kindergarten students and first grade students. And we heard that a lot. Uh Curriculum Associates heard that a lot. They are across the United States. And as a result of that feedback, they actually revamped their kindergarten and first grade um programming. And so in um they rolled that out. and our kindergarten, we did a little pilot with some kindergarten and first grade teachers and they absolutely loved it, at least the the group um compared to what uh they had had in the past. And so um again to Emily's point, I haven't heard a lot of complaints about it. Um we continue to

048work with educators to strengthen implementation, especially around the discourse piece because um that's not always going as smoothly as we would hope. But um they are working very hard and our teachers are doing a good job. Um and the data is showing that as well. We're seeing some definite improvements across the year. So this is year four for us doing the I Ready diagnostic and um just looking at we don't have any data slides in there and I'm sure we can get them to you if you like. Um but just looking thinking about the progression from our growth and performance from the first uh administration of the IRA diagnostic to now is just huge. Uh we're we're spread across a lot more schools are high performance versus lower performance and high growth. So they're using

049it. They like it. They especially like the teacher friendliness of the um the data reports from doing the I'm sorry about that um from doing the diagnostics. So um I I mean I couldn't say 100% of them love it because that's just never going to be the case, but I haven't heard too many complaints about it. So >> thank you. Um and I would love to see the data at some point. >> Absolutely. Um, >> can we hear about the high school side, the secondary side? Yeah, the secondary side. >> I can speak to middle grades, mid school math. It is definitely a different approach. Um, as an educator, especially in math, one of the hardest questions to answer when a student asks is when are we ever going to use this? And this is

050why this is a different approach. It opens with that story-based thinking task um where they they are demonstrating a situation where you need to apply the math that you're about to learn to actually answer the question, but we're not going to tell you what you need to know. You tell us what you need to know to answer this question. And so, it's a completely different approach in that it it opens with the application part first. here's a situation where you need to apply some math skills and then you tell me how you're going to apply it based on some uh additional artifacts that I'm going to give you later and so that it encourages that productive struggle for students >> and how do you think teachers feel about it? Um it is an adaptive shift

051for our teachers because it is different than how we learned math growing up and we are continuing to support that adaptive shift for our teachers. Some teachers love it. Um they share that they love teaching it because it's fun. It is different. Um but if you are a teacher who has not um adapted to that shift um it can be more challenging. Um, so I guess this isn't about the curriculum itself, but kind of implementation. Um, I I love the presentation and the way that it's laid out and the sequencing and everything. Um, it looks really great and it it it makes sense to me and uh looks engaging, but I'm curious about the reality the reality of implementation given class sizes. Um, and this is like a little bit of a personal anecdote, but

052um, I was in a class-siz committee meeting um, at my kids school for my kids second grade class, and uh, one of the teachers shared that because of her class size numbers, um, she just doesn't have the time in the day to work with kids individually. And so they end up um doing curriculum. Kids who are not at grade level end up doing a lot of um a lot of time online. Um while they're giving direct instruction to other students. Um, so I'm just I'm curious what your thoughts are on how educators are balancing the challenge of um, you know, trying to implement curriculum to fidelity with the realities of our class sizes. >> So I can speak to that a little. Um so similar to what Tuton was sharing in terms of it being

053sort of a shift for educators um one of the big shifts within uh the use of the I Ready instructional materials is this idea of sort of a consistent daily um move to uh small group work. So um the way that the lessons were set up um and you saw the uh video uh there's opportunity for small group work on a daily basis. And so to your uh point with your anecdote, um it it one it takes like the getting in there and doing it. It's not going to be comfortable at first, especially if you're not used to it. But it's one of those things where we got to continue to practice it until we can get better at it. And I'm saying that to say so for example um if you've got kiddos that

054need a little bit of extra support when you implement that small group work and that there's rotation so the the kids are doing about 15 or 20 minute rotations there are lessons actually and Emily mentioned teacher toolbox within teacher toolbox that are exactly aligned to whatever concept we're learning. So whether it's, you know, in this unit or an upcoming uh standard or upcoming lesson, um there are uh opportunities for teachers to then use those tools for instruction, which again are designed for small groups and provide kiddos with those. And then when kids do the rotations, they get opportunities to practice with one another on that same concept or a concept that uh gives them a bridge to access that grade level content. So again, it's just one of those things. By no means am I

055saying it's easy. I'm certainly not trying to come across that way. Um but it is something that's different for some folks and it's something that in theory is done daily so that kids kind of understand the um process and the protocol in terms of uh okay we have teacher time we might have a whole group lesson and then we shift to u student le uh centers individual centers maybe they do my path a couple days a week or not so yeah so practice practice and whatever whatever support is needed, we are willing to come and provide at any way any way we can. So, and I know that um instructional coaches also have been through some of these as well. So, whatever they are able to provide as well. Um, and it, like I said,

056sometimes it takes that um, like one-on-one work or that willingness, and I'm not saying the teacher's not willing, but that willingness to step outside of my comfort zone and teach it a little differently than I'm used to or than I've learned for that matter. >> Okay. So I think what I'm hearing you say in relation to because my concern is about like kids getting uh put on on my path uh in lie of having time >> y >> with the teacher directly. Um, so what what I think I'm hearing you say is that um with with with focus on that small group time um that that's the opportunity for teachers to be working with students at all levels um and and that's kind of an adjustment. >> Yeah. So that's not the putting kids on

057computers because differentiation is challenging is not the recommended answer, right? And um that's on us to continue professional learning with educators around how to really plan for the kids in the room. Big class, small class, big range, small range, and really use everything the curriculum offers, including this approach to small group instruction. And it's it's a learning process, but it's, you know, it's possible in large classrooms to ensure that everybody's getting daily grade level math instruction. That's our expectation. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, I'm going to shift to 68 and I'm going to be quick because I don't want to take up too much time. Um, this is another personal anecdote as both of my kids have been sick multiple days this week. Um, and got my kid doing his math that he's missing right

058now. Um, I love the sequencing of the of the week and the way that um the the standards unfold across the week. But what happens if kids miss a day or multiple days? Um how how do those gaps get filled given the way that the the uh standard is scaffolded? >> Yes. So um there's a very specific sequence for midchool math. Day one is that thinking task. Day two they deepen their understanding applying the concepts for that standard uh as it relates to the story. Day three is where teacher instruction gets folded in and they get to practice it u through the practice printable which looks like a worksheet. And then day four is a clicker quiz. If students are absent, student or teachers can still assign those different components to students so that they

059can stay caught up uh and catch up with additional help. So all of those components are there um and they can still be assigned. I assume that's what my kid is working on in the other room right now. Um, is is a week enough time for students to master a standard >> and happens when it's not? >> Yes, that's a really great question. One of the beautiful parts about midchool math is that it's a predictable structure. So, it's easy for teachers to get used to that structure, students to get used to those structures. Um, but in reality, some standards are simpler and some standards are more complex. And what we've done in 68 is we've gotten we've hosted teacher workg groupoups uh where teachers have come in for days and they have identified okay these

060are the simpler standards these are the the standards that where we can shave off a couple days maybe we don't need the whole five days maybe we can cover it in three days these standards are more complex and they require more time because we know that there might be some lagging skills involved and so we will dedicate more time in the scope and sequence for that and we have adjusted that based on direct teacher feedback and teachers have actually been the ones who have identified those and um adjusted scope and sequence accordingly. >> Okay. Um this feels related uh how does midchool math uh scaffold for sped students >> for special education? What a great question and that really is folded into um how we can support teachers in I would call it thin slicing.

061It's integrating some of those building thinking classrooms strategies directly into the the curriculum. They are curriculum agnostic those practices. One example would be the practice printable day three. We hosted PD on this with instructional coaches. And so we would take a comp complex question and we thin slice it and we scaffold it. And so we take we look at what skill or concept is needed as a prerequis prerequisit prerequisite skill. We chunk it for students and then build it up so that they can see how they can actually um answer that question but in small small chunks building up from prior grade levels. Okay, thank you. Um, I think this is my last question. Um, I'm curious about the assessments. >> Um, I've I've heard about synergy kiosk assessments. Um, and is that the same

062thing as the assessments um that are a part of the units that um y'all were talking about? And then also are the assessments in in the units uh what are considered to be um embedded assessments? >> Uh that's right. So the the end of the unitunit assessments, post milestones as they're known at the uh middle school level or end of the unit assessments at the at the high school level are uh curriculum aligned assessments. they're assessing what was taught in in that uh curriculum. They're all standardsbased. In other words, we each item on the assessment is connected to a particular standard that was taught and that is being assessed. And the big shift that we're making this year is that we're transitioning these assessment assessments from paper and pencil to an online uh platform called

063synergy assessment module. Uh so what that means is that the assessments themselves are not changing a whole lot but where students complete the assessments is. And so they'll be completing assessments uh on Chromebooks. They would simply log in through student view. The assessment would be there. The real benefit of doing that is that it makes uh student learning and progress more transparent for all of us who are responsible for our student learning. In other words, um we certainly see our teachers as as the highest levels of student learning and obviously they are responsible for student learning, but we also think of our instructional coaches and our principles and our uh curriculum leads and central office leaders as also being responsible. And so having access to information about student progress can allow us to be much

064more responsive to student needs. For example, if we can see centrally how our students did on their first algebra assessment in ninth grade, not just in a teachers classroom, but across our district, we can extrapolate some information about strengths and weaknesses that we may need to address as far as the curriculum sequence is concerned in 8th grade or later on in ninth grade in algebra. And right now, because all of our end of the unit assessments are paper pencil, we just don't have the ability to have access to that uh information. We wait until the end of a semester to see what the course passage rates were, but we don't have that nuanced standard specific information that we re really need to be to be responsive to student learning. So we are uh um starting

065with math and language arts uh this year and we are engaging conversations with uh teachers as uh Tuton mentioned around designing some of the assessments. We're really monitoring what is their uh user experience so we can make adjustments as well. Um and then we'll continue that conversation to see whether and when we bring other content areas on board as well. Um, we believe that standardized assessments are critical. They provide us some really important information, but we also think that curriculum embedded assessments or curriculum aligned assessments are are important as well, so we can have that more timely uh informative data to respond to student learning. I just want to emphasize uh something that Tutam just mentioned briefly but um uh Tutam Noel I think Patrice as well are engaged in constant conversations with teachers uh

066to adjust curriculum to review assessments talk about individual items on the assessment in other words just because we have an adopted curriculum that doesn't mean that that's a kind of a static body of texts and activities. We're we're constantly engaging conversations to see where do adjustments need to be made um exactly because of some of the questions that you're raising around how is this working for students, where do we need more time, where do we need less time, how is the sequence, etc. So, that work is ongoing. >> I'm gonna just time check us for a minute if that's okay. Um we could talk about math this whole time and we still also want to talk about language arts. We have about 30 minutes left. So, I'll leave it up to you guys if you

067want us to move forward. Um, or if you have a, you know, a few more burning questions about math. >> I have one burning question. So, I answered uh the several that I had. Um, because this is technology- based um Okay, so just I want to back up just one second. So, educators are not required to use the curriculum, correct? >> Or they are they are required. >> They're expected to use the curriculum. >> Expected or required. Okay, so that answers part of So my question I guess it's a moot point was how if we can tell if students who are using the curriculum are improving their math skills at a faster rate than those who are not but they're required to use it. >> So it is uh a moot point and um that

068was my question. Maybe it might be helpful for you because I just remember hearing this from you guys some other time to talk a little bit about how you gauge teacher fidelity as far as like how you know that they're using it, they're supposed to be using it. >> We I know it's not 100%. Um could you just share a little bit about that because I know I heard it at some point along the way and maybe that'll help you to understand the dynamic a little better. >> Sure. And this this would be true across language arts and mathematics. So, we do have um a district-wide K12 instructional look for tool um that kind of, you know, it's a rubric that lays out what we expect to see in in classrooms, including high quality implementation

069of high-quality instructional materials that we've adopted. Um we use that on our principal instructional walks. So, when principles go together on instructional walks, they calibrate together after seeing classrooms on the scores for those classrooms. they enter it into a central database and we can see that we can pull that data and that's part of how we monitor our district continuous improvement plan uh part of which is grounded in the implementation of our high quality materials and >> I feel like I've seen percentages right >> yes correct >> in some other yes place okay >> you have >> it's pretty pretty high >> lower the higher the older the kids the lower the number >> correct you're remembering correctly Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Transition to language arts. >> Good job. >> All right. Thank you,

070Patrice, too, Tom. >> Thank you. >> All right. We're going to start with K5 again. There are a lot of parts to the K5 curriculum. I think one of the things I want to say just at the beginning is I'm going to start actually K12 and talk about some things that are true K12. You've heard us talk about the science of reading before. um you've heard us talk about how complex that is. Um so we're going to talk a little bit about that here and in particular I think we wanted to start by talking about again kind of old versus new like what has shifted what's the big deal about the science of reading we talk about it as this transformation. So previously in Portland public schools and quite frankly most of the country used

071we used a balanced literacy approach which was now we know not exactly grounded in um the best and most current uh research around reading um in PPS in K5 that looked like readers and writers workshop historically. Um now we use what's called structured literacy which is grounded in research grounded in the science of reading. Um part of what's important in the K5 space in that transformation is we now do explicit instruction and foundational skills and we also um do integrated reading and writing work. Kids are writing, speaking, listening about complex text which was not always the case when we were using our balanced literacy approach. Um prior to our current adoptions, we had inconsistent implementation of instructional practices. There was still a lot of pick and choose your own adventure happening in different schools and

072different classrooms. Now we have required high-quality instructional materials that we expect to see in every classroom. Um there was a heavy reliance um previously I would say at all levels K12 on what we called level text which means kids kind of reading at their level text instead of at grade level text. And part of this transformation has really been the expectation that kids are accessing grade level complex text every day even if they need scaffolds and supports to get there. Um and then there was uneven access to resources. Um kids and this is still true to some extent as we work on our implementation across the system but kids were reading different books and getting different access and having different writing prompts and we have a lot more coherence and consistency across our classrooms now.

073Um we've shown you this before as well. This is um Scarboro's rope, which is one of the images often used to explain kind of what's most important about the science of reading. Um again, just it shows at the bottom of the rope um the foundational skills that we teach in our primary grades that need to be taught explicitly. And then what in the upper half we see language comprehension, background knowledge, vocabulary in our K3, K2 classrooms, all those parts need to be taught explicitly. As kids start to get older around third, fourth grade, the rope comes together and we start to more explicitly just teach the upper half of the rope because kids should have the skills at the lower half of the rope. What you can see on this slide um is that we

074have curricular resources K12 aligned to all the parts of the rope. Um that's what's illustrated in that sort of rainbow text on the left and we'll talk about all those different um curricula in this presentation. So at the K5 level again we have a lot of components. We have Heggerty foundations geodess and Whitten wisdom in our English classrooms and then in our Spanish DLI classrooms dual language classrooms we have two other curricula um huntos alexto and benchmark adilante advance. Um that uh allows us to make sure that in both Spanish language and English language in those classroom kids are still getting all the parts of the rope. Um all these curricula have a lot of components. Obviously they have a lot of books, lots and lots of books in our classroom. Um in Whiten Wisdom

075where and and in benchmark um we're looking at like the actual kind of books you would like buy online or buy at Barnes & Noble if you still go to stores, right? Like real um authentic texts. Here's what this looks like on a schedule. Again, this is in an English classroom. Um, you can see that in our K2 classrooms, we're talking about two hours a day dedicated to literacy. Uh, third grade is still two hours a day and it goes down to 90 minutes in fourth and fifth because they no longer need to be doing that explicit foundational skills instruction. And then you can kind of see on the slide how this plays out in terms of the different curricular pieces. It is a lot. We say often this phrase reading is rocket science. It

076is rocket science in that we know how to do it. It's also rocket science in that it's really complicated particularly for our elementary and primary teachers um to put all these pieces together uh for students uh and doable. All the resources are there. To answer the question about technology um this is what it looks like at the elementary level. Um our kindergarten through 2 grade classrooms have 2 to one access with Chromebooks right now. meaning to um students to everyone Chromebook and in third through fifth and beyond up through 61 12th we have onetoone access. There's not a lot of technology expected um in our K5 literacy classrooms. Kids should not be spending a lot of time on computers. We have a tool um that's associated with our foundations curriculum called Funhub Practice. Um, it's

077a tool that, you know, may be used about 25 minutes per week for students to go on and do some independent practice with the foundational skills, phonics skills that they've been learning in foundations. Teachers can monitor it and see how kids are doing and um can use that to help with some data and retaching. We have a tool called Learning Ally that again can be used as a supplement um to help kids who need uh audio access to the complex text that they may not be able to access themselves yet. Um, and then there is also a tool that aligns with the Spanish DLI benchmark curriculum um, that can be used um, kind of on and off to sub supplement lessons. It might be used during the what I need block as well to give

078kids some more independent practice. The only other real reason why kids would be on computers is sometimes in the upper elementary space when they're writing in their Witten Wisdom classrooms, they may do some of their writing on computers as well. And then really just like in math um we have a balanced assessment system in in literacy and language arts. So there's ongoing classroom checks that are happening every day. There's a lot of observation that happens in language arts. There might be looking at small pieces of writing. Even in foundations when kids are doing dictation and they hold up their whiteboard for the kids, you know, the teacher to see what they wrote. There's that immediate feedback piece that happens. We have curriculum based assessments, um, end of unitit tasks that ask kids to write about

079text, um, to read new passages they haven't read before and, um, practice their comprehension skills and show the teacher what they know. Um, and then we have sort of our benchmark assessments um, that that you're aware of. We have our map and we have our map fluency for K2. So, the whole suite um, gives us quite a bit of information about where kids are as readers and writers. And again, like we've done in the other sections, we wanted to sort of illustrate for you what this can look like. Um, I had the wonderful opportunity to be at uh Jason Lee last week on a bright spot visit where we were on the hunt for some really excellent implementation to see what we could capture. Um, and we happened into a fourth grade classroom where the

080teacher was teaching this novel called Hatchet. It's a um module on survival skills. Um, kids get really engaged in it. It's really interesting stuff. I was reading this book out loud to my daughter because it's an OB book. She read it for school last year, but she's in fifth grade. I've been reading it out loud. This book is intense. If you guys haven't read it, I've read like three chapters out loud and was like, >> "Okay." >> Yeah. >> Engaging, right? Like, so um like real book, engaging stuff. Um I'm like never ever want to go to like the Canadian Forest ever. >> Yes. >> Yeah. All right, moving on. >> I remember reading it in elementary school and like it rocked my world. Yeah. Yeah. So, super um interesting text. The kids are engaged

081in it. They spend a long time in one text, doing a lot with one text. Um you can see this is lesson 26 of 34. Um I'm not going to read to you the parts of the lesson. Whitten wisdom lessons are long. There's a lot of components to them. Um, we saw lots of things in this classroom that were exciting to us, but um, what we wanted to illustrate to you, and this isn't, you know, like the best video from a technology standpoint, but you should be able to hear what we want you to hear. Hope you hear, which is, um, the kids really engaging in using text evidence to answer questions, which is what standards call on kids to do. And remember, these are fourth graders. And so this teacher um was doing a

082beautiful job as Witten Wisdom asked her to facilitating textbased discussion, getting excited about the content like you guys just did um with the kids and then pushing them back into the text to find answers, ground their answers, reread sections if they weren't getting the full complexity. And this is really how comprehension grows. So we're just going to do just a minute or two of this. Again, visual is not amazing, but you'll get the audio. I think how Brian changed is he told us his own self was he said he move he also said on page 114 Brian looked back for a moment felt afraid because he was he was right he knew him definitely feels more comfortable around the animal last time he was scared That is how I think Brian. >> What does it

083take or what did it take Brian to get raspberries versus what does it take for a new Brian to catch fish? Aler, can you weigh in on that? >> Sure. Um, so for the raspberries, you said walk all the way to the forest and for fish, you just have to walk over to a nearby lake. We make the fishing sound easy. Was the fishing always easy? >> Who can pass the microphone and answer what did it take for him to actually catch a fish? This new Brian, tell me, Henry. >> So, he had to just make a bowl coming off a sphere. >> Okay, tell me, how long did it take him to make a sphere? Let's find it in the book. Someone find it in the book. What bird is missing? >> The bow.

084The arrow. >> I want you all to read the end of page to yourself. You're going to read the last paragraph in 117 and you're going to continue to read the first and second paragraph on 118. Are you ready? >> Yes. >> Go. >> So, what was cool and hopefully you could catch some of that in there about this lesson, right? Is the teachers really facilitating the kids are digging into the text and answering questions. They wrote about the text. They discussed the text and then they got up while some kids were finishing writing. The kids that were done got up and did a mix and mingle in the back of the room where they were sharing with each other while the teacher continued to support the kids who were getting their thoughts on writing

085uh on paper. And all of this is fourth graders talking about how character development happens through evidence, through text, and grounding. And it it it's cool. It's high level stuff. And um what we hope kids are are doing in fourth grade and and beyond. And what our wind wisdom curriculum um really calls for and pushes for. Um let's see if I can make this move. Here we go. So that's K5. I'm going to pass to 612 and then we can do questions at the end. So at the secondary level, our focus is really on the upper end of the rope. Um the components that support strong comprehension and meaningful um and meaning making. Uh this includes language comprehension, background knowledge, language structures, uh um literacy knowledge, etc. uh instruction is designed to strengthen these strands

086through sustained work with complex texts. That's a key pillar of highquality um instruction at the secondary level at the K5 level as well uh through discussion and writing as well. So, um, unlike our math curriculum, which we have one curriculum for middle school, another one for high school at the, uh, in the English language arts, we have the same curriculum for middle school and high school. We use what's called HMH into literature as our core curriculum. Uh, the curriculum definitely provides a common foundation uh, comprehensive um, and flexible texts. Um, and there's some flexibility for teachers to uh make some instructional decisions as well from some choice texts as well. More than 1500 school districts throughout the country use HMH and um, you know, including 200 school districts that are as large or larger than

087PPS. a little bit um beyond the curriculum and uh just to talk a little bit about the the pedagogy and philosophy behind what we think of as high quality instruction. Um we think of three core actions as um instrumental in making sure that our teachers are teaching the way that our students need to be learning. One, uh lessons need to be focused on high quality texts. Uh two, we want to make sure that teachers are engaging students through uh questions and standards aligned tasks. And then three, and in my opinion most importantly, um students need to do the work. Um uh the person doing the uh the thinking is doing the learning uh or the person doing the work is doing doing the learning. So our curriculum thankfully allows us to really operationalize all those

088uh shifts. We um into literature directly supports these shifts through several key features features uh units build around high interests content focused topics that span literature, science, the arts and social studies. texts are high quality uh and rigorous and lessons are intentionally text uh focused. One way to um illustrate this is to just briefly show you um that the HMH curriculum, all the units are organized around specific uh themes. And so all the texts included in those units help students build background knowledge related to uh those themes. Just a an example from uh 8th grade actually this quarter. So uh right now uh our eighth graders are studying the works of uh Nikki Grimes and Sandra Cisneros. Students will also analyze texts from poets Audrey Lord and Pat Moira. Uh this unit will culminate in

089two assessments, a comprehension uh reading exam as well as a writing assessment which also includes planning, drafting, and revising. Our ninth graders begin um their high school experience by studying Langston Hughes, uh Samira Ahmed, Maya Angelou. uh in 10th grade they're exposed to writing by Dr. King, Malcolm X, and Coulson Whitehead. So again, a wide range of authors and across grade levels, these intentional text selections allow students to deepen knowledge, expand vocabulary, and make connections over time. Um, as far as instructional minutes, uh, similar to math, at the 68 level, uh, students have 45 minutes a day of, uh, ELA instruction. And at the high school level, it's uh, 90 minutes uh, every other day. One thing to mention about high schools in particular, whoops, this slide was not um, is there a way to

090just refresh? One thing to point out at the high school level is in addition to the um core maybe it's not there uh in addition to the core English language arts curriculum starting in 10th grade or 11th grade certainly there are also opportunities for students to take advanced uh courses. So that includes AP lit, AP lang, it includes IB courses and then a large portfolio of dual credit courses that include um uh sports and culture, feminism and gender studies, uh fiction, myth and mystery, hiphop and literature, Latin American lit, lots of different writing 115 and writing 121 courses. is these are courses that are aligned with uh PCC and allow students to earn college credit while still in high school. So we can do questions. Do you want to come up Melissa >> and Anjen

091had a class to attend so um she was excused. >> That's fair. Um, I know we're bumping up against time, so I will keep my questions uh short and sweet. Um, I remember from our CTE presentation um being really excited about um gosh, I'm going to forget exactly what we call it, but bringing um some of the science of reading pieces into CTE to help our older our older students. Um, I'm curious about other ways, um, we are, uh, helping our secondary students who didn't get that bottom strand, um, of of the reading rope when they were in elementary school. What we're doing to to bring them along and catch them up. >> Yeah, we'll have um, our colleague Elizabeth Martin uh, answer some of the questions. I'll I'll answer some parts as well. just

092to say I was at McDaniel High School just yesterday um doing an observation where a CT teacher was applying some of the literacy strategies that they were exposed to the day before um in a cohort of CT teachers who were uh learning about how to apply science of reading in CTE. And so that's one of the things that we're really excited about to expand to um other content areas and make it clear that when we talk about literacy, we're not just talking about English language arts and that they each discipline whether it's science or social studies or CT or business or computer science or health occupations each each discipline has its own literacy demands and its own literacy kind of tools. tools and protocols and approaches and it's incumbent upon all of us as the

093instructors of those various disciplines to help students develop the skills they need to make meaning. Uh and interestingly enough, some of those skills are very much transferable. So whether you're reading a computer code text or a novel or a poem or um medical chart, some of the same principles of science of reading are very much relevant. The importance of background knowledge, the importance of vocabulary, the importance of understanding the structure of the language. Um and so we're we're actively engaging in conversations around how to uh uh bring science of reading across our content areas. And so this summer, for example, we will have two daylong institutes for our math, science, social studies, and language arts uh teachers uh to uh talk about the implications of science or reading um on all of those content areas.

094But then to answer maybe questions about how we support our struggling struggling students, >> yeah, I think maybe particularly middle school intervention and what that looks like. Yeah, the last two years we've been prioritizing um staffing at middle schools specifically for reading and math intervention. I can speak to that as well. Um so they all talked about assessments um that are curriculum embedded. Um teachers look at that and they provide some reteing through that curriculum. But when the student is really struggling and we have our MAP data, kids can take uh during an elective time an intervention course. Um, one thing to note is the curricula that we use during that time is not the grade level curriculum. It's actually going back into those skills and strategies that kids didn't learn across K through three,

095maybe four or five. Um, we use a program called rewards um in the reading intervention space and we actually um use I Ready in the math intervention space. Um, they all have embedded assessments. Uh we do standardsbased grading um with that so parents see how their student is doing in those courses in middle school. Um and then we check kind of fall to winter semester data and growth and consider are we exiting a student or are we continuing um to meet their needs. But it is a science of reading curriculum actually developed by our local um famous SO person Anita Archer. Um and so it's a triedand-true program. It goes into some of those K3 skills as I mentioned, but then it's really fastly moving to get them into text that looks like what they

096see every day in their regular classes, but it teaches them strategies on how to break down those word parts. Going back to the vocabulary you mentioned, the meaning, um, syllables, all the Greek and Latin roots, all of it is in there. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, uh, Director Split, Director Lefort. uh take it away. >> Um I mostly just want to say because I feel like I mean I know like not a million people watch this, but um what I see both through my own kids who are in elementary school still and hearing what the high school students are doing is like a real commitment to making sure that our kids are learning about people from all over the world and people that look like them and people that don't. Um and I just think

097that's really great. Um, and I know it's like Portland, so maybe we take it for granted, but I was driving around um, I was driving around some rowdy fifth graders not too long ago, and somebody was, you know, I love our senior citizens who do the signs on the side of the road stuff, you know, um, people of all ages, but it does seem, this was a particularly older group, and one of them had a um, no one's illegal on stolen land, and they all like talked about it and got it, and it was like amazing. that like fifth graders understand what that means. Um, and it's not because of exposure from their parents. It's because in fifth grade they spend a bunch of time in Witt and Wisdom learning about indigenous cultures in the

098United States. And particularly, it seems like they at least in our classroom learned a lot about indigenous cultures here in Oregon. So, I just wanted to give a shout out for that because I think we take it for granted and it's not something that's true everywhere and it's not something that was true decades ago. Um the question that I have um you so oddly enough Michelle literally asked two questions I had but I kind of want to go back to the one about teachers and add in students and also just ask I guess a third question but I know we're at time so I'll try to keep it short. Um do we do anything intentionally to get teacher feedback other than just being in the tea of being with teachers which is what I heard

099earlier. Do we do more do anything more intentional than that to see how they're doing with curriculum? And then um I just made up my own metaphor. Hopefully that made sense. Um and then this is going to be a three-parter. So there's that. Do we do anything with students to see how they're feeling about how they're learning? And that would be really hard. So probably maybe not, but I'm just curious. And then especially older kids could though be more engaged. And then the final question is we're getting to the point with some of this curriculum where it's time to revisit which like kind of devastates me because it seems like just yesterday I watched the teachers at my kids school really struggle with implementing. Um so I'm just curious when that is coming for I

100think I heard I read five years and I think >> my little one was in first grade. My older one was in first grade so we're at four years for the >> Yeah. >> big grouping in elementary school at least. So >> try to do those as quick as you can. One sentence each. >> Melissa, do you want to take the teacher feedback question, then I can take the adoption cycle questions? >> Sure. Um, so I think uh I would say every day I get uh feedback from teachers. We're out in the schools. Um, they're emailing me. We we have a really fluid uh conversation with teachers u all the time. we've been doing the science and reading uh cohorts and so uh we get in-depth feedback from those 20 schools um and so this

101this year it's with a certain 20 schools that we're getting that feedback but we do take that seriously and we h have tried to adjust and make resources and um um are always trying to listen to what they have uh given us and try to make adjustments work with great minds work with Wilson um to get um products or make make things for them to adjust the curriculum um to support them. >> And then on the adoption cycles, um the general rule of thumb is there's a seven-year review process that the state requires. Um it's a review process. You don't have to do a new adoption. You have to go through a review of the current standards, the current materials, the data, what else is out there, and then make the determination about what's best.

102Um, we have in in the K5 space like I already just revised everything. Patrice spoke about that and we did kind of a midcycle update and revision with them. So, we'll see when we get to that point. We'll go through the same process we always go through, which is part of our adoption process where we get together a teacher team. We study everything. We, you know, we consider all the possibilities. But we may decide if there's traction um to stay with some of our current resources if they're working because we know that um the learning curve isn't always worth it, if we still have really quality materials in front of our kids. So, does that help? Yeah. So, we'll see. >> I think so. I'm like I have like a weird bias toward keeping it,

103I guess. Yeah. >> Um and then I just have one comment. Um, we've talked before in this venue about assessment and as we're moving toward more of the curriculum embedded assessment becoming online so that the district can use it, I hope we'll consider doing away with non-standardsbased like maps. Well, maybe it's standardsbased but not like tied to the curriculum nor tied to the OSAS. I'm having like a moment where I want to talk about the Oregon Climate Action Commission. That's work OSAS. Yeah. Okay. I've got an OCAC in my work. >> Um so I just as a comment wise I would just love it if we would as we're moving toward that model um not be using more computer-based assessments than we need to be using to like get the data that we need about

104how our kids are doing. And I will just leave it at that. Thank you. >> I will say just a note on that. I think Dr. Adams has shared and you'll be hearing more. Um, as part of the state's new accountability framework, we will be required as a district to choose an interim assessment that we do administer K8 three times a year. We largely already have those bustles in place in our system, but we will need to to continue that practice in addition to um our curriculum embedded assessments. >> Yes. Maybe find that balance as that comes online so we're not adding more testing on computers to kids that um you know don't love it. >> Absolutely. There shouldn't be more um because we already have the practice but we will need to continue that

105practice. >> Um one of my questions was basically what you asked like do we need to update which you answered. Um my question is actually at the high school level um on the last slide um the ELA curriculum that we offer to our high schoolers. There was a time when uh in the not too recent past where AP Lit and AP Lang were not offered necessarily across all of our high schools. Some had them, some didn't. Has that changed? Does every high school have AP Lang and AP Lit? Now, >> um, every high school except Cleveland and Lincoln, which have their IB, but all of our schools, um, >> Jefferson is developing that program and will have. One exciting thing that we've been doing at the high school level is thinking about how can advanced

106coursework be integrated as part of our core curriculum so that it's not kind of elective only for some students if they choose to and it's doubling up on credit but how can we make it an integral part of their experience. So, at um McDaniel High School, for example, they offer pre-AP 9th grade English and then all of their 10th graders take AP Seminar as their 10th grade English class. In 11th grade, students can choose between AP Lang and some dual credit courses. Uh so just just a small example, but at all of our high schools there are advanced coursework options uh that are either AP, IB, and or dual credit. >> But for AP Lit and AP Lang, like it was it was a big issue at one of our high schools because we didn't

107have one of them. I think it was AP Lit >> and that's in place now. There was a lot of parent >> push back. >> Let me triple check if I was just curious. >> Yeah, if that's okay with you. But my as far as advanced coursework options, all of them uh offer it. I'll triple check if if if all nonAB high schools offer both AP LED and AP lang. Yeah. Yeah. Any any other questions? We're good. Look at us. We are only seven minutes over. That's pretty good for this committee. Um, thank you all so much. Uh, this is really informative. Uh, oh my gosh, I don't have my glasses on. Um, >> I'm off to my niece's Obaba battle, speaking of literacy. So, >> yise. >> Thank you for the opportunity to make

108it in time. >> Thank you so much. >> Thanks. >> This was a great presentation. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. I'm trying to figure out how to get down from your screen. Our next meeting of the teaching, learning and enrollment committee is scheduled for March 12th. At that meeting, we will receive an uh let's see, we'll talk about continu continuity of instruction and extended field trip followup and enrollment. And we will have our two new student reps joining us, which will be really exciting. And with that, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you everybody. >> Get well soon. Director