BOE Work Session 2025.03.10

001we can go ahead and get started you guys eat if you want more go get more my goal for uh tonight for the word session is so that our board can truly understand our data and what and what are the things that we're doing with that D some basic things across the board U one thing I want to I do want to tell everybody up front we we can look at this data as U cohorts of Grade B like based on school we can look at it at we're going to look at it as individual grades we are not going to break it down tonight even though we have that ability and we we've already looked at it we're not breaking it down by teacher that wouldn't be appropriate in this setting to do but

002I think this is going to be an opportunity I hope that this is something that you guys can learn and and when it's all said and done you will appreciate check that we've gone through this I don't know that we've ever gone through our data like this in this setting before and I want to do it as more of an intimate where we could just stop and ask questions and and make comments and uh as we go for uh Joe I'm going to let Joe kind of start off and kind of Le so you have a book there that's a print out of what he's going to show you on the board and we thought it might be or he thought I'm not going to take any credit for this he thought it would be

003easier for you guys to follow along with the paper in front of you but it's also up on the on the screen as well so uh Joe I think the first thing he's going to do is like basically give you an overview of how to read the charts like what do they mean without they're not specific to any kid or or or even grade but how do you read these charts and what do they mean yeah so kind of like Shane said um what we're going to be doing tonight is we're looking at data but more specifically we're going to be looking at growth data so to this point especially this year we've talked to you guys a lot about achievement data okay we'll revisit some of that as we go along but really growth

004is where we know we get the most pay for our buck the likelihood that we're going to get every kid in the distinguished high as they can score category is is not very high right that likelihood is pretty low however we do know that every kid can grow and so that's what we wanted to frame tonight around so what we'll do is we'll look at each campus and we're going to look at three reports for each Campus before we move to the next okay so these are framed in questions so the first question is looking at student growth how does students grow compared to their expected growth we'll talk more about these in detail in a moment second one is growth compared to their achievement levels so basically saying there's four reporting categories level one

005being the lowest level two level three and level four being what we consider proficient right so we'll be looking at how those students grew in each one of those categories and then lastly we'll be looking at growth over time so the first thing we're going to do is we're going to jump in and look at the high school so this is data that you've already seen this is data that we went over back in the fall so this is our overall achievement data for 232 for so again just to just to reiterate some of the stuff that's on the screen um looking at Ela scores for n9th and 10th grade 34 and 35 respectively and then you have the state and the co-op averages there too and then the end of course exams so high

006school starting really in eth grade they're measured a little bit different in math but we have algebra into course exams geometry and of course exams and biology and of course exams these are new to us this year now we've had course exams in the past but we've never had these in the course exams so we'll talk more about that as we go along as well and then also include a few notes on here too that aren't included in your packet so like one of these notes just to you're probably already aware of this but when we talk about algebra end of course that also includes eighth graders that took the algebra in divorce last year so let's look at our first report so this is are my students growing as much as they're expected to

007grow okay so we're going to break down what this report actually means and I promise to not try to get too much in the weeds but okay so first of all what is growth so you'll see these numbers up here it'll say it'll be in a positive positive 0.0034 so what that actually means is when we're talking about growth each kid has an expected growth number okay this tells us did they go above that expected growth or below that expected growth okay so if we saw if we just looked at this as a zero zero would mean they met their expected growth so let's just say hypothetically I took my algebra in course exam I'm expected to grow by two percentage points or whatever the metric may be I would be a zero if I

008hit that exact two okay however if I go above that then I start getting into that positive score right so that's kind of a weird way to think about it but when you think of zero think of it as you did what you were supposed to so to speak okay on these reports I put these red lines on here for just kind of an easier way to look at it so you basically have two lines you have the proficiency line which is this one that runs left or right so any and these are students by the way all these dots so any student who scores above that would be proficient so level threes level fours you have your growth line which is right in the middle or zero so in to the right of that

009had a positive growth score anybody to the left had a negative growth score so you you can kind of see as you look at these where the like the biggest concentration of these are right and it makes sense when you look at the numbers but ideally what we want an Ideal World we want them in this category or this quadrant which is high achievement high growth okay but really honestly truly as long as they're on this right side of the line we're pretty happy right so let's take a look at this just real quick so start off with English or Ela for ninth grade and 10th grade so we had a positive score in both those so students scored better than expected in other words um with a positive 0034 for 9th grade and 0225

010for 10th grade and I also put narratives up here for you as well to kind of make sense of the numbers if that helps you um the next category we look at is for our math and like we talked about before this is for our end of course exam so we start with ninth grade end of course um this is a really good growth score we had a positive growth score 0794 for 9th grade one thing to keep in mind ninth grade in algebra is not the advanced offering the advanced offering for ninth grade is geometry which we'll talked about here in just a second but we did have a positive score with those students which is awesome um Joe hold on just a second go right ahead so I know that's going a little

011fast yeah if you have questions question that we need this we want this for you guys to stop us anywhere along the way and say okay hold on a second what tell what this means or whatever your question is feel free to stop us at any time and on that algebra are we still at the two is the point and anything above that well so two is just an example so really what you're looking at is just a positive okay green is so anything that's in green that means they did better than expected so for our nth grade students had a positive growth score we also see for ninth grade geometry which is an advanced offering and also for 10th grade geometry which is not the advanced offering we see really good Positive Growth scores

012there too right U we have .1 1623 and 1881 and then those graphs for geometry are on this next page and this gives you a good idea we talked about those conc ation like where the big clusters are right so like obviously big growth score here you see a lot in this high achievement high growth area which is great over here we don't have as many in the high achievement area for for 10th grade geometry however we do see that we got a big concentration of them on the right side of that growth line so really what this tells us is we're meeting our students where they're at we're making sure they're making gains and um putting achievement out we see that we get a lot of kids in that growth area which is what

013we want we want to grow our kids Joe I do have a question before we get too much farther tell me again how do we decide where that red line should be or who decides that or how is it decided yeah so the red line going left to right is the essentially the cut score from the state okay so the state says anything level three and level four is proficient okay I think you said that but I no you're good please and b means like Shane said stop me at any point because I don't want to Ramble On and this not be useful for you um and then to answer your question the vertical red line that's our zero so that's the expected growth so like we said before we wanted to be on the

014right side of that because that tells positive gr or did better than expected um okay so those were the algebra and geometry ones um let's take a look at our biology so we have nth grade biology 10th grade biology keep in mind that biology nth grade is the advanced course so that means you took physical science as an eighth grader you're taking biology as a nth grader so we actually see our first negative growth score here um just slightly below there at negative 0759 in ninth grade biology now not to say that we can see that a lot of kids are above that achievement line right however we didn't grow as many as we wanted to um compared comped to the 10th grade biology we have a positive growth score at 0134 and again a

015lot of kids on the right side of that line there so the kids sorry to interrupt you again the kids above the horizontal line but to the left of the vertical line could be kids that were great students got great scores last year and just didn't make as much improvement they could be a a kids right that's correct so these could very well be and honestly right chances are this being advanced class most of them are um but yes you're right so this would be our Higher Achievement lower growth area so still doing really well in the test however compared to what their expected growth was didn't quite perform as well as we thought they and that's a hard one too right because when you're in eth grade you're taking physical science you're moving from

016a very heavy um a very math heavy course and then you're moving to something a little more abstract into biology and talking about those life systems and Life Sciences so the it gets a little choppy in my opinion whenever you start look at that but that does bring so this is a this is a great example of you look at so when you look at our biology scores and and I think even Dr M we don't want to see any red like no negative growth we don't ever want to see that we always want to see that GRE and you say well what's what did you done to ensure that we no longer have a red growth score with that well the first thing that jumps out to me and without putting like I'm not

017putting blame on anybody but the reality of it is we don't have a single biology teacher in our district this year that that was teaching class if I'm not mistaken when this testing was done oh wow like they've either they've left like we didn't fire anybody but they biology teacher oh one I'm sorry we do have one but we lost three we lost three of the biology teachers that aren't here they're not here anymore so that's so we hope to see we think we've done a better job we've upgraded with Personnel if that makes sense so once again not trying to point fingers at any particular person but that's a prime example I want to point out when we want to part of this conversation this evening is is what are we doing with the

018data like once we figure out where we're at like what are we doing with it well in this is a case that we think we've upgraded in Personnel that will help us did I say that right [Music] Amy I just encourage we're all on the same side of the table here just some encouragement and let's talk in reality um none of this I'm going am I going to receive with any kind of targeting to an individuals so I I would say let's let um and I'll try to do my best as well not to let anything become off off limits for we didn't talk about something so yeah just i' say say what you need to say and you just need to deal in reality so well in this case I will tell you point

019blank just from my perspective I had been in several of those classrooms Dr Miller had been we've upgraded in teacher and without naming names we got we got better in that department this year so we expect our scores to be better and all so this will be so this is the first report this will kind of conclude that first report for high school does anybody have any questions about these before we move on to the second one check gears just a little bit okay we're going to stick with high school but we're going to move to looking at are my students in each performance level high are they growing are they growing as expected so this one looks a lot different than the one you just saw so basically what this is going to do

020so going back to Eric's Point earlier how do we know how do we know where those red lines get drawn right so basically anybody that's in a level three or level four proficient they meet standard okay anybody who's in level two or level one they have not met standard so what this report's going to tell us is of those level threes per se or level fours what was their average growth Okay so breaking it down even further from what we just saw so the first ones that you have up here and I put all these numbers um in the narrative for you but you get a good visual looking at the bar graphs as well so for n9th grade ELA and then also for 10th grade ELA um some good things that we see is

021we see positive growth in level two level three and level four however with those we also see a negative growth in level one okay which as you'll see as we go along isn't all that surprising we this is going to be a reoccurring theme with our level ones unfortunately one thing to point out is these little brackets that you see or Tie fighters whatever you call okay so on those what that means is like we talked about before this is an average right so 95% of the kids fall within that category okay so there's some outliers on either side okay but 95% of those kids are going to be within that band it's called a confidence band so So when you say 95% are you you're talking about the kids that are in the level

022not all kids that's correct so of the 31 like in the ninth grade the 31 students there that are in level four 95% of them score was between that bracket that makes sense and then comparing that to the other ones so ideally you want those brackets kind of line up as you go from two to three to four because what that means is they're all growing at about the same rate okay so that means you got strong as we call tier one instruction overall your instruction is really strong students are growing at about the same rate we see in this one obviously there's something different happening with our level four kids than the other kiddos right because they don't really overlap so that tells us that they're doing something else and they're growing exponentially better

023than their peers in the other categories but that's what those that's this is something we've laughed about in in DLT quite a bit because these bands are I thought about this all day how think it the most simple that it can be because we've all confused ourselves on it so much but does that make sense when I talk about those bands and that 95% so essentially like within the bands you would want them to be staggered stairs like stairs where they touching each other to of the the bottom of the eye almost like this so you can see looking at that graph like our level two to three have overlap so that's good and what you expect but you can see there's a level one and level four are not showing that staggered so the

024question becomes you know like within tier one instruction you can see that those kids in level one struggled probably within some aspects of that tier one in instruction you want them to kind of stair step each other you don't want a big gap like that so tier one instruction do y'all I want to explain what just so you explain it please okay so when we say don't assume that I know anything right now so tier one instruction what what we when we talk about tier one it's what's going on in the classroom every single day okay and on average 80% of your students should get the concept you're teaching the first time you teach it if you're a if you're level one or your tier one instruction is adequate 80% of your kids get it

025with no ret so and then your interventions your first round of intervention should take care of roughly 15 the 15% and then you have five that are your tier three need tier three intervention or tier three instruction that's your the kids that really struggle that should only be 5% what we're trying to do is make sure that we're hitting the 80% Mark in the classroom because in some classrooms the data shows that we're not not getting it to 80% and there's a variety of reasons uh but that's so when we say tier one instruction we're talking about what teachers are doing the first time they teach it in a classroom with no rete it's just the first layer of instruction on whatever the the standard is did I say that right miss the last part

026but you were correcting the rest of it Josh was talking so see he's that is a tier 2 Behavior so we're three you're in the 15% and maybe in the five what he was asking was like where are schools that would actually be hitting that 80% in tier one and my only response was it's the a if you're hit if you're an a school wouldn't you say Amy that's you're probably hitting the the 20% of your kids getting it the first round so I'll go back to years ago when I was at a previous District when we took over we were in F school and three years later we were in a and what we found was our tier one instruction level we we estimated as an F school we were in that 40% only

027getting it 40 40% we getting there and then by the time we got to an a school we figured we're just over 80% based on how and that was based on classroom uh assessments that we were doing on a daily basis to track it as we teach a concept give them a short test walk out the door grade it find out and we were hit when we first started it was 40% we had to totally re rethink how we were teaching kids and so uh that's a little bit of what we're trying to do now I don't know about I'm not going to get in say the principles are doing it specifics what they're doing but I know that that's our goal is to get tier one instruction up what are some of the you

028said some of the reasons is could it be you know just teacher teacher replacement for a better teacher well also it is is what happens so we get caught up in this saying that I I'll just be honest we get caught up been saying Teach been doing a long time they're a great teacher well they're still te if they're still teaching like they did 25 years ago they're probably not doing a great job in the classroom because they're not hitting multiple Styles now that doesn't mean that people that's got 25 years experience are not doing a great job because they do adjust but if they're still teaching like they did like most of us probably learned got taught when we were in school teacher gets up lectures you sit there take notes you learn it

029or if you're in a math class they teach a concept and say go home and do the odd numbers in the in the book for practice when you didn't really know what you were doing and so you go home and you do 30 problems math problems wrong because you didn't know how to do it to start with I mean there's those things there's a different way we're looking at doing different things and we have to get teacher Buy in to learn to get better as a teacher does that make sense just like you're not still pencil drawing in advertising but you know what I mean like you're you're all lot of your works on computer you've adapted to that and it's same with everybody we've all adapt in our jobs and we all have to

030remember that as teachers and Educators or that's my that's where I see the biggest theme I would add too we found some teachers weren't teaching the standards that's another thing so we've adjusted that and made sure so they teach what they like yeah exactly versus what their big kids are being tested on so you teach a whole year about what you like you hit intermittent hit a standard here and there you test your kid and they don't do well and then we blame it on the kids now that that's not 100% these are all little things that go in to makeup when we don't do as well well it is it is like a little thing like getting teachers to buy in I mean it's key that we can do that I mean it's just

031like you know coaching or you get a few coaches on your staff that don't agree with how you're wanting to play and then there it's fragmented and everything you know things happen you're not successful but I was also wondering about so we mentioned Bentonville and do we know like I don't know if we have any data or anything for like private schools or charter schools that we know how how they do if they I'm sure it's not well private schools don't have to report anything and they also don't have to test test and within the charter it depends are a public charter you know I mean there's a big difference between Lisa Academy versus you know so you when you get into the you can deny a kid you know choose you know it just

032depends I mean I think another another piece for me at Southside and we'll get to that later but was that we had for a few years quite a bit of turnover so kind of the opposite on the opposite end you have a lot of novice teachers and and we I listened to panel the other day of teachers from Rogers Dr Miller spoke and when when these brand new teacher candidates you know said what's the one thing that we can you know what can set us apart and it's instantly classroom management it's you know I mean we have recent teachers probably some of them didn't have internships due to the covid requirements at the time you know the the real expectation and I can only imagine within an 85 minute period I mean I see how

033difficult it's been when I taught at the middle school and then at outside with elementary kids couldn't imagine 85 minutes you know making sure all those constant procedures are in place you know to to gain their attention and kids are just not coming with that knowledge probably to what they were 15 years ago you know there's a there's a lot of like just constantly pouring into novice teachers as we should but they don't quite have the same skill set that they probably did you know a little bit ago because also too some of the needs are different students aren't coming to school probably as prepared in kindergarten as they once were I would add you mentioned teacher buyin but student buyin too you know we have kids who don't try don't care I know well

034and that goes back to a little bit of that deal with you know the one thing we can't do is is regulate parents and even though most of us in here our parents are or have been or whatever we are in the declining I I still would like to think we're still in the majority but we're in the declining majority of how parents especially parents that well I mean with with school choice people are a lot of parents are using their choice to take that do care or taking their kids somewhere else so we've got to you know we got to overcome some of that as well it's so funny the athletic analogy too like when you think of students and then players won't buy into a new coach if they don't really know that

035coach's background you know but so the coaches and that's why I was thinking what's the little things that we could do to try to get students to buy into a new teacher I mean it might not have anything to do with is just how do you get those students to buy into that teacher who's bought into you leading them you know that kind of thing so it's sometimes sometimes it might not be hug and and all of our principles are doing this but we've been talking about the scores at high school so just since Dr Miller's taken over just her learning is required motto and it hasn't changed so three years and it's learning is required learning is life you know and it doesn't change so that's part of that buy in with the students

036is constantly reminding the kids you have to learn it doesn't matter what job you go to it you have to have that ability to learn and it starts here You' got to create those habits so and all of our principles are doing it in some way shape or form but that's an example for the high school I also think the buyin for for our employees for is US controlling the message and so that's one of the things that we're really focused on this year is promoting and pushing out our people that are excelling doing a great job so that when they get that message at home hey I didn't know you're science teacher they just recognize them as a as an employee of the week you know and pumping up and then having a list

037of things that other people are saying positive about them just to control the message and have a positive mindset because the message does so much for you when you get to control the narrative y I was just gonna when Josh was talking about classroom management um one thing we're working on at intermediate is Teachers just having better strategies to meet all of the needs that are in one classroom because they're I mean data shows but in a classroom you you're going to have a gamut of Learners English language Learners I mean classroom behaviors I mean there's just everything and um you know I mean there's just a lot to juggle you know as a teacher I know you're aware of that but um I think we're we're trying to increase those those skills and it's

038it's a lot to learn when you've got new teachers and beginning um you know like teachers they've come in from a different background you know non traditional so so I think that's a big part of that tier one instruction that you were asking about too go ahead thank you could I actually I was GNA follow Josh explain class classroom management tell me what that means when you say that well what structures do you have in place in order to make sure that the learning is happening so it it can be simple things and this is going to mitigate what it would be in reality soon as they walk in especially if you're talking about middle level students you got gain your attention right then there so what actively are you do have Bell Ringers in

039place do you have systems in place how are you grouping students yes and then also too like you know there's going to be a tier one instruction where the teacher is leading you know the instruction within the classroom but you also o have to have as much on the back end of this the student work right the ownership and the learning so if you just get up there and lecture and then you say now work on this well what are they going to what are they going to get out of and it's a generation of they want the answer now when they leave school so you're Shan I know you're not a big fan they're going to be on cell phones and they're going to be able to look up anything that they want to

040at any given time they want to fix a car part they're going to watch you too so how does a teacher understand that they can't they're not going to be the Sant necessarily but they've got to get them to buy in within it so it's the structure in place because teachers that tend to have and not all because there are sometimes some challenging behaviors the best classroom management and the expectations and the the relationships with the kids in the class are the ones that tend to have the least discipline problems so I would say procedures and structures expectations in place so Lear you can happen okay right and it's got to be taught from the minute students walk in and there's not a and there's not a one way to do it so how I

041did my classroom and I can honestly I probably wrote up less than 10 kids in my entire career teaching in a classroom I I me I just didn't have any issues but how I did it and how Natalie did it in her when she was in the classroom may be totally different but it fit within her personality and they're both right it's just how you can manage students to keep them engaged that's another thing engagement is a key factor if somebody can't engage a student in the lesson then there will be problems like a kid's going to be no kid is going to sit idle it's just like kids don't know how to act in a meeting like this we didn't come in here and teach everybody in here you need to pay attention you

042need wait your turn to talk when you have a question it's good it's okay to ask but you know we're all adults and we know how to do that most kids have no earthly concept of that because they've not been taught that anywhere so we have that's CL that's that classroom management piece that you have to do and it can look vastly different that an attendance factor into this as well 100% that's what I was thinking like those red lines going down that's probably the students in our count school it's it very well possibly could be uh that is definitely something it's a it's a known fact that if kids aren't in school they can't learn and we have a lot of kids that miss a lot of school unfortunately I would say too it's

043about productive struggle we want the kids to be doing the talking and the thinking if not then they're they're just going back to the old school of I'm going to be asked a question and I pick ABC or D that's not the way we test kids anymore they have to think much deeper than that which means we have to model that in the classroom and get them to think which go goes back to Josh's classroom procedures you have to have procedures in place so that you can get kids talking to each other and then get them back and listening and then talk again and think is there any any of those things that fall under classroom management that you feel like has the biggest opportunity for improvement I I will go back to student engagement

044yeah it's 100% about student engagement if you go and you look in classrooms who have struggles with classroom management I've never seen one that had a student engaged and I would say the opposite is true too our strongest teachers have the strongest level of Engagement when you go when you go in there if you were to walk in to those teachers doesn't mean quiet doesn't mean everybody sitting in rows and not talking but everybody's involved in but everybody's involved and kids are actively engaged so when I so I go and try to get into classrooms from time to time even as even as superintendent well if I go into the I went into the AP government class or I've gone into a a chemistry class I may not know what teacher talking about as far

045as their uh curriculum I may not have that knowledge but I can tell right away if the kids are engaged and that's what I'm looking for is engagement because if they're engaged they're learning now if we're teaching the wrong standard and that's Dr Miller's job to go into high school and figure out if they're teaching the right standards but I can tell you if they're engaged and if they're not engaged then I can go back and give feedback to Dr Miller and her team like we've got to work to get teachers more engaged now and I'm going to bring this up at the high school because you're going to start hearing more about this it is super hard to engage kids for 85 minutes this our block scheduling it is super hard to do that

046some adults and some adult and adults so when we have but when we have so part of our issue with the block schedule some of our teachers teach like they're still on a 48 or 50 minute day so they teach for 48 4550 minutes and then they let kids do homework or whatever they want to for the rest of the period Well they basically lost half a period now I'm not that's not a sale across the board but Dr Miller and I had conversations I've been in two schools that went to block scheduling while I was there we spent at least a year ahead of time preparing teachers to know how to teach on come from a seven or an eight period day into a block because the time almost doubles that you have and

047it's so hard to make yourself teach for that so so that that's one thing that I think we're at a little bit of disadvantage there's a lot of advantages about block but I'm not sure that learning is the is a is an advantage being on the block that's a big one learning is is a big one what's the biggest reason we come when you talk about students that learn different ways or a CL and you talked about students are here and here and some maybe want to stand up and learn whatever and these want to sit down and is I don't know what the answer is but is there a way to evaluate like a a teacher that's has a very physical activity type of Learning Classroom goes one that's more sit down or whatever

048and if we have students in the wrong set they're naturally not going to do as well and one over the other it's I don't know a big ask but well I don't know that you can I don't and I didn't mean to I'm not trying to stalk over Tracy but out I don't know that you can we can't take all the kids and that like to stand and learn that's what I was getting at and put in a class and all the kids like to sit and Rose I don't know that there's a way to actually do that because we really need a cross-section of all students in classrooms but where it comes into is the teacher will Flex willingness to be flexible and how what they're allowing kids so you can have a kid

049over here so I'll use is my son if they'll let him stand up at his desk they will 10 times he'll have 10 times more engagement than if you make him sit down like this and we're all we're doing is this to this but having a teacher willing to do that that that goes back to that classroom management knowing your kids and knowing the engagement does it really we have to get out of the deal everybody has to be the same because they're not the same but we do L that in transition meetings they do with like brandy to me talking about kids and what she knows about those kids and which ones are going to be more successful with a tighter structure and which ones with a looser and I spend a lot of

050time meeting with parents too who will come in and say hey my kid is not doing well this is the thing that he had in kindergarten that was working for him and now he doesn't and we'll make a classroom move if we have to and that's more for elementary we are able to do that at the elementary way more than that's secondary think secondary we've got multiple teachers maybe biology teachers and I was just trying but but honestly because there are so many factors it's hard to narrow narrow them into certain you know classrooms but where teachers are just having to be proficient at all of those skills so that's harder but we spend a lot of time you know teaching that and working on that try and provide development but there you know every

051teacher does have a personality too every feel pretty good about how to read this one before I throw a buch oh than you it's good conversation all right so that's Ela let's take a look at math so this kind of illustrates what Josh was talking about a minute ago so this gives us that good kind of consistency from level to level um so up at the top where it says ninth grade we have ninth grade algebra right here on the left remember this is the this is not the advanced offering for that grade level this is ninth grade geometry which is the advanced offering then this one is 10th grade geometry one thing to point out is so like when you look at this it can go either way um the number of students can

052really skew what that looks like right and that could be on the level four side that could be on the level one side so you see two casing points right here so ninth grade algebra like we have pretty good score here see how big that band is that just means that we don't have a lot of students in there so there's a big variance right so we have some students who scored negative but we're at level four and we have some that are pretty high as high as a 05 negative growth negative grow yes cuz you can still score remember you can still have high achievement but have negative growth you didn't grow you actually went backwards but you still your score was so high that you're still in that level P let me reframe

053that they didn't do as well as they expected it's probably a better way to put that um and then I also put in here just the number of students so that way you kind of get an idea as to where they fall same goes when we look at ninth grade geometry first thing you look at this you're like wow this is this isn't good right this negative growth score right here but when you put in cont context of the fact that that's 11 students it can kind of skew your viewpoint on it so want to make sure you had all the information when you looked at this and you knew kind of where they fall after we get out of high school this becomes less of an issue because um you pretty much all the

054kids are are taking the same classes once you get past algebra um but just give you that viewpoint but said all that to say great growth and ninth grade algebra our levels 2 through four are in the positive average positive same can be said for ninth grade geometry 2 through four are in the Positive Growth average area and then lastly 10th grade geometry again this is not our Advanced offering for that grade level we see tremendous growth in level twos threes and fours throughout these are these are at the end of 9th grade at the end of 10th grade right April would in that would they test in April and this remember this is a year ago like next it's 11 months ago when they tested this is also a good time to point out

055too as you start to add some of these up you may be like well that doesn't come close to the amount of kids we have on a grade level not all kids are counted in the calculation they could be taken out for various reasons they could be taken out because they're highly mobile or they've moved in after October 1 they could be taken out based on their e status or L status um there's a variety of reasons why they may not count in that but just so that way you know where these numbers come from now would that be us asking for that to be withheld no the state says decides that okay yeah State business rules and they just track students that have moved in recently or moved out yeah so it all goes

056off of our information system that we sent to them so they'll know when kids move in andu so for example ER and we want that but because the rule states let's say next Monday Dr Miller is going to give indis course algebra Friday a kid Moves In from who knows where and enrolls they got to be in a test on Monday you we have to test and we had nothing to do yeah with their with their knowledge leading up to that so that's why that's why that's that rule is in there on that highly mobile side of things surprised it's shockingly common sense for for I figured we were doing it they have to be here from we call them cycle cycle 2 to S Terry when's seven is that April six is coming up

057no six six is coming up in April it's two to six in it so they had to be here within that window the whole time for count I don't think there there's nothing we can do to petition for any kid not to be counted like we don't have that ability no the only thing that we have the ability to say that we're exempt from would be um foreign exchange students you have the right to so that way you don't cherry pick right so like you have to declare we're counting foreign exchange students like you can't wait for the scores to come in be like oh no we want to count that one you have to declare ahead of time like we're going to if we want to be exempt from that status all right so

058that's math let's take a look at science and wrap up this category so we knew this going into looking at the very first few slides when we looked at total growth so ideally not quite where we want to be when we look at um our ninth grade biology students we have um we have negative growth scores negative average growth scores in levels one two and three um we do see a strong level four group 39 students reporting in that category um again I just to highlight because when you look at that red on level one you're like whoa but really that's made up of eight students so put that into a perspective whenever you take a look at that and then on the 10th grade side remember this is not our Advanced course offering um

059we see really strong growth again 14 students but we see strong growth in our level four we see a really good growth in level three but then unfortunately we have those negative average scores in our level one levels two so just further highlighting some of the things we discussed about biology which we know what we have ahead of us but this kind of further illustrates that point so that you can see it so everybody feel good about this type of report and the flip there I guess you know to go from in the in the ninth grade 39 in level four and then only eight in level one and then to 10th grade 59 in level one and and 14 I guess is that is there any and I don't mean to fast forward to

060the end of the movie and get the conclusion but is there like what do we what do we think causes something like so one thing I would point out in the channel let you go um we talked about on on this slide so we talked about these are essentially what we just looked at right so look at the concentration of them so again it's easy to look at that and be like man we got so many negatives there but also too look at what's north of the vert of the um of the line that goes left to right okay so these are high achieving kids we may not be growing them the way we want to but we still have a pretty good concentration of them maybe in this Higher Achievement lower growth area so

061the the other thing I was going to point out is those ninth grade scores are our top of the top of the line students like that's our that's our Advanced students it's our honors it's our honors kids that 10th grade subpop is everybody that didn't take biology as a ninth grader so it's your gen what we call your gen Ed they're on so they're giving this test at the same time but the 10th graders are taking it as 10th graders because they're not Advanced the ninth graders all took physical science as eighth grade so they're getting biologies tonight so it's usually your top tier kids that have always shown to be high achieving in that ninth grade so part of that accounts for that difference is that group should I'm not going to say should

062learn by by themselves but they almost they're going to get some kind of learning by the themselves because they're usually your top of the level top of the line kids uh your GN pop is that's everybody that's not Advanced that's left thank you for explaining that that doesn't make sense so things to celebrate there right obviously 10th grade we're proud of those grow scores because those that's talking about that tier one instruction overall we have some good destruction there should we be growing our Advanced kids more absolutely um and those are things that we've kind of discussed all right last report the most difficult of them all actually it's the easiest this is just Trend over time so this one's pretty straightforward how did we do on average over a three-year span and we won't

063have a full three years worth of data for some of these and I'll talk about those when we get there one thing I want to point out so we're looking at English first like we had then so nth grade English 10th grade English look over on the left the scale notice this moves okay so the green line is zero on both of these respectively so as you look at that keep that in mind because it does move the way this report ran just wanted to point that out um but remember we talked about zero being that is that's essentially they they did what they were supposed to they met expectation anything above zero is they exceeded expectation the Blue Line Is Us for S springs the red line is the state average so you'll notice

064there's a lot more volatility in the blue line right and that kind of comes and goes with different groups of kids you get over the years the state's going to be pretty consistent um with the exception of you may see a trend like this where 10th grade English kind of took a gradual downturn but for the most part it's going to be pretty close to flat so in English the positives to celebrate obviously having a positive grow score in both those is really good um we would like to to see that ninth grade one above the state average obviously um 10th grade the state average wasn't too good begin with however we did score way above it and we're also in the positive so those are things to celebrate um also to celebrate on that

065ninth grade side although we may not be above the state average you can see that big jump from last year to this year so we're getting closer to that 2022 Mark that we had two years ago or three years ago I should say taking a look at algebra and geometry not much to talk about here because we don't have growth data because this is the first year we've done in course we've done these in course so we can just see how we compare to the state so real real simple Blue Dot is way above the Red Dot or the red triangle so we're we're happy with that so we're out performing on average better than our PE on the state level um same can be said with geometry as you can see the states hovering

066right around a zero and we had a pretty high one at 02 same can be said with Biology we had all that conversation about biology however we can see in comparison to the rest of the state we have a strong growth score there again keep everything in context with that scale because remember that scale moves on the left side so when he's saying let moves on the left that zero Line's not always in the same place y'all see that okay just make sure all [Music] right so those are go ahead I just going to say that's really good because it seemed like the last time I saw these numbers we were kind of just right even with state so we there some numbers were even with State on achievement so now we've we've talked about

067achievement before but we wanted to kind of get that thinking about growth so so you're right like when we went back to the very beginning and we saw this one yeah that's kind of where I was looking at so keep and you're right and they're both equally as important because we want to look at achievement but we also want to see are we meeting our kids where they're at and helping them grow to eventually get to those higher levels of achievement and it's important to look at growth as well because it's part of your school support where we're going I think that's more important honestly that's the thing I want to see going the right direction and nothing negative but you may have a kid who lives in level one for majority their academic career

068but what you're looking for is you want to look for the wins of that kid are they growing year to year are they getting closer to that next threshold and so those are the things that you want [Music] to all right so those are the three reports everybody feel like they got a pretty good handle on that because we'll run through the basically it's just going to be rinse and repeat for the next for each campus um we knew the high school thank you high school would be the longest because we had to explain the reports um you didn't know you were signing up for that that but thank you and now we'll kind of run through the next ones because it should go a little bit quicker because it's the same type of info

069so just a reminder of what we've seen to this point for middle school and this doesn't include the end of course data but remember we talked about algebra e8th grade students and algeb are taking the course exams this tells us how we compare to the state and overall achievement okay so we have our averages compared to the state and the co-op we can go back and forth to this for comparison as we go along but let's take a look at that first report remember this is our scatter one this is are they growing as expected so starting with English seventh and eighth grade this will be a running theme for Middle School we kind of see a tail of of two different grade levels here so seventh grade English we do see unfortunately that negative

070grow score um just coming in at 2 and remember that's an average uh you can see again where the concentration of kids are it's kind of right dead center right here in the middle uh eighth grade ELA scores were on the positive side so you can see that progression as it kind of moves in that upward trajectory same thing goes for math so these are seventh grade math scores keep in mind seventh grade math this is everybody so we haven't split off yet okay we'll split off when we get to e8th grade because this is when you take those algebra students and they're counted in different category okay so these are your eighth grade general education students so with that in mind um seventh grade came in just U at a09 in 8th grade came

071in at05 however in 8th grade algebra which is this next chart we saw a positive average growth score of 05 so again fewer students here right but we do see that we have a lot more on that north side of that same goes with looking at science so again these are all students we haven't split off for science yet that doesn't occur until they take biology as early as 9th grade but uh seventh grade kind of I they didn't have very good look here they're as close as they can get to that zero line so they were at negative. z45 so they're as close to about as close to zero as they can be we did see a positive in eighth grade science scores and keep in mind too look at this seventh grade you

072got all these kids up here and they were still just that close 8th grade science came in with a positive at 0 two again you can see that concentration kind of moving on okay to our second report how are they doing in each performance category so starting with English the answer is really good um we see that we posted Positive Growth scores in levels two three and four which is great um you also have the number of students there respectively so that way you can kind of take that into consideration math it starts to get a little little bit uh wonky we see that seventh grade math and our level 3es and our level fours both posted Positive Growth scores um unfortunately we have a big group here in the level one that needs to

073be moved up and we'll talk about that towards the end of the presentation eighth grade math really good grow scores in two through four so pleased with that e8th grade algebra we talked about that that uh that bar being misleading right so you look at that you're like whoa we're tanking eth grade algebra not really it's it's two students in the in our Advanced offering course that had a negative growth score and so it kind of skewed that data a little bit and those are that eighth grade Algebra again that would be our Advanced kids in that CL in that course which goes to the point why there's only two there right we we we would expect them to be having in those level threes and level fours um level two we do have a

074negative there however we did see positive growth in our threes and our fours um you can see how those those little to fighers or bars don't really match up for two through four so that tells us from looking at it earlier that we need to tighten what up this is the interaction part what we got TI repeat that question again I'll do my best so these aren matching up what does that mean we need tighten uper one tier one tier one instruction that's right so it tells us we likely have a tier one instruction issue there mostly to see if you were passing answers over here interactions right all right um all right science so in science uh we see again kind of a repeat of what we see in seventh grade to this point

075we see Positive Growth scores for level threes we see a big jump there in level fours which is good um 8th grade we posted positive grow scores in levels two three and four which is really good what grade would you say is is like the most vital for like math learning or even science learning I mean it's a back as early as I think it depends on your Viewpoint a lot of people would say in my opinion I'd say third grade you guys may feel differently it's kind of that's where a lot of kids get their perception of how much they like or dislike math yeah if they're not on level by the end of third grade Oodles of years of research proves that you have like a one in 10 chance to move them

076I think the same applies to literacy too that's the individual time into second into third that's why it's so important to have Intervention Program prrams things in place in those younger grades and be very focused on instruction for reading or for math whether they're trying to learn number sense or they're trying to learn the actual reading language that we're using it's also another it's another reason that our current configuration works against us academically is because you got a transition right before that pivotal year and you have a group of teachers at Southside and administrators who even though there's tons and tons of collaboration between our administrative teams it's still not the they're not in the same building and they struggle so if you take a kid and you know a kid's coming to comes in

077second grade grade they go out they're a little behind even when Natalie transitions to yumia and says hey they're almost there but they're not quite you're going to have to give them some more that even when you put them in class you tell the teacher that you've got to ramp up that teacher still got to figure it out yeah so they they can fall behind but if you're in the same building and teachers in third graders seeing these second graders all year and that saw them as first graders and there's constant conversation because that's just by Nature what happens in a K5 building is those teachers talk about these kids all up and down the fifth grade teachers are talking to the kindergart what happened back in when this kid was there just happens naturally

078it just creates that much more of a flow that you can uh allow that third grade a chance to be where they need to be all being in one building without a transition happened multiple times before they get out of that to get there I you just never know how kids even going to react a good math student react to going into a new building well you think about it by the time they hit third grade they they transitioned to two buildings new learning so not only new content but they're learning a new building people there's very little that's familiar and so all of that trying they can't just come in and focus on new academic learning they have to learn everything and possibly new friends no because if you have 300 kids in a

079classroom there's no guarantee you're going to know the 25 24 other kids that are there it's a lot of new learning and the academic junk is Big right the second grade standards are very foundational and the third grade standards are not so it's a big jump and learning that I think that's a huge argument for when we start talking about that to try to get out to parents and public and about those key grades getting them together and you know what's interesting is I've been talking to this a lot for for a while now about neighborhood school we need to go to that how that's going to help us academically I've yet to find a parent a teacher or anybody that tells me that that's a bad idea nope we got to stay with this

080has worked for so long we got to keep doing not one I will tell you when we we come with a plan to do it we just need to this is why it's important to have all these conversations and everybody understands all the different reasons why that we want to do some of the things because they will come out of wood workor to tell us why it's a bad idea at that time it's just because change is hard even I told our principles the other day everybody will tell us and all of our teachers will tell us that that we need to go to this until we ask them to move schools or we until we ask them to instead of teaching second grade you need to go teach fourth grade if you want to

081stay in a building so it's all good until it moves your own cheese when it moves your own cheese it's a bad idea so that's why we have to be grounded in actual actual data to be able to show what's best for kids because we say we want to do what's best for kids so we just need to have the data to back up why it's best for kids it's also everyone learning is [Music] required but it's a consistent so it's like we need to think back or try to think you guys anyway past 3 months from now but when is that move going to happen and start a year or two before that and start telling teachers this is happening this is happening and this is going to you know I we're going to

082have I will have some more conversation in the coming months about when I want to propose that that probably happens and I think it's good for teachers too like so many times we do have some teachers that shift from buildings but a lot of them don't shift just based on the fact that they're comfortable either the administration or the leaders around them but they in reality they've taught first grade for 5 years and they just can't take it anymore they need to change it wouldn't be uncommon in a school that is a K4 K5 for that first grade teacher when that fourth grade spot opens you're still keeping them with you and and they make that move seamlessly and then they may if you're lucky they may know those kids I will tell you prime

083example s kind of like that is Brandy's not here but one of our best kindergarten teachers when we hired her she was a high school math teacher she came to the district as a as a high school math teacher and needed a job and that's the job we had open so she put the word out she's been doing it how long five years at least maybe longer than that but she's ready to go back to high school math so there's a job open and she's going to interview with Dr Miller and if she's the best one we'll we'll train for her over there to keep we want to keep her she's a really good teacher but she just is ready to do something different and so that may that happens more than more than we

084probably tell you guys that that that's when people move well that's what I was thinking back when we were asked about the grade that's key I mean it's it's outside the box thinking but you get our best math teacher whatever and come down and spend time with those third graders see if they can do something well I'm encouraged by that that those people are ones they've bought into the culture hopefully I mean that's they're here because they want to be part of this not just because they want a job teaching High School absolutely absolutely no I hope I hope lots of we get lots of people getting their foot in the door that way we definitely want to keep good people so when we have that ability we want to try to make it work

085when we can so let's look at our threeyear data so starting off with seventh and eth grade English um couple things one keeping in mind where the state line is uh as we talked about at the very beginning with Middle School um we recognize that we have some work to do in 7th grade ELA um compare that to 8th grade ELA we have saw a huge jump not only this last year but over three years span they gone from that negative uh all the way up into the positive uh and then also kind of going against the trend of the state too because we see that state Trend where they kind of went down whereas our kiddos nth grade shut up so that's a a good celebration there for English taking a look at math

086um again we we know that we got some work to do in this area um looking specifically seventh and eth grade math first those aren't the trends that we would hope for obviously uh we we'd like to get those back up closer to the state average in those areas uh one point of celebration on this slide though is if we look at eth grade algebra again we don't have that Trend data because this is an interourse exam that's new to us however we can see that our Advanced or accelerated students are doing well here uh as compared to uh the rest of the state so and again keeping mind when we pull out this algebra number here this is comparing our eighth grade Algebra students to other eighth grade Algebra students in the state so

087this isn't all algebra students this is just eth grade as best match as we can 8th grade Al for students so we talked a lot you've seen a lot where we have some issues where that math so bluntly we've had some issues at math the last not just this year we've had it this year too so we are concerned about what our test scores are going to look like next month after when we get those results in the year before when this data came from we spent how long Amy without a math teacher in that classroom more than a semester more than a semester we couldn't find a math teacher period much less we looked and looked and looked and looked and looked and just could not find a math teacher and not even a

088consistent guest teacher you had numerous guest teachers so that's not an excuse but that is one reason you see that drop is because of the lack of having a high quality teacher in the classroom so that right there proves the point of how important our teachers are in the classroom when you don't when you have a high quality teacher you don't see that kind of trend no matter who the students are but when you don't and so we had a teacher quit at Christmas this year a math teacher at middle school that we hired as a veteran teacher had I don't know she had talked 30 years I think before and when we realized we were not being as successful and started putting some extra supports in place she decided she didn't want to come

089back so we just now found a highquality math teacher that will start Monday so we have so when I have I'll just tell you as a superintendent these are the things you I in my opinion the things you you pay me to do I made the decision our kids are the most important so with Amy's help we identified two of our instructional coaches that are math certified we have pulled one from high school one from intermediate SL Middle School doesn't she do both and they have jumped in pulled them from their jobs and put them teaching in the classroom part of the day so those kids would have a high quality we could not do what we did last year we could not spend a semester without a teacher and when we had instructional coaches

090who were qualified now did that mean there's some balls got dropped at high school because though they were working with a few teachers that they needed to but as a superintendent what's more important a teacher in every classroom or no teacher and I'm going to go help this teacher get better and I just went in this we did sha and in the first semester we need we were short a couple sped teachers and we pulled two of our tosas who are certified teachers supposed to be some of our best special ed teachers and we put them in the classrooms too so we want to not ever get to the point where we were last year during this time where that kids don't have a teacher so we're going to do whatever we can to cover

091that that makes sense and just remember to look at the scales on the leftand side because yes those blue bars blue lines look drastic but if you look at the number it's like looking at a ruler from zero to one it's all the fraction in increments in between so even though it looks drastic numerically it's not all right let's wrap up Middle School by looking at [Music] science so both seventh and eighth grade we saw drop last year in the 23 year however we have seen an increase in both of those um obviously seventh grade science we still see in the negative there but just barely underneath that new that um that zero Mark or that neutral Mark um eighth grade science different story though they pretty well rebounded close to their Mark in 20122

092um but the positive they are to celebrate is it's on the upward trajectory obviously we want to see seventh grade SS start to exceed this state number so that is Middle School let's take a look at intermediates so starting off with data that you've seen before as far as how we measured up on achievement as compared to the states and also our Co-op averages and then taking a look at the growth so looking at grow scores for this we start with the are they growing as to be as we expect them to um starting in fifth grade ELA we do have a negative grow score or negative growth score average in that area um you can see kind of where that concentration of kids is or kids are I should say within that graph however

093when we come to the sixth grade ELA we start to see that Trend start to move up again and we posted a positive score of 04 in that category transitioning down to math again very similar to what we saw in fifth grade ELA we see just below zero there with with a negative .04 with our fifth grade math you can kind of see that concentration of kids is right probably right in there on that negative side so pretty close to getting over the hump so to speak and then you see that Trend continue that we saw here right so you see them moving up into this upper area with a positive score of 0 so what would I mean this is interactive too what would tell you the reason what would be the reason some

094of the reasons we talked about but if you see fifth grade is really not where we want it to be but sixth grade is drastically better what's going on in fifth grade it's a new school it's a transition year coming out from Southside going to intermediate which is a total change that building is a completely different change than it is over at Southside so there's major differences they're changing like they how many teachers do those fifth graders have uh well this year they have three but I mean last year they had two so the scores you're looking at they only had the two like outside but the whole building set up different the sixth graders are exchanging the the whole thing is just different and there is a little bit of a so here's where

095intermediate gets gets caught are they Elementary or they secondary because fifth grade's really Elementary but sixth grade really is beginning in secondary so you get that you get that that conflict of how you run your building of am I running it like an elementary or am I running it like a secondary and you have to and Tracy has to navigate that and it's super difficult uh sixth grade is just so different and then you bring those kids out of an elementary and stick them in there and it's just like they don't handle that freedom very well so to be quite honest you know I think that Elementary culture is better for fifth graders so so when we talk about neighborhood schools that's why you'll hear me uh be a proponent at A5 schools and not

096A4 schools and and to Shane's point you can see and granted we know it's different buildings a lot of things going on from one to the next but you see the same Trend here as you look at those seventh grade numbers and then you start to see them kind of scoot up even the seventh grade math with the with our our top students taken off the top in eighth grade map we still see them post a better grow score than their seventh grade counterparts even with the the top students taken off so just to kind of further illustrate that point all right let take a look at science again kind of more of the same that we just saw in the two previous ones uh posted a negative score in the fifth grade science um

097just at 04 and then we see that Trend start to continue where we have kids moving open to this upper quadrant moving into the positive with 00039 moving to Performance levels and how they perform um so no surprise as to what we just talked about we see that we do have that negative score unfortunately in level ones and level twos however we do see that level threes level fours posted a positive score there um obviously some as we can see the kids that are proficient have that overlapping band we' like to see probably one target that we would have is try to get this to where it overlaps with the other three or the other two rather uh same can be said over here we have this huge concentration of kids and level two 147

098so they're right there but they still posted a positive score which is great R and then we see that we posted positive scores in three and four so looking at this this tells me that we have a huge potential with these level twos as they move into seventh grade to help get them over that hump and over into the proficiency category more of the same with math um looking at fifth grade math no surprise based on the information we just looked at um we did have those negative scores in level one two and three uh with level three just being as minuscule as it could be as close to zero uh I did post a good growth score of .13 in our level four students in fifth grade math uh sixth grade math really strong

099growth scores in levels two three and four um all on all on the positive and also with that overlap and band so we have something really good going on there planning wise and and pacing wise with our with our teachers um moving into Science fifth grade science more of kind of what we've seen positive scores and three and four and then the same with sixth grade science with the Positive scores in levels three and level four now looking at our three-year Trend data um again tell us two different grades right so we see fifth grade has that that downward trajectory which we know can be attributed to a lot of things but as we talked about before that transition year is huge so we want that obviously to be headed on the up uh compared

100to sixth grade they shot up and not only that they have a positive trend over three years so since 22 overall positive in the right direction and far exceeding that state average for last year as well so Jo just just so um I don't think we've mentioned this so when you look when you're looking up there at 22 and 23 that's the that's not the same groups of kids looking backwards and it's also not the same assessment it's also not the same Inspire at that point in time right so the 23 and 20 and 22 where Aspire but it's also the sixth graders at that time so when you look at the 24 group that 23 group is actually the seventh grade group and the the 22 group is the eighth grade group at that

101point at that same point in time in 24 so it's just sixth grade to sixth grade it's not this sixth grade group how did they do it fifth grade how did they do it fourth grade it is we're looking at a point in time of sixth grade sixth graders does that make sense what I'm saying that was a good I want to say you guys are unbelievably patient with the state uh changing testing around I want to say that that is that would annoy me to no end if that was me constantly having to change that so lost count I have many I want to First compliment everyone here who's been under this kind under this very uh volatile way of measuring ourselves so but the question I have is um what's the level of

102confidence with this new you know we're told that this new testing is here to stay for a little while what's the Feeling by everyone on the test I'm going to tell you m Amy's our our local exp I would say our most expert person if it's what they say it is and we've got one year data to show if it actually is testing our standards which is the first test we've ever had that's actually tested what the state tells us we're supposed to be teaching then it's going to be wor to change because in years past we've taken a national test and tested our kids on it but we had Arkansas standards telling us to teach this and we might be teaching this they're testing this we might be over here teaching this but because

103they're not going to change the test for Arkansas they're just going to sell us a test am I saying that right Amy basically which also gives teachers the argument and teachers have said many times when they were being tested on something that's not what they're being asked to teach because of the standards then they discredit when you try to look at data right and you try to have a data conversation with them about what's working and what's not they're like well forget that cuz it's not even where I'm teaching because they're they're saying I'm teaching the standards you're not testing about I'm teaching the standards which is what the law says I have to do and what you're telling me to do and then you're wanting me to look at this or you take it

104Opposite and they won't teach the standards of what we're supposed to be teaching because they're trying to figure out what to teach for the test so their kids will be trying to and they're and they're hobnobbing it they're just picking and choosing and teaching and so if it does what it says it's going to do and our original evidence is it is right yeah it really is they I mean the state went back to probably way before when Shane came to Arkansas but we did have a state created test 25 30 years ago and um for those of us that were around then um raise a hands for everyone who it's just right here honestly but now we're back to a state created test so they create all these committees from around the state so

105it's not just Northwest Arkansas that gets a voice it's every region gets a voice on a committee and then those committees work to create the tests and they of course get a bank from the cambium system the company that has our contract they get a Bank of questions but one of the committee's uh tasks and there's numerous committees but one of them is tasked with aligning the question to the standard that it aligns with and making sure that every question on the test aligns with the standard in the list so how many how many teachers did we have served on those committees I want to say it was over TW it was 12 or I don't know we had a lot I submitted a lot of people's names so they would go to Little Rock

106and they would sit in these committee meetings so we had a we had a wide range of teachers go down and a part of building the test so our own teachers had a say you know in the grand scheme of thing we got 300 teachers 10 or 12 got to go down but that's still 10 or 12 of our own faculty got to go down and be a part of that which is a lot more than sem districts sure we like that we this is also this two or three on the cut score committees with cut score is telling us where we have to meet to get to a level one level two level three level four and so every grade level has its own cut score of what that is required and we had

107several that served on the cut score and the words is nice because we know more we can do better the words fail me what so how they answer determines the next adap adapt it's an Adaptive test so how you answer it it's not like here's the 50 or 100 questions in this section everybody's getting the same question how they answer the question determine what's the next question so it if you're an acceler like if you're an honor student and you get this one right well you're going to get a harder one you get this one right you're getting harder and harder and harder harder they're going to find out how far you're knowledge is extended if you don't get that one right or two or three then you're going to stay at that basic level

108am I saying that right the grade level it's within the grade level it doesn't go out of the yeah it stays within the grade level but even within the grade level you have this whole band Yes no two children would really have the exact same test because it depends on like Josh and myself and Valerie we could all answer different questions and depending on if we're right or wrong our next next one is going to be different questions and so we might have some that are the same but we would have plenty based on our own answers that are just our assessment okay keeping good student a who answers right and it's to the next level to the next level losers bracket I mean if this student missed the first one could they turn around

109and get back up y y y but I think that but I think that also shows like U like you know when you're looking at those advanced math courses for that kid that struggles with not always being correct and maybe they become frustrated on a problem that they just answer and you're like How could an advance kid being level one part of that could be perseverance you know like are they able to work through their you know struggle within a problem even if they think they submitted that can take a toll on kids you know and and it absolutely can take toll on the kids if they're a lowlevel kid that's already trying to accommodate and survive and trick you into thinking you know that they're learning because their peers are aware you know they'll

110live at those lower level questions you know within the grade band but they they don't have that perseverance Factor they can H reset on their Nintendo or their Xbox or their PlayStation anytime they get upset or they turn it off why it's not like that what's interesting is when in the games they fight through they have the perseverance but they don't in the classroom that's what me they may join a new room that has easier competition and and I I just think yeah you have he's right you have all these varing kids that they just shut down and don't do anything and then you have like I can't tell tell you and I know Dr Miller dealss with this especially at high school is where you see it a really lot you have these high

111high functioning kids that if they make a be it's like their whole life is ended and it's like destroys them and they can't deal with it and they completely shut down and they made their first 89 of their life and they can't see that that's and then some SS great well but you seriously it's about like the perseverance side of things is like nobody ever is always the best of at everything they do and it's hard for some of those kids they think they can just uh they think they can just show up and do it I'm going outwork it but then the assessment comes and they don't and then they fall apart so it's that B it's not just your low it's like he Josh said a lot of times it's that high functioning

112kid that can't deal with it let's take a look at math so in fifth grade math we saw an average of .06 but we did see a steady increase over a threeyear period so again focusing on that growth piece um you can see that from year to year starting in 22 we did see positive growth over that time frame um sixth grade math we did see a slight drop from the previous year however they still posted a positive growth score of 08 and that's a good example of cohort th those teachers are are solid in their instruction this is different group of kids so maybe they didn't grow as much as the previous class had so if you really look at the side over there where they he I know he's mentioned it several times

113but just look at what each Line's worth it's really only worth you know 500 what that 500s no five 500 sorry 500 said it right the first time it's a it's a very small gap between those those years those three years um and then lastly in science for fifth grade we saw we did see a decrease over a threeyear period uh with a score in the negative of 04 sixth grade math scores however did we saw a downward Trend however they're still posting in the Positive Growth score category which is good um with a 003 so again staying above that that zero Mark within the positive is what we want to see because that does mean that we do have an overall positive growth of where our students are scoring compared where we expect scho

114and then lastly we'll move to Southside this will be our last campus that we will look at because remember this is focused on a 310 assessment and end of course so that was our overall achievement that we went over back in the fall compared to the state and the co-op average let's take a look at our third and fourth graders in English first thing I want to point out we want to talk about changes in assessment nobody had it worse in this fourth grade group they took three different assessments over this period as second graders they took a K2 assessment that didn't in my opinion didn't really align with the third grade assessment um in third grade they took the acts and then last year as fourth graders they took the atlas exam so take

115the growth into take all that into consideration when you look at the growth score on that particular group because they did have three different assessments over three different years and those points are supposed to correlate According to some folks nobody in this room nobody in this room nobody in this room got to go about three and a half hours cons all right so let's let's look at third grade ELA so again right where we kind of want to be we have that upward Trend moving towards the upper quadrant uh posted a really strong growth score of12 so pretty significant growth score there um we do see that fourth grade however does have that negative growth score in there uh kind of almost mere opposite of third grade with a negative just in the 9 um

116kind of roll reversal flip that to third grade math this is a pretty unlucky bunch in third grade because they were probably about one or two kids away from getting in the positive range um I said earlier about as close as you can get to zero without being on zero I li this is about as close to zero you can get to zero um so literally about one or two kids away from scoring a positive growth score there so um looking at fourth grade math scores post a strong score um in a lot of is in this upper quadrant which we'd like to see high achiev the high growth with a positive 05 taking a look at science this is one too that take with a grain of salt because uh as we'll see in

117a minute we don't really have a we don't have three years worth of data um but we do in some of these other ones but they did have a positive growth score at 082 and third grade does not have growth scores because they don't receive that assessment out four third grade moving into performance by category or by level so really strong growth score in third grade um third grade English we see that levels two three and four uh all posted positive grow scores which is great um we see we kind of have some outliers there our level fours that are performing well above the other especially when takeing consideration our little brackets there uh level four we have a big concentration of those level ones which is probably what brought some of that average down

118a little bit um however we do see that we have a positive score in our level threes and our Lev fours moving into third grade math uh very similar to the two previous ones we saw Positive Growth scores posted in level three and level four um and then in fourth grade math we see that levels two three and four those students are all posting an average a positive average growth score these areas and then lastly fourth grade science we see a big grow there in our level threes and our level fours but also overall we see positive growth in level two three and four um so performing really well there and posting positive grow scores in those top categories now to wrap up Southside let's take a look at their threeyear data um so for

119English again we can't this roller coaster in third grade remembering this is the first year that they take that assessment um keep in mind too how they project growth is based on their K2 assessment which is a totally different assessment what they take in third grade so it's all correlated um however we did see that dip there but we did see a positive growth score in third grade well above the state average which is hovering right around zero uh same over here with fourth grade State average is H around around zero um this is also our group we talked about that's had three different Assessments in for years so I'll I'll just leave those numb looking at math we saw a big rebound and our third grade math scores going from um a negative range

120in 23 to as we talked about before as close as zero as you can get um and almost posted a positive growth score there fourth grade we did see a little drop from last year but overall growth in the three-year time span and posting a positive score of point0 and then lastly these are our fourth grade SS numbers again ending up in that positive range um change in assessments all that stuff Tak into consideration uh but we did see it increase from last year's or from 23 I should say grow score into that positive area getting back above the state average so that's all the data okay I do want to say this so on these places where we talked about we changed test and all that so did every other kid in the state

121so if I want to if to be a Frank conversation when we're not better than the state then we really need to it doesn't matter about all those reasons of all those things that we I'm not going to say excuses but all the reasons why people don't do well whether it's the third test in three years or all that stuff we've got to be able we are better than the our kids are can do better than the state average we need to stay on top of that so even though that's a three-year average with diff multiple tests involved how we got there just know that below the state average is never going to be something that we accept as a district and our and our principles when that happens our principles don't accept that either

122so and our teachers actually don't they they want to be up there so we know we have some work to do on those areas so we talked a lot about this on this next slide as we kind of went along but these are just kind of some points that wanted to as we threw just a bunch of numbers at you I apologize but let's kind of bring it back into focus a little bit and talk about okay this is all good and well but what's next or what should we be doing or what have we been doing so as we talked as a team this was kind of a list of things that we've talked about that have been going on this year and that are continued focuses so overall focus on writing um and

123you can see that throughout the buildings on the um on the impact that it's had on the ELA scores continued emphasis on classroom walkthroughs and also lesson planning Amy explain classroom walkthroughs and lesson [Music] planning what we do yeah because I when we say classroom walkthroughs what does that mean so it's a snapshot of a classroom so um principales do it with their instructional coaches and instructional coaches may go together and do that we go and do um classroom walkthroughs and so it's spending any just anywhere from like 3 to 10 minutes in a classroom getting a snapshot of what is going on we have um Google form and everybody has it downloaded on their phone and so we can go into any school or they use the one for theirs and it collects our

124data for us and um thank goodness for Fern so she created where all of that d dat we input goes into a form and then gives us feedback based on each school so then that allows principles to look at their building specifically and then let teachers see that data specifically to say hey where are we not doing so good where are we doing really great at like just visiting that data ever so often um like I'll you know give High School a big round of applause at um semester I think they had conducted over 500 classroom walkthroughs yeah and so the more you get the more valid it's just like any data the more data you can collect the more valid that you're going to see and so um it's and what they're collect the

125data they're collecting is not necessarily student D student data as far as what are their scores on stuff it's what's the teacher doing are the kids engaged so engagement are we saw this uh teaching strategy all of those things are what we're doing so it's all about instruction is the data that they're collecting so that and it also gives feedback to those teachers so an automatic email they get through that form they get an automatic email I was in your class that I saw this this this and this and it so it's that's super important it doesn't do you any good to go in and watch a classroom if if you can't follow it up with a conversation or feedback to the teacher so they know what to improve on or maybe what they're doing

126great at don't change a thing it could go both ways but you got to be able to do that so you go in with a phone or a tablet or whatever at the high school we go I usually take my laptop what you I take my laptop you don't have your phone last year at the middle school [Music] but but do you is it is it so it's a form and you just you you're selecting or do you are you putting in notes so you can leave comments there's a for a drop down window so if I see engagement I can click and it'll I click on engagement then there's a there's a block for comments where they can put I saw this today this was awesome or hey I maybe if you'd have done

127this this would have been a little better or whatever it might be okay so you're typing comments sorry you're typing your own comments that the teachers get an automatic email of that shows that okay I was thinking it was just a very kind of it's both right but they are seeing like you can make a personal note he great job but you know doing thisly what I was going to say if you're just doing automated I would encourage you can you at least leave a note or something for the teacher for that personal don't care what we click they go to what we talk say that they say when I and my team go into classrooms we ask kids we talk to kids I always sit down with them I always find an empty desk

128in the classroom and I say what are you learning today and they're you know like oh we're doing a worksheet I'm what are you learning in that you know like most important learning is required learn so one thing so that classroom walkthr will tell us most of the time if the lesson planning is taking place if if a when you walk into a classroom you know whether that teacher has spent time preparing for the lesson that they're teaching or if they walked in and just we're Willy nailing it today and here we go we're just going to start talking read curriculum is they don't know oh yeah really okay now there are some that they schedule for official what they call official evaluations y'all never schedule those observations I I do for for Summit of

129evaluations but asstive you have to sit and watch the whole have yeah so some of them they do but what we're talking about the vast majority is it's just impromptu like I I leave a note like I email every teacher I go into the classroom I will get back to my office and I will email them and tell them the things that I saw as superintendent and how much first thing I say thanks for letting me be in your room and then send them what I saw but I don't do the classroom walkthrough forms like they do but all of them when they go in they're doing that classroom walkthrough form that way they're in there get they get that email get the feedback right away thank you for the for yall are doing that

130I know that it and it goes beyond just the functional feedback part I think teachers app it means a lot to them they appreciate seeing you in there so thank you guys for the extra work it takes for you to do that well 20 years ago if somebody walked into your CL classroom that much you would think one there's problem or why and or why are you here get out of my way and I think times have changed where they want the feedback I think so um just to wrap up these other parts um Shane kind of alluded to this earlier talking about adjustments and Personnel based on interim data so we are actively looking at the data throughout the year uh we have had some changes in personnel and some different things we've done

131based on the data that we're getting back also along those lines as well um implementing different interventions as well using a program called I Exel for intervention to try to make sure that we meet the needs of our students we talked about conversations with transitions we' talked about that quite a bit you guys are are well aware of that part of it but you know the data really shows you you know kind of illustrates that point um we've also talked about academic coaches using them to uh restructure and how we use them to support student growth um and then our continued along those lines to continued development of our collaborative team meetings um anybody else do you want to add to any of those components before I show the the data the last part u

132i mean I was going to say there was transition that kind of hit me a little bit through this walk through I I know it's always been a issue but I'm glad to see that you guys are having conversations and I mean I would just encourage you to think I I don't know what you do but even like you talked about fifth grade students are there some that could go down you know that you I don't know you pick or whatever go down and talk to fourth grade are there do we ever go back you know a principal or teachers from that grade go down to the school before and they come over talk huh they come to us oh they come up MH okay so the kindergarteners will come over at least once maybe

133tce to see Allen and then the second graders will go to salside and the administrators in that building and some of the staff will go and talk to them when they're gathered together so we do trips like we put them on buses and take them we take them to go see their new school yeah I I would almost think before that I mean someone could maybe go down and say okay here's what you're going to see when you go you know you're going to come into a new building next week you guys are coming over we're excited to have you and and even bring some like I said some students over and say you know what Joy it's been or what a heck of a time you're going to have you're going to have hair

134popping out of elere and I think a piece of managerial aspect that is important is right now each principal is chasing 300 plus kids for the most part exactly so with neighborhood schools that number becomes say 150 a grade level band and so that becomes more concrete into the ability for change right you it doesn't matter how special you are and our leaders are special our teachers are special reaching that many kids within one grade level becomes very daunting and almost impossible depending on the day and you're always dealing with the same behavior third grade behavior is going to be different than a first grade behavior and there's never that mind shift I taught Middle School my middle schools act very differently than my Main Street kids or than when I was the Southside you

135know there's no ability in that it doesn't matter how many great conversations you have with your peers you know it's it's it's a little [Music] overwhelming and then lastly we we talk about these adjustments Based on data middle of the year we want to give you guys kind of a look at what that looks like so this is just a snapshot of the work that's being done across the district but this is some some of the interim data from Southside so as we talked about before with the assessment do we think this is going to be around for a while well one of the things that they're building into this assessment we've utilized heavily this year is those interim assessments so those are like your periodic assessments you take two interims in a year then

136you'll take your summit of at the end right so this is a look at how our students performed in those areas um from interim one which was given in when did we start that [Music] September we'll say um to September to the beginning of this semester um or towards the end beginning of this semester so as you can see we can already start to look at growth occurring within those areas and back to the point not to be labor like Shane talked about earlier this is the same type of data that we looked at whenever we decided hey we need to Pivot on some of these Personnel or some of these these how we're structuring some of these classes because it's too critical to sit around and wait till the end of the year so

137that's a a quick snapshot of third grade so when you look at that the thing it's important to remember this is actual stuff that's happened this school year so interim one was September interim two was January February February so we've had 10% growth in in the number of kids that were proficient not cutting down your level one 9% the level on you want that to decrease yeah and the nice thing like the comparison to the state because it is in the um testing portal we always have that comparison to how others around the state are doing where as in some old test forms you never knew till you sat down in April or May to take the test and then you'd get your data the next October whatever so Joe tell us what comparison to

138the state those proed Peres mean what is 22% compared to the state mean um so I think that's the proficiency rate is that's the state what their average was they so state so look at interim one state proficiency was 22% so right I just want to make sure they were aware that's not two different things that's saying the top one's what we did the bottom ones what the state did so we we beat the state in both of those yes interim one and Inter room two big Improvement so similar as you can see here in inter one inter two for fourth grade English look at that drop in percentage level ones it's a double digit that's really good from one to the next man you buried the lead Joe I did you're right I should

139have just I should this is yeah now how did we do this did we do we have sample tests of of this test that we have and we just have the kids take the samples right so there is some sample stuff that they can do to but it's really more to understand the system let me back up how did we get this data this is this is inter this is not the actual this is not the test but it is a state okay okay so this is a common one that people give across the state um and this is January uh February is in two okay September is in one so what we've gone to with Atlas where we used to have just one test yeah now we have three we have an interim an

140interim and aumi it okay and it's all within the same platform so it's the same the kid goes to the computer he opens up his he opens up his Chromebook and he pulls up Atlas so when he does interim one it looks the same as it will in interim two and it'll look the same as it does in the sumant so not only are we getting more in realtime data than we've ever gotten which is another thing that we like about Atlas the other thing is they have actually been in the platform three times every year so we're before act expire may may or may not cuz the interim wasn't they not really have an interim we we made up our interim yeah we made we would make up our own test to give an

141interim to try to see where we're at got so now they're actually getting used to the test and like see what it look and how to navigate the system and it's well proven point that if you don't know how to navigate the system it's like anything else you get new software at work it takes you a while to figured out it's the same for all of us right so it's the same with kid when they get a new test platform they're trying to figure out how to navigate everything now they're getting practice and we're getting realtime data and be able to use the compare it to the state so when you asked earlier about the test some more positives about the test I'm hopeful it'll stay around a while and let's take a look at

142these math numbers real quick that jump jump and we talked earlier what's the pivotal year for math third grade so obviously making those those jumps are going to be crucial and look at that jump in percentage of level ones okay fourth grade what do we compare to this is good where do we compare the co-op is one that we haven't talked about so we don't have do we have we don't have a way to get that data on on the inter we will be able to on Summit it okay and then lastly looking at sites here so again all the southside's really been celebrating like this is actually yia's slideshow that she went through with her faculty to give them the celebrations and let them feel good because you know it's you need a win

143yes you need a win a small win or a big win you know you just need to hear it know you're being celebrated well be perfect honest she sent this to Amy and I probably several of us I don't remember who I was on the email when she sent it to us and I got to looking through it and I was like we have to show this to the this is what we need to be showing at the board after we get done Monday cuz this is like this is what we hope everybody's is going to look like but here's why we don't have other peoples is because one in K2 they've suspended it there was Pro and this I'll give State props they had problems with the test so instead of saying we're doing

144it no matter what and we're just going to make you suffer through and it is what it is they shut it down and said we got to fix some stuff so we're not even we can't even take it then the other ones they have just haven't had a chance to take some of them still hadn't taken inter them too they're right in and you're just finished interim to so we don't have the data back to show you guys but we will we can get it to you once it's out there and let you see that even in the future for k2s the the first one is a screener so it assesses their previous years's knowledge so we won't have an interim one and an interim two that comp there comparing two different things but at

145least it's in the platform it's all in the same system so it's not where we said before they were doing a complete different didn't even relate to the test they were and then they were trying to compare they basically hire mathematicians to work some formula to make it look right Joe could go to work for him he's that smart um and then lastly our fourth grade science really really good positives to to end on there that's all I got thank you guys does anybody got any questions over what you've seen tonight comments it's been good thank you guys we go to the report to the public or we do the we show our data and we throw it up there but we don't have time in a regular board meeting to break it down and

146let you guys truly ask questions or analyze and have open discussions and so that's the reason I just felt like as important for you guys to have a true understanding of where we're at we don't want to hide any of our data our data is who we are and we know we have some work to do but I think Southside is one example of they've owned it and look what's happening this year based on where where they're at right now where the areas they were suffering before and all the gains that they're making to this point and I and my assumption is going to be when we get everybody else's data everybody's going to be doing something will look something similar you talked about um celebrations you know with their staff and do the is

147there also a celebration with the students they might not you know understand everything but just to let them know you know I would encourage some sort of absolutely because basically if they don't know how they do on this it's not going to matter to them it's just going to be something they do on the computer well I'll summarize give me some Grace for a little bit of corny uh summary here of what I'm kind of digesting here and thank you all for being here this is an extra thing Shane thank you for um for doing this and it was very valuable um a lot of really good takeaway so um I would just say I I trust this group I trust our schools right and uh trust your leadership and Leadership of the folks in

148this room my kids are in the school so obviously I trust you okay um Joe is a very optimistic person sometimes I tend to be a little bit more pessimistic see for opportunities right uh but that those insl slides um really made me very excited and um as I said earlier I'm not as worried about where where we land end but it's what are we where are we going to and that's huge Improvement and you know we seem to be pulling away big time from the state with the state average which is just like you said Shane you know we're not really not satisfied just being the average so um yeah trust you believe in you guys um I want to help you we want to help you and um and in my mind and

149I think Travis does a really good job of this Travis has always seems to be looking for ideas or you know you're a creative type I can I can tell not just in his work but also in how he looks at problems so um and I would I feel the same way I think everything's on the table and um ultimately don't don't let's not let's all agree that we're not going to do stuff that we all agree is dumb I know that's easier said than done but you know if if I've said this to you before Shane that if the state or someone outside of our community is asking us to do something that we say this is dumb and a waste of time yeah I I say it's okay to push back on it

150of course we'll think we do that in an appropriate way but man that's very demotivating it's very demoralizing and people stop believing in what they're doing when you start doing that so I just encourage you to um do what you all know are the right things to do and again all that and the um just knowing that I trust you so thank you but in term two great work and by the way if we do this lead with that when uh when we do our if you present this in the meeting well on Thursday well well no this is not the data that we're going we're going to wait and uh my plan is when school scores come out we will we will uh do some more data presentation at that time about achievement or

151growth uh when we have a school when we have our letter grades come out which probably will be the April board meeting is is what I'm thinking and the last thing I was going to say I kept having to remind myself this sorry to interrupt you I kept having to remind myself this is 11-month old data lots of change since then and and we've talked the board has talked a lot about given a lot of Grace you know there's a lot of room for Grace here we got a little bit of a Runway and um but we again we trust and believe in you and you know as long as we're as long as we're moving forward I mean I'm I'm not going to look as much at where we're landing on the achievement but

152on the growth side I think that's there's a lot to be learned there so well I'm more fol I mean we got to know where we where we've been this is just the way I look at you got to know where you've been so you know where you're going but this is the kind of stuff that tells me what we're doing is working because all those things that we listed of what next steps those are things we're already doing and that's why it's showing right here because we continue to do that and I fully expect when the rest of our interim data comes in that it'll looks it'll look pretty similar U but it doesn't mean we're not going to have our issues but the last thing yeah the last thing I was going to

153say is you know don't get discouraged by the stuff that are out of our control to change right away so the transition you know this transition stuff we've talked about I am totally sold on all of this you know and I think that we need to work towards that but you know let's also focus on what can be done today and you know what that kid came from when he left home this morning we can't control but when we have them you know um we can control that part of it so it's it's stuff like that let's and this is really just more of just speaking in some encouragement to to this team just to say there's a lot of things that that are tough and hurdles and Shane you kind of talked about this

154a little bit is that these aren't excuses but they are things we really should be aware of um but also man let's let's look for opportunities every day so true and that's the corny Part I in there anybody else have anything they I mean I just appreciate you guys putting this together and spending the time I think it's great these are the things that I will miss for sure whenever I'm off the board um you P solutions for kids and students and things so just encourage you on the the transition we can't physically do anything about it now but what are some ways that we can you know some new ways to help we know that's an issue so you know think through that and can we work this data to show Improvement as soon

155as Travis leaves yeah well if we just gota yeah that's what's going to happen they're going to go but I I'll the thing that is great and I'll say this my last board meeting too but I'll be an advocate just seeing this side of it has been awesome I mean I was an advocate while Monica was teaching for public schools and for you guys I'll do the same you know when when I do leave behind you on these these types of yeah it's fine and I'll continue to learn I'll learn you learn learning is requ he'll eventually learn what it is require myself to learnly you're not our slogan guy I am even though you're a marketing guy actually that's kind of his world give me I'm just brainstorming right now I come back with

156something for next year all right I was going to say anything but it's all right I think that's a good looking slide personally pretty good slide is uh any other anything else I know kept you here two over two hours tonight and wanted to make sure you had understanding but it's more about just giving you guys information to anything thank you very much appreciate it very much the data shows it's working so keep it up