001the study session of the board of education for September 26 2023 is called to order this session is being streamed lived on PPS TV services website and on Channel 28 and will be replayed throughout the next two weeks please check the district website for replay times all right so today we're going to have three agenda items one will be the successful School survey the osas data review and the I just said it see I guess I've failed already um no the board uh oh Lord the board budget review draft sorry about that budget calendar all right so we're going to start with the successful School survey so I'm going to turn it over to superintendent thank you chair Hollins good evening directors uh here and online at least one of you will recall that in
0022018-19 Portland Public Schools began implementing the successful School survey hosted by Panorama education we felt it was important to begin Gathering direct student family and staff perceptions of climate in our schools in our classrooms we think it's an important source of information it's critical because research shows that student perceptions of their school experience are predictive of attendance discipline and academic outcomes for students this evening we have our chief of assessment research assessment and accountability Dr Renard Adams and he'll introduce a couple more guests that are going to help give a summary presentation of our successful School survey results thank you superintendent good evening board directors both here and virtual online I'm joined tonight by Christina Gillen she is our um partner at Panorama and she will be sharing the results this is again our climate
003survey from last school year so this covers the 2022-2023 school year um this presentation was initially scheduled to occur in late June but there was some moving of the board agendas and so we're just getting it back around to it now so we're really looking forward to unpacking these results with you tonight and without any further Ado I'm going to turn it over to Christina thank you Dr Adams hi everyone my name is Christina Gillen and I'm a professional professional learning director at Panorama education I actually just moved to Portland from the Bay Area last year previously I spent 10 years living in Oakland California working as a district level PBIS and mtss coach at Oakland Unified School District I'm a big systems thinker and really thankful to be a part of the team at
004Panorama where our mission is to radically improve education for every student our team includes former Educators like myself developers designers and researchers and we serve 15 million students in the country just a top level overview of what we'll review today first we'll begin with some context and background about the successful School survey and then we'll dive into some Data Insights have a brief discussion and have some time at the end for Reflections and questions as a reminder here PPS completes the successful School survey annually and last year our survey window was from January to February the topics we cover within your survey include School climate belonging relationships engagement cultural awareness and more and we survey grades 3 to 12 for our students all of our school FTE staff and our K-12 families thank you highlighting
005here the total number of responses across each community group that completed the survey this past year including twenty one thousand one hundred and thirty responses from students I'll pause here so you can take a look at those numbers a little bit more closely and here we'll see a breakdown of participation across surveys by race and ethnicity Paul is here to give folks a chance to look at those details and generally we encourage leaders to review these to see how this data aligns with their overall demographics and enrollment numbers to ensure they're getting an accurate picture of their students staff and community members feedback and you'll see that this is split up into the groups for each of your surveys so including instructional staff your families grades three five and grades 6 to 12. okay so
006now that we've built a little bit of context let's dive into your survey data to access your survey data we'll go to secure.panorama.com thank you you'll select Portland Public Schools to View District level data which is that blue building there which takes us to our topic level pages each topic includes a percent favorable score and that tells us the percentage of survey respondents who responded favorably to a topic or question and go one more and the graphs on each topic page one more show us how each score aligns with national benchmarks and the comparisons page one more shows us how topic scores vary across demographic groups from students then the Schools page next one will show us data across all schools in PPS and one more specific school specific scores for individual questions are listed
007on each topic page we're going to start with Elementary student survey topic results topics we've identified to focus on are school safety sense of belonging School climate self-efficacy about math and self-efficacy about Ela as you see in the topic scores here you'll notice those percent favorable scores in blue then you'll be able to see percentile rankings which show us the um how how our numbers match up with national benchmarks and then the final numbers on the right side show us the change since the previous survey iteration I wanted to highlight some bright spots here because I am a PBIS coach at heart and I always like to think about the things that I notice that are great first so in our data for third to fifth grade students for the topic of school safety we
008see that our responses overall were 63 percent favorable but student perception of school safety specifically for African American students increased by four percent for sense of belonging we also noticed a four percent increase for third grade students in particular we noticed some opportunities for growth within school safety specifically focused on this question how often are people disrespectful to others at your school this question had 37 percent favorable responses but you might notice that this sometimes response has the highest number and that tells us that the shifting of responses towards favorable might be an easier lift to focus on First and we'll continue to see that as a trend through a lot of the questions that we'll see today similarly one sense of belonging question asks how much respect do students at your school show you
009the sum respect response here represents a significant chunk of your students and could potentially be addressed with things like school-wide interventions related to setting Community Norms around respect this then ties in with a school climate question at your school how does Behavior how does the behavior of other students hurt or help your learning the high number of middle responses here shows us how smaller shifts could have significant impact slide now let's take a look at secondary student data for here we'll focus on school safety self-efficacy about Ela and math School climate and sense of belonging across all questions for sense of belonging we noticed a one percent increase in favorable responses with a total of 34 favorable and since our in size here is 13 500 students that represents a shift in favorability of 135
010students school safety saw a three percent increase in responses specifically from transgender students and all of sixth grade saw an average of six percent increases across all topics that's sixth grade data point was something that I really spent a lot of time talking through with teams during my spring survey results reviews and trying to think intentionally about how to utilize some of the supports that were going towards the sixth grade students and apply those to other student demographic groups and we had a really rich discussion back then and I'm looking forward to continuing those discussions next slide opportunities for growth here include sense of belonging specifically how connected do you feel to adults at your school which had a 23 percent favorable response and paying attention here to that 12 percent of responses feeling not
011at all connected and thinking about what levers we might have in place across schools to support students building relationships with staff for school safety we have the same Target question as the third to fifth grade how often are people disrespectful to others at your school which saw a four percent dip in favorability since the previous year's survey for school climate also the same question as Elementary at your school how much does the behavior of other students help or hurt your learning these three questions could be all interconnected and in my mind could be addressed through Universal tier one supports and discussions around me making adjustments to ensure that students have conversations about things like Community Norms have conversations about how to define respect what it means in different contexts all of those types of things
012may be supportive in moving some of these levers slime next we'll look at our family survey results topics of focus here in culude berries barriers to engagement school safety School climate and school fit overall family perception about barriers to engagement increased by two percent highlighting here that the questions related to child care needs and transportation related challenges both had high favorable scores families also indicated their perception of student belonging increased by one percent including growth in how much their sense of belonging their child feels at school and also how well activities at school match their child's interest next line opportunities here within the family data include school safety and how often families worry about violence in their school this question saw a 15 decrease in favorable responses since the previous year's survey focusing on motivating
013classroom lessons could be an opportunity for growth in school climate and continued attention to activities matching students interest for school fit for instructional staff results we'll look overall at District alignment District leadership District leadership relationships professional learning and feedback and coaching I think that's for the uh oh the building leaders oh yeah uh my apologies well we can go to the next slide and that may be slightly different apologies about that I think I switched a slide around so the biggest highlights here are a three percent increase in staff positive percentage perceptions about teacher burnout and retention as well as an 11 increase in perceptions about staff to staff relationships go to and similarly here to the family data that we looked at earlier we saw a 12 decrease in favorable responses from staff worried
014about violence in their school we also noticed a seven percent dip in responses to a question about school climate if teachers are trusted to teach in the way that they think is best finally although we saw growth in staff relationships overall instructional staff noted there were still challenges in making connections to families so ideas and supports there would be helpful for moving the lever here next slide I think this one should be right then okay so lastly we'll look at our school leader results topics dilated here are those same topics as before overall District engagement District leadership relationships professional learning and feedback and coaching [Music] we have lots of bright spots here but the couple that I really wanted to shout out specifically was that leader clarity about District goals and priorities increased by 32
015percent and related perception of support for these goals improved by 17 percent we also noticed that gains in likelihood to follow through with commitments and overall District engagement leaders also indicated that the helpfulness of colleagues ideas for improving work increased by nine percent appreciation for new strategies for improving student achievement by three and relevance of professional learning to student achievement Group by one and you'll see the favorable responses on the right there as well Final highlights for some growth opportunities here so including the desire for school leaders to have more input in decision making at the district level and stating the need for continued trust building between school leaders and District leadership leaders also indicated their desire for valuable professional learning opportunities and increased opportunities to learn from evaluation processes at the school site level
016if you'd like to access more of the survey reporting data yourself you can log on to secure.panoramaed.com and click sign in with Google to explore more all right so let's wrap up this time with some reflection and questions one more slide which I think has the questions on it um are there any clarifying questions from this data that we can answer for you and how can we potentially connect this data to existing District priorities and practices all right thank you for the presentation I asked the um thanks for the presentation and ask the board if they have any questions I have a quick question about the response rate um by race do we know if our response rate mirrors closely the number of students proportionate to the number of students well one of the um
017that's a great question director to pass we can look into that and continue a follow-up one of the things we want to be mindful of as we do these and discuss these data is that our students self-identify on the survey which is different than when they enroll in school and so you'll notice that there are some racial ethnic categories that aren't captured in the federally required one so there might be a little bit of a disconnect there um but we're happy we're happy to look into that for you yeah just curious if it's proportionate or not and just also want to make a comment that I noted the increase in the sense of safety for our trans or lgbtq and trans students which is a really positive Improvement um also appreciate the very last slide
018that showed where we could make improvements in communication between District staff and building leadership for instance so thank you Miss Gillen I appreciate that I would like to also add that schools use these data as a part of their continuous Improvement plan and activities and central office leaders have been very transparent with the data coming from our school leaders as soon as I saw it I shared it with the superintendent we had conversations we took it to the cabinet level Dr Franco and I started brainstorming how we could share the data with our building leaders we shared it with them wanted to be really transparent about where they're seeing the challenges with District leadership and where we see opportunities for growth and we've continued those conversations beginning last May into the school year and are
019continuing to work on doing things like developing trust making sure we're clear about what our priorities are Etc yeah exactly it also looks like the Strategic plan was socialized really well um in the data that you shared so thank you you're the individual schools and teachers know what the what came out of their own classrooms yes they do they have access to their own data and principles of review we set aside one of those Tuesdays for professional learning where they go over the results of their successful schools data and they talk about it quite often great thank you for the question um what was the what is our and maybe I missed it because as soon as I saw it I started looking at it again the methodology that we used around getting the getting
020this out to everyone to make sure that everyone had um access to fill it out time to fill it out and felt comfortable filling it out well with staff we provide time during the work day for them to complete it we have students completed during the work day and we get the message out to families however we can QR codes Flyers uh back to school activities depending or why not back to school because it was in January and February Bernard um so it wasn't back to school but that engagements where parents are in the building sometimes schools set up opportunities and computers for parents to then take the survey while they're there with them and so we do try and I heard actually from a couple schools and a couple senior directors very recently about
021schools that are attempting to be more intentional about their Outreach with their families you know we we can do a lot at the district level but then we know it's our principles and our assistant and vice principals and our teachers who know their communities best and know how to best reach their families and so similar to Michelle's question um and I know we can we can look into it but I'm just kind of curious as to if we look at our percentage of overall um African-American students within school and staff and all the different all those different variances um and I understand that they self-select but can we look and see what the Delta is from this is what we have these are this is the number that um that filled them out and then
022this is the difference so that we can get an idea of how many voices we are potentially missing understanding also all things being equal they may some may have filled out and they just may be in another category but I'm just curious we are we are able to do that and schools are able to do that sometimes if there's only a few like I was one I was the only black male staff member when I was a middle school teacher at my school um in in the Panorama survey that would be under a category called confidentially protected because the numbers so low um that we don't want to expose someone's identity so but there is an extent to which we can look at those data and do you're welcome thank you for the question so
023chair hounds can jump in yeah um great uh actually Dr Adams you you kind of answered the question I was going to ask um one I just want to start off by saying this this survey is so important I'm So Glad We Do It um and I think it's really it just it demonstrates year to year um you know how we're doing in terms of our overall School culture and and District culture and the question I was going to ask was you know how are we getting this out you know into schools um and and you answered that and I I guess what I would say what always strikes me when we go over these results is there are some things that we as a board can do um you know around um you know
024improving culture but most of the work that's going to happen here is at the building level right it's the building leader it's the teachers it's in the classrooms um and it's also with parents and the community and so in addition to everything you mentioned about how we get this into the buildings which I think is really important um I would also encourage us to really think about how do we get this um to our you know active parent and Community groups right so whether that's ptas or you know build a site uh site councils so that they can really see what's happening as well because again they you know families play a role in the overall School climate and school culture um and I think all those pieces coming together to really at the at
025the building level sort of saying you know where are bright spots and where are areas for improvement um can just go a long way towards improving School overall in the district so thanks for doing the survey and and again I look forward to the results every year so I appreciate this presentation I appreciate that director Scott I would be remiss if I didn't recognize Dr Liz Gilkey please wave behind me who's in the audience she's on my team she leads uh this survey work across the district and she has worked with director wilhel and the Communications office and they have a whole Communications Blitz that we do and enhance every year we try to make it better so that we reach more families student director Silverstein hi um oh my goodness I have a lot
026to get to so first of all um on the point when you all mentioned building relationships with staff for students and how that is a really important area we need to improve on definitely would agree um within the District student council's first meeting that was identified by multiple people as an area they wanted to focus on um and then so you also mentioned like the ways we're collecting them and how there is time um provided like during like instructional hours to fill this out for students and I was wondering if there was like any control or consideration for students who like just randomly fill it out so they can tell their teacher they did um I'll let you answer that and then I can ask my other questions thank you student director um what I
027would like to say to that that's a great question um how do we control for people who aren't taking the survey seriously is the way I interpreted your question um and I would say that's done at the individual teacher level right we don't necessarily have a mechanism centrally we could make the survey so that everybody gets an individual link but then you need a password and that creates more of a burden and a barrier and so we try to ensure that the survey is open and we hope and expect that people are giving us their honest and unabashed feedback okay thank you yeah I think that what just made me wonder that was like when we see a lot of like the answers right in the middle um okay and then my other questions so
028I will just say that students that I've talked to have a lot of opinions about filling out this survey um and so I was wondering like is there ever any feedback collected on like the experience of taking the survey and how is it possible for us to engage with like student groups Community groups um about that and how we can actually improve the survey to better fit the needs of our communities so that's a beautiful and great idea I would love and we would love my team and I would love to partner with you to figure out how we could do that let's do it be perfect I will be The District student council could be really helpful with that I agree thank you for offering we'll have student Focus groups kind of based on
029their initial data to follow up with questions just like that so I'd be happy to support with planning around that too great thank you um earlier you mentioned like uh I forgot which category it was um uh sense of belonging maybe I can't remember but you mentioned like tier one sports are you referring to mtes generally uh when I'm saying tier one I'm referring to mtss but I think also within that just talking about any support that supports all students so I mean I just I would be curious about I mean you don't have to answer this now but just like using this data what has changed practices like specifics you know I don't I think I've I like to work in specifics so like if you do have an area where you have students
030not feeling belonging or or stuff like that you know and you're implementing you know where I guess I would like to know what you're implementing but also at the same time how do we know what we know you know for example are we implementing these things and is that actually how do we know it's actually creating positive change that makes sense again you don't have to answer this now but this is something I would like to follow up on and and consistently ask about you know using this data how are we using this data that's a great question I do want to um Dr Wong I do want to follow up and say that this is really the work of the principal ship and when you think about it what we do at the district
031level is to try to provide tools and set conditions but it's really the principle his him her or they who work to put together practices in their building with their teachers and their Educators in order to make the needle move I've heard from former principal um Lathan about some things she put in place last year and she saw some improvement with her black student group and their sense of belonging in her building I know I've had conversations with um Dr um Brown oh gosh I'm messing up trinise's name but yes uh the principal of Markham Elementary School who his name's escaping me forgive me girl um thank you president Brown warns thank you so much my senior director friends um and she's been talking about the things she's been putting in place to make her
032students of color feel like they have more of a belonging space and they feel more part of the community and so these are the kind of individual leadership moves that we unpack when we talk to building leaders when they come in and have their school Improvement showcases with Dr Franco and other senior leaders it's a great question I'm going to start with just like the most basic question when I go to the link at the end of the presentation it takes me to 2021 data defaulting to the most recent recent so I don't know if somebody could re reset because I can't go to Industry yeah absolutely look at the data um just comparative because I think I was the only person on the broadcast here when it first um was rolled out and so
033I'm aware of that director green so I'd like to be able to look at the actual data um but I can't um but a question I have is just in the terms of usefulness I thanks for the presentation um it it's I would love to be able to click down be able to get into that shoot the data because I think one of the values of it is actually sort of the click down in the respondents of being able to see um actually how differently a lot of our students experience our schools and to different questions um and one thing I would ask is so we had families fill it out students fill it out how are they able to access the data or is it just the data that which the district chooses to
034present to them I know when I was on a like site councils have used it or principals use it in their school Improvement planning but I'm I'm just curious we ask everybody to take this the survey and it seems like I know one thing that's useful is some being a Community member is what is my experience similar to others um and if not why not so I'm curious about how from a larger Community perspective we share this data um you know who feels safe I think the numbers are really interesting they're both um what our staff feel what our students feel and then um is it a same across and what what does that mean just for our decision making about the environments we set up as a district some great question thank you for
035the question um I'll answer it in a couple of ways um one you asked if the district sort of determined what was shared and we do not we truncated this presentation because I know we wanted to have a lot of conversation about our board goals and the osas data but we don't prescribe or prohibit building leaders from sharing as much of the data as they can and want to and they have access to all of their school's data they can Download a pdf of a report if they would show if they so choose they can open I know principals who open the data live with on their computer in a way that we're similarly sharing a PowerPoint with you tonight and so there is that ability to do that at the district level we're able
036to compare um and look across schools you're not able to do that at the individual School level although you can see how you um I believe you can see how you line up nationally in terms of percentiles if the question is also taken by other schools which is a relative barometer but not a perfect one actually in the comparators you have that access yes but you're saying nobody else has that building leaders don't necessarily see across the district in that way but central office staff too and board members okay so it's really it's to the principle they could they can they can share everything if they wanted to like a Download a pdf and here it is or or not it's any particular guidance that we give as the district just well that the guidance
037for all of our data is really grounded in the school Improvement plan so what is it that you're seeing in the data that isn't what you want to be your state of being and how do you go about making those improvements and how do you monitor it and so it does come down to individual site leader choices about what they might focus on and I know different site leaders take different approaches with their site councils and their instructional leadership team so I I couldn't speak for all 81 campuses but we certainly work with Chief Bruno's staff in the office of student Support Services to make sure that everyone has access we provide access to multiple um School level access is provided to multiple School level staff including our counselors and our building administrators and we
038ask them to share those data and again it can be overwhelming to look at everything at once so I don't know how many people look at everything they may pick a few things that are jumping off the page and catching their attention and share those for the district leader data which I assume is the principles so you have families and students you have School staff and then your principals principals and assistant and vice principals so um because I don't have access to that data I'm curious what the district leadership found since that year their community in the district leadership data and how is that because there's no school Improvement plan for the like central office or the district leadership what what things in last year's survey did you look at is like this is a
039place where we want to work on or we've got some sort of initiative sure that's a great question I would love it if Dr Franco could come down [Laughter] together the plan and the intentional steps that we're taking to um you're waiting for that right I hope you were good evening directors um so back to your uh specific question director remembers I would say there's uh and just like with what Dr Adams said like we are very transparent with the data we were very specific we spent a leadership session at the end of the year to actually review very specifically about what our building leaders specifically did say and we have a number of things that we're incorporating this year if I were to go back to your if there was one thing that we're
040definitely looking to improve upon uh building leaders have just uh have a ton of things kind of thrown at them and so increasing Clarity in regards to information and point people and so we've made the adjustment and created a very streamlined principle handbook for example with very specific contact information and point people I know that that was immense that has led to immense frustration about you know who do I contact especially for new leaders I think that was a big piece and what else to say too like we're always working you know one of our our mantras is is trying to make a big District like PPS feels small and so with that creating Avenues and opportunities for principal voice including our strategic plan committees which we are revamping and re-upping this year based on
041our strategic plan initiatives we also have a specific perhaps a group that the superintendent and I meet with specifically we also and this is going to be new this year principal advisory committee it it lends opportunities for principal voice and and then building continuing to build that that trust piece which we know foundationally is very very important great because my last thing would be who um I'd like to reserve to be able to follow up and ask questions when I actually get this year's data no I'll just send them in but like I had questions based on the data but then I was just like wait this is if you could send the questions to me I'll make sure I round the troops to answer those that will be outside of my scope and am
042I going to get who am I getting the password from or getting the updated data set thanks any other questions awesome thank you Dr Adams Dr Franco and Miss Gillian all right oh yeah so each year on the board as part of our budget process adopts a budget calendar for the year so contending Guerrero will you be presenting who will be presenting this tonight well we have a couple fine folks that are coming to the table we're taking a little intermission from two data sets really important data sets to talk about our proposed draft budget calendar uh myonly our interim Deputy superintendent uh being joined by Alexandra Martin from the team thank you superintendent good evening directors colleagues and members of the community great to be with you tonight as superintendent Guerrero mentioned I we
043think this will be the shortest of the three topics we shall find out it's up to you but we we did um load up on board book the preliminary version of the budget calendar or budget development calendar for the fiscal year 24 25. budget and for most of you we think that this document will look somewhat familiar in terms of the form and the types of events that are noted on on the calendar for directors Wong and Sullivan this is this is similar to the process that has been adopted by the board in previous budget Cycles so for my part I will just mention a couple of things that still need to be refined not necessarily this evening but just to note that are on the spring portion of the calendar so there is one
044row on the calendar that says that there is a community facing meeting that needs to be penciled in a specific date needs to be penciled in I think it's noted as something that is the week of April 29th I believe and then sorry I was the other could you help me um then there's one other event that is around that time and that also needs to be I think both of those may need to be confirmed in one respect or another one of the events has to be a location has to be pinned down for one of those events and one question we've been discussing is uh in previous Cycles my understanding is that that event has sometimes taken place out in the community at a high school so if that is the the desire
045to uh as a setting for that event this this time around then we would just want to be specific with the public at an appropriate time to say when exactly what time and the specific location of that event so those are just a couple of loose ends we have a little time to figure that out and to share out with the community and then Alexandra could you just mentioned the cbrc as well in our budget planning phase we have a work session planned with a cbrc on March 19th and then the cbrc would attend the proposed budget presentation this is planned for April 23rd and this is where we have the location is TBD um and then the cbrc would present their proposed budget report on May 7th so just on a process note as
046as we believe you know already directors this is a preliminary uh presentation of the proposed budget calendar and this will be back before you on October 10th for a vote and adoption and with that we are here to respond to any questions that you may have recommendations and for anybody who's heard me in the past years around the budget calendar they're going to be very similar because I feel like this is similar to other calendars have been presented there's less than four weeks for the board between when the budget's presented and we're when we're being asked to approve it it's a billion dollar budget and I would suggest that we need two more work sessions but or need more time because actually we the way and I think in the past we've had we have
047added these but if you we get it presented on the 23rd the hearing is on the 29th which is really a listening session primarily then we're then we're going to get cbrc and then the next meeting we're going to approve it I don't think that allows for adequate time for board discussion about about the budget and I would suggest adding more sessions and also like three and a half weeks seems um like we're not doing our fiduciary responsibility in that amount of time with the billion dollar budget the other thing I would suggest is that adding in whenever the Staffing is going to go out to the schools since that's the vast majority of the district's budget that um we don't wait till April to find out what this the Staffing is is going to
048be that we have a session scheduled around the time when the Staffing is going to go out to the schools again once that goes out it's um it's making some major decisions for for the the school district in terms of the budget that we're then going to be asked to approve so those would be my um my my suggestions for um the changes to the cattle adjustments to the calendar I think that our proposed budget document both volumes a couple of weeks before you would see it on April 23rd so in line with um typical requirements so it would be I I just looked it looks like it's a little over six weeks before approval so it'd be use um when we get a two weeks in advance it's great because I think then then
049actually that first board meeting we can actually use it it's not just like something just landed in your inbox um but if we don't get it then it does make it super compressed because for example we get it two weeks in advance we can get our questions in and so that first meeting is actually a work session versus the superintendent sending the budget so if you're willing to commit to that in there then um but I still think essentially we just have after that first meeting one meeting in which we're having a substantive discussion before we're actually s which is would be the seventh before we're being asked to approve it doesn't February 20th have a work session but that's not what the actual budget that's been present that's not the actual the superintendent's not
050presenting his budget until uh the April 23rd and then then we're being asked to vote on May 21st on to but are we involved in the work sessions as they go we are but it's not actually the the budget that's about the actual presented um it's usually around a variety of different topics but we've been knowing what's coming all right we have two other uh hand raised uh directed to pass director Scott so just in order of alphabet I'm going to do call on uh directed The Past first thank you for alphabetizing me that usually works in my favor I wanted to Echo the comments made by um director Prim Edwards and add that um I'm really happy to see by the way that we have this many meetings I think we've increased uh the
051number of the calendars gotten longer since I've been on the board um I and to that end I think that's really important that we're being transparent and I'd love to see a second um meeting out in the community um and I toggling between the schedule and the meeting so um allow me just a second the other thing is that the notice in April going to The Oregonian does that correspond with some you know very active you know family and Community engagement so it's not just a little you know paragraph in The Oregonian which you know not very many people read actually um some people do but not everyone but it's probably required um and then I was also curious about adding a little bit more room in the budget so that we could um that
052I found that the cbrc was really helpful this last budget cycle in um really helping us look at the at the budget what we were what the trade-offs were and had some very strong suggestions and so I would love to see them involved in the meeting I'm sorry I'm looking at I can't read it very well um not the meeting that they present but maybe a meeting prior to that where there where we're able to bring with community and the cbrc together maybe it's the listening session that's scheduled sorry and I'm just not able to blow this up big enough um the bottom line is I'd like to see an additional meeting added that the cvrc in the community could learn about and that we um do some some Community engagement that gets a little
053bit more participation for those people that um are curious about it also agree with the recommendation to when the Staffing comes out to take that into consideration when we're scheduling um so that people have a chance to respond uh the community has a chance thank you all right director Scott thanks I'm actually going to take a little bit of the opposite View and close Watchers of the board know that director Edwards and I have this conversation every year um I just I actually think this calendar um works really well I think this calendar is very consistent with with with local budget law which which every other jurisdiction both School boards and non-school Boards operate under in the state of Oregon um and there are some really good reasons for these timelines I mean I just
054want to you know we do have a billion dollar budget I know the city of Portland has a six or seven billion dollar budget they have a very similar timeline um I understand is Multnomah County has a very similar timeline as well I think one of the reasons um that I would point out is that the earlier a proposed budget is given the less accurate the data usually is there's less spending data throughout the year there's fewer actuals it's harder to estimate on income balance obviously in legislative years it's harder to understand what the state is going to do as well that that's not going to be the case in this next year's budget I also think it's really incumbent on us as a board to deliver our priorities much much earlier than the proposed
055budget and I think the reason why I I react a little bit to the idea of giving us more time to review the proposed budgets because it kind of takes the pressure off us to be giving all of those ideas and priorities now and by now I mean now in September one of the things I might add to this would be a a fall budget work session sometime you know in November perhaps maybe early December where we can really hear uh both the priorities of the superintendent and and and staff but also bring our priorities as a board um the superintendent is the budget officer for the district and you know proposes the budget um based upon guidelines from from the board and so I think it's really in common us to be getting all
056of that well in advance months and months in advance of the proposed budget that stage from the proposed budget to when we both approve and adopt it is really there should be no surprises and in my experience on the board the last four years there aren't any surprises um when that comes and it should really just be focused on sort of maybe some last minute tweaks and turns and I think if we are concentrating our review as a board into that four to six weeks um that's actually going to make the process not work very well so I actually would adopt this calendar as is and I would really encourage us to be thinking about how do we communicate as aboard our priorities um six months in advance of the proposed budget being being presented
057to us thank you chair Scott have any other questions comments thoughts so I'm just going to sort of maybe a makes observation so from the budget calendar I I still think we I've never seen I've never seen the board this is when we get into having meetings that go to 11 or 12 at night because um that's when the time we can ask questions because we actually have the budget but I would suggest then um also director Scott to your point is that we be really specifically that it that that we don't have for example I'm just going to take uh the November 7th school board meeting um that's right now supposed to be just the point of the cbrc but that we actually have a discussion about priorities versus an exercise about here's learning
058out about the budget or we're going to share some some data but but having an explicit um budget priorities discussion um in but set as in the fall versus just a you know maybe a topic on something like here's one topic we're gonna educate you about or that we're going to be focused on but have that explicit budget priority discussion in in the fall as well because then then we can see like to to your point so if we have the budget priority discussion we get the budget two weeks in advance we have an opportunity to look at it we can look at that alignment obviously there's mid-year um or yeah mid-year things that could impact our thinking from the fall to when we get the budget um but then we've already sort of set
059that framework we've got the budget and then I do think it's more efficient but if we don't use our previous meetings to talk about the priorities or to talk about Staffing which is always an issue if we don't talk about Staffing in February then it does get all balled up at the at the end of the session so I think it's it's a good idea to have a very explicit fall priority of a setting session I appreciate the conversation I guess as I'm listening to it the question for me always when thinking about resource allocation or where we should propose to make investments is where are we in our strategic plan and sort of what's the next set of action steps we should be diving into that informs our budget development versus a widely open-ended
060question about where should we spend our monies so I agree I think an earlier conversation will be better to sort of talk about that at least at a high level because I do think that should be the primary way that we're informing how we propose to shape our budget for the spring question I don't know if this needs to be on the budget calendar but I'm we have a very specific role to play with the Sia account is that baked in here or is that have to happen at one of our meetings because that seems like a whole other separate thing as well and if we are required to do it I would hate to have that one like one piece of the budget be this is our one meeting and where it's going to
061be on the grant so I don't know where that gets baked in or if that's a separate process and not on the budget calendar so my my understanding of that and I'm going to look to my my partner here for uh expertise and validation uh but we do anticipate to your question director brim Edwards that there will be a specific discussion about Sia this fall and um this is going to be a blend of programmatic and uh student outcome data along with regulatory requirements of the plan and sort of having an integrated discussion about program outcomes and resources and that's required by the the new law that created the integrated Grant framework so that you can anticipate coming sooner than the overall budget development or the proposed budget certainly that will follow in the spring
062and that's a function of of the deadlines that are created by the state so but certainly the integrated Grant resources will will definitely be in turn an important part of that overall comprehensive proposed budget conversation for 24.25 so you'll hear about it twice in both those settings but most of the work it will be at in front loaded into the fall do you say that's true yes we'll have an update on integrated Grant in the fall all right any other questions comments they're just pass you guys are good director Silverstein you okay yes thank you all right thank you both thank you directors we'll be back taking your feedback uh we'll discuss it and we'll report back on October 10. so much so next we will be reviewing the most recent data which was released
063just last week before I passed it to superintendent um I wanted to say a few words um over the past two years I have been fortunate enough to come across some powerful statements that have truly inspired me um one such statement is great things takes time to unfold and the journey towards success is a continuous process of growth and learning another statement that resonated deeply with me is you know every day presents an opportunity to embrace change and cultivate a mindset of adaptability for change management is not a one-time event but a daily practice now I would have said exactly like that um so these words of wisdom has proved my determination and reminded me that with patience perseverance and a commitment to personal growth that we all can achieve remarkable things in 2022 we
064had a memo um when the last data points came out and it said no we foresaw these gaps and we're already working on the plan to close them this is a collective effort that requires of all requires us all you know that can that plan Encompass powerful strategies such as implementing an instructional framework aligning grade level of Standards utilizing data driven approaches embracing culturally affirming practices adopting new curriculum and fostering continuous professional learning together these initiatives is supposed to pave the way for a brighter future for our kids I believe now that the moment to embrace transformative change is where we can unlock our true potential for our future kids beyond their wildest dreams we have a power now to shape the future of our young educational achievements our youth educational achievements our children are
065embarking in a remarkable Journey where they will compete on a global scale stage for Extraordinary opportunities and fulfilling careers our kids are not just competing with other kids in Oregon they are embarking on a journey to surpass their own limits and reach for greatness that knows no boundaries they have an incredible opportunity to showcase their talents and abilities on a global stage there are livelihoods and mere existence are the driving force behind their unwavering determination to overcome any obstacles that come their way now it's time for us to seize the moment they have no more time to wait we must rise up and unleash our full potential to harness the resources at our disposal and utilize the knowledge that we know that propels transformation of young minds we have the power to uplift and Empower
066our students beyond measure far surprising far surprising our current efforts there's a quote from Dr Charlene Williams it says we owe our students much better than we are delivering right now she said we have to buckle up and deliver given the resources that we have and the information that we know to move the data forward our children are facing a critical moment and it's a call to action let us work towards a future where every child can thrive let us find inspiration and opportunity to make a difference together we must create a environment where every child surpasses expectations and Achieve greatness the present moment holds immense power as I summon every single one of us to rise above let us heed the words of the governor who stated the results are unacceptable and must improve
067we need to pick up the pace I challenge her to be courageous and pass the budget at the qem to our board our superintendent district staff teachers bus drivers nutritional Services we must do more we must be better we must be bold we have to be transformational at this time and that's why so now leave it up to the superintendent thank you chair Hollins uh I appreciate your words I know we share the same urgency and goals for for our students uh so we're here at the main entree of tonight's uh meeting uh and that's to have a chance to take a first look at this past Spring's Statewide summative assessments known as the osas Oregon Statewide assessment system which gets administered in a couple of content areas primarily English language arts and math across
068schools grade levels specific student groups will be talking about that before we jump into a brief presentation and jump into the more important conversation I also want to share a few words with your Indulgence so I'll start off by saying while we are observing instances of growth and improvement in our results which is positive we still do have racial groups that continue to demonstrate consistently low levels of proficiency so like you I'm not satisfied with any Gap in performance between our black and brown students and their white peers it's our belief as educational leaders here at PPS that if we continue to stay focused on the strategies we've put in place but remain engaged in continuous Improvement we can continue to raise achievement for every one of our students so we have taken several steps
069to make our vision a reality for all students you named some of those chair Hollands um because we've talked about them on many evenings calibrating around a new instructional framework maintaining a focus on standards line teaching and learning adopting new higher quality curriculum materials that our Educators have never had in their hands before offering aligned Rich professional learning experiences for our teachers and our leaders now this school year we've also added full-time school-based instructional coaches adding to the learning acceleration Specialists high dosage tutors early literacy Specialists and various mental behavioral health professionals to support our students non-academic needs that will also support their Readiness to learn um you're right school system transformation it isn't accomplished overnight but we have worked diligently for years to build up and establish all the necessary practices required to drive
070District Improvement we all recognize that we can and should do better when it comes to closing these persistent achievement gaps and that's especially true with black student achievement and so while we're witnessing continued positive signs incremental evidence that we're moving the needle we're clear regarding the primary task of narrowing persistent opportunity gaps and the need to accelerate black student outcomes so uh for those in the audience who you could just raise your hand if you're a school or District administrator here at PPS okay that's most of the audience directors you'll you'll note that are here this evening they're here to observe and listen to the conversation uh and contribute to the discussion as appropriate see many of these folks are on the front line each and every single day supporting and supervising the work of
071our schools our leaders and our Educators they're the ones that have the first-hand knowledge of the work and the Improvement efforts that are occurring in our school communities I'm going to hand it over to Dr Adams our chief of research assessment and accountability he's going to be presenting our District's disaggregated data at a high level from the Springs Pass State assessment he's joined at the table by several more of our senior leadership all known characters to you and I know that colleagues here in the audience they'll be anxious to join in the conversation too given the direct nature of their work that contributes to the results that we're observing here tonight with that Dr Adams thank you superintendent um tonight we will be entering the presentation at The Middle based on a request by the
072board chair and I just wanted to provide some context about the presentation for people who may be watching at home and wondering why we're not or um we're not starting at slide one uh the presentation as uploaded to our website was intended to go from a broad view of comparing us to the state to comparing our results year over year to comparing how well or not we're doing based on the pandemic learning losses and where we are today and then to have a conversation to invite principal Barry and assistant principal Martinez from Sinton Elementary up to have um some discussion about the leadership moves that they've made at their building that are seeing some individual success so we were intending to sort of funnel from state level to site-specific information and so at the request
073of the chair we'll be beginning the conversation we're sharing information about our board chair our board goals then if it would be okay we would love to have uh principal Barry an assistant principal Martinez share their information about what they're doing and sit in elementary and then we could have the discussion around the board goals that I believe the board is wanting us to have I just want to make sure that order feels okay so you want to do the presentation with the sitting I would like to talk just go through the couple of slides on the board goals then it leads into the conversation for sit in elementary and then come back and have the discussion on the board goals that they will be okay sure okay all right so as as the boardwalk
074knows we have uh four board goals for our students those are third grade reading fifth grade mathematics 8th grade Readiness which is Proficiency in both English language arts and Mathematics and graduation rate based on our most recent osas data tonight we'll be focusing on the board goals around third grade reading fifth grade mathematics and eighth grade readiness we will examine both our year-over-year growth and the extent to which targets for our student groups were met in third grade reading you'll note on the slide that we see that our latinx students and our white students saw increased performance while all other student groups saw declines in student achievement want to caution us whenever we look at our as I typically do whenever we're looking at the performance of our Native American and our Pacific Islanders students
075that those are extremely small counts of students and so there can be wild swings a proficiency based on just the change of one or two students when we look at a chart showing which board goals were met and which were not for third grade reading the data are not great we see that we did not meet the board goals for our targeted student groups in third grade reading and I'll leave this slide up for a moment for fifth grade mathematics we see that all student groups with the exception of our Pacific Islander students showed year-over-year growth in 2023 compared to 2022 here the increases range from 1 1.3 percentage points to a little over four percentage points and so one of the things we've been noticing is that we're seeing um a more acceleration in
076student growth and Mathematics because we're in that set we believe that is because we're in that second year of the mathematics adoption whereas we were in the first year of the English language arts adoption so we think that's one of the reasons and when you're in that first year you often can see an implementation dip where your scores actually go down as educators are learning the curriculum and getting their feet under them and really working to bring the curriculum and the instructional resources to life and examining the status of fifth grade the fifth grade math board goal we can see that while most student groups did make progress they did not make the required progress to meet the board goals notable exceptions include our Asian students and our native students 8th grade Readiness measures the
077percentage of students who are both proficient as I mentioned in English language arts and in mathematics we know that entering high school with a strong foundation in the basics puts students on a successful trajectory for this metric black and Pacific Islander students saw no change in performance year over year latinx multiracial and white students saw improved student performance and there was a huge positive swing in the performance of our native students again we want to interpret that swing with caution due to the relative small size of that group and when we examine the status of eighth grade Readiness metric against the targets for each student group we see that Native American students met their goal while all other targeted student groups did not and so we know we have much work to do as I
078said when I was a certain last week and won't be personally satisfied until our bars that are at 100 although we are pleased to see some positive progress in the face of local and national uh results that don't point to positive progress at all some conclusions very quickly before we invite principal Barry and assistant principal Martinez up to the Diaz we're bucking the national Trends and student achievement I don't think that should be taken lightly Across the Nation we're seeing declines in ela and steeper declines in mathematics here we're seeing some growth particularly in mathematics in terms of reaching lots of school districts and States talk about whether or not they have reached pre-pandemic levels of achievement knowing that pre-pandemic levels of achievement weren't ideal but that is a marker knowing we had interrupted learning
079and learning laws we're seeing here in PPS that we are approaching and in some cases at some grade levels exceeding pre-pandemic levels and for student groups that are still below pre-pandemic levels most groups are demonstrating growth we've said before that our achievement levels exceed the state and all grades in both subjects and we've continued that progress as was noted that this was occurring um in some previous years and then finally when we disaggregate the data we still see that we have performance gaps along the lines of race those are not acceptable as I've said before in the past and for most student groups the board goals were not met there was a request to understand and highlight schools that were meeting with some success and let me screen before you are some elementary and middle
080schools that are seeing overall growth in both English language arts and Mathematics those Clues those schools include Sittin Whitman Rigler lent Arlita Creston Lee Irvington Markham at the elementary level and include at the middle school level Kellogg Tubman Beaumont and Jackson I'll leave that here for just a second so you can see what those overall increases were and next there was also a request to hear directly more frequently from principals and we were asked specifically about schools where the achievement needle was moving for African-American students so very pleased that we have with us tonight to Highlights it in elementary principal Barry and assistant principal Martinez Not only was there some double-digit growth overall but we had almost double-digit growth in ela for African-American students in double-digit growth and Mathematics both of these figures are among
081the highest that we see for African-American achievement here in PPS so without any further Ado like the welcome principal Barry and assistant principal Martinez down to the table thank you both for being here so much all right and uh thank you so much for the invitation good evening I'm Becky Barry principal at sin elementary school and I'm David Martinez the assistant principal at Cinnamon Tree School well thank you and if we we're gonna mix it up a little bit and if we could go to the next slide okay okay we're gonna start there um and give you a moment to just kind of take a look we really appreciate getting to be invited uh to your living room this evening um but we want to tell you a little bit about uh where we spend
082most of our days so we are sit in elementary school we are the farthest north School in Portland we are up there near Terminal 3 and the end of fessenden when it turn when it turns into Lombard and we serve 350 delightfully funny curious brilliant diverse and always students in grades K through five so we have three classes at every grade level one of which is taught predominantly in Spanish as part of our dual language immersion program the other two are taught predominantly in English we love our DLI program and we see it as a huge lever for a lot of our growth especially for our English language Learners and our Latino students and we are also Portland's First Neighborhood school which means um two years ago we began welcoming every single child who lives
083in our neighborhood into our school regardless of their disability ability eligibility category or level of need and that has also been a huge lever in us growing our student gains because when we focus on supporting students from a universal lens our students who have the greatest amount of needs every single child and adult in our entire Community benefits from that and so we are so proud of the work that our Educators do with kids every day because if we want to talk about the geography of change the geography of change is what happens between the interactions of adults and kids and kids and kids in the building every day and so we're really here to represent their work and our shift in data is really about a shift in small choices that each of us
084kind of made collectively because our data as a CSI School in the 1819 school year where 12 of our students and only eight percent of our African-American students were reading at grade level was not at all a reflection of what they are capable of rather that was a reflection of the skill and Collective will in our building at the time and so that's how anybody who comes into our building who is interviewing for a position that's how we introduce our school and then we ask them to take a look at our true north behind us and we ask the question um does this reflect your values also and the reason that we start that way is because it um has a system of belief a system of habit in it and also it points to
085our outcomes and um we have done so much work in our building around the instructional framework and our curricular tools and those are really foundational pieces to the change that we have undergone at sitting but it's also only one component of it and so if we could go back to the first slide Mr Martinez is going to talk about this model for Collective efficacy that we've been working on to lift those things to move everybody along in our building so I'll turn it over to you uh so this was a belief belt that was introduced to me a couple years ago actually from a professional development um through the state um and it stuck with me uh one because I personally um identified with it but also really spoke to what I was seeing from
086the district level at our school building and so we set out last year with me introducing it and um almost at every other staff meeting we reintroduce it and uh we talked about it and it really started with a belief and it started with a belief uh both with Becky and I but with our staff and with our community and really defining that our beliefs I mean and what we believe our students are capable of directly impact the opportunities and the systems that we build for them so we do not have the belief that they will succeed the belief that they can succeed and the belief that they should succeed will never give them those opportunities to demonstrate that we'll never build those systems that will offer those opportunities to them and if you don't
087build those systems and those opportunities you'll will never have the chance to see what they can achieve and so that was really fundamental for us as a staff and as an Administration to really hone ourselves that we believe our students are possible we believe that they need these opportunities and we believe that with these skills and opportunities they're going to go far and so with those beliefs we offer them opportunities and these were small opportunities it was a shift from simply saying they can't to they're just going to I'm going to try I'm just going to try and see because if you never give them the opportunity to try they will never have the opportunity to show them what you can do what they can do and so we did those shifts from small to
088large changes throughout the school year but what we saw is opportunities for our students really shifted and the achievement slowly but surely through plc's through everyday interactions it was typical conversations of I tried it and I I was astounded by what I saw and consequently I'm going to offer that more I'm going to rig it up I'm not lure my bar but I'm the raise the bar for students and subsequently that was our theme for last year raising the bar um and so the achievements that we saw while they were surprising they were affirming um they weren't too shocking uh because we finally saw the opportunities our students were given by our Educators because the beliefs in them shifted the beliefs in their families shifted beliefs in our community really shifted the last three years
089this was not an overnight success or an overnight transformation we're definitely still not done we haven't arrived at all but we're definitely seeing some of the beginning fruits of that labor of just shifting common day beliefs offering New Opportunities and then subsequently building those systems that's where we're really seeing some achievement so if we could go to the slide that is titled mindsets and beliefs and so we've been collecting these things from our Educators that come in every day saying oh I read this really interesting thing or I saw this speaker and just from you know keeping up with the national conversation about what's working and so this list changes every year some things we no longer need and then there are things that come up through our you know leadership team and our site
090Council that we really need to add um and so one of those things is that all students are general education students first and that special education is a spectrum of services not a person or a place and when you have that belief you're able to shift towards a system of inclusion where all students belong at your school and it it feels different but you can't have the and positive but you can't just have mindsets and beliefs you also have to build systems that support those beliefs and so if we could go to the next slide next one these are just a few of the systems that stem from beliefs that we have built and again these are all these systems come from having a instructional framework where we're all speaking the same language when we
091come to leadership when we're walking through classrooms they rely on us all having the same curriculum and understanding how to use the curricular tools they all come from the professional development that we've been receiving they're not separate at all from those things but it's really just these are examples of the leadership moves and systems that take it from Vision to lived reality in the building and so I think one of those pieces to just get specific is around consult and our pre-referral process um before the pandemic we had one of the highest rates of office discipline referrals for an elementary school in the entire district and that was because we had a system of going to respond in the moment it was a reactive system and so a teacher would have a hard time they
092would look at the discipline Matrix they would call for assistance someone would come to the building and try to you know repair or reset a kid and the impact of that system that reactive system is that kids especially kids of color were spending so much time missing out on core instruction and our Educators were getting the unintended message that they didn't have the tools that they needed to support all Learners in their classrooms and so we shifted to a consult system and we said if you can predict a problem you can prevent it and no one has to know all the answers and no one you know needs to know everything and we all have to be curious Learners and so if we can predict that someone's going to have a hard time then you
093have the responsibility to find a time to meet with one of our consult members and that is our extremely robust staff of two and instructional Specialists the school climate coach a comprehensive school psychologist a school counselor all of those supports and meet to problem solve not because anybody has the answer necessarily but rather that through that conversation we're going to learn how to better support students and so that has shifted I think that this year so far we have two office discipline referrals and a lot of kids in class enjoying their learning and so it's been a big shift so we go to the last slide next one and this is our data comparatively so over Through The Years 1819 that's our pre-pandemic um and disaggregated all students students with disabilities this is swt our
094black students our multiple way students Latino Native American and white um so our chief and I said earlier while we were thrilled a little shocked it wasn't surprising given the shifts and beliefs and the opportunities that our staff offered our students and the systems that were built both administrative administratively with our staff themselves building the systems because they believed in their students these achievements came to fruition and we're not there where we can say we we did it but we're definitely on our way we look forward to continued success and to really see where our students can thrive thank you principal Barry and this is the principal Martinez do board members have any questions of the administrative team I don't know how we're going to answer them um did you see um did you see
095or how did you deal with pushback from your staff when you were trying to make your your shift to go from one way to another way our staff I believe this is a we are consumers of beliefs right like we get to choose what we believe and the least dangerous assumption for me as a building leader always is that our educators are the most invested in the success of their students and because I believe that I know that to be true um I am always going to listen and what I'm going to hear is I'm going to hear the next great idea and so it's not about pushback because we're all on the same team and that belief belt is really a system of if the system is working for kids it's going to show
096up in multiple data points it's going to show up in our successful School survey and our map data and just like that street level data of how it feels in the building and then we're going to use that data to reaffirm those beliefs around all kids can do this all of our Educators can do this and I mean I also want to add that um I think that there is often a misunderstanding of change leadership that it's about getting other people to do stuff and I learned early on as a an educator that you can't get anybody to do anything like I learned that in my first year of teaching but rather we can change what we're doing and when we change what we're doing when we change what habits we have it has a
097huge ripple effect on the interaction that's happening and so um we spent a lot of time in reflection when things don't go well thinking about like what could we have done differently or better and I think my leadership takeaway for us who have you know we leaders we deserve none of the credit and we have all of the responsibility because the work the credit really goes to our Educators and our students and our families and in order to set those conditions we always need to think about how am I going to show up differently like what are the interactions that I'm not having that I should be having what are the questions that I need to be asking that I'm not asking and so I think it really is an internal reflect of peace I
098like that answer the um the other is the question that I have is around your consult and pre-referral so if you can predict a problem then you can do something to engage to try to re figure out what we can do about that said problem and then you referenced it based on a um policy that states that you looking at a disciplined module we have this is what we're supposed to do so what you added is that something that was given like from District guidance or is this something that you came up with your on your own and how does it work with or against what the current policies are around how to do that consult and pre-referral that that aspect of it um professional consultation is part of our teacher standards and practices it's
099part of our licensure programs it's part of every um grad program that there is to be a teacher or an administrator and it is also embedded in our mtss systems and I think one of the big leverage and as Leaders we get to choose where am I going to turn the volume up and oftentimes I think that we feel the most comfortable organizationally turning the volume up on the document the flowchart it feels safe like I know what's going to happen next but when we turn the volume up on the David I don't know what are we gonna do like that feels a little scary um and so to answer your question but that's about like what change am I gonna make what are the questions that I should be asking that I'm not asking
100and so simple answer to your question is it is embedded in so many systems that we have and I think it's a real opportunity for us to lean into more of those adaptive leadership elements as we not take on new things but further refine what we have in place utilization of our comprehensive psychologists on site full-time who runs those meetings and the agendas and supports and follow-ups is essential to the success of that program apologist a counselor and one other thing we have a halftime social worker we have two interventionists um and none of these systems could run without the people power and not just the people people power but us all being together as a team year after year building trust and saying what didn't work what are we going to do differently um
101you know because I've been at sit and this is my eighth year in our building um and this is David's third year and we have Dan and Nuremberg in the back forever Falcon and principal of sit in elementary school and so I think that that I mean to go back to the comments at the very beginning from the superintendent time is an essential ingredient to change because this would have been a very presentation different presentation if we had been sitting up here two years ago when did you get the council all the help for the um consultant pre-referral when did you get the extra people the psychologist the counselor and that social worker yeah that has been new since the um you know Sia funds and then also we've had an instructional coach that we
102have funded through our title funds and now to have that just kind of built into our staffing ratio has been fabulous so that we've been able to continue to fund our two interventionists that um you know to yesterday and today they ran 90-minute data meetings with every single educator and then in the afternoon during our staff meeting time during our teaching and learning Tuesday they also facilitated our new power math meeting and so they're running these systems for people where educators are getting to come together and problem solve and solution find and be Learners and that is where the change is is happening for us while I was there and I was wonderful the other day and saw your counselor and your wonderful dog and uh you could just feel it there how well it
103was yeah I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the um you said yeah the uh the the PLC working uh weekly and also the um teacher collaboration time and yeah I'm just curious about what kind of like format structures and also maybe what supports you have I guess I just want to hear more about it plcs so professional learning communities Becky and I and our instructional Specialists uh facilitate those every Friday so that's really important that keeps Becky and I's hands in the curriculum and what's going on in the classrooms um we're part of those meetings we know the data we have our hands on it and we get to hear directly from our teachers what's working and what's not and Central to those meetings is really looking at the
104gaps of our students we were really intentional of looking at the data and just aggregating it looking at focal students so identifying a group of five or six students in your classroom that you're going to identify primarily students of color and tracking that data looking at it collaborating with your Educators at the grade level and also support to see how do we fill these gaps in in the now so that's really essential I think for Becky and I last year and this year to be not just sitting in there but leading those meetings um is it's not just a benefit for academics but also joy to see the growth and the belief of our teachers and Educators shift um and again it we really do see that belt um happening in those uh 40 minutes
105um throughout the day so it's um it's essential I think to our our leadership and if I could um chime in director Wong we share your curiosity which is why Dr Franco and I are having Dr Gokey who was here earlier and her team they're having one-on-one interviews with all the principals that have seen the growth that they've seen that we've highlighted so we can understand what leadership moves are happening across our buildings so we can understand what we can help support bring to scale all right thank you principal Barry thank you thank you so much I really appreciate you being here great job you guys all right my understanding is the board desire to have some discussion around the board goals and I'm joined here by I got a whole team of doctors Dr
106Franco Dr Proctor Dr Armstrong and I are here yes um to respond to questions you may have so I'm going to refer to my colleagues first because I have a whole bunch so I'm gonna refer to them first if anyone have any questions for them all right here amen director ah thank you I had my hand raised and I lowered it but I wanted to just think principal Barry and assistant principal Martinez for the presentation and also I got to witness with my own eyes there um their their school Community last week and it was fabulous and the therapy dog was really cute um I just want to highlight a few things that stuck out for me about the presentation and that was a couple of the mindsets that's that Student Success is a direct
107result of adult what the adults do and also that graph and I think it was mindset number nine that says success is not a straight line it's it's very non-linear and so I was really interested in um and also this idea about you know turning the mirror on yourself and you know looking at where you know you can't blame stuff on other people outcomes we have to look at our own behavior and I started thinking about how I could show up differently I can't change anybody on the board sometimes I would like to many times I would but I can change myself and that would be to advocate for I mean um a board that has literally two committees that would be Student Success and policy and if we're really focused on student outcomes then
108we need to be like hyper focused on what matters and right now to your point director Hall um chair Hollins about what we're in a transformative stage we are also at a period where we could look seriously at mimicking what other school districts do even a couple in Oregon that literally have one board meeting a month and one board meeting where they're focused on policy and Student Success as a as a board community so I'm I'm just saying that because I recognize that I can't change anybody but I can absolutely that change the way that I show up um and so it's just it's just a kind of a question or comment out there about can we actually we have a retreat coming up can we give some serious thought to how we show up
109as adults what are the things that we can drop that that aren't student focused one of the Committees we can drop and we can start with the audit committee so I'm happy you know be happy to go to once or twice um just required absolute bare minimum requirement uh for meetings if that would translate to student outcomes that made a difference here Michelle you should see our auditor she's here I know she is and um I I'm sure it's not a reflection on on our senior auditor it's more of reflection on what what I have in the sphere of my control which is only myself and my body and [Music] um you know what can they do for change management and it really is about looking Inward and saying you know do we need the
110numerous committees or do we focus on policy um Student Success and that's it it's just a question that's out there I have so thank you thank you for being in the audience uh senior auditor thanks Michelle all right so I'm going to start with some of the questions that I and I sent them earlier on so hopefully had time to to look at them and and stuff so my first question is that what uh numerical threshold does the data reach a level of statistical significance or insignificant that PPS shares with us sure that's a great question um statistical significance is usually used in research where let's say our entire population is 300 and we've only worked with 30 or 40 of the students then you run statistical significant tests because you're trying to understand is
111what you see of the 30 and 40 students representative of what you would see of all 300 students if you had a chance to work with all 300 of them when we talk about our osas results we're looking at 95 percent of the population of the school system in the attested grades and so you don't necessarily do statistical significance testing because you have all of or just almost all of the students represented in the data so the differences are those differences and they matter so when you when we bring up statistical significance or not and just help me because I'm I I've been trying to go through this data all weekend long so if you have a data that is when we talk about proficiency and you have you know that those are that tested
112this say 10 students and one of the students only one student or three students or only three students you know it's proficient and so that gives a 30 percent great right when the population that of that school is much larger is that would not that be considered significant and significant to Adam or because I guess for me it looks like this representation of the whole school when you only talk about three students our whole student class and grade and student group for the whole school right that that would not be um an appropriate use of the idea of statistical significance I understand what you're getting at we have schools with relatively smaller numbers of students of color we believe that each of those students matters and counts and that we want to celebrate when we're
113seeing the needle move when you're if you've been in a school where your performance of students was zero and you've brought that performance up to say 45 that's a big deal whether it's a hundred students or 20 students because you're getting closer to 100 the goal is to get to 100 percent okay so when I was limited data um so I looked after that and you first thing you guys brought up was the comp comparison to the the state you know and when you've already mentioned that the state that we have already are outperformed the state so if we have historically outperformed the state what significance was it to broadcast at this time versus any other time that we outdo the state well I think the difference is that we saw that you'll that you
114may have noted in um Dr Williams memo around the data is that the state saw very little movement in their numbers in addition to that the state is not seeing a return to Improvement to pre-pandemic levels and we are and so I think when I looked at and understood the national story of um student Performance Based on the nation's report card that is the nape assessment when I think about our preliminary look at the state Data before they released it comparatively we could have seen a dip and not been outperforming the state as much as we have been but we didn't so that's what we were trying to celebrate okay so he said we should we didn't see a dip you mean are you talking about overall overall we talk about our board goals there
115were dips right and so help me I mean I'm trying to figure out what is your thoughts of why we've seen those dips in those certain student groups versus other student groups I think that's a great question what I know of my own work in turnaround schools as a administrator is that the first thing you see is achievement for all students rise and then once you see that needle moving in the right direction you're then usually able to really Target focus on particular focal students whether those be students with disabilities multilingual Learners or students of color wow I can't sit here and say I know exactly why um student groups saw dips and performance I can say that we're concerned when we see dips because we believe that we are empowering our Educators and our
116building Leaders with the tools that should alleviate that performance and as you heard principal Barry talk about in many ways it comes down to belief belief in students and belief in self as a teacher when I was in Middle School especially a teacher my students went as far as I believe they could go and as far as I believed I could take them and that's what we're trying to empower our Educators to understand that the grade level standard that level of rigor is what is fundamental to helping students achieve and anything less than that is not gonna it's not going to cut it it's not going to make the muster and the students will make it if we don't do that all right next question so when I looked at the data for the student
117groups and a lot of student groups when I compared it to the states the state was higher than ours so when you look at African-Americans in English and arts for the third grade the state average is 22 percent our average was 15.5 percent so when so I'm sure I'm trying to use trying to understand how when you compare the overall to the state did you use that same rationale when we're looking at our board goals as well so we did not compare our board goals to State data as we noted in the answers we provided to the questions that we had on far enough in advance the state does not calculate eighth grade Readiness right they don't give us that idea of which individual students are both proficient in English language arts and Mathematics so
118we didn't necessarily do those comparisons we thought the most appropriate comparison when we start looking internally again right our conversation was compared to the state overall compared to ourselves overall year over year by Race by special education compared to pre-pandemic learning we know we have a lot of we know we have a lot of room to grow and we have a lot of work to do okay well I've been hearing that for three years we got a lot of work to do we have like I I get that part I guess my question is is that I'm looking at the data and if the data is not showing a change at least for the three years I've been here I don't know how long it's been even in 2019 we had a dip and this
119was before pre-pandemic if we're still seeing the same levels that is constant for these student groups why are we not doing something different because when I look I looked at data almost all the way back to like almost 2015. it's almost almost the same data for some of our student groups why are we not doing anything different so I would offer the since we've had Dr Proctor on the team we have been doing something different we have been doing a number of things differently I can speak to since August 2021 but actually before I arrived the district took the community and stakeholders through a process to identify elements that were key in the Strategic plan um since coming on board what I have shared with the board previously is some initial findings that we found
120in um in our academic Diagnostic and and then with that we forged forward with the adoption of high quality instructional materials as the board would recall um we shared with the board a couple of years back because this is my third year as well that we were incorrective action with the state because here at PPS we had not adopted curriculum along the timeline and cycle recommended by the state and we had to come to corrective action so we have since embarked on adoption of our early learning curriculum in my first year was the first year of implement take implementation of our foundational skills which and then in that same year we went through the process of adopting K5 Ela curriculum actually K-12 Ela curriculum and 612 math curriculum we were in the first year of
121implementation in the 2021-2022 school year of our K-5 math curriculum so what we have done differently is number one adoptive curriculum second thing that we had done differently is the district did not have a process a streamlined process of focusing on teacher professional learning and what we have developed is a department a group that is focused on teacher professional learning and with that in going through the process using the data that we collected from our academic Diagnostics and our instructional reviews that was previously shared with the board by myself a couple of years ago we then developed an instructional framework obstructional framework is a set of look fors that identifies clearly what does good instruction and what should good instruction look like here at PPS because we were seeing inequities in instructional opportunities that were
122being provided to students we saw that students did not have even access to grade level aligned um curriculum high quality text or practices and so with that department of teacher professional learning we honed in specifically on how it is that we can now bring these things together in an effort to provide professional learning to our teachers and also to our building leaders about our shifts and our priorities those are three things that we did differently going into my second year and this is a for me to recall so going into the second year another shift that we went into which was looking differently at how we did learning acceleration and within that budget year we identified that we were going to hire learning acceleration specialists that we're going to work we were going to look
123at the data identify where our pockets of students are black and Native and Latino students were um lower performing in what pockets of schools and identify our learning accelerations to be deployed within those schools to provide learning supports and interventions to our students so that they had not only accessed the grade level standards aligned instruction but they also had access to a learning acceleration interventionist specialist to work specifically with them that's for the fifth thing that we did differently is that even in this past budget year we Revisited our structure again to to look at how it is that we can ensure that it is more student-centered and that we were getting more of the learning supports to to our students so in the past budget year just that this past spring we have now
124in the in this year implemented ensuring that every school has an instructional coach and with the work of the instructional coach we can ensure that we we are taking our priorities and our strategies and working closely with those instructional coaches so that they are in the schools working directly with students and teachers and building leaders to formulate what we call ilt which is the instructional leadership team right and so as a team similar to what you hear that is happening at Sinton we wanted to take that type of practice where the ilt is coming together with the building leader the instructional coach and all of the supports provided and having conversations about instruction to ensure that that's happening we've deployed a vehicle that is what we are calling like the the staff development calendar there
125is a calendar of meetings that we are supporting School Tools in having and those meetings include teaching and learning Focus meetings it includes climate and culture Focus meetings it includes other meetings that are led by the principal leader so these are a series of steps of things that we have done differently have does the data point specifically to say we are seeing the results in these student groups no it's not happening yet but I believe firmly in our practices and that if we hold steady and know and acknowledge that this is um if we are in our third year it has been two years of implementation for some of those initiatives and for others it is only one year of implementation and while we have had the board goals for a little over a year
126now I want to say that what I understand about moving schools about moving data in my experience about it's we have to first build capacity and shift practice and while we see some early indicators that we may be moving in the right direction it still will take a little time and we hope that we will get there because we have shifted our practices and have done a series of things a little differently [Music] yeah and just some follow-up questions and um so like I mean implementing a lot of these programs you know which is great they all sound amazing um but then you know it goes up the question like what is the plan to figure out whether they're effective or not like how do we know what we know again my basic question right
127right we're like where's the follow-up and when when do we get to know when these programs are actually effective or not I'm so glad that you're that you asked that question because we do have a plan for implementation and progress monitoring and I'm going to turn it over to Dr Kimberly Armstrong who is our chief academic officer and who's going to click who's going to lay out exactly what the plan has been what we're currently doing and how we're going to continue to move it forward yeah absolutely thank you for that Dr Proctor good evening board um just to to answer that quickly so we have a team in many of the individuals that are are um sitting behind us are part of a larger team that comes together to talk about how we lift
128this work into our schools you know I so appreciate chair Holland's words about being powerful beyond measure we believe that and we also know that really to uplift that we're we're in the people business I appreciate principal Barry talking about not changing people but I do believe that we can change the choices that they make every day to move learning in our buildings and across our sites so for our three instructional priorities we are designing this implementation plan was actually designed but we're continuing to come together and talk about it we have instructional walks where we'll be out visiting three times this year collecting data on what we're seeing and what what's being experienced so that we can then go back and change some of the choices or even maybe extend some of the opportunities
129that we've had for educators and along with that as Dr Proctor mentioned our site-based instructional coaches you know they've been involved in learning weekly with us and then pretty soon that's going to change to every other week model and the team has done a really good job of really leaning into that model and making sure our coaches are all trained up so that when they're out in the sites they are able to support learning you know I really like to think of it as Coordinated Care you know we have a chance to benefit from any systems that coordinate care for individuals and and I often when I talk about it I speak as if it like a like a clinic or a hospital right where there's some diagnosing and then there's a whole bunch of
130people that come together to coordinate care to make sure that whether it's Wellness intervention prevention or just extension and that's one of the ways in which we've been talking about the work and I think Dr Franco can share more specifics on how senior directors of schools and principals are leaning in to really ensure that the work is moving yeah no I appreciate that thank you Dr Armstrong and I just want to call out we do have senior directors of schools behind us we also have the senior directors with an OTL and OSS and so I definitely want to call attention their their work uh so again back to your question uh director Wong around how do we know uh their multitude of avenues and checkpoints I think if you listened and I know you did
131but if you there are a few things that I heard very specifically that came out of of principal Barry's presentation she talked about things along the lines of of curriculum she talked about the instructional framework which Dr Proctor mentioned she talked about PLC she talked about leadership teams and ilts she also talked about this notion of collective efficacy right and then she also mentioned time so those are all things that are consistent pieces right that as we think about leadership development and teacher professional learning those are huge pieces consistently that we've applied across the board I also want to talk a little bit about the school continuous Improvement plan you know I'm coming from Beaverton it's the most robust thing I've I've seen in my 24 years of experience when you're talking about metrics and
132measures when you're talking about theories of actions and goals in progress monitoring it is very distinct and our senior directors of schools they're not just plans on a wall what we do with them is that um schools submit and then our senior directors provide very distinct feedback on do those School Improvement plans reflect our instructional priorities and our board goals and we also engage in quarterly reviews where senior directors sit down with the ilt the instructional coach and the principal to note progress and again that happens every quarter Dr Adams mentioned we also do three times a year we do school Improvement plan showcases in mid-year reviews where they're publicly talking about not only their goals but their strategies and then what does the data look like and then what adaptations or adjustments do you
133have to make I'd also say too like I don't want to underscore our senior directors of schools meet with our principals on a weekly basis it's a very tiered approach and we're we are Cal we've we've instituted a very consistent template this year where our conversations are immensely focused around down our school Improvement priorities and walk-in classrooms I'd also say too that we have a standard in regards to the number of classroom visits that we expect teachers to have every single year and that's three to five with feedback in terms of giving feedback via an informal observation and that is distinct using a common tool so when you're talking about how do we know there's a multitude of things overarchingly that that we that we are employing across the board thanks yeah I just want
134to actually pick up I appreciate your question director Wong and those answers I really appreciate and I'm wondering maybe maybe just for me take it to a little bit of a higher level around implementation timeline and research and everything you just said makes a lot of sense and there's a tremendous amount going on I'm sort of curious like all those all these interventions all the things we're doing you know have academic bases right they all have um you know they're all evidence-based there's there's you know something that tells us it's supposed to work what does the research tell us in terms of the timeline and I think the reason I'm asking is you know when I think about um you know Dr Proctor you mentioned the borgels are a year old you know they were
135revised a year ago so we we disaggregated them more but we did adopt these board goals over four years ago that we're focused very much on these same things and you know I'm I I've been the one willing to say like look the pandemic was a massive disruption and and we cannot discount like what happened just to keep the schools you know you know functioning during that time now we're a couple years beyond that and and I think it's getting back to the questions you're going to keep hearing from board members is when do we know that it's time to Pivot and when do we know it's time to sort of stay the course and I'm wondering like I've asked this question in the council great City schools and not really gotten sufficient answers or
136you know clear answers are there large urban districts that have made the type of progress that we're trying to make um when I look at our fifth grade you know I I could I could when I'm looking at our board goals I can look at our fifth grade goals fifth grade math and say okay we didn't achieve our board goals but almost all of our groups are moving in the right direction so that says something but when I look at our third grade reading not only do we not meet the borgels but with the exception of our latinx students they're all going in in the wrong direction and so I just what do you from from your perspective leading these teams doing these interventions you know putting all these things in place when do you
137know that it's like we got to keep powering ahead it's going to take another one two three years to see the type of progress we're making or you know what I think it might be time for a pivot it might be time for a change it might be time to some time to try something different yeah thank you for that question and I'll lean on everyone to kind of jump in but I'll start with my response in this way director Scott is that yes absolutely the pandemic was a huge Interruption and what we know from National Trends and even in state trends that students experienced a huge learning loss as a result of the pandemic as a result of being out of school as a result of being on a virtual or online learning for
138a period of time and during that time I believe the district did some work in setting some new priorities through a strategic plan and so by the time I arrived I you know we were able to come back to face-to-face school was that same first year of what I would call that reset right and so while we were able to employ our social emotional learning ensuring that we were meeting the mental health of our students by increasing our investments in those areas we also took on the task of getting back to academics and instruction however there was a learning curve with the when you considered student loss and the learning curve of adults in in a new practice I would say firmly that based on the practices that we put in place that is proven
139and and grounded in what we know according to the research as far as what students need in terms of high quality instructional materials um and a deep deeply engaging instruction and really having access to high quality text which was not a prac was not standard across the district prior that we are still in a position where we can see the growth that we are looking for so while I understand um maybe say board goals were developed four four years ago in these areas we did have that almost two-year a year and a half Interruption and then had to do a reset and come back and with coming back we continued to plow forward in increasing our practices and making some really bold Moves In The Districts to do some things differently than how they were
140done pre-pandemic are we seeing across the country or across the state other districts other large districts even districts larger than ourselves facing the same challenges absolutely because after we came back from the pandemic we had Staffing shortages we had some of the same issues that were happening across the country however [Music] um we were we're still able to uh see in our initial results some arrows that are pointing to say that If We Hold Steady in this approach with these particular strategies the indicators will show that we are moving in the right direction and we will get to those results that we're hoping for I really appreciate that your response and and director Scott your question about you know which I've asked too I think even for asset the first time in 2019 was when
141would we expect that curve to look like a parabola you know it it maybe it's plateaued or flat for a while but then it like immediately goes up and I know it's hard to give an answer but I would be really interested in knowing I guess a little to further your question at what point do we abort an issue and um and try something else like is there a point at which out in the future we decide that this is not working and is that being evaluated regularly I would say that because these practices have are new and in place just over a year and what we know about research when it comes to leadership and implementing change that it takes three to five years to see and it's not an acceptable answer I'm just
142saying what we know to be true we won't see the change in one year and if we abort now and try to do something else we will delay the results that we want to see one thing that is true when you are implementing a new practice you could almost expect an implementation dip what I mean by that is if um if it's me trying on something that I had not done before as we're asking some of our professionals to do it is they're not going to get it right perfect to Fidelity the first time around for every measure of accountability we want to make sure that we're providing the support the training the development and the support with the instructional coaching to support them in getting to a perfected um and um a most improved
143and desired instructional practice or practice and then we will start to see the bend in the data and I just want to add oh I'm sorry oh yeah no I'm sorry I just want to add that we talk about pre-pandemic data getting back to where we were before the pandemic yet the students that were referencing are post-pandemic um with all of the impacts that came with it and so when we think of our third graders who were testing last year I mean they had at that point what been in two years that were more typical than um they were in the first two years with A disruption in late kindergarten and then first year with the hybrid and all of that and so I just I also want to hold on to that like everything
144we know about research definitely suggests that there's implementation dips in that we need to stay with something for a while but I also don't want to dismiss the fact that we have kiddos with post-pandemic impacts we keep talking about this educational dip so right now with our averages for our kids not meeting proficiency you know we have 83 of our black kids not many proficiency we have 82.6 of our native kids not many proficiency you have 68 of our Latino kids not meeting proficiency how much more dip are we anticipating we so in the data what we are saying is that um we will start to see a shift in the data kind of like what um Dr Adams indicated is that you will see a broader shift amongst a broader group and then you
145would be able to go back in and ensure that we're Shoring up our supports for all of our groups but we have to see initially what the data tells us and then go back and adjust our practice accordingly and this is a huge moment of reflection right in my opinion we're clearly on to something in math last year where everybody else dipped we states that he had some small gains like you know not a whole lot this year we had bigger gains than last year in ela some small gains but we're understanding this is the time for us to understand from our teachers what is it about the ELA curriculum that might with which they might be struggling more than the Mathematics Curriculum because that's what that's one of the questions I have as I
146looked at the data and we are in year two of math right we're in year one these data reflect year one of ela and so is that where we saw the dip where I'm hoping that is where we saw the dip and we don't see it moving forward so when you talked about the math and reading data um do we see a correlation correlation between math and reading data are averages that tells us anything it's a great question so research would hold that there's a modest correlation between reading and math achievement but not a big one or a strong one we know and I think we've all experienced through our own education and our kids education if you're a parent that kids have relative strengths and weaknesses and just because you're you know great with
147your reading material doesn't always mean you're great with your math material so while we did not run correlations on these particular data um while I'm a proponent of you know to unpack the uh types of mathematic problems that kids are presented today you have to have some strong reading skills we don't see overall this um High correlation at all times because because individual students are different and I appreciate ate the words of Dr Adams and I just have to add that the work that we're doing with early literacy is really significant and and outstanding and I know that the scores aren't necessarily representative of that just yet but you know there's a reason why the state has invested the funds that they have on early learning across Oregon there's a reason why we're getting multi-million
148dollars to continue to improve in that area right it's not just a Portland issue or an organ issue it's a nationwide issue and the curriculum and the way that those efforts have been coordinated I I think is above what's happening on the west coast in general and I've been in a couple of states and if and if there are any questions about literacy specifically we do have our senior director of pre-K 5 who can speak to the work that we're doing but like and just some highlights you know we have teachers who um have participated in the letters training at high numbers right that's adding that reading endorsement so that they're teaching reading the way that reading should be taught according to brain research so like I and I celebrate math and I just I
149don't want to leave Ela out because this year the numbers weren't as significant as they were there really is some amazing things happening and I have some leaders here that can speak to that if there's a question and again Ela one year of implementation with our newly adopted Core Curriculum math two years two full years of implementation with our K-5 math adopted curriculum one year of implementation full implementation with our 612 we're at the beginning of a second year of implementation for much of it and I think for the significant Investments that we have made in these approaches um that it is important for us to continue in these approaches because we have not yet turned to see the results that we're looking for yeah as a teacher retired teacher I really appreciate that it
150always seemed like just when you were starting to get a hold of something yeah you need to stick with it so I really appreciate that and I also have a question um how are we doing with getting enough support like the psychologist the counselor the half-time uh interventionists into all schools I mean obviously we need it we're gonna um make room for that sure for Jay Bruno who is our chief of student support services and he'll be able to give very specific response to that and I am not a doctor just Jay good evening um so uh we have made a pretty significant investment in the last few years through our student investment dollars our student investment account as I said monies in in counselors uh comprehensive School psychologists and social workers uh in in
151this last year we also went out and um earned a Federal grant which allowed us to significantly increase the amount of comprehensive School psychologists that we have in our system and and are on track too in the next two years have a comprehensive school psychologist each one of our title schools in order to support in in reference to what you heard Prince Barry talk about each one of our schools in addition to that we are working on supporting and creating healing School communities through Community Schools which will provide social worker and social worker FTE to help coordinate care for all of our students in need at each one of our title schools also which then allows us to use our other resources to support non-title schools with mental health supports coordination of care and wellness
152so mainly in the title schools no we've we those are we we have reached out and experienced success in gaining additional resources through grants and and also through the state in support of our title schools which enables us to spread our supports more across all schools underscore something principal Barry said it wasn't just having people it was the right people with the right mindsets um so I guess the You Know You're Gonna Hate Me Now I'm sorry but you know I have so much respect for the work you do and there's a lot of things I really love seeing like the the early um the literacy changes and things like that like I do have a disagreement with about the dip though because having been involved in multiple curriculum changes and also implementing leading implementation
153I I disagree because I feel like when the supports are right new curriculum that is actually better usually leads to a surge of performance I know this because I I Dr Franco thank you for bringing up Beaverton because I remember implementing you working with Beaverton to implement new curriculum and then all the teachers in PPS were like why don't we get this supports Beaver tinted um I'm sorry I don't know but the whole point is uh I don't I don't mean to pay one District together I'm very sorry I take that we'll have to point out that we we scored better than Beaverton oh yeah I think beat me to the punch right but that's just because our kids are awesome but anyways um sorry um what was it gonna say you told me okay
154yeah um I'm just worried like you know going back to what director Scott was pointing out when do we know we we changed course and one of the things that you know I'm also trying to give feedback because having been in the district for over a decade and teaching for a lot longer and seeing other districts being in other districts too one of one of the things that we do see is that like we want you know we need to do things differently because we're not seeing the results but one of the things that we don't see differently is the methods and one of the one what I mean by that is like when there's a problem let's let's throw new sauces on you know like the pasta is horrible right so let's try marinara
155okay that marinara is the whole world let's throw you know let's throw some Alfredo on it Alfredo um and it's still awful and what we forget is that we need to go you know it the change is not throwing a new sauce on it I'm sorry I don't mean to diminish any because I know your work is you know how high you know how much respect I have for your work so um so I don't need to keep saying that over and over again um but my I guess my point is that the you know like even just listening to the the the presentation is sitting it goes back to basics right which is basically you know just like how we treat our students all students want to learn if they if they're not learning
156it's because something's in their way right all the teachers want to perform because they're not performing better is because something's in their way and it's a different mentality and and the fact that like I love the presentation my son because it was it was it was not a top-down method it was a bottom-up right it was we hear from our teachers what was working what was not we have these weekly collaboration time you know we have something built into the system for them to take it over and and improve the way they need it because you know the the honest truth is like every Community every school I mean yes we're Portland but the needs of Sydney were different than the needs of of Lewis right and and they they need different things and so
157a top-down approach yes there are some things that we do need a top-down approach you know like and you know I'm not speaking and you all know this I'm kind of talking um hopefully try to steer um my whole goal but anyways uh you know just the one of the common things I keep hearing over and over again is sometimes and this is before your time so I'm not it's not criticizing you um is that sometimes it's just like it it feels like the district is leading us instead of they're supporting us right anyway I keep hearing over and over again for a lot of principals teachers like you know it feels like we're serving the district instead of the district is serving us I quote that from from a friend of mine I'm very
158sorry if you're watching um uh and one of the things that's like you know every need of every Community is different and so you know again like I keep saying like Back to Basics if we're not if if we keep throwing new sauces on it it's not working you know again we got to figure out like as a teacher who has been in this district for well many many years I've seen this all before and every teacher will say the same thing we've seen this all before and we'll just wait it out right so at what point do we say hey maybe this is not worth waiting out maybe this is some time we need to Pivot and be like teachers or or students they know just as much what do you need right it's
159a you know I just I'm worried that there are some you know like I I agree that a lot of the programs that you're implementing 100 support but then there's needs to be I think the other piece where it's just we gotta we gotta meet them where they're at so where's that conversation I appreciate that I think one of the things that went unsaid in our approach to professional learning is we have made shifts um the first year with math we didn't really provide a whole lot of PD the second year we provide centralized PD and heard overwhelming feedback from Educators and principles that that PD needed to be site based and so this year that's what we're exactly doing so we're trying to go back to basics we're trying to make sure that the
160embedded instructional coach was part of the school Community is working with his her their principal to create the professional learning with our support that will best meet the needs of their teachers and their students that's just one example and I do want to you know go back to the presentation from Satan they have a school Community as you've described that have taken on a practice to ensure that they reflect on what their belief systems are around what students are able to do they ensure that they're able to put the systems in place and provide opportunities and that's why they're able to see the results but I do also want to point out that sit and made it very clear that they are adopting the curriculum they're implementing they are working with the instructional framework and
161they are using the resources and materials as prescribed you know through the work and through the shift that we have made and so when we look at um you know how it is that we are doing things differently to improve practices I think it takes a balanced approach sir and with all due respect and it does take us coming together with a body of knowledge and research of how we can make some shifts in our practice so that we can see the results that we want and then support schools at the ground level for Effective implementation for community building and for Teacher input and student input and voice into how they will have it make sense for their school community oh am I going to get a chance at some point oh yeah yeah thank
162you um sorry I was trying to add a question in around the dip but before I asked the question about the dip I do want to just start by saying I really appreciated and was inspired by this hidden story so thank you for coming and sharing it um those students in the far north end corner of uh the district are very lucky it sounds like um and it seems like you know that's what we want for for all of our students that intentional care um that they're getting uh so thank you for and I know there's lots of other principles and teachers and staff um doing really hard work in every corner of the district um as as well um but I did I want to go back to the dip because so like I've
163been around so long it's hard for me to um like process that it's just like a dip because when I look at the data and I'm looking at the um it's like implementation dip I'm looking at the memo that Dr Adams you sent us that has the third grade um disaggregated data and um there's a unless I'm reading it wrong but you can tell me on page 16 there's a 5.4 percent like decrease for Asian students a 1.5 for black students increase for latinx a 1.7 decrease for multi-racial a decrease of 11 Point percent decrease for Native American and four percent decrease Pacific Islanders and a 1.3 increase for white students and then I look at the by school data and we have 28 28 of this of the elementary schools the third grade ELA
164achievement having increases and 34 having decreases it's seems to me that if we were having an inflammation implementation dip it would be across the district and across racial racial lines um so I'm curious about that um or is it that some schools have implemented and others haven't and which that's that's a different that's a different issue but to have I say and there's a lot in zone six that have dips and I don't think it's because they're not working hard but we're not seeing across the board in implementation dip or by a racial groupie yeah I want to clarify what I what I said just so that it's not misunderstood if that's okay what I was trying to convey is that what research typically tells us is that when implementing a new practice it is
165common to see an implementation dip what we do know to be true here at PPS is that with our new implementations that it it has taken some time we've only been implementing in one year for some areas and in that one year implementation it's not going to be it has not been and it's not typical that it would be a hundred percent implementation at a hundred percent Fidelity there is a learning curve for our Educators that we are providing the support the professional development and the coaching so that they can get to full implementation and so part of what I was trying to convey is because we have not seen in the one year in much of this that we have seen full implementation that we need to stay steady in our practice so that
166for the Investments that we have made for what we believe is possible and for the strategies that we have put in place in making significant shifts over the past two years we need to continue forward so that we could get to that um to bridge that learning curve if you will so that we could have full implementation yeah so if I could just add to answer your question because I'm feeling left out um Fidelity of implementation of new curriculum that's one factor presuming that there's a hundred percent degree uh implementation in the use of the material you know you see the list of schools here that you're referring to director from Edwards and every one of their supervisors are sitting right there we have to of course have to have a more nuanced understanding of
167what's happening in each of these School communities it's not just the material it's what are the conditions what are the practices has there been a stability of leadership at all levels of the organization maintaining a consistency to use the pasta analogy we're not just throwing a bunch of spaghetti at the cabinet here we've made very judicious choices about not just when and where we're implementing curriculums but how we align the professional development and Leadership training we've added to the recipe by deploying instructional coaches in our schools that's going to up the ability and the capacity at the school level to have conversations around how practices are shifting or not what are we noticing with the specific diverse students that we serve it's helping the principal and many more of them now working single-handedly necessarily to
168have that thought partner to design judicious deliberate purposeful agendas for their instructional leadership teams their Department content meetings for their grade level team meetings and other intervention teachers and Special Education team Educators you know to talk about the specific students that they're serving so yeah what we're seeing about half of those schools are showing some tremendous growth and so how do we understand what's happening in those schools those are the conversations that our senior directors are having this is why it's so important that our principals get regular opportunities to visit one another schools so that when they engage in those instructional rounds they're comparing notes about what those effective practices about what that change management looks like in the and we say it all the time and every single principle PD meeting so that we
169build the collective efficacy right that there's an understanding that they have agency to build uh our students own sense of so self-efficacy um so we've tried to be really deliberate about our choices just as dangerous as letting something go too quickly because we think it's not working we have to make sure that it was you know implemented first and then make some choices about how to refine and fine-tune it and I don't think anybody would be against streamlining expectations uh or making sure that the day the instructional time that our students have is always high quality so just a few additional thoughts about why we see these patterns it isn't just a curricular uh response it's it's all the rest it's the data literacy it's the use of the assessments it's the way the teachers
170are engaging and asking themselves these these questions so like I say when I look at both the third grade ELA data whether it's school-based or race-based the concern I I have and this is just having sat it at this table for uh 10 years um over two two decades um that I'm concerned without a deeper analysis um that it's not just implementation some of the other things so like how often are principals rotating in our in our schools um eight years I don't think there's a lot of other schools like sitting that would say they've had their principal for eight years and that allows a principal to develop relationships with staff um create distribute leadership across staff I mean a lot of things happen when a principal has been made for eight years so yes
171I acknowledge there's probably a lot of the things but the thing that concerns me is that PPS I'm going to just let um sort of pivot back to um chair Holland's comments you know what are we comparing it to I don't you know two of my three kids you know left or all three of my kids left um the state to either work or go to school and they're not competing against just against Beaverton they're competing against kids all across the United States for for jobs and how to you know getting into college for careers um so and they're competing all across the globe now because we have a global economy so I I I wanted us to like reset ourselves as higher standards because I don't think anybody would point to organs um results
172as being what we think is what needs what needs to happen and one of the things PPS has consistently done is State and this is I'm going to just go back to my good friend Lorenzo Poe who I served with who you know said when I talked about PPS being a great district and look at the outcomes we're above the average and I'm pointing out is like yeah that's the white kids you know what Lorenzo would say is that's masking like the performance of because PPS has traditionally kept middle class white families and middle class white students and we've had more money than at most other districts those outcomes have mask when we talk about averages have masks us not serving students of color very well or special ed students and so when we say
173like we're above average or we're above the state often it means our white students who are from middle class families who you know their parents went to college and have a lot of privilege are what's driving those outcomes and when you know I I'm concerned when I look at the just the disaggregated data with the exception of the latinx students all of the other students of color are seeing a decrease and we have an increase which for white students which just given the number of the number of white students there are that masks what's happening with our other students so I I I think we really need to dig dig down is like it's the curriculum and a whole host of other things and if we just um are comparing ourselves to other other districts
174and not like you know how are those other 34 schools and I'm just focusing on third grade reading and that we could go through the exercise for you know at the other grades is what it what do we need to be doing to you know move those other students along with the students who traditionally have done well in PBS and that's what I'm looking for in the data is you know how whatever's the secret sauce that sitting or other places that we have it consistently across the district and we're getting consistent positive gains and disaggregated way for our students and I'm concerned that I don't see that in the data but I still see white students moving forward kind of coming out of the um the pandemic and sort of picking things up and giving
175a the leaving the impression that like we're actually on our way back when I'm seeing dips in the other groups so that that was just my observation from looking at the data and I have a lot of other questions but I really um that I've sent to um Dr Adams about looking at the special ed data and then our disaggregated data by school because I think we all we all aspire to be not just better than Beaver no offense but recently like all of our students being proficient because I look at when this school's meeting with success one of the schools listed is Kellogg but then when I go and look at where they are and on the Bulls they actually um are there they're below when you look at the the board goal measurement
176they're they're below or they're decreasing and so it just seems like we've got a lot of more just digging into the the data to what what is because yes it's been around a long time so I've seen every flavor I mean we had guarantee survival curriculum yeah and I think that's oh sorry doctor yeah we we don't disagree with that yeah absolutely in the aggregate we're doing well in the disaggregate we're not I guess the thing is we agreeing with it or not what are we doing about it I think Dr Proctor outlined what we were doing well and I think I hear I hear always but make it explanation I understand all the stuff that we're doing I'm just not I haven't seen since I've been here I haven't seen the results of that
177I'm just looking just at the data I would say yes yeah yeah yeah so I guess that's the frustration is that as we look at the data not what we're doing now what initiatives we have now what strategic plans we have now what when we look at the data it doesn't match up sure yeah and we and we agree with that and I would say that um we're on the same page in terms of agreement I would say that we are immensely laser focused on um the board goals on the achievement of our different groups of students like that is it we know that that is absolutely the work but we're very confident uh in terms of the sustainable practices that are that we are developing today that we are working through like we feel
178immensely confident that and yes you know we feel like we are the flywheel is moving and you could see some of those pieces overarchingly and I don't want to underscore this piece around you know I the foundation was set I think with the Strategic plan the building of The Graduate portrait we had this piece right in the middle of the pandemic which was immensely discombobulating we are Level setting again if you read all the research around grade level standards of line about high quality instruction materials around tier one instruction and level setting from that Vantage Point those are key pieces in regards to research and if you read the research it's I mean I was a building principal for a long time I felt like I didn't have my building truly until year five because
179those are pieces and structures and systems that we're working to put in place and that is happening that absolutely is happening so I guess my other frustration is that why we're getting our stuff together as of those whether it's a principal or whatever where did I leave our kids absolutely we'll do that leave our kids right our kids are the ones who are having to suffer while we figure it out our kids are the ones who are you know when we look at the data or whatever going through the grades while we're figuring it out if you got a third grade kid and you just said it took you five years well now that kid is in what eighth grade what happens in that meantime what happens to that kid why when do they get
180to a point to where we figure out where they're at to catch up so that way when we get to graduation we don't have parents coming that's talking about our kids can barely read absolutely I want to um say you're absolutely correct and what I want to say also as I you know kind of get this point out in a very measured way is that to be reminded that at the point that um coming into this work PPS in over 10 years in some content areas in over 15 years in other content areas had not adopted any standards aligned curriculum we did not have a common practice in that area there was not a common Focus in that area and yet we are just now getting to that work so while PBS as a system
181that is a part of a Portland system have not served our black brown Hispanic native children for decades we are now in a position where we have shifted the practice to try something that had not been done before in 10 years in 15 years when I in coming aboard there was not a streamline focus on how to provide supports and professional learning for our educators we now have a streamlined Focus just in the past two years of how to do that work and how to make the Investments in our teachers in our schools to support them in their practice that did not happen in decades so as we continue this conversation Pastor pray for me as we continue this conversation I want to be clear that this did not start just a year ago or
182two years ago you're right there has been a disservice and we have dramatically shifted just in two years some of those practices and so we need if you say what's different that is what's different in streamlining our Focus that is what's different in ensuring that we have grade level standards aligned curriculum high quality instructional materials that is paired with professional learning for our teachers that is what's different when we said an instructional framework with four tiers that talks about grade level standards in line um culturally affirming data-driven and deeply engaging this is what we are training our teachers towards that is what's different it had not happened in 10 years in 15 years and I could attest with this team with our superintendent that this has been our focus and this has been core to
183the work that I and everyone behind us have been doing but but it's what's different and I'm encouraged by that and no we're not satisfied with the data we're not but I know that we're on a course that if we hold firm we could get there I do have something to say but I want to let director Silverstone go first hi um first of all I just want to say thank you so much for all of the hard work you put into all this it's very clear um and I just wanted to acknowledge that um and then I'm trying to like figure out how to phrase this but I guess my question kind of becomes like how standardized is it and obviously this is something that we can continue to improve um but I just
184know from my experiences and this is more obviously within High School um there was a lot of frustration I think with the way that the curriculum was adopted and I would say that among classes and teachers that just from what I hear from my peers and what I've seen um there isn't a lot of standardization and I don't always know um how much like teachers are following these new standards and like using the new curriculum and I guess that just sorry what looks like it sorry I am in the middle of my school building um so cart just passed me but um what was I saying okay I guess it just makes me wonder a little bit too about like how we continue to engage with stakeholders about this and how maybe we can continue
185to speak with the students and of course teachers which it sounds like you all are doing about how we can be more successful with this work um yeah so thank you I appreciate the question so we there's a couple things that we're excited about we started our first um face group family advisory Council on education who met for the first time last week and will come together every other month to talk about instructional priorities across the district and not just there we have a robust curriculum adoption framework that lists out all the steps that the committee takes to make sure that they're engaging stakeholders so from you know communicating out the opportunities to come and review curriculum the opportunity to field tests we collect data from not only teachers but students as well and some
186of their their narratives are what then leads us to The Next Step before we even get to presenting the curriculum for adoption before the board we have Community involved and if we don't have a significant number of stakeholders involved in revealing then that means we need to go back to the drawing board that's one of the reasons why we've paused on the social studies adoption is because we didn't have robust community and family engagement so that's one of the ways really quick um thank you director I think you pointed out and kind of one of my frustrations I also seen as well is just I guess what I was trying to highlight is one of the problems is that is not the programs you're implementing I think they're great now again I want to Second
187what Dr Proctor also said I think it is important that we stay with these programs especially with the amount of effort and and you know it got a taste of it and it is really exciting stuff um but I also want to bring attention to the other side where like you know we have uh schools and teachers who are who are you know on the verge or burning out and we're trying to add something more to their plate you know at some point you know I think that needs to be a little bit looked at in order to make it you know if we wanted to be successful right if I want someone to learn something new they have to have the supports they have to have the time to to talk in in um
188Dr Armstrong would love to see that that um uh um framework that you're talking about um on the other hand I also want to you know being a good scientist I want in your defense I also want to point out the other point uh the other side as well one of the issues I have with this data is that we only look at third and fifth grade and 2022's third graders are today's fourth graders and we know that the pandemic hit them at different times right so that means that when they went online maybe it hurt their reading more missing out on first grade than missing on a kindergarten so there's a potential that the reason we're seeing a dip is because these third graders had a bigger hit in their reading development because of
189the timing of the pandemic right and so I guess that kind of leads to my question is that is there any way we can know how they're doing in fourth grade right to see yeah obviously they're getting smarter but so that's very difficult to measure so that I think that's one of the things I I do want to also point out is that I think we do need to stay the course in terms of these programs that you're implementing in order to find out whether this is working or not just because unfortunately you had to deal with the pandemic stuff yeah actually so I guess oh yeah just one more thing really quick is just like what is I guess my question is what is your ass like when do we when do you think
190we will know that these are working like for sure well as um that's a great question those are great questions director Wong and appreciate your comments about um the experiences of our current third or last year's third graders across the pandemic um one of the things we're working on as Dr Armstrong and Dr Proctor mentioned is we're monitoring and evaluating what we're doing as we're doing it um we're going to be supporting our instructional coaches and principals by understanding how they're teaching and learning and climate and culture Tuesdays are going we will be doing learning walks across schools um at certain points of the year that data will be used to inform our monitoring but OTL staff and Senior directors of school are always in schools right and they'll always be collecting so we'll also
191have some formative data along the way so we hope to understand the extent to which things are working because the first thing we need to expect before we can see um the chain the ultimate changes in student achievement is when you see change in the use of the change in the practices our teachers using the materials are they able to bring them to life do they need more or additional professional coaching or support in order to do that how are we building as Dr Franco always reminds us Collective efficacy and what principal Barry this is the principal Martinez said tonight around our Collective understanding of what we can do as a team and so we are looking at things I don't want um there to be any misunderstanding that we wait until we have these
192data every year and then say oh that didn't work we're constantly in schools talking to principals inviting teacher feedback in order to understand what's working how it's working and the extent to which we need to offer more support I just wanted to follow up to that to that statement uh Dr Adams so you mentioned that you know we're doing constant um observations and and collecting that data so I guess my so my question is so from what you guys told us last year as far as the bar goes and where you figure we can get to this year it clearly didn't make that where were the after you know reevaluating all the data and all the observations you guys did through this year why do you think we didn't reach those that's a really great
193question I think um there are multitude of factors that could be at play here I think one proud of a board that's set robust and ambitious goals none of us had any idea of what performance increases we could expect after a pandemic we set performance increases based on what we know of student learning and perhaps we're at a moment in time where that's not the rate we're going to reach right away you know we're not ready to admit defeat we still want to hold those goals up it's why we have and we know we need to be aligned as a school system which is why we have each of our principals align their school Improvement plan to the board goals because that those are the goals and they're looking at their schools and the plans
194I know that I got a chance to look at those principals and school teams Allied even their increases to our increases to the board's increases right and so we know that level of alignment is important but I think there are a lot of factors that could be at play and that's what we're trying to understand what we're doing now this year that will be different with our observations is the entire team behind you and people who aren't even in this room will be using a common tool to collect what they're seeing in the data so that we have a centralized way to collect that information and so that'll be one of the ways that I think we'll have more robust ongoing information about what's going on in schools because we'll have a common tool it's
195not that we didn't have a common language but it's also nice um you know for me to actually have my fingers in the data and in a way that's beyond conversations because I do sit with Dr Franco and his team most Mondays so I can hear and understand the pulse of what's going on in the schools I just wanna I just want to be clear that the board didn't set those goals we said okay to the goals but the but then we asked the number our question was what can we do what what is what is reasonable what is acceptable and the superintendent said this percentage is the is what we can do our question was um what what model should we be using should it be the osas data should it be the match
196data or whatever the case might be and then the superintendent selected the model from which we would we would base everything off of so I just want to be clear that we're not coming back to say you set this goal we accepted the goal we accepted the the matrix by which uh we were the measurement was going to be done and then that's what was adopted but the goal was set by the superintendent The Matrix that was going to be used was set by the superintendent and what we said was if this is what you're if this is what we can do because the question was not can we do six percent or seven we said what can we do what do you feel is is fair what do you feel is appropriate given the
197the environment that we're in given the climate that we're in and where everybody is at what do you feel is the most acceptable thing to do because what we didn't want to do is put ourselves in a position where we come back and say well if it was me I would have said two percent instead of three percent or five percent if it was me I would have chose the maps data or the osas data but I was just going off of what you guys told me you wanted to do so I just want to be very very clear on on that that piece I agree with everything that you said it was a lofty goal I agree with all of that and I I believe that you know we didn't get where we or
198we said and we got to figure out how to reevaluate and reassess and pivot and do whatever the only point of clarity I want to make sure that I'm I'm very keen on is where that information came from that's it I'm I'm curious how all the teachers are accepting the instructional coaches is that kind of across the board accepted or is there the coaches have just been in place um since uh teachers return in August oh yeah so we don't have um at least I'm not aware of um no we have data for the professional learning events that we've put on for our site-based instructional coaches and our teachers and in all instances our data was above 90 in terms of experience relevance and um just you know I could probably list all of the
199Matrix Christina Howard would probably do a better job as she's been leading that work but we're at 90 percent in all of our learning engagements with site-based instructional coaches with principals and with teachers when involved in work around our instructional priorities so that's all pretty new with the leadership teams and uh instructional coach and the leadership teams in the school oh absolutely and it's our biggest I I feel like it's one of our our biggest um things to not only be proud of but to move this year um we put site-based instructional coaches in all of our schools and we were listening to what our building administrators were saying is that we want to be able to build our learning arcs we want to be responsive to our learning community and we know that if
200we do this we'll have higher numbers of teachers engaged in not only learning but the use of the curriculum and so everything that we've done this year has to has been about building that structure that we launched just a month ago and uh the work the work that will play out and what we talk about as a team almost every other week is now how do we support that how do we monitor it and how do we provide the support when things go wrong because we know right we're not perfect people and so we want to be able to respond and support principals when when things happen that's sort of what director Wong was talking about I think and then just while while I'm just talking I just have to say because I know we
201we've spent some time on um data about our black students and I know that the purpose of this was on osas and there are other data points that I hope in the future uh the board can hear and be in celebration with the Portland Community about no there's a team of people that are responsible for multiple Pathways to graduation and the work that happens in those schools to catch our students while we say failure is not an option we know some of our kids struggle so at the same time we also have to say that we don't give up on students so when I think of the 650 student black students involved in CTE across nine through 12 and seeing that out of all of those students 91 is the graduation rate in their average
202daily attendance is 80 percent you need to know of course 100 is what we go for but 80 percent average daily attendance is huge we have those 650 students completing enrollments in courses well there's 1400 different enrollments and so we have the CTE completers there are black students when we want to talk about where our group is outperforming other students we can spend a whole hour or two just talking about CTE and collagen and career Readiness and multiple Pathways to graduation and a host of other programs and so while I appreciate the time on osas there are other measures that we're using where our black kids are excelling and I just didn't want the night to end without dropping some positive numbers that we can all celebrate I'm actually glad you said that because that's
203actually one of my questions that I sent in as well is like and and I've been asked this question I've asked superintendent I've asked Pat what other variables that we can include to evaluate the performance of our kids I know there's more than just one and we shouldn't be just always looking at but for for me this is the only thing I get right this is the only thing I get so that's the only thing I can go by right and so but I've been asking for that what other things can we measure our students on besides just this and I'm glad you said that and I'm hoping that we can start looking at those other ways to look at how do we assess our kids once again only reason why is because this is
204the only stuff we get and so I think uh direct student director Frankie Silverstein had a question I've seen your hand up but then I don't know if it was from the old question or not the right person oh you know so we'll do two more questions we gotta do I was just director to pass the original board goals had the it was designed to have the the grade goal be something other than just test scores to measure some of the other things that we know our students are brilliant at and that was um something that we say in 2019 I was just looking at the resolution um that was put into the eighth grade goal and the temporary measurement that was dropped in is the one we have now but they originally was designed
205to capture more than just more than just the osas data Maps data so so it would be great to get back to that developmental Continuum which there has been a lot of work to date on towards the graduate portrait so what does that look like for the early grades early Learners middle grade students and secondary students so that would be that's a way that our community defines success a vision for Student Success so it'd be great to talk about the work that's been in progress there and how we're trying to orient our redesign along those attributes that we have for our students directed at the past you had a question um thank you um for hearing me out yeah I think we this has been a really great discussion and um I I think we
206need to look at both like how can we hold all of us accountable and get the results that we expect I just wanted to Shout Out director brem Edwards and your comment about the longevity of the leadership at schools and the building principle and how important that can be um in sinton's example and we we know we have a lot of schools that don't have that but I want again like Focus this Focus us on the both and how can we like I'm completely frustrated with the data also um just so you know everyone and also wanting to believe because I'm not an educational expert I'm having to place a hundred percent of my trust in what I'm hearing and the hope that I hear and you know the hope for like alternative measures of
207success like how do we measure those kids that are athletically you know athletic or artistic or creative and they're getting success that way um and balancing that with the need to the basics of you know in third grade you need to be reading you know at a level and fifth grade math as markers of you know future success so I just I want to appreciate everyone for your comments and you know on the senior leadership team and I'm hopeful still and I also want to figure out how we as a board can hold ourselves accountable for getting out of the way for for holding the district accountable and also supporting the district and getting out of Our Own Way focusing on student outcomes 100 and not on some of the other things that we spend
208our time doing and if that requires a Time study I know we've done this in the past um or a board uh self-evaluation and look at actually do a Time study how do we spend our time in a week and evaluate that against you know what our board goals are and anyway thank you that's all thank you chair to pass I just have one last question and then question and then we adjourn so I was looking at and this is looking at the certain data the Whitman data and the regular data so when I was looking at for black kids there was no data and so I'm just curious of how do we get to 7.5 and 13.2 but I didn't see any data on the page sure appreciate the question uh the state data
209downloads don't provide data for a grade level when fewer than 10 students test and so at sitting for example there were 16 African-American students tested across the tested grades three through five and there were not 10 students in any particular grade level at once thanks I'm not here no closing thought go ahead thank you um I just want to make sure that I've gotten to know a lot of school districts over the years I think I know the majority of the superintendents pretty well that lead the larger urban districts here in America uh and the question that's been resonating for me is what's different here right now at Portland Public Schools I think is this collection of talent in front of you the one sitting in the seats the ones that are going to show
210up to school tomorrow morning bright and early because I think there's but you won't always find another school systems is a really clear alignment around the task that we have in front of us around the desire for more Equitable outcomes around Clarity around the theory of action that we're embarking on you know that coherence is a rare thing and so I just want to appreciate the team here because this is their work every single day results will arrive when the organization's capacity is raised and that's the name of the game so just want to say thank you to all our people out there awesome awesome and I'm hoping we have the whole group for a number of many years mean adjourned thank you