001Hi, how's everybody? >> We are live. >> Thank you. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the board of education multilingual learners committee meeting. Today is Thursday, September 18th. Time's now 610. With me this evening, I have Rob Pennington, Francis SAS, and Taylor Dilva. Um, at the moment, I'm actually waiting for one more member. Do I am I missing someone on my list that I don't see? Rob Roland someone. >> You are the only member right now. >> Okay, give me a second then. No, there's 13 guests. Rob Colin's on there. Sherry's there. You can see Sherry in there because I don't see her on my end and she needs to be promoted. >> She's the only one The only one that's in there is the person that's uh taking notes. That's it. It's waiting in the
002uh attendee section. Okay, hold on. Mr. Pennington, should I pause the recording? Yes, please. >> You're live. >> Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the board of education multilingual learners uh committee meeting. Today is Thursday, September 18th. The time is now 6:15 p.m. Uh with me this evening, I have uh Mr. Rob Pennington, Francis SAS, and Taylor Dilva. This meeting will be anformational meeting this evening. I do not have the other two board members. They might sign in. If they sign in, I will let the public know um also for public record. But at this moment, I will transfer the meeting over to Francis. >> Thank you, Diana. Well, welcome everyone to our first um 2025 2026 school year ML subcommittee me meeting. I'd like to begin today by reflecting on the important work we accomplished
003this past year and then reviewing the impact of our efforts through through our ML data. We will also share an update on the 2025 2026 districtwide registration and highlight the success of this year's opening days. Finally, we will discuss upcoming family workshop events which will continue to strengthen our community partnerships and support for students and families. On our next slide, we are going to share how the ML department in collaboration with schools administrators provide a variety of learning opportunities to many of the schools and it's tailor based on their data and their school improvement plan. These offerings vary from school to schools and some of the learning opportunities that we offer schools is planning professional learning opportunities with the coaches. We support administrators assisting them with programming scheduling um um ML and do language programs.
004We also support the schools with coaching teachers in writing lesson plans, modeling lesson and most of all one of the works that we do at the ML department is collaborating with high school administrators on how to re-engage students that that we lost off track, how to monitor high school graduation and support them with providing them with the credits that they need. As I mentioned before, we work closely with the principles and instructional leadership team to determine the most effective ways to support each school teachers or the teams of the schools. For example, in seven schools with high numbers of ML students, we emphasized on deconstructing the last links exam. We conducted workshops on all exams components, showing teachers how to embed similar questions, how to use the rubric to score their writing pieces and how
005to embed that in their lessons. This helps students practice all formal daties of language which is reading, writing, speaking and listening and becoming familiar with exam expectations to attain English proficiency. Another initiative that we're proud of is our high school collaboration with administrators, councils, counselors, and their teams to monitor students progress toward graduation. The ML department created a tracker to monitor course completions and review ML transcripts to ensure students are meeting graduation requirements. For students off track, we develop action plans to re-engage them. We we get them back into schools. We offer opportunities like ML summer academy to help them earn missing credits. We also um collaborate and approach all other services like Twilight um credit recovery to make sure that they're meeting their graduation requirement. On the following slide, Taylor will share other offerings
006that we've done with other schools. We had the opportunity this past year to partner again with Wested um and quality teaching for English learners. It was part of their research project um that we partnered with them and uh West Rocks Middle School was selected with grade 8 um and we got to work through a new curriculum in English language arts curriculum which really supported our multilingual learners. Uh, and it was a really great opportunity for our teachers, um, our English language arts teachers, our MLL teachers in grade eight. Um, and when we present a little bit of our data and the outcomes, um, on our English language proficiency, you're going to see the the impact that this research project and curriculum imple implementation had. Uh, we also did another professional development session. This one was
007was a great experience at Nathan Hale Middle School on supporting multilingual learners uh with accessing grade level text. Um we know that that sometimes our learners are not on grade level with reading, but we always want to make sure that all of our students are engaged with grade level standards and grade level text and really modeling for teachers how this can be done when you do have a student that might not be reading on grade level because we do know that all of our students need to be supported with academic text. um and academic materials. >> We before we go into our data, Diana, is there any questions that you have about the learning opportunities we've um just presented? >> Can you go back a slide, please? On this on this slide, you know, you
008have different um opportunities for different schools. How are schools chosen for these different opportunities? So what we do in the beginning of the year, the team goes out to each of the 21 schools and we um introduce to them the different types of learning opportunities that they might have they might need in their school. We also share their data so that they could focus on the data and how we could move that data and the administrators select the support that they want. And that support is definitely based on the multilingual learner data and their school improvement plans. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Now, we're very excited about sharing our last links um proficiency data. As you recall, the state of Connecticut uses last ling the language assessment system used to measure the multilingual learners proficiencies
009and the skills in all formal daties of listening, speaking, reading and writing. The results help schools determine placement progress and the type of language support students may need. But the assessment also identifies whether student has met proficiency and that means they no longer are classified as needing English language learning support because they met the exit criteria and obtain English proficiency by passing the the last links. If we look at the slide um slide number eight here, we could tell that students in there were in 2023 there was 2,291 students. There has been an increase of MLS's the participation rate is those who did take the test and in 2025 we had um 2250 281. I want to point out the amazing increase we've had from 2024 to 2025. We had a total of 128 scholars
010who passed a me proficiency of the last link. And in this year we had 224 a percentage increase of 75% from last year. This is amazing to have a 8.7 proficiency um rate. So, we're we're very proud of this this data. We want to achieve more. We're still in the process of um going upward, but this is an amazing data for us to share today. >> Yeah. And to Francis's point, it's a 75% increase from the year before. So, it's it's an incredible increase. Um, and to attain mastery on the last links, the exit criteria per the state of Connecticut is that a student needs to have at least an overall of four, but also a reading and writing score of four or higher. Um, and so that's pretty difficult to do. It's a lot
011of academic language. We know that it takes multiple years for a student to attain English language proficiency and this incredible growth um from from year to year is is is amazing to share. Yeah. Incredible growth and the work that comes in that you guys put in with the number of children that it's higher, right? >> Yeah. And and to Taylor's point, it research showed that it takes seven years for for a student or a person to acquire the uh language. So, this is impressive. on on the on this slide um you can see how has outperformed the state in both literacy growth and oral growth and when we talk about literacy growth we're talking about reading and writing and oral growth we're talking about listening and speaking and right now is number two in both
012literacy and overall meeting average percentile target achieve compared to our neighboring schools, districts, cities that have an a population over of 70 per 70,000, but additionally these are the district that are a reference group district that we're normally compared to. So we actually our goal is to be number one but to exceed number one as well. We have the highest growth in oral growth compared to other cities with a population of 70. If if you look at this, we have a 3.5 while others are in the zero point. So, we're doing fairly well. >> Um, and you look at from 2023 to 2025 in both literacy and oral, you see an upward trend. >> That's amazing. Thank you. This slide present it presents our individual schools growth report in terms of um literacy and all.
013Now in this slide you could see when we talk about all of the students are being assessed like I said both in speaking and listening and literacy in reading and writing. When we really look deep into this data, the stu the schools that are highlighted right now, those total schools are the ones that showed increase a growth from one year to another. Many schools 15 15 schools have shown an increase in overgrowth PTA and 10 schools have shown an increase in literacy growth PTA. Out of 224 scholars last year who met proficiency, 224 scholars met this year's proficiency. Like I stated, it was a 75% increase from last year. Based on our district data, overall our district increased by 3.5% in overgrowth PTA and an increase of 1.6 in literacy growth PTA. When comparing our
014district data with the state, the findings are the following. 15 schools achieve overgrowth PTA above the state average of 55.7. And 13 schools achieve literacy growth PTA above the state average of 58.9. If you look at the chart, many achieve even in the 70s, which >> impressive. Eight of our schools increase in both oral and literacy PTA. Our district oral percentile percentile target achieve is 57.7 while the state is 55. So we surpass the state as a district in oral and the district literacy target achieved is 59.25 also surpassing the state in literacy of 58.9. So, we're doing really well compared to many of the surrounding cities and the state. I also want to take the time to highlight a few of the schools growth. An impressive job by Silvermine the overall increase from 60.9%
015to 70.1 and in literacy from 54.3 to 73. That was an 18.7 increase. This is one particular school that took advantage of our cycle of support and develop a plan action to service all our MLS and all other students. Marvin also in their oral increase went from 52.7 to 78.1 a 25.4% increase. This shows the work that we're doing in learning opportunities that is geared to allowing students the the opportunity to think critically to engage in discourse in the classroom. And this has a major impact on the work that we're doing with our POG. Sono illiteracy went from 27.7% to 68.3.6% 6% increase. >> I saw that number and I thought I was reading it wrong and I was going to ask you, you know, because that is a huge big difference. A big jump,
016>> huge. And these are our little ones who love to talk. So, they're really engaging in discourse and critical thinking. They're amazing. On the next slide, Taylor will show how in collaboration with the schools, how the MLS's are also achieving in ESPback in the ELA and math performance and in growth. >> Before we continue, sorry, I'm going back. What is our plan of the other schools that have not been highlighted at all? like you know we have somes that were some were good in oral some were good in literacy but I see a couple that had like none of each. So one of the things that that our support has been more strategically organized where um all the EAS haven't assigned um five schools. So, we're going to go back and look at their um
017school improvement plan and we're going to go back and what we did with the seven schools that we piloted last year where we go in and support the teachers and look at those individual scores on the last link for those students and push that agenda to support those students with the targeted support that they need. So some, for example, students are um need to push that writing piece, right? That they need that for at least to be able to meet proficiency. We're going to see which students are those and those how we're going to support in the writing. If there's a student that needs um assistance more with the reading, then we provide that support. So it's going to be very targeted to individual students needs based on what we did with the seven schools
018that are really performing well. >> Okay. Thank you. >> This is some of the data that um our team has really been analyzing over the past couple of weeks. This is data that has come from our um uh our our state account accountability report. So in addition to ELA and math, part of the state accountability report does show the last links data. And so it really is all combined. It really has an impact for all of our students. we really wanted to highlight how well our students um are growing when we're looking at different content areas. So, not only have we had a significant amount of growth with English language proficiency in both oral and literacy, but you can see that it's even turned keying into um English language arts and mathematics. So, when we
019look at our MLS across Norwok, we had a change from 2024 to 2025 in ELA, um we went up to 60.4% in growth, which was an increase of 6.5%. um as compared when we look at the state's numbers, our state is is sitting at a 56.2% um with only a 1.6% of growth. And when we look at the overall demographics of the state um considering uh Norwok, we have a really really high population of MLS here. And it's incredible to see our our large population really growing in excess of of what the state is really seeing um across the across um in addition with math our MLS the growth is incredible 61.1% it was a change in 1.1% but we're at we're over the state's average of 57.1 with a change of only a 0.7%.
020It also when it looks at performance too. So when we look at the ELA and the math performance, our students are are really increasing um and doing well in the content areas on their grade level. So we can see that as students are attaining uh English language proficiency, they're really performing better throughout content areas. And that has um that has really been due to the ch the shift of instruction, the shift of support um that our departments um and our teams have really shown in within the schools um with the teachers and it's trickling down to the students and really showing in our data. >> That's amazing. And it's wonderful that you know the state um is actually calling up on um the district for to invite everyone to the different panels and meetings to
021discuss every all the wonderful things that are happening in our district. And that's kudos to all of you. >> Thank you. >> This is right Taylor. This is special for us because when we came in in in 2022, our graduation rate for MLS was at a 68.8. And we um together strategize how we're going to make this work, how we're going to make sure that these students have access to quality education, that these students are able to meet graduation. And in collaboration with the school administrators as I mentioned before and the school counselor, we decided to create a tracker um to assist on monitoring students progress for meeting graduation requirements. And we also support the schools with those students who are falling off track. We go find them, bring them back to school, and the
022team together with the school counselors and and our department put a a action plan to re-engage those students and to offer them the opportunity to meet those graduation requirements. And if we look at 2022, three years ago to 2024, we've had uh we have kids 79.3% graduated MLS and we are timing the gap between all students. So, we know there's still a major gap. If you see the total of all students at 92.6, which is also amazing for our district, but we're trying to really um um close the gap and through our collaboration with the schools and really monitoring students progress, we've been able to do that. And you've participated in the summer graduation, Diana, and you're here in in this image as well. How exciting the families are um when students really meet the
023graduation. >> Absolutely. Just to see the pride of the families for their um you know child walking that stage is amazing. and to hear the stories too. And there, you know, it's unfortunate that the public doesn't hear the individual stories, but it's very difficult for them to graduate, but here they are proud. And mo some most of the time, this is the first member of the family graduating from high school. >> That's correct. That's correct. On this second slide, it's an overview of the graduation rate for all students in the district throughout the last three years. But more important, I like you to see how all students the the ML achievement gap relatively to all student is shrinking like I mentioned before. But we also have to celebrate some of those schools who have done
024amazing and no Kai MLL increase from last year was a 12.8% increase in graduation rate. If you see in 2023 they were at 70.5% and now the MLS from Noai are at 83.3%. Amazing. >> Amazing. >> Yeah. Brian McMahon had an increase of 3.1, but even our district MLS, we went an increase of 8.4. Um, just three years ago when when we first arrived, when Taylor and I first arrived, ML was at a 68.8 and now, as I stated previously, we we were almost at 80%. I wanted I wanted the state to just give me that 80, but you know what? We're going to keep working at it. And just looking at this um slide too is the impressiveness of CGS and PEK that they're at 100%. With the MLOS's. >> Yes, we have to
025acknowledge that because that's amazing and outstanding. Outstanding. >> We also wanted to share tonight a little bit of our district uh student registration, our enrollment uh data from this school year. Um, so as of September 15th, we have a total of a little over 11,000 students. Um, 2515 multilingual learners, which is now equating to a little over 24% of our total student population. So we know just from four years ago, we were around 20%. Um, and now we're we're getting closer to our 25%. Um, which is incredible. We have a a beautiful diverse population of students. Um, additionally, um, we are really excited that our 2025 2026 school year, um, went off to a really, really great start. We had o almost 1,400 students uh, registered for this school year, 191 prek, and then we
026have a little over a,000 K to2 students. Um, which is incredible. And we want really want to highlight the centralized registration system that um that we have implemented um because it's really streamlined the registration process for families. Um this was the first year that we really didn't have a line of families outside the door on the first day of school. I know we all gear up and wear sneakers on the first day of school because we're used to running around um and hitting the pavement and and it was, you know, just a few phone calls and a few parents coming in with some questions. So, it really really was good. Um, out of all of those registrations, we only have about 75 registrations pending. Um, and those are mainly due to medical. Um, it's either
027a valid physical or immunizations. Um, and we partner with our our clinics here and our school-based clinics to really get um, families in a whole lot sooner for those appointments so that students are medically cleared and ready to start school. >> Wonderful work. and and just see these numbers change from the first day of the family center and how backed up everybody was and how crazy it really was to the streamlining of everything all the hard work that you've put in to having 75 registrations pending at this time. Like that's huge. And again, the commitment of the hard work, the organization, and that building does so much more for um the community than anybody knows. >> Um continuing on with our family center, we have a few workshops coming up that we wanted to highlight.
028So, just in September and October, we have a few. We have a couple workforce development um workshops by Carol Wilshshire Toth. our first one, she's really going to highlight um student internships, positions, um student positions, volunteer opportunities. We also have a really cool session from Misty Hoffer, which is going to be how to support your student in mathematics. Um at the elementary level, we have um a red folder training from Stamford Norwalk United for Immigrants, which is going to be great. Um and also Stacy Bergen from our curriculum department um is going to be doing a session on supporting early literacy at home. Um and so this is just a few offerings that we have coming up. All of the flyers have been um shared on Parent Square. Um and all of the events are
029posted on the calendar as well. >> Great. Thank you. How many events average, if you don't know off top of your head, would you say you have in one school year at the family center? >> Uh I Well, we used to perhaps between 24. >> That's amazing. What one of the things that we talked about um for last year's goals, Miss Karpio, is that we really wanted to focus on getting more par parent participation in the workshops that we offered. And >> so we really looked to streamline those workshops to workshops that families were really interested in because when we went back two or three years ago, what we were finding is we had dozens and dozens of workshops, but one would have 30 people and one would have two. >> And so that date,
030what that data was telling us was that that wasn't a workshop that families wanted to participate in. And so the team has been really working to try and create workshops >> are attracting families that families do >> um >> would like to have. So that's where we have a very strategic uh plan around our workshops and they there's been a lot of discussions around the types of workshops that families um are looking for and and I give a huge shout out to Francis and Taylor because they've done a lot of workshops that are packed and I think the workshops that they they offer are the workshops that families are looking um to come to and it's they're hands-on, they are engaging and that is something that our families are looking for and so just a
031little shout out for them. >> Thank you. >> Francis is going to take us through just a few more celebrations. >> I want to close today's meeting by taking a moment to recognize and celebrate the achievement of our scholars. First, we proudly acknowledge the students who were awarded the Natalia Rodriguez scholarship. These scholars demonstrated hard work and dedication by submitting their applications. They submitted teachers recommendation and excellent um written essays to obtain this scholarship. We're proud of these students. They're attending college right now. So, definitely wanted to celebrate those seniors. >> Brau. Now, when they receive these scholarships, do they get them separate from the scholarship um event at the high schools or do are they given out at the high schools with their events? >> No, what they do is they as soon as
032they um register for school, they submit their registration and the bill and we send it to finance and finance pays that bill for the amount of the scholarship >> and the students are celebrated during the award ceremonies. So, where they're giving out um their their awards as well, which is great. >> Okay. >> Yeah. They're giving their they're giving their award letter, but the the award is actually um paid at the school level at the college level. >> Thank you. >> In addition, we also want to recognize the high school students who completed their internships at the family center. their contribution in supporting us, assisting with clerical task, managing the pantry and inventory. They assisted with say yes to the dress and so much more have been invaluable to to our department. Throughout their time
033with us, I witnessed their strong desire to learn, to grow, and to prepare not only for college, but also to become their best selves and contribute positive positively to our community. that were engaging with families that were really helping us. I congratulate all MPS teachers and and administrators who had a positive impact on the lives of these wonderful scholars that had impacted on our own lives because they became close to us and the members of the community. So, shout out to Melanie, Kayla, Ashley, Jennifer, Dani, and Stephanie. We're very proud of you. >> Great work. I love that they um you know they're all learning and getting experience and this looks great on their resumes and their college applications too. Yeah, we met with the families at the end of the year and we gave
034them certificate and and and lady re really led the work with these enters and she was able to articulate a ship about uh uh articulate um a little bit about the work that they did there and how impactful it was for us and the families were here they were very proud and thanks to Rob he provide us with you know a nice buffet for the families and the interns. I I do want to say one of Dr. Estraa's visions is always cross collaboration between departments and this is a perfect example of cross collaboration between our counseling workforce development team and the family center around the internships for our students across the district. So, it's been a really great opportunity and I think this is just to highlight one of the successes that has happened that
035really wasn't in place prior the last few years. >> Yeah, Carol has been instrumental in supporting this work at the family center and throughout the district. She places um um scholars throughout the district from 10th grade to to 12th grade. So, she's doing an amazing job. >> Awesome. Well, no questions and answers for me because I was talking through the presentation. Um, but this was wonderful information and presentation as always. I love all the work that's being done and how we're helping all children. It's not, you know, one certain type of child, but it's everybody. So I don't have any other board members to ask if they have questions. But with that, thank you. I will make the motion to adjourn. Thank you very much. Have a good evening and talk to you later. >>
036Thank you, Diana. Have a good night. YouTube.