001Could you stop? >> No. >> Um, >> you're so fashionable today. Look at us. Sorry, not me. Look at everyone else. >> Do not judge us. I >> wasn't going there. All right. >> So, it's great to see everyone. We're going to call this meeting to order. Starting with public comment. We have our first public comment this year's committee. >> Um I will call David Eley. >> And do you have time? >> I've got threeish minutes give or take. I won't take three minutes. I promise seconds. >> Okay, perfect. Yes. Excellent. Uh are we good? We're going my commenting. Excellent. So, hi, I'm David Eley. You know who I am. I'm fairly certain. But for the home audience and home viewers, I wanted to be clear. Um, I am a sixth through eighth grade German
002teacher here as well as the uh ITA first vice president. Um, and I came today because I wanted to make sure we're defining our terms that we're using. If I we I'm always going to use collective week. It's just how I go. Um, a month ago when I was here, there was conversation about programs that are happening in the different classrooms. And when I was listening, I heard the conversation circle around thoughts of engagement and participation, right? And my my I wanted to come today because I wanted to like caution that those are related but not necessarily. They are there's correlation but not causation there. Right? We can't say that we have a whole bunch of people participating in class therefore they must be engaged right years back we looked at the work of schlecti
003and levels of engagement that really was defining for me in looking at engagement is really the why students are doing the work that they're doing not the what they're doing right so participation is certainly an aspect to look at but it can't be the beall and all of our conversation when we're looking at are students engaged with this the other big thing that that does is it says is who are our experts in the room rather than who are the learners in the room, right? We know that not every student is that's how they're going to show their engagement or how they're going to demonstrate that they're really in. Um, so that's it. That was really just make sure I want to follow I'm following the conversation appropriately so that so I really just wanted
004to ask that we all have a common understanding of what these things are so when we are saying them it can be a more fruitful conversation and and there can be deeper understanding of where it's going. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Um and so now we have a for response. Um any sil any response from Emily over >> I unfortunately missed that start. >> Uh no I think it's a good point. I mean especially about correlation and causation. It's good to define the terms. It's good to bring it to the center of the conversation. So glad that you came and said that. >> I'll say it's I would love to talk to you more about it. I think I I have different I I probably have different understandings and thoughts about participation
005and engagement. Like one thing I will highlight because I do think it's important like in the work of the curriculum committee. >> I think both matter a lot in terms of our systems and I I I disagree with the notion that participation tells you who the extroverts are. I think there are a lot of ways for all students to participate regardless of extroversion or introversion. Sure. >> And that my hope would be that in our classrooms, our commitment would be that all students are asked to participate in the tasks in front of them all the time. Um, but we should talk more. >> Um, thank you for sharing. I appreciate it. >> Um, we student reps. What? I'm looking at the wrong agenda. You had it right, Emily. I had it wrong for the record.
006Um, so now approval of minutes from our work session. I know I've had a chance to read them over. Have you, Adam? All in favor of approving the minutes. Emily is opposed. That's weird. Let's capture that, Emily. >> Um, and so now we get into discussion items starting with elementary science curriculum. Um, Mary and anyone else who Mary had brought with her. I wanted to say part of like to frame for as David described our our massive words. Number one, March Badness. number two this meeting um is elementary science curriculum is I guess in some ways a natural extension of conversations we've been having around literacy adoption around math adoption and sort of like what is the current state of students getting a common shared curricular experience in the ICS we'd love to hear from
007you Mary >> awesome >> and by the way I'm so sorry one more thing um the time says 35 minutes that's that's doesn't mean we're going to spend 35 minutes. It just means in order to get to all of our items, we cannot spend more than 35 minutes on this. >> Got it. I want to use a couple of minutes >> um before we dive into science to give some some context for for everyone because some exciting things are happening in our state. So, one thing um that has been passed is personal finance um expectations that that's integrated into coursework um beginning next year for fifth through 12th. That doesn't mean that it's not happening now, but that it's it's very intentional and as well as enhance sustainability and climate standards. So, I know Dr.
008Grant was supporting the climate action group and so that was really exciting to see that come. So, when we're talking about science, um I want to be able to have some a shared timeline of what's coming down and some of these new initiatives. Um and also take a moment to really celebrate the where it sits in our continuation in our um continuum of steam. So because this last week I went to three different events that were really phenomenal. So, want to give a shout out to the fine arts um department because and performing arts because in the fall they have an event called collage which Nikki Zowl um Kristen Zeriski bring all the students together for one concert and they just did the British invasion concert for choir only at the high school last Friday
009night and wow >> great >> it was phenomenal. So I wanted to make sure I shared that. Then I got to go to Cuga Heights see the fifth grade musical and >> also great >> which was also amazing. So, Elizabeth Thawson, who is teaching at both Cuba Heights and Enfield, did phenomenal work in box the musical. >> That's funny. >> We have a couple of clips we're going to show. >> I really I would like to say thanks to our communication team that the uh British invasion choir concert is available and Minister does an excellent job of sending it out. so the grandparents or people that aren't able to come to it in person can access it. So that's really awesome. Um and then to the sustainability advocates their work given that we have this
010climate action and commitment to these standards today in this room just an hour ago a number of them were here for sustainability action planning with the cloud institute. Jamie Cloud um is an educator for sustainability and I would love for us at some point to look at her framework. Um and then there was one more thing I wanted to make sure I made you aware of. I'm going to think about it. I'm going to dive into the science, but I reserve the right to go back to that um other highlight. All right. So, um, if when when you're when you're looking at science, elementary science, um, and we were specifically looking at K K through five, kindergarten through fifth grade because of the FOS kits. I This is an internal document. I pulled the curriculum
011map. So, we have for educators curriculum maps. Um, and when I was revisiting some of these links, I want to give a shout out to Jen Wilkey because um, she developed some of the resources when she was um, Atosa. And you'll see when you click on I believe you have I think I changed the ownership so you board members could access those um, or the viewing rights rather. But again, this is internal. So this really maps out what are the standards by grade and I took a second grade example because we're looking at the FOS kit and EEL there's some overlap with say the pollinators study and so that when we're looking at the scope of standards we're trying to hit looking finding the intersectionality is pretty important. So that's why I mentioned that as
012an interdisiplin interdisciplinary highlight for second grade. I also linked the second grade report card so that you can see where the standards are listed and and why I'm mentioning this is because although the hyperlink on the very top our curricular support overview talks specifically about curriculum I I hope for us to not do that in isolation from assessment. for example, on the report card because as we're lining things up in the scope and sequence of the standards and when we're reporting on them card, we want full alignment. So I linked um the report card there too. So given the overview, so we currently use just to simply say we use phospit as our science curriculum and we also teachers also access mystery science that's gained popularity um as a resource. And as we're looking like
013right now a priority for this spring and summer is really looking at are the fostets still serving the purpose we had hoped they are. What's the role of mystery science? Um you know the the science test moved from fourth grade the state science test to fifth grade and there are required science labs and so at the elementary level. So evaluating that as part of our plan for our rotation. That's that's science is up right now um for the spring and summer. So I'll pause there. These there's a lot of links. So apologies to those who are joining us virtually um are here in the admin. So you can't really click in the air. on all of the standards. I'm happy to read one out if it's helpful. >> No, I mean I don't think that's
014ne personally I don't think that's necessary. I think I know Emily had we might have questions about what you said. >> Uh yeah, I have a couple questions. Thank you, Mary. >> Um >> one I'm curious about the impact of the um the assess the fourth grade assessment moving to fifth grade. Um I just like completely anecdotally having had a fifth grader last year, the teachers were like like it sounds like there the alignment with what they had actually learned. I think everybody seemed a little startled from who I had spoken to. >> Yeah. >> Which is totally valid given it's a state testing new you know trying to align it. So, I'm just curious if it like if that was what was the lesson from that like do is that like a we're shifting
015to something new or does it seem like the assessments were like totally out of whack with like what we actually what the district is hoping to actually teach in fifth grade or is it alignment curricula or was that just like anecdotal and that was not the experience that is most schools? Well, I think um I can't put a summary statement for all schools because I think each school had different experiences. But one thing that would be common is any change like that >> is startling in the first year because we're not necessarily sure what it's going to look like or you know just changing from one grade to another isn't as simple as you would think and there's >> or not but unexpected challenges with any shape like that. >> Yeah. >> Um and part
016of that too when I was mentioning the labs like the required labs where does it what grade level does it make the most sense to do those labs so that it's it's in alignment. >> Yeah. You know, I just I really want to thank um the teachers for again this is many years ago when I had the privilege of starting the principles just preparing for this test and setting things up and executing it was >> a real a real labor. >> Um they did >> Yeah. Yeah. Just for a clarification, it sounds like there was tons of teaching and learning going on. it seemed more of like a disappointing surprise of the test. >> Yeah, I could add just a a little bit of context um that the when the test transitioned to fifth grade,
017the structure of the test also changed dramatically. So in when it was a fourth grade test, there were two parts. There was a practicum where kids would do hands-on science experiments and be scored on those and the written portion, much shorter written portion. that practum practicum has gone away and has been replaced by those required labs or investigations that happen within the context of teaching and learning in the classroom but are no longer graded per se. >> Um and the test itself is now a single day written test that is much longer. It was about 50 questions. Okay. >> So the the amount of the length and the reading was really surprising I think to folks. >> Okay. And um one takeaway was it was a lot more about data literacy than it used to
018be because of like the re the amount of reading of charts and tables and so forth. So I think that was a big surprise and we're making some adjustments. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Um the only other question I have is with the foss kits is um have we have has there been success in like making sure that there were some adequate number of foss kids to um last the entire academic year for every grade level that was received >> and if not where that challenge might. >> Yeah. So the challenge isn't ordering well it's it's not really a challenge it's just a it's just not always working. Yeah, things shift and then, you know, we have to add or supplement or maybe a kit comes and it's missing something and >> um when they
019arrive at school, it's also an event. It's like a CSA is just that's what they remind me of, you know, their their grape crates um that are zip tied. >> Okay. >> But we have the availability of a whole >> Yeah. >> like academic years worth of >> Yeah. And you'll see, you know, on the second grade example had additional resources and supports We have um you know I wanna I do want to shine bright. We have um a number of educators in the master teacher program. I wonder if we have a higher I'm kind of one thing I'll follow up with is what our proportion is because it's it's been pretty amazing the number of people we've had go through that program. Um, and just to receive emails from them on science needs and
020hopes for professional development this summer for the following year. Um, has been really awesome. >> Yeah. And I just remembered what I wanted to tell you about was that the 19th was our regional professional development day. This was the first year we really made an effort to regionalize it among all nine component districts um and offer different things at different sites. Um and we learned a lot um for SE although we're talking about elementary for secondary we needed to get more differentiation for science instruction specifically. That was a request that came from that department. February and they and they were still on it. You know, they asked in February, so we were able to accommodate that. But um as people were looking through the catalog, that really helped. Um they were sending me, hey, next
021year when we do it this way, can we have this, this, and this. Um and science was a theme that surfaced. >> I appreciate all context. >> Yeah, >> I I know I have a few questions as well. Um you talked a little bit about like um bos kits you know still ser like are they still serving the intended purpose can you speak to what what are our student results in science like how are they doing >> fifth grade well over 50% >> and last year you know given that the the assessment has changed and moved um if we're looking when you ask that how are we doing are you asking asking specifically for state testing results. >> So like whatever assessment measures there are like I'm curious for like the the equity report card
022version for science, right? How are kids doing? Are kids doing >> well or like proportionally like in terms of the breakdown by subgroups >> and if that's data you don't have right now that's totally fine. >> Yeah, I would want to I would want to just >> I would love to request that data if that's something you'd be able to provide. >> Yeah, we can follow up with that. >> Yeah. Well, also related to that, just to look at the um like the fourth grade scores from the year before the test changed to the fifth grade scores after just to try to see like what happens when you move it up a year and you add substandards. What does that look like? Um just like as one data point, I'd just be curious to know
023start, you know, the starting point, you know, I guess the first time it was being administered. So >> there's so many caveats, but just to get a baseline. >> Yeah. I think one of one of the goals and and this year with the math strate math strategist position at the elementary having that final time being by theater schools was really important because then having sixth grade teachers dream so that we're bridging that that's the conversations that are happening around in science right How are students doing? What are sixth grade teachers seeing when students come are to them from our elementary schools? And just having conversations about what it looks like, what science instruction looks like. And with that, um, in every in every district I've been a part of, and then an anecdotally, I know
024this was true for like for one of my kids, >> um, sometimes science just isn't taught because of lack of instructional time in elementary, >> like like one of my kids just didn't get science K1 and two. Um, very well-intentioned teacher, like literally described it as not having time. Um, and I'm curious, do we have data on the degree to which because I've seen that in the past as an explaining factor for why students struggle in fourth and fifth grade is the attempt to then do standards coverage that didn't happen in earlier grades. So, do you have data on the prevalence of science teaching? Is it being taught consistently? Is there appropriate instructional time? Are teachers saying that they have time to teach science? Yeah. >> And again, apologies if that if that's information you
025don't have right now. I guess it's just information I'd love to request. So, not looking for an immediate answer if you don't have it. >> Well, I want to I want to share some some things that we do have. So, what we do have are scheduling musthaves, right? When we're doing a schoolwide schedule, what's included in the day? And we're seeing um time is a theme that we want more of, right? And then how we use that time. There's also multiple requests and the inter, you know, the the joy of science, the interdisciplinary nature of it at having some context. Something like a pollinator case study that's on this um our curriculum maps that that was came out of anti-marginalization case studies and then that how it's aligned now in second grade to EL and
026the FOS kits we can show do we do we go through and have every teacher write at the end of every day how they spent every minute for data? No, we don't. So, I don't I don't have that. >> Again, that's not a request, >> right? No, but I'm just saying like if if we want to know how many minutes science is taught every week in every classroom, we would have to ask teachers. We have schoolwide schedules that say, "All right, science and social studies are taught in this block." so that we know we all lot the recommended time for it. Um whether it's happening or not. Is that is that your question? Like how do we verify that it's been taught? >> Yeah. And I guess >> yeah verify like the degree to which
027it's being taught and if teachers feel like they have the because again I don't think anyone would you know I didn't like when I didn't teach science as an elementary school teacher it was because I did not have time to do all the things that were expected of me and so I'm probably just curious for like a straight like a simple data point x percent of teachers say that they are able to teach science >> to the degree that the ual dictates. >> And I I asked that mainly just because I I I'm thinking forward and I'm thinking about like the great work that was done for literacy um selection of curriculum in elementary um as opposed to literacy where everyone sort of knows like this is a central part of what happens during the
028day. I think it is easier for science a program to be selected but then unfortunately is not adopted because of constraints and I also know that like different programs I imagine have different times connected to them and so for me it's just it's a data point I want to know both to see are our students you know >> getting what we say we want them to get and then to help make sure that I I saw in the document that there's a a proposal for you know an exploratory year to get >> is this the exploratory year or is next year the exploratory year >> um I think next year it might say this this year >> if I were to click on it we like I forget the terms that I used in that
029um so >> I'll look real quick >> if you want to click on it um >> because next year would be >> the year before a program is adopted >> is my understanding >> yeah if if something was changed so we've had a long term a long-standing commitment to foss >> how I feel like since I was since I've been teaching in schools many many years ago >> more than same yeah more than 16 years >> maybe two decades >> it is I was saying the fus are like more like a tool right I mean as opposed to a a curriculum in and of itself that's more like the way in which we can >> study particular things >> it predates the era of like more comprehensive curriculum right like so there's now Ed reports
030which is a flawed but interesting website that sort of does the home review like you know they would review sixth through 8th grade FS as not meeting expectations like not doing standards coverage or being comprehensive they haven't done a review for K through five because they're still working through science I've never taught with Foss like I you know I I'm not I'm not stating don't sue me foss I I just um is it fair to assume that during the explorer multip multiple programs would be looked at with a goal of selecting one that will meet the instructional you know needs. >> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. >> Yeah. Because I mean we have for math and literacy I mean is is the objective to have one for science that's consistent that is >> yeah taught across >>
031which we yeah like we have now with FOS but like do we want to do we want to continue with FOS? If we're going to explore others and we're going to change, we're gonna I would just recommend we make a sustained commitment to that that we we have outlined how we would choose curriculum and collaboration with educators on I think page 10 of the contract. >> Is this something that would require forethought right now with fleshing for this year or are things like curriculum pilots or this sort of like four or five by themselves? Um, so I don't foresee um a budget implication that would be beyond what we're already assuming for the cost of curricular materials. I think the um so I'm really inspired by science education and the interdisciplinary nature of it and
032it's how those standards are written. you know, you can't tug on a literacy standard without hitting a science standard, which um is a beautiful thing about them in nature. If you look at you know some of the versions of the next next generation science standards it's taking that approach and that's why I started with the climate action stand or the climate education that's coming down the pipe because it's it's so integrated. So it's an exciting time. I'm curious because this whole time I kept thinking if the any of the EL um instruction that I have seen this year has been so it had been so clearly like intentional about like what the like the the message or the standard or the whatever is that it's trying to um employ to kids. um in in a
033really like great way to in in the way that I've seen it about like oh this is clearly like this book is tied to this activity is tied to this and they're all trying to introduce this concept are I'm curious if there's like >> do do curricula >> curricular programs like that like >> kind of do they try to even sell themselves on like you know a third of you know the whatever like that with the of the direction of what people can be teaching is aligned with like the next gen science standards or it's you know what I mean absolutely know that you know that you're already implementing a great curricula that >> yeah absolutely >> that you see the interdisiplinary nature of it even thinking about science yeah can you I that question.
034Are there other questions? >> I remembered the another thing that I wanted to make sure I said. Um, April 9th. So, the art um we have a really amazing um studio open art studio program at Dwit and Boon that started this year. Cali Bryant um really led that initiative. She did an amazing job and she's presenting on at DITIT on April night as part of our collaboration septa. Megan Fitzgerald has coordinated it. Um, so I just want to mention that because it's a a really another great thing that we have here that I'm really grateful to the community for supporting a budget that allows for the kind of arts technology and science opportunities. We have three minutes to discuss this topic. I have one more question and I would love to highlight these steps. >>
035Um >> this was just because you had referenced mystery science. Can you speak a little bit to sort of like who's doing that? How are they doing that? Why are they doing that? >> Yeah, absolutely. So teachers, some teachers were really inspired by it and wanted to try it. So they're almost piloting it a little bit. Is this something we're going to explore as one of the one of the resources that we're using? Um there's one elementary school that I would say if I were to look at a heat map that's been excited about it specifically it's alignment to some of the magnetic reading units and units. So to your question do programs sell themselves on you know alignment to standards or alignment maybe to other programs? Do they partner with other programs to create
036something that be part? Absolutely. >> Yeah. Resource people wanted to fill some gaps. >> I was going to say I wrote down two next steps and I wanted I'd love to hear people's thoughts on another one. Um, so we had sort of like that science data request. How are our kids doing both generally, eratively, by subgroup, and to what degree is science taught? Not interviewing every teacher on the number of instructional minutes that they spend on any day, but a more general query. And then I guess this is taking a page from something that Erin has pointed out a few times. Personally, I think it would be really beneficial to do listening circle and observations for elementary science if we're about to go into a year of decision making and piloting. Personally, like as an
037individual board member, I would be really curious to get a sense of what that looks like right now and what teacher perceive needs to be. What are other folks thoughts on that? >> Um, I of course welcome that always. I think that um I've heard from some teachers and I want to make sure that they have the extra time to do that. So to make sure that the listening circles um because it does kind of interrupt their planning time, right? >> Right. So I I mean maybe get the feedback from the teachers because if they don't have full time to do a listening circle which would be preferred because those are so beneficial maybe at least have like a questionnaire we can send them like if we can see what their preference is to honor
038their time and their work and their efforts. >> Um I think always double checking first before just trying to throw it on them would be great. Thank you. Great. Okay. >> Well, let's now we scheduled a maximum of around 15 minutes. Make sure we get to everything. Just talk about like the K12 site survey data. Um, I know I see you put a link in here. And I know that um just as a reminder for both the people in this room and anyone watching um we had gotten a presentation on the annual goals and priority survey earlier some months ago from Lynn. I know that some questions that were raised were around the questions themselves. So like are we getting the information that's going to be most beneficial for helping kids and helping staff help
039kids um and families and so this I think is the result of that conversation as well as agenda setting recordings. >> Yes, absolutely. And um >> just because I didn't bring any of the survey results data today because that was my understanding that we've already done that. So it was more focus on the actual survey development uh purpose and how we use it today. So that's what I >> brought and if there's data we want I'm happy to bring that time. >> I believe you have brought exactly what we wanted. You just said it much better than I did. >> Beautiful. I'm glad we're on the same page. That's perfect. Um, so in front of you and for folks at home online, it's linked. There's a two-page document, a front and back, um, that, uh,
040summarizes what the survey is, how it's developed and administered, um, and how we use the data. So, I will not read it to you, but I will highlight some pieces of it. Um, so just to some context, the goals and priority survey is something we've been doing for many, many years. So sorry I haven't had it. >> Would it be would people be a member? We'll try to follow just taking a minute to read it to ourselves. >> That okay. >> Sorry. >> More than a minute. How about a couple minutes? You want this included in the 15 minutes? >> I just need to know if I should stop my timer. >> Oh, you're doing a timer, too? >> Of course. >> Emily, >> yes. This has to be included. >> Should be fast. All
041right. Would that be helpful? >> Yes, >> I'm a slow reader, so yes, please. Let's do one more message and then I know Hey. have popcorn. Um, but all right, Lyn, take it away. >> Sure. Um, and I want to make sure we have time for your questions, so I want to be brief talking. Um but essentially the our partners social litics or K12 insight and they have been our partners since the beginning of of the survey which started I believe in 20 uh 2015 16 um very early in Dr. Dr. from timeare um have really been our partners throughout and have helped with several major revisions of the survey over the years. Um as seen in here, the last major revision was just postcoid. Um, and this year in response to some questions from
042folks like you over the last year, we are planning some revisions to all three surveys um to streamline in some ways, but also um align to uh some of the curriculum work we've been doing to really get at coherence of curriculum and the experience students are having in our schools. Um and then I also revising our staff survey, our teacher survey, um to gain some information and insight into perceptions around um the structures we have in place to support teacher professional learning and their collaborative planning time. Especially as we enter into next year where teachers are going to have more time to work together, which is wonderful. We want to make sure that we are supporting our leaders to ensure that structures are in place to make sure that that time is in such a
043way that it's impacting what's happening on Steven's desk. >> That's really all I have to share. >> I know I'd love to share just a couple of things that I've noticed that I think are really exciting. Um, first, social just find such a bizarre like why to name that. Um, I love that buildings are encouraged and I assume every building does it like create time and space for students to fill out surveys because we know that the major reason people don't fill out is because they don't have the time. >> Correct. >> I also love that all three surveys are being revised and just the focus on coherence. Um, and I also just want to highlight because I know I've heard this concern from some folks that like the district doesn't have access to individual
044responses because I know that it can be intimidating as an educator to fill out a survey whether the fear whether a fear of retaliation is real or perceived. I I've experienced that and it means a lot when we know that this responses will stay what they are intended to be which is confidential. Um >> something not listed in here too is that all questions on the survey with the exception of like what building and then broad role categories in the staff survey are optional so that um you don't have you won't you are stopped from filling out the survey after something makes you uncomfortable you just leave it blank. Sure, I have questions. I just wanted to highlight that and the space anyone feel free to cut me. But um so I guess Lyn, what
045does this mean in terms of um timeline? >> Yes. So, I just had a meeting with our folks this morning. Uh, the last few years we've administered the survey beginning late April and we are on target to be able to do that again. Um, I just need to confirm dates with Dr. Brown um to ensure that we have that. So, um it should be late April to early May will be the window for all three which allows us to have results back um by the end of mid to late May. so that buildings have time to pull together teams to look at that data before going into summer. Um, which is a challenge we had previously is that we got the results at the very end of June and then people kind of scattered and
046it was hard to. So that is our plan for this year too. Watch your inboxes in the next four weeks I would say for invites to fill it out. >> And I I see the the both eliminate and add. I know one question that was raised was around the length of the survey. >> Is there consider? >> Yeah. What consideration has gone there? >> Yes. So the um with the exception the caregiver survey has been our shortest survey. That is the only one where we are adding one more question that we eliminated. All the others there are more deletions than additions. So we are shortening the survey time for all of them trying to view questions. Um and social has helped us look for redundancy things that are asked multiple times in different ways. So
047um the survey slightly shorter this year >> and if and it sounds like decisions with the survey are those made at a building level. >> Um decisions with the content of the survey or how >> how the survey is responded to >> um how when we get the results back what we do with it. >> Yes. Yes. So that happens at both it happens at both the building and district level. So buildings receive site level reports. So they just receive their own data and they use that data through um they're given a structured data protocol that recommended to use. They use that data for internal action planning. then as a district use district-wide results um to inform like our ongoing improvement efforts. It's improved our uh DIP the last few years, our state um improvement
048plan um and um also used the mostly from the staff survey to really think about professional development and looking for those gaps between teacher perception and student perception is really where one place where we kind of tried to zero in say. >> And then in terms of then reporting back out to the board, is this something that would be reported to this committee to the full board? how and when >> it has varied over the years and um this is something I would encourage a conversation with Dr. Brown about the preference of the board and the preference of Dr. from we've done full board survey so full board presentations um in a couple of years this year I believe we did it just in curriculum committee um so it can be either >> I'm curious
049for my colleagues do we have thought I mean we have thoughts on that I I've been intrigued by the practice of the presentations in committees as opposed to the full board but I'm also the newest board member so >> I think it's easy kind of easy to expl saw it in a committee a little wanted to talk about it whereas I told you it's just like a little harder. So maybe we started here and if there's anything to go there I mean I'm open since you asked I guess that's >> it's probably better to ask board members who aren't here but we won't get it otherwise >> whereas we will and I do care why um >> I feel like Dr. Brown usually like brings something to his superintendent report to at least highlight some
050things. And then of course for me the big question is really partnering with the communications department to make sure that things that feel like this broader community are shared. >> I guess I'm no fish. I was it was me that made that sound. Oh, no. I was contemplating, but No, I was I was looking and I'm contemplating about this go first. >> I was going to say we only have a few minutes. So, I was just going to say is it I know it's the next step in our agenda setting. We'll probably just follow up and talk about like any timeline for bringing this information if it makes sense to folks like back to this committee and then determine there. I think the one thing that we haven't like I I don't feel like we've
051talked a lot about that I'm more interested in almost than like the just raw results to the survey is this important work that seems to happen at the especially at the um at the individual building level to really reflect on it and inform practice and that is what feels really interesting to be able to highlight um and especially again thinking about like the community perspective to understand that like and and educators as well for sure and and everybody now that I think about it answering the survey to say to really be able to reflect and say like I I answered this and they heard something and these are just even highlights of the of any adjustments or changes or ways. Um because I feel like over the years the conversation has always come back to
052like what's happening with this information and even if the information continues it seems like you're making great updates to it to try to get as meaningful of information as you can but being able to hear like oh wow this wouldn't have happened this year had people not g feedback on x y and z that would be that would be an perspective they Anyone want to think before we transition? Next up, um, MCAST. And so here, I guess speaking to the question I asked in the question that Adam answered, uh, Mary, I think Mary you filed some MClass data. I think it went in the agenda after that since we need a couple of minutes to look at it. We can absolutely take that. But I think the reason I was hoping to bring this to
053us is to sort of see how are our students doing but also to ask ourselves this data is this something that we would recommend get sent to the full board essentially just what if anything should we do with the data that's being presented to us that is collected. Yeah. Do you want us to put the presentation up on the board or do you just >> Certainly. And I know we have a limited so I probably the intention was just to sort of basic >> very very >> thank you. Um so we just wanted to build quick context around how we are doing. Um so this first slide is looking at um Ithaca City School District versus national data. This is one thing we've really gained by um engaging with amplify in the MCAST system. So
054Dibbles 8 is the assessment but we get this large uh national data set which we compare compare ourselves to. If you see on the left um over the last year and a half, Ithaca has um consistently outperformed the national data set in grades K through six. So that is exciting and that we are seeing um you know looking at this data, the goal is to grow the green and the blue. Those are kids that are at and above benchmark on beginning, middle, and end of year. That's what BOI, MOI, and EOI mean. um and we are we are doing that um you know throughout the year. So you saw the decrease in across the three periods in 2425 and then we're seeing that same decrease in beginning to middle of year here. Um I do
055want to just draw attention to grade six. Um we'll see both the ICSD and the national data set that the the percentage of students who are performing below or well below grade levels. The red and yellow actually grew from both local and national data at that grade six. And we'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. So, yay. We're happy by this about this and see if we can take it. This is composite score. So, this is looking at all the measures of of the test of the assessment, I should say. Um, this is small on the screen, but what we're looking at here is on the left for beginning of the year to middle of the year, the measure of reading accuracy. So, this is oral reading fluency accuracy. the amount
056of words read correctly per minute. Um, and oral reading fluency is a is a very strong predictor of comprehension. Um, it's like one of the highest correlations there is. So, it's a really great quick measure. Um so what this highlights on the left we can see that for accuracy we our kids are doing really well and like as we are moving from first grade down through six sixth grade um very small percentage of kids that are at or lower well below so um less than 20% by fifth and sixth grade which is really the sign of a very of a strong and healthy instructional system. So that's something we're celebrating and is is really the result of our several years commitment to foundational skills instruction and coherent curricula. What we're seeing on the right now
057is that um where we have room to grow is in fluency. So this is a fluency measure or the words read of words per minute. That's a measure of both speed and procity. Um and we always want accuracy before fluency. So this makes sense and as kids become more accurate they become more fluent. But this is a real focus in our conversations and buildings right now about what are the instructional moves that really promote and build fluency at both the tier one level and then how do we intervene. So that is for K8 I would say and we're having starting to have some really exciting conversations and I think that will be a lot of focus for professional development in the coming um months. Uh last there's two more slides. This is looking at cohorts
058of kids. So um it's actually the bottom row is our current first graders. So it's looking at last year the highlighted columns are beginning of the year to the beginning of the year. So it's looking at a cohort of kids. And the celebration here is that every cohort had uh more kids that were at or above at the beginning of the year than in the previous year at the beginning. So we want to see that to continue right. Um so that is a sign that we are having um continued growth and just cumulative growth I would say. We will continue to watch. And the last one, this is part of our uh what where we shared with the full board from the state of a district address also on our website looking at um rate
059of growth. So this is another measure that the MClass system gets gives us that we didn't have before. looking at students that that perform at a similar at a similar place with other students across the country, how they perform and what's statistically possible. Basically, um so the kind of the purple line is showing that about 27% of our students who are performing below grade level are experiencing above average growth. So that means that as gap closing trajectory changing growth right eventually gets at or above grade level we what we want is to see a 100% of kids who are below grade level or having that accelerated growth. So that's what we've got. We are um having MClass is really giving us a shared some shared data points that are really informing instructional conversations. um day-to-days
060the elementary level where grade level teens come come together this at uh are having really powerful conversations that are changing what we're doing with kids um to ensure that they continue to experience that growth >> thank you so much for presenting >> this really exciting growth and especially even the areas that aren't exciting in terms of growth they're exciting in the sense that we know then what's going on and we get for it do you have I am I always say that I all all my educational experience is in like high poverty schools and so I'm not used to asking the question but like do we have the data from by again by subgroup >> we do absolutely yeah we available in a Tableau dashboard to all of our building leaders and data strategists are
061using that data >> and can we see that itself um >> we can definitely provide that um yes I just have to pull it Yep. Just what I've never thought of. >> I mean, just a congratulations to you all and to all the educators and I feel like we're just getting like repeat uh presentations of showing like really meaningful and exciting. Um, so appreciate that and certainly I think that as we talk about group curricula selection and kind of the the the challenging start to adopting new curricula or or even evaluation systems like this. I think this is we've watched MClass kind of grow over the last couple of years and it feels very um promising to kind of be reminded of how we get here eventually and um so it's exciting to see it
062like come come to fruition and see all the data. Thank you. I also wanted to highlight because if there is a connection to make with the science just you know to thread the the needle with the science um there's an organization called TNTP formerly the new teacher project they recently released like a policy brief about coherence and so that's a word that's come up a bunch >> and I a thing I appreciate about it is it essentially is just a description of it's a highle description of what you all the collective educators have been doing around foundational literacy and it works in foundational literacy and it also works in every subject. And so I think the more that other adoptions such as science can mirror this process of let's be really clear on what we
063want our students to learn making sure that we provide a clear guide for educators to give a coherent experience and then to make sure it happens and to commit to a period of time. Um, I think we'll see similar some more positive benefits for students with science. So, I just wanted to echo the thank you. >> Yeah. And just a huge shout out to teachers. Teachers have been working so hard and are just um really inspiring in the ways they can come back to the table and say like what can I try different or how can we be more cohesive? I mean, I I still have it the sort of the same I feel like I need to look over some of this data a little bit more because it's a lot of numbers and
064I'm looking and scanning back and forth. But, you know, one of the questions that I've raised a lot is, you know, when we see differences in their models, you know, how we can tell that they're meaningful differences. So if you if in one group they get 56% and another group gets 58%. Obviously 58 is higher than 56 but you know is that a statistically significant difference between those two groups or like how do we take this data I mean it's so one data point is just to look at the percentages and that is good but I feel like the next question is to try to say you know are there meaningful differences in groups and then maybe to like highlight some of those meaningful differences like hey in this particular group we went up 11
065percentage points and that's you know at the you know not to get too nerdy about and then the P equals 95 or 99 percentile. It's not that hard to do the stats. >> It was significant. Um the other question I'll be done. Um and and these are really just just math questions and and data questions in general because we have to know what to do with the data. >> Um I think like also the take-home points like like if it were to have gone up 3% or 4% and we found that that was statistically meaningful, what would we make of it? Like so what would we attribute that change? Like what is happening in the classroom? like we can say well we we started a new curriculum and now we are um you know reading
066a lot better as per the statistically significant data and we you know we want to say that it's because of the teaching methodologies and what we've been doing in the classroom um and not just you know other factors you know like so so I think these are just kind of general questions about discussing data that I think a lot about maybe as psychologists definitely psychologist And I know not everybody thinks of the data in the same way. So just just putting that out there, maybe we could have a conversation. Yeah. >> At some point about how to look at the differences. >> Yeah. There's one um researcher and I know we have to move on, but Denver public schools their accountability measure in the state of Colorado adopted a growth measurement. So looking at growth
067>> um rather than proficiency and isolation, And Doug Reeves has a has quadrant of how categorizes his research categorizes low growth, low proficiency, high growth, high proficiency, you know, different coupling along the continuum that I think gets as exactly what you're saying. So you're looking at the growth data alongside some other summitive measures. What trends do we see and what does it mean? >> So I'll I'll share that tonight. Um, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any chance? >> Um, so our last item and we'll just spend seven minutes on the six minutes on this so that we can get up and move before the next meeting. Um but Zach um just so essentially this conversation started um a conversation around typing and keyboarding um based on like realizing that it wasn't being taught systematically
068in the the city school district. Um and I wanted to explore that a little bit more. Zach gave me some really interesting historical context. We're hoping that he would share it and that we could ask what ask in particular curious about data that might be helpful for the board. If we were to bring to the full board the idea of if we buy the idea that students should be explicitly taught something that they might not learn on their own which is the skill of typing and deboarding what data might might we want in order to bring that to the board and say hey maybe we can do something. >> Take it away Z. Yeah. Uh, thanks for having me. So, uh, the questions around typing. Uh, typing has been a sort of a peripheral skill
069that is taught throughout elementary schools. I mean, many of us have stories of how we learn to type and often there's a a nexus in a in a classroom somewhere. uh from a district perspective um I've been working in and around instructional technology our district since 2014 I believe and at that time we started going to that the onetoone model of devices I mean part of the rationale and part of that that concept was you know we wanted to provide devices and access so students um could learn how to you know access technology and use it and the the philosophy that uh that we you know supported with that is that you know many teachers would ask hey what should I use for typing we would often refer uh teaching teachers to a program like
070typing.com but there's a whole bunch of typing without tiers there's a whole bunch of different programs out there um and usually folks would just get use the uh free versions and then the um the there was no centralized program adopted they would just sort of different teachers would approach uh you know use a program for a couple of weeks. They might use it in the library for a couple of weeks. It sort of it's it's different um in each school and at each grade level. And the idea was just providing some exposure over time and that the uh the thought is that then students would then engage in authentic tasks on the devices that were then provided. So every homework class uh students would engage in you know writing a poem on Google Docs for
071example and that would help reinforce the typing skills and um that's sort of like the how typing has been supported over the last 10 years. So that's just the historical context of just how it how it is and where we are at. It's never been a uh sort of targeted finite initiative, but rather just a here, you know, when on the technology side when asked, here's some tools you can access, here's our recommendations. >> That's yeah, that's that's the history of it. >> Thank you, S. >> Sure. >> And so like where I came at with this was I guess coming out of the conversation around foundational skills and data. Um, part of why I think Ethica has seen a dramatic increase in our students being able to read at a foundational level is because
072of a burgeoning understanding that we must explicitly teach the things that kids won't learn on their own and typing is one of those skills. Um, there are New York State standards connected to typing um, access and proficiency. Um, there are time typing adaptive programs. So, as an individual board member, I believe that we should explicitly teach typing and have instructional time laid out and one platform that the district purchases for staff to use. Um, >> I agree with that. Just that's one more point though having watched you know kids go through elementary school and not specifically learn how to type it's something that I want them to learn and something that I I know I've seen both anecdotally personally professionally like I see the negative impact it has when students don't get it and often
073it also stratifies by access and and income. Um, so I guess the question is what could what data might we request that would help us move forward, which is sort of like knowing the current state outside of the historical content? >> You mean like if we found data from other places that taught typing and what outcome some outcome that was associated with typing proficiency like something like that? Do you mean when you say data? I I mean I guess both yeah like like what what is the impact of like teaching typing but also I guess how are our kids actually doing like like what are what do teachers say what do students demonstrate in terms of their skills. Um I I wanted to bring this to the committee as a way to try to go
074what is the best step forward if we think that there's this thing that would benefit kids and there might be a clear path forward. How can we what can we do about it? >> I um I think it's like a worthy conversation to have. I think it's a important skill. I also we just finished a whole conversation about how we have concerns about fitting in adequate science instruction. And so again, it's one of those kind of competing pieces about what the um the greatest priority is the biggest impact on on long-term, you know, health and well-being outcomes and uh and such. Uh so like would I love for my kids to like have ample time to be taught have a type? Yes. I also would love to understand like what ways in which they like
075I have no idea like the benefit of just having one to one devices which they did not but since they do they're like on these computers all the time. I'm certainly never taught how to type and somehow figured it out. I'm not saying that that's how it works, but I just like with all of the things like I know I have a very everyone >> dog's like I'm the one that put those one to one devices. Well, but maybe but after like having an elective in the high school saying like I think it's like a worthy conversation, but I like I think I would be very far away from suddenly saying like I really support like putting this in, >> you know, trying to fit this into the day every day. I also just saw
076like a big study that was released in Norway that was like having kids on computers and typing. They're actually like their brain um like the their brain is actually lighting up like it so much less than when they are doing handwritten work. um you know we only did that when we were so for me the skill is important is that I'm oh my god if we put if we're prioritizing putting kids in front of computers even long the taking away the opportunities to write and to engage their brains in different ways. I just think it's a very like complicated question of how when >> there will be less labor when they're when they're typing faster >> and their brains are like sleeping and they're just like I don't know >> typing turns out to be
077very controversial >> and because the other meeting is about to start I recommend that we table this absitian study >> I did read the study and I have lots of thoughts >> what I it's my job I read stuff all right so um but if it's okay I think we should adjourn I think we should close the public meeting take a quick step outside >> spike. No, step outside, not spite. Um, and then D6. >> So, does that automatically table? >> I think I think I think we need to revisit it because >> So, well, I heard you start a motion for a table. >> Motions aren't necessary. >> I want to know so I can prepare just like should I be ready to come back to speak? >> We don't know yet. But >>
078but you're welcome to come back think about it anyway. >> Well, sure. Whether we meetings, we can also have conversations. So, I think that might be beneficial. Speak. Can I talk to