001Good evening and welcome to the April 20, 2026 Academic Achievement Committee meeting. I'm Jonathan Briggs, District 2 representative and chair of the Academic Achievement Committee meeting uh the committee. I hope everyone had a restful weekend and is ready to dive into our work this evening. Um so let's get started. We're also pleased to be joined this evening by Dr. Judith White, Chief Academic Officer, Ms. Trenace Bowman, Associate Superintendent for Special Education, Dr. David Reese Jr., Associate Superintendent for Teaching, Learning and Innovation, Dr. Latricia Gloster, Associate Superintendent for Innovation and Performance Area, Jason Ray, Director of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Belonging, and Dr. Ingrid Williams-Horton, Director of Community Schools, who will lead tonight's presentations. We're also joined by additional representatives from the Community Schools Office. Um for those unable to join us live, a
002recording will be available on the PGCPS YouTube channel and on the Diligent website. Uh we'll now proceed to roll call. Ms. Woodridge, please call the roll. Mr. Briggs. Present. Ms. Boozer-Strada. Present. Ms. Olivo. Present. Ms. Goins-McCants. Ms. Azikiwe. Present. We have four. There's a quorum. All right, thank you so much, Ms. Woodridge. Uh quorum is present. Um if there are no objections, the committee shall adopt the April 20, 2026 meeting agenda. Um see a hand raised, but I'm assuming this is not about the agenda, but this may be, so Dr. White. Um Hi, good evening. Uh thank you so much. You mentioned that the tonight's evening were presentations that we've already held. Tonight's meeting is actually about our benchmark data and grades, um all things data review at this point in time. Mm. Thank you.
003I was looking around when I paused, I was like, I feel like the people that I'm naming are not in this room right now cuz there's not that many people. Um Ms. Woodridge, can you actually re-share with me the agenda um cuz I think I might have the Oh, you're muted. Yeah, the annotated agenda. We'll >> Yes, let me re-share it. We'll continue to move forward um and maybe the names were just not changed and that might have been an error. Um I want to confirm really quickly, Dr. White, you can just nod here. The presentations I have for this evening are innovation and performance, building bold structures. Okay. >> We've done all of those. Today is for April. It should be a data review on attendance, benchmark, kindergarten, grade one and two literacy data,
004um core content pass rate by race, multilingual learners, and special education from the division of academics and the division of accountability with the lead um presenters tonight being Lori Maslin, Anthony Winningham. And then I have my academics team available also this evening. Okay. So, we're going to take five like two minutes two to three minutes to just get that right to get the um the accurate agenda and then we'll move forward. >> I just sent you the annotated agenda again. Okay, thank you so much, Ms. Woodridge. >> Mhm. And also, um board member Zakiyyah Goings-McKinney has arrived. Okay, great. Thank you so much. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, we're going to we're going to we're going to we're going to um amend the agenda for the presenters that Dr. White uh referenced. Thank you so much
005for joining tonight and then we're going to move to the adoption of the meeting agenda item 3.1. If there are no objections, the committee shall adopt the April 20, 2026 meeting agenda. There being no objections, the April 20th, 2026 meeting agenda is adopted. We'll now move to approval of meeting minutes. If there are no corrections, the March 16, 2026 meeting minutes shall be approved as distributed. Okay, there being no corrections, the meeting minutes are approved. Um this evening we have no public comment comment speakers. Um and thank you so much for for Nadiyah Miss Swidrich. So with that being said though, I always want to say that we we, you know, we want to hear from the community. A lot of what we discuss in this committee is the quantitative pieces of, you know, what
006we do here, right? The goal is to move our students forward to be college and career ready, but the qualitative pieces really are also important and we would love to hear from you about your experience with PGCPS. So with that being said, we're going to move to our presentations for tonight starting with item 6.1 middle of the year Dibbles and benchmark two data. I'd like to recognize Dr. Kia McDaniel, Mrs. Simone McQuaige, Dr. Lori Maslin, and Miss LaQuinta Reed for the middle of year Dibbles and benchmark two data updates. Thank you so much. So I'm going to have Lori Maslin share her screen and then they can get started with the presentation. Okay, good evening board and committee members and colleagues. I'm going to first start with speaking about the Dibbles middle of the year
007data. And just a little bit background, this is our fourth year. So we have 4 years of trend data on Dibels as the universal screener to help identify students who may be at risk for learning difficulty, which is required by um Komar and gives us lots of great information. Um this particular middle of the year data is as of February uh 18th. And we had an overall completion rate of 98% of students who uh should have participated did in this, which equals 35,912 students. So, we had 23 schools, elementary schools, that had 100% completion rate. So, some of the results that are noteworthy, um this assessment is given in uh K, 1, 2, and 3. So, we see at the beginning and middle of the year, there is a lot of uh noted movement in
008the at benchmark, which is where students are expected to be uh performing. However, if you notice in the red circles, there is uh also noted decreases. So, that doesn't mean that there's any kind of regression in the data. We'll talk about why that may look that way. However, um overall, the students uh in the middle of the year have moved closer to at or above um overall from the beginning of the year. Looking at the 4-year trends, we do see that there is an increase within the last 4 years of our students performing at or above their benchmark, where they should be in the middle of the year. So, we're looking at the uh students in the red were showing that that has been decreasing in the middle of the year performance consistently for the
009past 4 years in um most tests as well as that increase in the at and above benchmark for each of those 4 years. Something that uh we took a higher uh or a closer look at is so the students that have not been showing at or above are either well below or below benchmark. So, taking a closer look at the students who were below benchmark we further dug into that data and looked at students who were six composite points or less from being benchmark. So, they would have been green or blue. They would have moved towards the at benchmark if they were able to move six composite points. So, that may mean one or two um items or one or two sections where they could have moved and wound up um in the next benchmark.
010So, that is 17% of our kindergarten students in in the uh below 16% of first grade 13% of second grade and 13% of third grade. So, out of those students who are not yet meeting at there's a uh significant percent that are very close to meeting that benchmark. Some uh successes that we wanted to call out is in each of the subtests because um you know, DIBELS is measuring foundational skills uh for early literacy. In each of those subtests, there was an increase in performance from middle of the year last year to middle of the year this year. So, with the exception of grade one where there was a slight decrease in the reading fluency, the oral uh fluency accuracy, all of the other subtests have shown an increase from the previous year. We wanted
011to uh highlight why we may see in the data when students overall are performing higher at benchmark, we do notice that students may not be um showing higher performance than that, but also why we may see students that have an increase in certain subtests from beginning of the year to middle of the year at uh well below benchmark. And so, what that might look like is taking these color bands, the blue would represent that they are above benchmark. So, this means they are above where the data says they typically should be. Green is that they're at. Yellow is strategic support, and red is intensive. The blue box are the expectations. So, if you notice for kindergarten, in the first column is the beginning of the year. So, for the beginning of the year for phoneme
012segmentation, where they're isolating an actual sound, in order to be seen as at benchmark, they only need to be able to identify or segment five sounds. But, if you look at middle of the year, that increases significantly to 29 sounds. So, while we may see in the data that there's improvement and there's growth in their development of the early literacy skills, it does require an increase in expectations of what those skills will be like for it to reflect in the data. So, I'm going to show you a little bit further about what that might look like. But, I just want you to keep in mind the beginning of the year is five, the middle of the year is 29. So, this would be an example of what that would look like for the student and
013the teacher. So, at the beginning of the year for kindergarten, I mentioned that there was five correct phonemes that were necessary to be considered at benchmark, green. That jumps to 29 for middle of the year. And that further jumps to 44 correct phonemes by the end of the year to be considered at benchmark. What that might look like then is when we're reviewing the data, and in the red box you'll see a reflection of this. The beginning of the year, you're seeing um 46% below basic um um benchmark, but then middle of the year, it goes to 57%. That's not to say that there's not great things happening in the classroom. It's not saying that there's not a lot of growth happening for the students, but it's not enough because they had to go from
014five to 29 by the middle of the year. So, it just calls for further um analysis and looking at student-level data in order to take action on what that data means for the individual student. On the right-hand side of this screen, you're going to see the trend data for that. So, consistently, we're showing at the beginning of the year uh lower number of students in the well below, but that's increasing in the middle of the year because they're not showing enough of that growth from the beginning of and to the middle of the year. Similarly, we're finding the same uh type of trend in the oral reading fluency. So, for oral reading fluency, if we take a look at second grade. So, second grade is the third column of data. For a student to be
015considered to be at benchmark, so that's the not above and not below, they're at there. In the beginning of the year, they're expected to read with an accuracy for oral uh reading, 49 words. Right? That is jumping to 78 words for the middle of the year and 94 for the end of the year. So, if they receive 70 words in the middle of the year, even though they may have moved from 49 to 70, they're still not considered at uh benchmark. So, that just calls us to look a little bit further in our data analysis. So, when I mentioned earlier those students that might have been six composite points away, that could be a representation where yes, they moved from 49 in the beginning of the year to 70 in the middle, but they did
016not move enough to get to the next performance level because the expectations in DIBELS are are increasing as the years go as the year goes by on. This would be an example of what that assessment looks like. So, the students are expected to read the passage aloud, and they are timed in all of the uh words that the student is reading correctly. So, that beginning of the year for second grade, 49 words correct per minute with 92% accuracy accuracy, um and then for the middle of the year that jumps to 78 with 96% accuracy. By the end of the year, when we look at the data again, they're expected to look at 94 words uh at a 96% accuracy. So, we're looking for an increase in the number of words and also in the accuracy
017of those words as well. So, um for those trends in that four-year trend, we're looking at the oral fluency accuracy um and fluency for grades two to three, we are seeing an increase in the students that are meeting benchmark there. So, that's something to celebrate. Um, for both the accuracy and the fluency. However, slightly less than 50% are demonstrating fluency at or above benchmark at that fifth at that middle year point. So, while we are seeing improvement because of the shift in expectations from beginning to middle of the end, our data may not be reflecting all of the gains that we are seeing uh, from our students. Looking at cohort data, so same groups of students over time, we are seeing measurable increases at benchmark for uh, oral fluency uh, accuracy. So, we're seeing 13%
018at beginning of the year, 34% at middle of the year, and 12% uh, at the end of the year. The four-year trend does show a significant uh, increase at and above for oral reading. Dr. Maz, I'm not sure if it's me, uh, but I think from the looks of others' faces, um, I'm not the only person that doesn't hear Dr. Mazlin. Um, and I think that you may have frozen >> the data and what it means throughout the district. Oh. Oh, go ahead. Yeah, yeah, you you cut out for maybe a good minute and a half. I want to say maybe a minute or so, if you can just start over the um the slide, the previous slide. This one? Yeah. So, the 4-year uh middle of the year oral fluency trend. Um thank you
019for that. The 4-year trend for So, we're looking at both accuracy and fluency, um right? Which is like the the step leading towards comprehension for our students. So, looking at grades two uh and three, there is an overall increase of students who are at benchmark. So, they're meeting benchmark in um oral fluency accuracy. Um and also uh they're demonstrating at or above in oral fluency. So, there's there's gains in performance in both of those areas. However, when we're looking at um fluency at large for all of the students, there's slightly less than 50% of them that are still not demonstrating fluency at or above. So, they're below at or um above benchmark by the mid-year point. And then the next uh way to look at that similar data is looking at it by cohort. So,
020over time, if we're looking at our say our grade three students, um which is the second to the last bar graph here, we have at the beginning of the year we have 37% of our students that are well below basic in their uh oral fluency accuracy. We're moving then to uh fourth grade, we have the beginning of the year um the middle of the year for um not fourth grade for uh middle of the year we have 22% who are well below basis. So, we do see an increase of uh students from beginning to middle of the year for accuracy. Then when we look down at reading fluency, we are seeing that there's uh pretty much the same from the beginning to the middle of the year. So, we're looking at 38% that are well
021below basic from the beginning. A slight very slight increase from the middle of the year based on their expectation. We are seeing an increase in um fluency in the beginning of the year for at or above baseline. However, at the middle of the year based on the expectations being increased, we're not seeing a significant amount of increase in the at or above. However, if we look at the trend overall, we are seeing a measurable increase um from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year to the end of the year um with the exception of there's a decrease uh slight decrease, but it's still a decrease for the uh 2-year trend at the end of the year. So, a lot of that speaks to the expectations being increased as the year goes
022by goes on um and maintaining slight noteworthy increases from 1 year to the next. Okay. So, going through communication around this data and I know um some of my colleagues are going to chime in here. Um we make sure that when we're talking about this data, it's uh easy to get kind of stuck in the high-level data. We're looking at a lot of the high-level data, but as we mentioned, in order to truly see what those um gains or those differences in the performance from beginning of the year to middle of the year, because the expectations are changing, if we're simply looking at the percentages and the bar graphs, it's not really telling the whole story because the expectations are changing with each administration. So, we want to work to with schools and our offices
023to take a more granular look from allowing that starting data, so that overall data, what's happening in your building, what's happening uh per grade level around the district. Um you know, what what can we see there, but then going into the class level, the student level, so that we can see what kind of gains were there even if they fell short of moving the student to the next performance level, or which students are included in those students who are very close to being at benchmark, and how can we provide support to them in order to have that show up in the data at large. So, when we're speaking about data across the central offices and in the schools and working with uh school partners and school teams, we're understanding that the data as presented is
024a starting point for understanding of what our students need. So, it's allowing us to ask insightful questions, um layer data points, and um begin with that funnel approach so that we're using that more global data as the starting point, but getting down to the student level data, including our student group data, so that we can truly address the needs that the data are speaking to. And I think I'm going to turn over for a moment to um Miss uh S- Simone, I think, or um Dr. McDaniel. Who is going to speak to? Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Again, my name is Laquida Reed, and I'm going to handle this part of the communication of data literacy. So, communication of data literacy um is a monthly snapshot that goes out to principals, instructional directors, and associate
025superintendents. And what these snapshots can tell entail is that um we take a look at actually assessments, um not only Dibels, but also I-Ready diagnostic assessments. These data reports are an additional resource that schools can use to make um instructional decisions, and they highlight K-5. As the school year progresses, the reports entail all the different dynamics, including the interventional intervention and supplemental data, which includes the progress monitoring from Amplify, and also the Lexia usage. Um in the next slide, I'm going to actually show you a sample of some of the things that a principal sees in these data snapshots. Each of the data snapshots are individualized for each individual principal, and it's sent directly to them. And the Dibels, as the school year progresses, as my colleague says, we want to look at data that's
026very current and we don't want to become stagnant and only focus on the big aha moments, but we want to make sure that the data is something that principals can use in order that's relevant to their building currently. So, for example, in the last April data spotlight, um the Dibels data not only looked at the BOY, but also principals were able to compare and look at the MOY data, which also included their progress monitoring. In the second or in the middle column, you'll see the Lexia Core 5. In Lexia Core 5, we look at student meeting usage um for overall and at-risk student usage. But, we also look at the fidel- fidelity of use, excuse me. Fidelity of use actually looks at how much a student is able to accomplish in their units compared to
027them and the time that they're spending on the program, which is a big key point to make sure that students are actually working through the program and able to accomplish and hit their their goals as they progress through. In the last piece, um in the I-Ready diagnostic, again, we use the levels that the I-Ready platform um gives us. And those colors also mirror exactly what the platform sees. So, when a principal or anyone logs into the program and actually has the opportunity to look at the spotlights, they're able to continue through and use the same color-coded system. In the growth difference, which is the last column, it shows the difference of what happened in the building at the fall assessment compared to the winter assessment. So, principals are able to quickly identify areas of change
028and things that they may want to focus on in a building. I'll turn it back over to my colleague. Thank you. Okay, we're going to uh go into another mid-year data point that we have and that is our RLA and mathematics benchmark. So, that would be benchmark two for this year and that is the benchmarks that are aligned to the curriculum that's being taught in both uh RLA and mathematics. Uh some uh great things happened actually this year with our benchmarks uh and that's we saw a improvement across all grade levels in RLA and math from uh benchmark two last year to benchmark two this year. Um for RLA specifically, there was a combined improvement across all tests by 4.7 percentage points, which is uh a pretty significant amount and most measurable gains were in
029grades 3, 5, 8, and 10. Um there was positive performance on the written constructive response and those did have a measurable impact and I will um share a little bit more uh trend data into that in a couple of slides to unpack that a little bit. And then at the high level for mathematics, there was a combined improvement across all tests with a 5.4 percentage point increase, which um not saying is is where we want to stay at uh but that is a noteworthy uh increase in performance. Most measurably, those gains uh were in grades three, four, five, or early uh math tests, and then geometry, quantitative modeling, and algebra two. We also had uh improved performance on our modeling and reasoning, which are our constructive response where the students are actually typing their responses
030um into a box as if um you know, giving us a lot of insight into what their metacognition is around responding to an item. And so, those items across the board had had a measurable impact on the overall results for their math benchmark, too. Looking at our RLA um uh benchmark two assessments trend-wise, right? So, these two charts represent 3-year trend data for benchmark two. Um on the left-hand side, we're looking at grades three, four, five, and six, and the right hand is seven, eight, nine, and 10. So, they're the same data broken up by uh test. And so, as you can uh see, there is a decrease overall in those students who are performance uh level one as a trend from the last 3 years. Um while in most cases, there's an increase in
031uh the performance levels three or four, which would be representing students who are on track to proficiency. These are the same uh standards and item types that we expect to see on MCAP, so that gives us really important information as we are working towards proficiency on the MCAP standards. For mathematics, again looking at those four-year or three-year trend data, so on the left-hand side, you're looking at mathematics 3 through 7. On the right-hand side, we're looking at 8 and then our high school high school courses. And similarly there, we're seeing a trend in the reduction of the amount of students who are in performance level one. Um while we are seeing in uh many cases an increase in students performing on the performance level three and four, which are representing progress to meeting proficiency on
032the MCAP assessments. So that uh is a lot of reflection of all the hard work that's been happening uh across the district. There has been some sequencing changes that may have impacted um data uh a little bit for uh when we switched some of the math um content. However, as an overall, we're seeing uh for example, algebra one in SY24, we're seeing 67 of our students were in performance level one in 2024, while uh this year we're looking at 49%. So not saying we're happy with 49%. Um however, we are moving in the right direction and the data is uh reflecting that. Speaking uh about writing items specifically, so this is where the students have the opportunity to actually type in in a response to a prompt into the um into the actual testing platform,
033we are seeing uh some uh insight emerge from there. And so, there are um from Benchmark uh take RLA 3 for an example, there is just a slight increase, and it is very slight, from performance on the selected response. So, those would represent like multiple-choice or check-the-box type of items. Um and then an increase in the constructed response from last year to this year. So, the data that's circled in green would be reflecting on an increase, even if it's slight. Um and then for mathematics, very similar. If we're looking at the uh increase in performance from last year to this year on the same content, we are seeing a slight increase in performance for um the selected response as well as the students' typed responses. Wanting to pack that in a little bit uh more,
034we're going to look at the students who received zeros. So, for example, for RLA, we are looking at last year, we had 32% of our students who received a zero on a writing item. So, when we're following the rubric, which mirrors and is aligned to the rubric that is used in MCAP, we had students over a third of them last year received a zero. Uh and that could be representative because they did not type anything. They didn't even try. That shows speaks to a motivation to uh they did not at all answer what was uh being asked of them. So, um this year we saw well under 30%. So, we're only talking about around a quarter of students who received a zero. Again, not where we want to be, but certainly moving in the right
035direction. When we're looking at mathematics, um similarly staying with grade three for mathematics, we saw that in school year 2020 25 last year with 33% of students who had earned a zero on their modeling and 30% respectively that earned a zero on reasoning, while those numbers did decrease significantly this year. For mathematics on the rubric, which is also aligned to MCAP, um even to get a one, there uh you're you really just have to try to answer the uh item. So, to receive a zero is speaks to potentially like motivation or not understanding the question. So, uh the fact that the students are trying and then able to be received even a one uh is uh an an improvement, which we would like to see continue to trend into the twos, threes, and uh the
036fours depending on grade level. Looking at cohort, so if we're looking at our current seventh graders and how they performed last year, this is some um pretty insightful data here. So, if we're looking at benchmark one last year for our sixth graders in math, 74% of our students in Benchmark 1 had um a performance level of 1. Right? This is on the same performance level bands that are showing up on MCAP. So, there's 1 2 3 or 4. We had 70 3/4 of our students were in performance level 1. Benchmark 2, even more were in performance level 1. However, this year, that same cohort of students, we're seeing that drop to 60% in performance level 1. So, that is a huge trend in the right uh direction. Um Benchmark 2, similarly, there were 77% in
037performance level 1 last year. Now, we're talking about 53% this year. So, that is a uh pretty significant increase. If we look at domains, because our benchmarks are intentionally designed to measure domains across the benchmarks, even though the standards may change, because the standards are different within the scope of or in the pace of the curriculum, domains repeat throughout the uh benchmark, and they are also aligned to what's assessed in MCAP. We're seeing trend data. If we're looking at last year, take for example, our modeling data from last year, um math 6, we had 17% um of our average performance percent, 17%. Same thing uh when they those same sixth graders became seventh graders, they moved up to 20% in showing proficiency in that domain. So, uh again, our trend data is showing uh gains
038in many of our domain areas as well as our overall performance. If we're looking at those constructed response items, last year, our sixth graders had 63% had zero, 27% had a one uh at a three on the uh the modeling data, and this year for the same uh group of students, that went down to 41% uh in a zero, 41% in um performance level one or scoring a one, and in a significant increase in those that would be at or above benchmark. Looking similarly at benchmark two, we are seeing a similar trend in their increased performance on those modeling uh standards. We're seeing the same type of trend with our reasoning. So, I know there's a lot going on with focusing on modeling and reasoning at our schools, and the data would indicate that that
039is uh showing up in the data. Those efforts are showing up in the data on behalf of our teachers and students. Um so, for example, if we're looking at just benchmark two, which is the second uh bar on the top, we are seeing uh oops, 52% uh scored zero last year. That dropped to 32% this year. At the higher end of the performance, we had a total of 16% of students that were showing at or above um or twos and threes on their reasoning, while this year those same uh that same standard were showing 25%. Again, another significant increase in performance on behalf of the same cohort of students. So, um data was shared with the uh this is an example from an area two principals meeting where we worked with them through that funnel
040system, like taking charts and graphs, like we just went over today, but then um working with them to build data data literacy um and teaching them that kind of funnel mindset so that we get back what we get down to actually looking at individual student work. We look at individual student performance. We're looking at student group performance so that we can uh make sure that we're supporting our teachers and our schools. And this is just some um some some quotes from those trainings from our uh school principals. So, um uh I'm not going to read them to you, but uh you know, they are appreciating and receiving some of the support and guidance and how to look at the data this way, moving away from just simply looking at the charts you know, bringing that
041down to insightful, impactful data that teachers can use within the classroom. And so, with that um I I can leave you on that slide and I believe I might be uh turning this over to uh Weddington if not Dr. Wade Thank you. So thank you so much Lori. Board member Briggs, do you want to stop here and ask questions? Um how many >> Before we go to the next one or do you want to keep going? I I think I think we keep going simply for the sake of time. Sure. the longer presentation. Yeah. Sure. So um Anthony if you could share your screen and we can keep going. Dr. White, sorry about that. I thought you you know what? I knew there were 37 pages. I saw 36. I do want to actually pause
042for this piece since separate time. That's what I was just thinking because we start flipping topics and I know that was a lot of content to take in. Sure. Okay, great. Okay, so thank you so much for that presentation um Dr. White and team. And I want to make space for questions. So board members, if you have questions, please raise your hand and of course I'll acknowledge you in the order of your raised hand. We'll have 2 and 1/2 minutes per question and if there's a desire for a third round, then we can vote on that. So are there any questions for the initial presentation that Dr. Lori Maslin um led? Board member Gowan's mechanics. Thank you Vice Chair Briggs. I actually have several questions so I know I will probably not be able to
043get all of them answered right now. But the main first one that I had was in terms of what these scores, especially dibbles, mean for individual students, how is that currently being communicated to parents? After Good evening. After each administration, uh we send out not only the parent report that explains each of the test results, but there is a cover letter from the district that explains um this is the scoring report that your child has received, and these are the additional supports that your school will be providing um and what that looks like. So, that is that is for each administration. They're printed and sent to each school um and sent home with the students. And then within that, are parents actually getting information about how to read those reports and what they can do,
044especially I'm asking right now still focusing on DIBELS because that is such a young age and it's so critical for them to actually develop those skills. Are parents getting those resources in that letter or is that something separate? Yes, there are resources in the letter. Um on the back side of the letter, it will explain some activities of things that you could do at home. But in addition to that, we have offered uh through Amplify, um the company, we've offered a series of parent workshops um and made them available to the schools so that parents can log in and learn a little bit more about the assessment report and speak to that report specifically. Maybe as an action, maybe as an action we can um hi, sorry buddy. That's not Judy White, that's Dr. Shawn
045Joseph, just for everyone out there. I was going to say maybe we can we can give the board a sample of the letter so they can see them if there's any feedback or suggestions as we go into next year we can we can incorporate them. Certainly. Would be really helpful as well as some sort of communication to the board when those go out just so that we can flag it for our parents when we're asked about it. And I know I am almost at my time but my other question was about what then is happening in that cohort analysis we didn't see it overall for the composite that we just saw it for reading fluency and specifically. I'm wondering what that cohort analysis looks like for composite scores overall for Dibbles again. We can grab
046that for you and I can also provide this group with a copy of the letter that goes home so that way you can also give us our feedback and and let us know you know if you if you think there's some tweaks that we can make to that so we can grab both of those things for you. I greatly appreciate that. And Dr. Wade I I also wanted to add um on March uh the early March uh we also presented in partnership with uh Dr. Sheila Jackson at the Family Institute uh and part of our presentation was building data and assessment literacy with uh families around Dibbles. Um so that's another touch point uh in building that awareness and understanding for families. Question do we do we record those events? I believe she does Dr.
047Joseph but I will reach out to Dr. Jackson and ask if they are recorded. Yeah because if they do there'd be a way to like the question my next question would be how do we push it out or how do we put it somewhere for people who don't have an opportunity to to be there in person to see it or or or even if it was virtual I don't know the format it was delivered but uh you know recycling and bringing stuff up in chunks is something we probably got to do a better job of with communication so uh you got to bombard things and people got to see it multiple ways before they actually grasp it sometimes. Sure. Also, board member Goins-McCants, the one slide that you saw from the reading office that we
048create for administrators is for them to be able to see their data in a very simplistic way to make sure that we're communicating on how to lead the effort. And just for everyone on the call, DIBELS is our universal screener, and so we also have a back behind that intervention for students who aren't meeting certain targets to continue to push them into the next administration. Unfortunately, tonight we didn't show you end-of-the-year trends, so I'm excited to show you that. Our our middle-of-the-year comes very quickly after we do the first administration. By the time we get to the end of the year, we our our growth is is way better, so I'm excited about when that comes out to be able to share those trends also. All right. Thank you, everyone, so much. One quick housekeeping
049request, Ms. Woodard, if you can have the timer up or just some way for us to be mindful of the 2 and 1/2 minutes, and then I want to go to board member Olivo. Thank you so much, Chair Briggs. Um I'm really glad we have people like Dr. Goins-McCants on here who really understand this data cuz this is this is a lot for me. But I really appreciate it. I wanted to ask specifically kind of getting back to to what was already touched on as far as um you know, the additional interventions for students um in addition to the the i-Ready program what are the other types of work that our teachers are able to do in the classroom directly with the students, especially those who are underperforming on these tests? Simone. Within the uh
050DIBELS platform, there's another section within the platform that's called DIBELS instruction. And in DIBELS instruction, there are um a series of activities once a student is administered the assessment. It actually breaks the students into groups uh according to some of the skill areas that that student would need support with. And so uh within the platform, it lists additional resources for teachers to be able to use for their students. We also within our curriculum um documents, we have guidance for uh focus group instruction that teachers also use in support of the curricular resource that we use, Really Great Reading. There's a formative assessment there that also gives teachers guidance on some of the next steps. So, in combination of both of those resources, we outline and make recommendations based on so that teachers are able to
051differentiate based on the needs of their students. Thank you so much. Um I know I just have a few seconds left and I wanted to mention, I know at the last um board work session, I think we or recently, we talked about um being able to use Parent View in a more robust basis to communicate with families. And um so I'm wondering also if, you know, in addition to these hard copy letters being sent out, it might be something that we can share through Parent View that would also then have embedded links to, for example, the Dr. Jackson's um Family Institute that you all were part of. Um just to, you know, be able to use that in paper and then also electronically to share links. And I will stop there. Thank you so much.
052Um, board member Jackson Saunders. Good evening and thank you, Chair Briggs. Um, I I wonder uh we've talked a lot about how the system in general uh attempts to communicate information um to parents, to stakeholders. Could you just help me understand the level of responsibility that individual schools have in terms of delivering this same type of information to parents directly? Um, for example, I know for we required the special education back to school night and every school was expected to do it. Are there those level of expectations for schools as a regard in regards to this data-driven information at beginning of year and middle of year and end of year um results when those results come back in for those parents' understanding. So, I would say that um many of our parent opportunities at the
053elementary school are centered around um helping parents understand the nuances around what the expectations are within the curriculum. So, they uh they are parent literacy nights that are happening all throughout the district. Um they happen at different times. Some schools also incorporate their data meetings during those parent literacy nights. So, it's a combination um as to what that looks like at each school. It differs uh based on the constructs of the school um and based on other initiatives that they have planned. So, some people some schools actually implement those nights as part of a community event. Some of them I've seen so many variances. We have supported our reading leaders and partnered with um our parent engagement office to offer opportunities for our reading leaders and our parent liaisons to present together to support parents
054in understanding what does it mean when we talk about the assessment is one thing, but what does that look like in day-to-day instruction? Thank you. All right, thank you so much. Um seeing no other questions, I did have just two as well. Um and this was around the phonemes. So, for uh I guess the question is are the expectations for the phonemes for the beginning beginning middle and end of year not expectations. How you all are measuring this? Is it compounding or are they uniquely different words? So, for example, if they were supposed to know five words, is it now an additional 24 words or is it they have to have uniquely 29 words that they know? And then, you know, once you go further into the year, um how exactly does that work? Just
055curious. It does change. It's a new assessment each and every time um and it builds according to the skills. So, it's not so much of words as much as sounds. If you're looking depending on the different assessment. Got it. And then the other question I had was how often are principals reviewing the data dashboards? And is this based on NWEA data? I know I saw that it was, you know, um third grade, second grade. I don't believe they Well, I know that they're they're reading assessments that they have to do where they're still um you know, addressing reading levels, but I was curious about the data dashboards. How often do principals use that and then is it also individual data, other data that's included in that? We uh when we're presenting often times with our
056area offices, we talk about um the data and we also offer opportunities for we call them um data analysis sessions for leaders for our administrators or reading leaders to attend. They are offered throughout each and every um each and every quarter. So um people kind of come back and get a refresher each and every time. We also provide refresh sessions for our teachers to um ensure that when we talk about administering this assessment, that we have fidelity and that there is a true understanding of the expectations. So um we provide uh quite a bit of those opportunities across the district throughout each each quarter. I see. Okay. And I think you answered it. Oh. No, I was just going to add also uh each school has goals in their school performance plan and many of
057these data points are points that they have to use after each administration. Associate superintendents and instructional directors follow through with that and they push them and Anthony could probably speak to it when he presents. They push them to the data dashboard because that's where everything lives. And so we also in the curriculum provide days after administration for schools to stop, look at data, and then rework with kids, make adjustments, align them to the appropriate interventions. Okay. And what I was thinking was I was really just thinking like once the test is taken, a formative assessment is taken, how quickly are principals getting access to that data to make informed decisions like as far as planning and things like that cuz I'm I think it's so great that they're using dashboards, but just how quickly is
058it a turnaround for the data? The data is available in real time. So, as soon as the assessment window is complete or or they are complete with all of the testing within their particular schools, they can go in and immediately see the dashboard and start to plan accordingly. Thank you so much. And teachers have immediate access to benchmarks. You know, in the past, this is our first year of trying AI scoring for teachers. And so, now that we've done that, that benchmark comes back quickly cuz when we had to wait for teachers to score, it was holding us up by weeks. And these dashboards are calibrated already. They're not like having to like piece together the data. It's just like, oh, it's the same dashboard that I was reviewing last time with updated data. Okay.
059Um board member going once, going twice. Thank you, Vice Chair Briggs. Um my second round of question was about going to be about benchmarks. But specifically on that, when we say we have these dashboards, are these our internally created dashboards? Are they using the vendor platform dashboards to navigate? We're using the vendor dashboards. Got you. Thank you. And then the specific ones about the benchmarks, I know the benchmarks are in-house created and we're using the MCAP rubric for those. When we're looking at them, or I should say when our school leaders are looking at them, are these assessed based off of where they are in the curriculum, or is it regardless of where you in your class are, this is a benchmark that is happening this week, for example? The benchmarks are aligned to our
060curriculum. So, um when we look at each quarter, those standards are reflective of the standards that are taught during that quarter. And is there a way of measuring, for example, if my class is a week behind the pacing guide or my class is a week ahead? Is there a way, do we have of knowing where that is? Like, have kids done all of the content by the time they take the benchmark? Is there a certain date that we as a system say, "Okay, you all should have all done these benchmarks at this point. Now we are going to process the benchmark data for these roll-ups." Or is it just whenever they get to it, they take it? No, there is a window. So, we look at which standards, as all of it is paced in
061paced out in our curriculum documents. Um teachers would be able to see these are and we share these are the standards that are going to be addressed in each one of those benchmarks. So, with the alignment of the standards being listed in their curriculum, as their calendars and all of that is paced out, the teachers can see exactly these are the standards that are going to be addressed on the benchmark. This is the range of which I have to teach those standards within the quarter. And then the last question I have on the benchmarks specifically, are those created in-house or do we have a vendor that has designed the benchmarks for us? Laura, you want to talk a little bit about that? Sure, I'd be happy to. Um so, we do have a contract with
062uh Pearson and uh they work in partnership with the Department of Testing and also the Division of Academics to um write the items and then make sure that they are aligned to our curriculum and our pacing. So, it is a collaboration. However, the actual item writers are uh through our contract with Pearson. And that's a different assessment every year or do we have standard benchmarks? So, they are standard so that we can have trend data. Um you know, it's important for us to look there. However, we do look at uh you know, the psychometrics behind the items to make sure that they are actually measuring what we're intending for them to measure. So, if an item proves to not be measuring what we want it to measure, then we do have the flexibility to work
063with the vendor to um create a new item. Thank you. Dr. White. Um board member Gowans-McCain's also, while we can look at the DIBELS and the Pearson platforms, both DIBELS and benchmarks are in our internal dashboards as well. I just wanted to draw that comparison. All right, thank you so much. I don't see any other hands and I know we have another lengthy presentation. So, um let's move to item 6.2 chronic absenteeism and core content pass rates for quarter two. Um I'd like to recognize Mr. Anthony Whittington for the chronic absenteeism and core content pass rates update. I apologize. I was on mute. Can Can you see my screen, sir? Yes, we can see you, Brian. Perfect. All right. And this is not a lengthy presentation, so I should be done in just a few
064minutes. All right, good evening, esteemed board members. Thank you for this opportunity to provide a few data points around our school system, but I would be remiss if I didn't state that our district now has a very robust, as you indicated earlier, performance dashboard that serves I call it the health of the school, and it's showing roughly 13 to 15 different various data points. And I challenge anyone to go to any other district's website and try to find something comparable to what we're facing, and you probably won't. So, I'm excited about the vision for Dr. Joseph and what we have in place currently. But tonight's presentation focuses around mid-year data for our Prince George's County Public Schools. We're going to look at chronic absenteeism rates, the impact of chronic absenteeism with an overlay on the
065core content course grades, and we're also going to look at simply the core content pass rate overall for different student and service groups. So, let's first define chronic absentee chronic absenteeism because we're going to level set here. What is chronic absenteeism anyway? Well, a student is considered chronically absent if they have been enrolled for at least 10 days and missed 10% or more of those days, what we call membership days. Why is this metric important? It's crucial for accountability because it is 15% of the total accountability score for the Maryland State Report Card for all schools. So, that's why it's very important for students to be in school on time every day, and this definition of chronic absenteeism through our SL law, it's if they're deemed absent, it could be excused or unexcused. It doesn't
066matter, it's absence. So, 10% or more of their membership or their enrolled days, anything over 10% or more, they're deemed chronically absent and this measure resets every single day. So, Anthony can be chronically absent today. Uh let's say Anthony's at 10%. If Anthony starts to come to school more often, my 10% can move to 9% and then I'm not deemed chronically absent, therefore getting more points for my school on the state report card. Let's start to look at elementary. So, the following points highlight the year-over-year changes in chronic absenteeism across different grade spans as of quarter two. So, within elementary, and elementary represents kindergarten through fifth grade, there's a positive downward trend with absenteeism dropping uh from 27% in school year 25, quarter two, to 23% in quarter two of this school year. In the
067middle school, conversely, middle school chronic absenteeism has increased slightly from 16 to 18% over the same period. And within high school, high school representing ninth through 12th grade, uh the rates remained rather stagnant at the high school level with 34% for both school year 25 as well as school year 26. So, next, what is the impact of absenteeism on course grades? Well, the data shows a direct correlation between regular attendance and higher academic grades in quarter two. Now, what you're looking at is simply a comparison of students that are listed as chronically absent at this particular time and those that are not chronically absent and then the grades that they are receiving in their core content areas. Core content being math, English, science, and social studies. So, how we've done this is simply we've taken
068all of the students that are chronically absent and then the grades that they have received in totality for their core content and just level them over this color-coded designation A, B, C, D, and E and then we've done the same for those not chronically absent. So, let me just pause for 5 seconds to let you glance at this and then I'll talk you through each of these slides for the grade spans. All right. So, the first slide represents elementary. As you can see 44% of the students who are not deemed chronically absent earn A grades compared to only 26% of the chronically absent students. In middle school students with regular attendance earn A grades at a rate of 38% more than doubling the 18% that we've seen in the chronic absentee is absenteeism peer group.
069In high school, the gap is most severe. 36% of non-chronically absent students earned A's, while only 12% of chronically absent students received similar grades. Furthermore, if you look to the right of the screen, 30% of chronically absent high schoolers received E's, or failing grade, and if we add the additional 22% receiving D's, that is 52% or a little over half of the students in high school that are deemed chronically absent, the totality of their grades. So, next let's delve into the core content final course pass rate for each grade span. Core content pass rates are simply looking at, again, the core content being math, English language arts, science, and social studies, and then we'll look at it from the various student and service groups as well. In elementary school, grades two to five, the performance
070is exceptionally high and consistent across all groups, ranging from 99 to 100%. Elementary school. Moving to middle school, grades six through eight, the rates remain strong with most groups sitting between 96% and 99%. And lastly, high school. In high school, grades 9 through 12, there's more variance at this level. While the Asian students leave with 94% pass rate, the rate of Hispanic students is significantly lower at about 81% Pass rates around student groups for elementary school, all groups EMLs, students with disabilities remain at a high pass rate at roughly 97 to 99%. Middle school, the rates are consistent with EMLs at a rate of 95% and the students with disabilities matching the general population of 97% and in high school the disparities are more evident. The passing rate for EMLs is 78% and for students
071with disabilities 84% both falling below the all student average group. And that concludes my presentation. So hopefully this was helpful. Thank you so much uh Mr. Weddington. This was helpful. And board members um want to make space for questions. If you have a question, please raise your hand. Um and then of course acknowledge you in the order of your raised hand. We'll have 2 and 1/2 minutes. If there's a desire for a third round, we'll hold on that. Um board member Boozer-Struthers. Yeah, thank you so much and uh thank you so so much for this data. Um the one thing that I've noticed significantly since the change from SchoolMax to ParentVue is the lack of reason codes being clear to the you know, for family to track and understand and of course probably more importantly
072the teachers and the administrators in the school and of course now with our community schools coordinators and others and PAs who do the wrap-around services, where where is that reason code data and how are how are the the school communities able to respond to to each individual student and then also seeing trends collectively. Um such as, you know, the trends we see at our large high schools of our very difficult transportation infrastructure and how that contributes to tardiness and absenteeism. Thanks. Dr. White, do you want to take that or you want me to grab? I can say what's done from our office perspective. Sure, I'll I'll I'll I'll toss that over to you. Actually, um attendance and how it's managed and monitored in schools, the use of PPWs when we get to a certain number
073is always going to be facilitated by our student services team. Um so, schools have teams in their building where they're tracking. We have the school improvement team where any student that comes off of chronic should should come across that team where conversations are held with families and plans are put in place to try to figure out, you know, is it a bust? Um is it because they're sick and no one the parent hasn't told is it that uh they need to come to school someone hasn't written a letter for them. The other thing just to know when we talk about chronic absenteeism, it also includes your students with disabilities who are out for significant reasons. Unfortunately, they don't get a separate code. They too count for um chronic absenteeism and that's something hopefully that's going
074to be looked at in in um as far as apart from one another. Um Anthony, then I'll turn it over to you to see what you all may do in terms of codes. I do know that um this year I believe that we did find a code for transportation because we do not if students are late because of buses, we don't knock them as a as an absence code. That because it's not their fault when they're on our transportation. Correct. >> Yeah, thank you. I I I I assume that the those details are probably housed more in student services and other otherwise than you know, the the data team tonight around that. I will I will say that um I will challenge that that tardiness code around the late buses. Um I certainly know it's
075showing up in in the in the parent view data and in tardiness. Um And there is a you know, comments about late for class showing up for these first period students which could be positively linked back to the late bus and transportation difficulties problem or it could be seen as a judgment on the student is late for class. >> Correct. >> And that's the rub that we we are in and I and I do want to say I want to thank Dr. Joseph for coming at least to Northwestern High School at the beginning of the school year to see to witness these infrastructure issues, to witness a morning at one of our high schools, to witness how difficult it is to get into a building between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m. without the proper traffic light
076systems and and everything and public buses for this the many students who live in that 2-mile radius. So, so this this continues to be very difficult and and at the end of the day it's difficult for our students, but then the data looks bad, right? And then the data goes to the state and there seems to be no the then it just seems to be like there's the I don't the we're just in this terrible cycle and um I don't know how how to get out out of it, but I do know that MSD did say in August of last year to stop shame and blame. And so at least we could start working on that attitudinal shifts. But the data by itself continues to just just be a cycle of of this that that
077we're in right now. Not solving the actual problem. Can I jump in really quickly just for I know that we I think time was added here and that's fine, but I just want to be mindful that like we are you know, for the answers to be mindful of or whatever. Sure. So, Board Member Booze and Shrub, is what I will do is find out the process for you of how late buses are because it could be there's a process in place and if a student says I'm just going to run to class and they don't grab whatever slip they should take, we don't know, but I will at least grab the process and send it to the board. All right. And Mr. Weddington, did you have anything you wanted to say before we Yeah, just
078we have an attendance task force and and no student is negatively or should be negatively impacted due to transportation as Dr. White has alluded and although we're continuing to work hard this year we we had we had about a 3% reduction for chronic absenteeism from the year prior. So, things that have been put in place, we are seeing the differences within the data. So, we're going to continue working hard. Thank you so much, board member Olivo. Um thank you so much for this. Um I I wanted to just, you know, I I share some of board member Boozer Strothers' concerns um about transportation and how that affects students. I also um you know, have to admit my I think my my high school student would definitely be considered chronically absent due to him having pneumonia
079this this year, right? And and and being out sick um for for nearly two solid weeks of of school. Um in addition to, you know, a few other things. So, it's As a parent, I know it's it can be very frustrating that these are excused absences and yet, you know, kind of still falling in that chronic absenteeism. Um I did want to ask about the the chronic absenteeism task force. Um My husband said, "Is every family getting this notice or just us?" Because I said, "I think it's every student is getting information about the task force, but is that um under y'all or is that a different um division that I should um ask for more information about?" Right. The Department of Student Services chairs the chronic absence, but we have Okay. >> members on
080the team. >> Okay. And >> we work on various uh strategies and support, the most recent being um uh the attendance ambassadors that will have a press conference, I want to say, within the next few days that are going to launch that, but that would be um Dr. Liz Facey-Ashton and her department. >> Okay. Yes. >> Perfect. Thank you. That's all. Thank you so much. Board member Jackson Saunders. Thank you, Board member Briggs. Um, and please pardon this to and I'm going to shine it on my my newness. So, direct me to where I should look um, for this answer if it's not relevant and present here this evening. Uh, specifically, how do we handle the issue about absenteeism when we have families, um, that may have shared custody arrangements. How do we, um, because
081literally what is happening is the parent who lives in PG County brings this kid to a PG County school one week and when the other parent has them in Charles County, he attends a Charles County school. What would a scenario like that look like in terms of the law, um, and in obviously in terms of, uh, our record keeping for PGCPS? And then is there further individual like Dr. Faison that I should seek more information from with how to provide guidance to this family? So, uh, within the schoolhouse, we have, uh, it starts with the teacher of record and if a student has missed three days, the response needs to come from the teacher stating that the student is absent and then from there it moves to the administration of the school. They have, uh,
082for most schools, they have a robust, uh, sit process that identifies those students that should be or if a student is missing sizable amounts of time, things or strategies or what needs to be put in place to alleviate that. If a stu- if a student is registered in multiple it it if the student shouldn't be registered in multiple schools and we have ways because we have to send various data elements regularly to MSDE around student files. So that's other ways where we flag individuals when we're moving in shared housing and other things. We can talk offline, but that occurs as well. Um, but you know, the school does a good job, I can say with identifying those students that should not live in the zone or they're out of compliance. But that is definitely on
083Dr. Feazel's radar not necessarily monitoring the accountability. We we're the arm to try to support the data decisions for the school. Um, not necessarily the delivery on the opposite side. But I will send that question to her team and when I receive the answer, I will share it. I do not believe that we have any students in our district at that and I'm not sure that it is allowed. Um, but I I have heard that before in general. So it's a great question and one that we are going to get an answer for you. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Well, I'm just curious really quickly on that because I know that now, you know, and I know Dr. Jackson Saunders former Jackson Saunders, you naming this is so helpful the advocacy. I'm wondering
084if a parent a family happens to be in that predicament and they're worried about being unenrolled somewhere. Like how do they navigate that? How do they address that particular issue if they are navigating that very real circumstance of, you know, the families are just separated. So this is how it works for them. Will they be unenrolled if that happens? I'll write that as a question. I think the first thing we have to find out is that legal by law that you are able to do that because if if you're flagging for us that you're only coming half, we would probably we would probably withdraw you from school. We'll probably have a meeting, follow all of the things that Anthony indicated. So, I will ask when I'm asking Dr. Feison, I will get all of that
085information because it's a it's a great question that I do think we all need to be able to answer to it uh very specifically. Okay. Thank you so much. Um board member Goins-Phillips. Thank you, Vice Chair Briggs. I always get excited when Ms. Weddington has come in to present to us because we get to get all of the nitty-gritty data and the triangulation that is incredibly helpful. Um thank you number one for explaining chronic absenteeism uh cuz that's something that we get a lot from constituents, especially when they get letters, etc. Um like board member Olivo said, chronic absenteeism includes excused and unexcused absences, and a lot of people just don't understand that. But to that point, do we have any data on specifically the buses being late, etc.? How much time is actually being
086lost to that? I know we had a bit of a discussion about the codes, but do we have a code specifically for that in the system? And are we able to see we are losing x amount of instructional time or this percentage of our students are chronically absent because of buses? Uh yes, we definitely have a code that's uh attached to uh buses because some of the buses that we have, because we don't have a full fleet of bus drivers, not buses, but bus drivers, some bus uh drivers are having to do multiple routes to bring students to school. Therefore, if the school and I'll use the I'll use the word loosely, if the school is coding the student properly, we can definitely um provide that data around the number of schools that number of
087students that are entering that have been entered with that particular code due to the transportation as an issue. So, yes, we can provide that information hoping that every school has keyed it properly. So, that would be the disclaimer around cuz you're you're data queen, so I know you understand that. Great data in brings you great data response to the question. The other thing I would add to that is that schools have to >> The other thing I would add to that is that schools have to keep a track of when buses are arriving on their property because of our special education students. Um based on missed time, it could be that if a significant amount of time and data goes down, we could owe comp services. So, that is a data point that we have
088to track. That's incredibly helpful. I wonder on in addition to that, our comp time, but also when we are looking at scheduling for middle school and high schools, do we have the data That's not even triangulation at this point. This is just speculation. For first classes scheduled at first period, do we are we able to see what those pass rates compared to absenteeism or attendance look like for say first period versus second period and the impact on our students? We can definitely look into that and get the answer back to you. Yes, ma'am. And then I just want to plug our human resources team and our um chief of operations. They've worked in um hand-in-hand to reduce the number of drivers needed. And so, for the first time, we are trending in such a positive
089space. And so, I know it should the data should be way better than what it has been. And I know they're continuing to seek bus drivers to try to get us to fully staffed. Can I can I ask a follow-up to board member uh Going's Mechanics? Um you're more so looking at it at the period level middle and high school as opposed to elementary because elementary is daily attendance. And middle and high represents period attendance. So, getting to a first period versus second period period comparison could only be done in that second half. Grace Span? Yes, sir. And specifically >> That's the fights. like our schools, do schools have access to that data for scheduling purposes? And I can follow up via email cuz I know I'm well over time. Understood. All right, thank you.
090I appreciate All right, thank you all. Um board member uh second round, board member Booze-Strada. Yeah, thanks so much. Um I am going to ask for a follow-up as in getting back to what to to me at least from what I can see as a massive difference between SchoolMax and ParentVUE on these reason codes um for the those that are excused and unexcused um that I have yet to to see have the data that PGCPS has. Like, what are all the reason codes? What How is that being done inside the school using this ParentVUE StudentVUE product? Um because I just feel like as a board to not know to see this data and not know where illness ranks, where bereavement ranks, where some of the other reasons, you know, health care access, transportation, and then
091others rank. We continue to have these conversations without any perspective around this data and the term chronic absenteeism and this frustration from the board. And I know tomorrow night or Thursday night when the board has a public meeting, this topic is on the agenda, and there continues to be this interchange of the word truancy, chronic absenteeism, and attendance. And I think truancy is just laden is a criminalization term from the state's attorney's office that we shouldn't even be using. And chronic absenteeism is just a terrible terrible definition from the state and federal government. And then attendance is our job. This is where we focus. We are the ones who focus on helping families and students attend school. And I feel like PGCPS has to make a commitment to how we talk about this issue. And
092I I just want to add that in and there I've been talk saying the same thing for eight uh seven years on this board and there'll be a day where I'll never get to say it again as a board member, but every chance I get I'm going to point these these issues out. So, thank you. All right. Uh uh Board Member Buszz Strowder, I appreciate uh the question and and definitely you're you're you're simply wanting to know the codes that are being entered by teachers based on absences. Correct? Um one thing I can uh and that's something that can be done easily. One thing I can >> think she also thinks uh wants to know once we have the chronic, how many students are chronically absent in that group. Do can we can we sparse
093it out by the percentage that were um bereavement, the percentage that were sick, the percentage that were She wants that as well. >> Yeah. Yeah, we we we did something like that last year. I'm not certain that got to you, but we can definitely do that. And let me I can help you with uh definition. Chronically absent 10% missing 10% or more. I don't need that again. I find it I don't need the definition. I'm arguing that until we parse out the legitimate reasons to be lawfully absent from those that we have deemed as a society or the not reasons to be lawfully or that we are we cannot focus on solving this problem. This is not just a PGCPS problem, but it is a Board of Education problem throughout this nation. And we have
094just been spinning on this. And I apologize if you have that data and I haven't and I I don't remember seeing it. I didn't see it in this context and I don't even see it in the context of the Thursday night presentation. How are we there's no mapping? There's zero mapping presented to us on this and then what our solutions are. And so that is that is where the we sit as a board, why this is so difficult. So I just uh you know, just give that feedback. I just completely disagree that chronic absenteeism is useful to Boards of Education. I think it is completely not useful. Thanks. We and we agree with you. So we'll work together together that information by code in that category and bring it back. All right, thank you so
095much. Um oh, thank you. Uh Board Member Gladys Noel second round. I just have a um request and I know it's more work for you all, but can we get when you all are excuse me, apologize under under the weather. Um when we get this data, can you all differentiate for us the difference between truancy in the data, like students who are actually truant versus chronic absenteeism cuz to Board Member Booherstruthers' point, chronic absenteeism is a whole thing on the national scale, but to us she is correct that it's a lot easier for us to understand from a governance standpoint what needs to happen if we also have the truancy data specifically. All right. And um thank you so much um board member Olivo. Thank you. And um there's a chance no one on this
096call may know this answer, but just in my newness as well to the board and also in my role on the policy and governance committee, does anybody know if there has been a discussion among the general assembly or among the Maryland Department of Education about um looking at, you know, the number of students who do have excused absences versus unexcused in this, you know, report card data and, you know, all of the the ways that we are, you know, graded, if you will, on this. Maybe board member Bowser knows the answer, but um and if I could also take that offline, but I'm just curious about if this is something that we should really be trying to advocate on. If the chair recognizes me, I I'll have a comment on it, too. Yeah, that's something
097we've attempted to advocate but this is an ESSA law with the defining chronic absenteeism is not even MSDE. This is the law across all states. Okay. We don't we don't see that being fair as well, but this is kind of how they receive points on their report card. Got it. Thank you. Yeah, and just for clarification for those viewing the Every Student Succeeds Act, which is a federal law, is what is being referenced here. So, I know not everyone is education guru. And then board member Bowser did you want to chime in? Yeah, thanks for recognizing me for for that question. What I have witnessed at state board meetings is one, our PGCPS team has done a phenomenal job of in in a state board meeting focusing on um these inequity issues of the report
098card and has represented the board very well on that and I was very proud of the testimony that I have seen from from the team. The other thing I witnessed is that the the state superintendent over a year ago seemed to fall into what I keep hearing over and over is a day away a day missing of school is a day missing of school like they're all equal and like we all know they are they are not equal. Um and there's a lot of judgment in there. Since then the General Assembly passed a a they passed a bill last year to do a task force and MSD immediately convened that task force. You could see everything on their website. And in at the August meeting they announced some out outcomes of that task force that
099from my vantage point were absolutely in the right direction. They declared that shame and blame has been way too much part of this and we need to stop. And they also are using the Attendance Works um organization that's aligned with Johns Hopkins University and others that that have the data around this that that PGCPS trusts. They've used the data in the for in the in the uh Johns Hopkins um faculty to present that data. So it's trending in the right direction, but it is not it is not completely where I think PGCPS board members have spoken about for many years now. Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much. Okay, great. Uh so I guess maybe final question is just I think I really appreciate all of my colleagues' opinions here and the biggest
100piece that I was curious about was the outcomes that you mentioned. So, there was the correlation I'm assuming the correlation is the causation of the students who are chronically absent having lower grades or fewer students that are having A's that are chronically absent. I'm wondering if we're using any evidence-based or research-based interventions, um best practices that exist around getting families and students motivated to come to school. If we can kind of isolate, you know, what are the different reasons, varying factors as to why they're not showing up. I know it could be things from, you know, some students have parents that are just not in the home um to walk them to school or um there there's all kinds of things, right? All reasons that we know. Um and so, just curious, is there any
101tracking of that and are we actually um you know, implementing any research-based, evidence-based interventions? Yeah, Dr. Faison and their team have done several focus groups um this year um in preparation for uh the unveiling of this attendance ambassador uh committee. So, they have several faith groups and others attached to support. But, their office would be best to identify exactly what's going to move forward. Yep. Great. Um I can follow up with her. Um I'll grab that information. I'll send an email to get that information for you. Okay. All right. Well, I see no other questions and I know that if we did have others, we'd have to vote on a third round and I'm not sure that um there's much of an appetite. So, with that being said and seeing no other questions, we're going
102to move to adjourn unless there's a raised hand for a third round. Okay. So, we're going to move to adjourn. The I'd like to inform the public that the next virtual academic achievement committee meeting will be on May 11th at 5:30 p.m. Please continue to check the Prince George's County Board of Education website for meeting information and updates. I want to thank you all for great discussions and thoughtful questions and your attendance. Our viewers, thank you for watching. There being no further business, the time is now 7:12 p.m. The April 20th, 2026 Academic Achievement Committee meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Thanks everyone.