001and welcome to the great committee. >> Trisha, how many people want to speak tonight? >> No one. Then let's hop right in. Um it's great to see everyone. Those of you who are here, um welcome, I guess. Um we are going to start off. We are going to We've called into order. We have no public comment unless someone here had a public comment and they did let Trisha know. Going once, going twice. Done. Um and now I guess we're going to approve the minutes. So, does someone have a motion? >> We don't need a motion. >> All right. Well, I I would like that's one anyway. >> I move to approve the uh November curriculum committee meeting minutes. >> October. October. >> Yeah. It's been a while. October. >> The October curriculum committee meeting minutes.
002>> I guess I we vote on that. >> I was just like, great. Yeah. >> Great. We've approved it. >> Yes. All right. check us out. So now um wanted to talk about the district vision um for the um for our curriculum committee and sort of our approach to curriculum within the district. You can check it out. I'm not sure if you want to project it for folks to see. Um I can go ahead and read it. We a little bit of context. We collaborated on this in our last meeting. We talked about how we were going to share it with parents and stakeholders. We were going to share it with teachers. Um I did we did agenda preparation with Katherine from the ITA and Mary from the district office and we landed at as
003part of our work that regardless of school educators provide students with a consistent and shared experience. That means that at the ICSD students would be part of a safe and supportive environment that focuses on learning and that educators will provide students with active engagement in common curriculum and instructional strategies. Um, I would love just to hear this is pretty much based off of the feedback that we've received and the direction that already is happening based on some of the excellent work of um of Mary and then folks. Um, so I'd just love to hear from I guess from Adam, Emily. Anything about this resonates with you? Anything that you are excited about? Anything you want to tell the world? >> I have nothing to tell the world but that I read it over and I
004agree with the statement. Oh, my screen. >> What happens with a a vision statement that's developed at a community level? Well, I think my hope would be that when the board gets to the gets to build goals that we the curriculum committee would say, hey, like this should be part of our board goals because we know that students in the ICSB should have this, right? And that this then is the grounding for the work we do. But when in a moment, one of our one of our folks is going to present a little bit about an app, the approach, the format curriculum. We're looking at it from this lens. Is are what we is what we're currently doing for M supportive of students having a consistent shared experience? Is it supportive? Like are we doing
005what we should be doing so we get a safe and supportive environment that focuses on learning and are we and then to what degree are we building or I'm sorry not building but implementing common home. So I think it starts off with the work in this committee hopefully will become more of the work of overall our understanding in the district and our statement of goals. Does that resonate? >> Yeah. Um the question about uh I'm curious especially as you spoken with Mary and Catherine about the common curriculum and how that actually our current approach and our our what what they have open for >> I think that's what we're going to talk about. >> Great. >> So at this point um if there's no other disc anything else we want to talk about with 4.1
006vision. So even though I don't think we have to let's let's vote and say do we adopt this as our curriculum committee vision. All in favor all opposed. Um Erin is not present but that's we are I guess unanimous. Um so now for math curriculum we'd love to bring up Mary um to talk to us about the approach and everyone who's here. This is really exciting. So let's give them a round of applause. Thank you. I know at least one person in the audience, but I'm not going to call them out because that would be wrong. >> Good evening everyone. I'm Mary Grover, your assistant superintendent Martin. >> I am Katarina Nichols. I am the math teacher leader K8 and we've got a presentation. We're going to show up on the board here, but um
007I will There we go. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Um, so we're going to go through here. I've got a lot in here, so I will go through kind of quickly. >> Just for my colleagues, how we would like Pat and I were talking the way we're going to approach this. It's going to present a little bit of information at a time taken from the best practice that we see in the HR committee meetings started by our amazing Emily. Um and then we can ask some questions ideally ground them in sort of like their vision and then think about like build understanding about what's going on in app and then uh go from there. >> Perfect for yeah feel free to jump in at any point. >> Um so we have a curriculum overview assessments information
008about ongoing PD. I put discussions a question at the end but again feel free at any point. My name is Cat. I've met most of you. I've been in the district for a while. I just like to introduce myself. Um so here's what I'm doing here. >> Oh, introduce myself. Um, I taught quite a while at Boon. I also taught at IC at the same time. Got a lot of insight, I think, because of that as to like vertical alignment across grades within math, which is a little bit of how I ended up in this uh position. Uh, so as far as curriculum that we use at different grade levels, K through five, we use Eureka Math Square. We're in our third full year of adoption with that. and then sixth through 8th we do
009amplify Desmos math and we're in our second full year of adoption of that. Um as far as leadership with both of those at the elementary level we have a team of math strategists that I lead. So um we have one math strategist per building and those people work on a team with me to support math K through five and then our department leaders six through eight support math. Um below you'll see that we have a pacing guide for each um elementary and middle school for each grade level. And then we have um some additional supports first in math that's FIM up there that is funded by New York State uh through the expanded math access program and that is a fluency resource. So that's available statewide K through eight. What does it stand for? >>
010First in math. It's a digital uh resource for fluency and practice. And then at the elementary level, we have CERN as a support. And at the secondary, we have EXL. And those are more for um practice. That's not a curriculum. Those are just like skill practice tools. Um I'm sorry that I have some animations that did not work here. It would have been a little uh cleaner, but u our this is a view of our pacing guide. And I'm just going to stand up to just kind of point this out to you. We've got suggested dates by module. We've got assessment, um, professional development, and big ideas. So, we have that for each grade level, K through eight. Uh, and on the back we have additional resources. Uh, so again, this pacing guide is centered
011as a rough outline. make sure everyone is going supporting the curriculum at roughly the same pace because complete perfect day-to-day alignment is impossible. Just field trips, things get in the way with that. Um, we've got resources for based on standards, caregiver resources, which I'll go into a little more detail about, uh, supplemental tools, district assessment, all the resources for teachers to dive into. Um, so I'll talk a little about caregiver resources. We have some caregiver resources that are built into our curriculum. One of them is family math pages. So for each topic, so that's typically anything from three to eight lessons at the elementary level. Uh we have family math pages that can be sent home uh that explain to families what your child will be learning that week. And what I really like is
012on the reverse of the family math pages, um there are at home activities and all of those activities are just they don't require any materials. I think it's a really equitable approach to providing activities for families to support the math content without requiring anything additional. Um many of them are verbal or they use the students body. Uh so that's one great resource that we have within the curriculum. Um, and then we also have so one thing now that we're at this caregiver because cat this is the no the fine that's great. Um, I just want to point out for people listening from home that this is up on board docs and the blue are the live links that you would be able to click on and dive deeper into um, for those watching from home.
013It's a really phenomenal resource and I appreciate your work putting it. And >> K through8 >> um this is this is designed specifically for K through five. Um I I mentioned the K through8 curriculum. Um our math department leaders are not here tonight. So I I would I would default to them on a lot of the K through8 resources and most of what I'm talking about tonight is at the K through five level. Although I would say this the math myths are taken from the numerousy briefs re released by the state last fall and so that those that application is K12 the numeracy briefs and so you'll see parts how to talk to your child about math is applicable all grades >> if possible before we go into can we go back to the the
014slide right after your introduction I imagine we like questions or followups. >> This one right here. Yes, >> I know. I have questions, but I'm not sure. >> Um, I just had a question about this the map information that's sent home. You said that it can be sent home. Is it how how does that get decided or monitored or like what percentage of teachers are sending that home to students or parents? >> Yeah, I think it differs by building. So, some of the There are two student workbooks um for K through five with Eureka math square curriculum. There's the learn workbook which is meant to be in class supports and then there's the apply workbook which is meant to be sent home essentially as homework. Some of the schools do not give homework at the
015K through five level. So depending on the school some student some schools send the workbooks home and those books are in there. Uh some teachers choose not to send home the apply books but do email this home with their weekly communications with teachers. So it it varies by building. >> I I I have followup questions about that. >> Can I go ahead, >> you know, I'd like to add um so part of our goal is to have consistency across all eight elementary schools. So there's another slide that we went through that pointed out the Matt strategist role. So being able to norm around that and what's happening at each building, the professional development that's happening with Cat and the math strategists and that has been divided because of the need to not um stress our
016teacher substitute system is divided into feeder schools. So as soon as we go through more and answer your questions, I do want to talk about norming around that so that all caregivers are getting access to this content and you know how how to engage with a child in math because many of us the way we were taught math is not the way that math is is taught math. And so really um I would suggest that it there are caregivers who are interested in this resource and not receiving it at this time that they let us they let us know so we can collaborate on because there is this family map that goes out and there's also there's also sending it out and then people sending it and being able to access it and that's our
017work. So, I'm I mean, for me speaking, not as a board member, but as a parent, um I have I've never received for any of my students any information like this, nor have I ever received a weekly report of what's happened um at middle, high school, or elementary. So, I like my question, I guess, goes to if we want a shared and consistent experience. I guess I'm hearing things that seem not in line with that. Like if if we're not if we don't have a consistent approach to homework, if we don't have a consistent is there like an option if there's parent communication or not or work or not, how I guess what the what are the next steps then? >> So I believe the next steps is having the conversation because I was at
018one school today where these were being sent home. So norming that practice among mass strategists so that we're partnering caregivers is going to be pretty important. So that's >> and the math. Can you talk to us more? setting that as a goal >> that by next year at this time that if we were to survey parents they would say oh yeah I've seen that >> right and I mean if it's available like it seems like it's very readily available just to send it home is isn't that hard but obviously there's different ways to do it different methodologies but it would be great if it if it does exist that all parents will be able to have access to if they want so I agree with that so Sorry. >> Um, were you planning to talk
019about the math strategist later or should we just Yeah. >> Yeah, I can I can hold it that again. >> So, yeah, I guess I'm I'm still on the Okay. Um, can you go back to the Eureka Desmos? So, I know we've talked about this in agenda setting, but I'd love to also just to surface it if there's if it were in the third year of Eureka and the second year of Desmos. Um, essentially, how many years are we committed to those programs and when do we reevaluate? I know that I know for me as like a you know like for me as an educator I think it it was both really helpful to know that there's a period of time that for sure we're doing this here but also a period of reevaluation. So
020just love to understand the timeline. >> Great. Thank you. We are committed five years to end the curriculum and then to collaborating with teachers on evaluating and selecting any new curricula through a process that was very successful. I believe um 3rd through 5th when we embarked on magnetic reading and choosing that and and having a collaborative approach that has been our roadmap for YAL for literacy and we would want to moving forward use that same um that same approach for math. So we're in year three and year two right now. So >> yeah, I just put it in. >> Oh, got it. >> Um, and then with the timeline. Okay. So then I also noticed like the Zern and EXL, I'm curious like why are those programs chosen? Like are they designed to be used
021in conjunction with Eureka and with um Desmond? >> Sure. Yeah, there I I don't have background as to why they were chosen. However, I will say that all of the resources that we use are aligned with the next generation state standards. So, for example, even though we use a different curriculum K through five versus 6 through 8, all of the standards of practice and the standards of content are consistent. Uh so that'll be the case as well with uh those resources and a lot of those are skill-based practice. So there will be skill practice that uh teachers can refer to to supplement the skill practice that's built into the curriculum. >> Okay. And what's and there what is the rationale for the for two of them as opposed to one of them? Like for Zern
022is >> I think it's a developmental choice. concern is is geared towards younger students and Il is geared towards younger students. >> Sorry, Mary. I'm sorry. >> No, um like the pacing guide, I guess similar to like the the caregiver question or ask for like how do we make sure it's a common experience? It sounds like the pacing guidance, if I'm understanding correctly, it's done so that um there's it's not rigid day by day, but I do notice in the pacing guidance that like it does provide a timeline. So like how do you monitor I guess like the timely completion of units and making sure the students experience the full scope of the grade level teaching over the year? I would I would say we put a lot of trust in our teachers like we
023give them these resources, we give them this pacing guide. We also have benchmark assessments which I have resources to talk about those but we do have checkpoints throughout the year where we're monitoring student progress. So I would say that um as far as like checking in and making sure teachers are staying on track uh we have resources for them and we have progress checks for students. So at the end of each module there's some form of assessment. I don't know if >> Yeah. I Let's Yeah, >> let's save that for when we >> Yeah. No, let's start when we're ready we can dive into the assessments because there's both formative and summitative assessments. >> Yes. >> First I'd love to know if there's any other questions around the curriculum component and then I wanted to
024follow up on that might be a few. Um I just had one question which we talked about in the past. Um if we have data surrounding how many teachers are making it through the end of the curriculum or like how far we're getting. I know it's difficult and it's not totally related to the teacher. There's so many factors that could make it hard to get through the whole curriculum, but you know any that we miss pieces each year and it has a cascading effect. So I was just kind of wondering about that like how do we how do we look at that and and you may not know the answer now but just this is more like a we should look at that question. >> Yeah. So I think yeah you said something powerful. We're
025in year three. So implementing any new curriculum there's an implementation learning curve >> and as an educator learning all right this is the piece this is a really this is a component of the lesson that actively engages students in their numerousy skill I don't want to cut that but I noticed last year when I did it um I spent too much time on it so maybe I'm going to truncate this portion And that's the power and what we are tracking in bringing educators together to talk about where they are specifically and prep for the next module. That's that's really important data qualitative data to be taking. >> Sure. >> So am I hearing a suggestion? >> Well, yeah. I mean that makes sense that makes sense strategy wise and obviously that would be the process
026by how we would go and check in with people. But then but you know when the year comes to an end it's like I made it threequarters of the way through I made it 87% of the way through. I think it'd be interesting to know how, you know, how are we doing in terms of leading the curriculum as it lines up with state standards because I think if we missed, let's say, 25% of the curriculum, the year ends and we only got 75% of the way through and we missed 25% of the state standards. Um, you know, that that just creates complexities and it would just be good to know how are we doing with that and then what can we do to make it better if we're not doing well or maybe we're doing
027really well with it. I don't you know, I don't know. So that's my question. >> Okay. So where that comes out is when we're analyzing the state testing data by the questions. What and it doesn't necessarily tell us that it wasn't taught. It might have been taught but it wasn't successful for a variety of reasons. So that's where we're looking at those trends because we're assuming our goal is that everyone's getting through all of these. >> I guess that's my question. Like I I mean what you're saying is I'm not trying to push back but it's an indirect way of measuring it. meaning like you could look at those the questions and say like oh what percentage of students are getting and if you know 2% got it right at the end you could say
028well probably they didn't get there but of course there's other factors that can make it so students didn't get there whereas just surveying teachers and just saying like hey you had 12 modules to get through at the at the last day of school what module were you on you know and they say 11 where they say nine then I'm saying that that would be another way of measuring it so um so I would just be curious about that question there there are many ways to get at that. >> Does that make sense? >> Yeah. >> I want to go back quickly like sort of building on this because I heard like this idea of like like we trust teachers as the the rationale for um like for not necessarily knowing when we've moved on the
029pacing guides. I want to say like every manager I've ever had trusts me and they also hold me accountable and like coach me to make sure that happens. And so I I guess I'm curious like outside of I trust teachers at the same time like you know like my my kid experienced a year where she didn't learn 40% of the math grade block because it wasn't monitored and the teacher needed extra coaching and support. So, I'm just trying to grapple with the disconnect between the pacing guides makes sense, but do we like what method either do we have or could we have to make sure that teachers are supported in needing that guidance so that every kid has access? Like I think about things like as a parent like if I know what's supposed to
030happen and when, then like that that helps me and helps the teacher, right? because it's just like another system of support for knowing that we're expecting all students to get it. So I guess just like is there a response to that around like how do we make sure students get it? >> Yeah. Uh that's the math strategist role. So this is our first year of the math strategist role and hearing we need additional support. It's building based in support of the principal led by a teacher leader in the district so that we're growing consistency across all eight elementary schools. >> So the goal is to >> and then if I'll I'll add and then the math strategist which we can share that by building with the link to that job description. So the math strategist
031is an overage. So I might teach third grade and have an additional period.167 to be able after school to run a professional development for my team to maybe choose during a prep to push in and do a peer observation of a week to prep materials for a caregiver outreach night, but then also to consult with This might be a good time to start talking about that. >> I think we should dive into that. >> If you're already in, did you have another question? >> Probably after this. So, yeah, talk to us about the best. >> So, um, as far as ongoing professional development, uh, last year we had on a volunteer basis a network of one at least one teacher per school and this year we have uh an expansion of that. Uh, we have
032our math strategists. We meet monthly. Um this year we're doing a book study on power up your math community which is all about high impact practices to transform the classroom. Last year the same group of people did a book study on u mathematical tasks for the thinking classroom K through five. So uh the leaders who are in each building who are supporting this have gotten pretty hefty math professional development beyond what their peers have gotten. um and that is to empower them as leaders to send them back to their buildings to give them the resources that they need to support other teachers. Uh we have monthly meetings. Sometimes we have a half or full day release. Oftentimes they're after school and during that time. Um we we support teachers and I'll go into a little
033more detail on in a minute. But we do have individual building supports. We have common professional development that is provided by so I created by me. We'll do it as a team and then it's turnkey. So those teachers go back to their buildings and they provide that to their staff via staff meetings. In addition to that, there are unique building goals by building because we we need that common professional development, but every building is different and the needs of every building are different. So u there's also some leeway for those individuals to support their buildings in the way that is most appropriate for that building. Um so we have we have kind of like two streams of professional development happening right now. Um we also are having grade level PD which is new this year.
034Uh what we have is grade level teams that are separated by grade level and Peter Middle School. So Ball Creek, CUGA Heights, Enfield, and South Hill. Those groups meet at grade level team and then Northeast BJM Caroline and Bel Sherman meet as grade level teams. Uh and they'll have three half day sessions per year. So we're actually you're catching us at exactly the halfway point. Uh so uh yesterday we finished our halfway point and we have another one on Thursday right here. Uh we have common themes. So there is some consistency in what the big takeaways are, but because we're doing it by grade level, we're able to tailor the content of what we're doing to that grade level. So we're previewing the content from upcoming modules. So it's always taken from the upcoming week
035in the pacing guide. So that teachers should have experienced things, should have had conversations with colleagues about best practice, about these specific skills and about how to approach skills in multiple ways. Um so coming back to the math strategists, our monthly meetings are about peer support, book study, professional development, and turnkey professional development. So again, we're giving extra support to these teachers as well as providing turnkey resources. Um so here are some examples of what we're doing. Uh we have a fluency launchpad. so that teachers during intervention time can use unplugged fluency resources with their students. So the way that it's set up is that Monday, Wednesday, and Friday there's an unplugged game to support fluency to have students interacting with each other practicing those fluency skills and then Tuesday and Thursday we have data
036talks. So those are low floor high ceilings. So there are like multiple entry points. We can take it pretty in-depth but there's a way for everyone to participate um to interpret real life data. Uh and then the one that's coming up for this month is a vertical alignment progression. So uh at staff meetings, all elementary teachers, even if they don't teach math, are going to be engaging about number lines and the progression of number lines and the importance of number lines and why it matters. So um that's some of the professional development that's being shared out districtwide. Uh and then there's some independent work to support unique building based goals. So, one building is doing a problem of the week. Uh, there are some newsletters that are going out, emails with like small tweaks you
037can make to improve your practice. And some schools are starting like buddy activities. So, I believe um they're doing like a fourth and second grade math buddy. So, the fourth graders come in and like support the second grade math learning uh which is a great way to get students working on their metacognitive skills and uh engaging with math in a deeper way. So uh that's a little bit about our math strategist. We can pause or if you'd like I can talk about the grade level math as well. Let's talk about the strategist first. >> I don't have any question. >> I do. Okay. Um so the map strategist is a teacher role that is point like what what percent of their time are they spent on that? >> So >> like what I'm sorry what
038so I'm trying to so if like what percent of time of the math strategist because it's not a full-time role devoted to coaching and support is spent on coaching and support. So, um, the teacher has a full-time teaching load and then it's considered a one.167. So, that's about an eighth of their aotted time on top of their role. So, it ends up being three to four hours per week additional time uh spent on we just had a little six reference. >> That's not funny. Um um and if if they have a full-time teaching load, you said like they would do things like observations in the classroom. How is that possible? >> Some are doing observations in the classroom. For example, our math strategist at Caroline recently recently took one of her uh contractual visitation days
039and went to every single class and sat in on math at every grade level. and then outside of school hours or outside of like her her teaching load hours was able to check in with individuals. So, she's now seen everyone in the building teach math and she's kind of supporting math as needed in that way. >> That's amazing. Is that And is that happening at all the schools? >> Um it's it's different building by building. Um partially because of teaching obligations and the norms within buildings, but uh there are lots of other things happening. There are some people running office hours. There's um I'll highlight Bel Sherman which is the slide that you see in the top right corner. Um, the math strategist at Bel Sherman is creating a weekly problem that features staff members
040and it's announced via their video announcements and classes have the opportunity to spend time solving it as a team and then any class who enters and gets the correct answer is entered into a drawing and they get a little prize and um, it's been going really well. It's a really popular um, part of their community now. there's some really great strate like strategies happening like this is exciting to see part of part of the R like I think I'm noticing a theme in my question so I just wanted to name it which is one I think that like so much of I I I I think I'm mainly just thinking back to the vision and the idea of like a consistent and shared experience and so I think that there's so many pieces that I'm
041like yes that should be every student's experience and where I I imagine without a s like without a very clear systematic approach and the staffing to back it up might not get to be a s like a systematically true experience for students. I'm just like really curious about that and also now that the budget season is upon us as well and this is just a noticing from my own professional background where I was a teacher and I was a principal and as a district leader is it does seem to me like IA has given our instructional focus and the curriculum we've invested in a shockingly low number of instructional coaching staff and personnel supports. So, I'm curious if like as part of this work they might be surfacing that um because I'm thinking about like
042the pressure I would be feeling if like an eighth of my if I only have an eighth of my time to try to lead initiatives around ensuring consistent parent communication like launching units across multiple grade levels. um because every single thing here is amazing and I wonder like do we have the systems and the staffing to ensure that it is I just love your thoughts on that. So there's one tension that um that not not a tension I think it's something to celebrate in having a consistent structure and the mass strategist at every building and you see some differentiation for the tools they're using to engage their colleagues and this is something we are having conversations about like we did with data strategists and it led to all right we're going to have this system
043for what I need time worked really well at this school. So, we're going to use that same system now across all eight. So, we're in the first year and there's some innovation happening and people are piloting things and I believe it's going to inspire us and inspire community to say, okay, that worked really well. We want to copy that. And that's where in year two we would see more consistency across all eight buildings. and for instructional coaching. I've had the privilege of being here now for um over a decade and it has gone really quickly and we've had different iterations of instructional coaching oldtime release instructional coaches shared across buildings. um technology integration specialists partner partner with OC's for instructional support. So I think that's an ongoing conversation with buildings where what's sustainable, what's needed,
044what do we need to add, how do we also engineer ourselves for success because there is a labor shortage. So bullying a a teacher full-time, that is something for us to be realistic about. um because then you're you're funding that and you're filling that role and u and it's not that that isn't instructional coaching is researchbased. It's impactful for students and we want to sustain it. The the time I've been here we have tried it twice and we have not been able to sustain it. Can you talk to us how long and I'm asking this from the lens of I really want to make sure >> to go on like I would love for us to create a shared timeline on that because I think it's important when we're thinking about what we're going to
045engineer for the future and the shared timeline is we have experienced budget constraints that have caused us to make some really hard decisions and in my time from my perspective as both the principal having an instructional approach that not continue to know um that was at the heart of it when the foundation aid formula was rewritten by the state that was >> you hear that local I'm sorry I don't know why I said that um >> if Governor Hokll is watching tonight >> you know she is something we're gonna lose all our styles Um, >> you know, there's things we can predict and there's things that we we can't predict. And of course, we're we're budget we're always budgeting three to five years out, you know, and and trying to make make those predictions. So,
046I think we have a real opportunity to get creative and and engineer it for success in a sustainable way. And so, you know, what I would push us to think about is with Cat's opinion and the current mass strategists, do we need a K2 and a 35 m strategist, for example. Um, so we shared one example of an educator using their release day. The other ways is you could if you had a certain period where your children were say at art that you could push in to a colleague. The other thing I saw yesterday was um or last week rather there was a the committee on special education there was a full day sub and there was some breakage in that schedule for special education meeting. So a teacher was utilizing that breakage to be
047able to go and observe a colleague doing the same module. So those are the kind of the creative things we want to ask educators for like is that working for you? What are the creative ideas do you have so that we're getting their insights to meet? Okay, I'll say that I I agree, but three to four hours doesn't feel like enough uh to support it. But I will also say that we went from zero hours last year to three to four hours this year. And if we're able to fund more than that, like there's there's plenty of work to be done. Um and so, you know, continuing to support that feels like a great great step. I know I personally and I assume I assume that the committee generally would just be very interested in
048thinking about because it also seems like a lot you all have accomplished a lot in terms of the implementation of curriculum with I could like I could argue like limited sort of like board pushes like support or like whatever the term is for it, right? So like I was wondering like with a with a concerted effort based around a common understanding how we can accelerate the work that you're doing because you're doing as I like to say the whole thing stated like you're doing a lot with very like you the master department is doing a lot with like based on the size of our district like with fewer personnel than I would expect. um and doing but yeah and doing more than I've seen in some districts. Um but more could be accomplished I assume
049with more people in systems. >> Yeah. Well, I think it just stuck out or struck me. Um, I think for us to get feedback about that at some point, like it sounds like you're you have a lot of initiatives out there, things that you want to look at. And when you look at that and come up with some kind of a um analysis of that and we get a sense of like, yeah, we actually do need more or no, this is enough. I think that would be a very helpful thing either, you know, on a committee level or on a board level to know like actually, you know, if there were four more positions that equal, you know, this many hours, we think that would best support the model that we're putting forward. And then
050when we're doing budget planning and discussing those kinds of things, then we would be having that on our radar as opposed to it just being like you guys just sitting there sort of saying like, "Oh man, if only we had more support or we we learned that we need more support." I feel like I would love to hear the analysis so that we can keep it in mind so we can maybe help support the need for more support. So just put that out there. >> Thanks. >> So just let us know the amount of money and we will find it. >> Right. >> Um that's great. That sounds awesome. We'll shape the money tree and down it down it will come. Um yeah I mean I think I think it just connects to like it's
051clear that you have well we should talk assessment sure I talk more wait can I also ask though that all this has been math strategist but there's a different approach at the middle school correct because they don't have math strategies they have a different role >> and they have department leaders >> can you talk like I maybe similar questions for the department leaders like what what are they doing what percent of time etc. Yeah. And I would really I would want to have the department leaders mirror for that conversation. I think it's it's a great question and we should add it to our action followup to hear from Kathleen Mary. >> My old math teach. >> Okay. So I will add that as follow. Um, >> do you want to talk to us about assessments?
052>> Do you want I have information about the grade level PD or we can jump to assessments? >> Your call, C. >> I'll tell you there's grade level PD going on. Um, it's ongoing. It is based on the New York State Numeracy Initiative. Uh, it was a series of eight briefs that were released in March. Uh, broken down into a couple categories. key ideas and myths, high leverage content and practices, key evidence-based instructional practices, and leading for mathematical proficiency. So, in the briefs, it's about leadership. Um, they provide a rationale for why we need ongoing professional development and support for teachers. Um, and so that's kind of the justification beyond behind these grade level professional development sessions. Um, and we're halfway through session two right now. So uh session one was all about understanding using
053and modifying curriculum materials. Session two is about high leverage instructional practices. So we're coming down to those you know eight math standards of practice and specifically focusing on number three which is all about math discourse and getting students talking to one another about math uh and you know planning out responses to students as you approach lessons. And session three is going to be about high leverage mathematical content. And all of this is grounded in research on math and debunking myths about math. For example, session two is really based on this book, Activating Math Talk. Uh and finding ways to get students talking about math because when we're talking, we're being sens. Uh so that's what's happening. Here are some snapshots of what's happening in those sessions. This is a fourth grade session talking about division
054using manipulatives to really connect division and place value and make sense of what division is before jumping to say the long division algorithm. Uh this is an example of a low floor high ceiling task. So it's a task with multiple entry points that can be addressed uh at a basic level or can be taken very deep. uh talking about multiple representations and challenging teachers to find every possible way that they can to solve a problem. So we've done that. We've done some number talks and dot talks. This one happens to be a tree talk which I don't think is a formal math term but uh the idea is not perfect. Uh but the idea is that we were focusing on multiple representations for um teachers and how students could uh represent problems. So if you
055have any questions on that, I'm happy to talk about them. But I'm also happy to jump over to assessment. >> I know I should know this. Can you mind? So if department leads to middle school, are you is your role specifically elementary or Okay, great. Thanks. Should have done that. >> Say with and it's so I just want to say and really give a deep appreciation for cat because everyone wants to work with catles and that is not a realistic. So that is why this year the role is K5 not K8. And um I also want to back up because I want to thank a a significant number of teachers attended a counted out screening and that documentary is about the importance of math and mathematical literacy as a gateway to preserving our democracy which
056is a really important common goal and inspiration to have when we're looking at these briefs. It is similar to what sold a story did for literacy counting out has done as a common experience for educators and caregivers in our district. I think we've had um we've shown the film three times with administrators then in collaboration with PTA council and then for educators for and and and we'd like to show it again. We've gotten requests to show it again. So I think that's important um context >> um for you to have. I think we had north of 60 educators attend the screening over the summer. So attention being paid to the importance of math as critical thinking and adult. So it makes like when cat um and I got to attend the lit or not the
057literacy briefs numeracy briefs. It was like we were running out of ink in our pens because we had this inspiration from counted out that gave us a lens to look and listen and learn from the briefs. So >> are there grants with if New York State is in the middle of the university initiative? Are there grants or statewide supports that we're taking? >> Um it's totally fine if you're not answer that question. >> I hate to say no, but no. There are previously writing >> there. Yeah, there aren't. This is an example. Same with the literacy briefs, right, Lyn? It's it's um their initiatives and um they're unfunded >> and looking at time, I know we should move to assessments. Um so maybe do that. >> Yeah, absolutely. Sorry for going in reverse here. >>
058I think it was the right. Thank you for being willing to put of course. >> Of course. Okay. So, we have multiple forms of assessment available. We've got classroom assessments, districtwide assessments. Those are common assessments. And then obviously state assessments. We're going to go uh backwards. Uh our state assessments are mandated. They're for grades three through five. They're aligned to the New York State Next Generation Math Learning Standards just like our curriculum. Then we have classroom assessments. Uh these are from the Eureka math literary curriculum and some teachers I mean there's there's constant assessment happening a formative assessment as teachers are responding to their students right but the formal assessments that are built into the curriculum there's a preassessment called a quick that teachers are able to give uh there's assessment during learning there are
059observational assessment reporting sheets so essentially the modules each break down the priority standard from that module and provide space for teachers to record their thoughts on formative assessment as it goes on. There are also exit tickets and topic tickets. Those are designed essentially to be similar to quizzes to qu do a quick check-in on how students are doing. The exit tickets are daily and the topic tickets are at the end of every topic. So 3 to eight days depending on the length of the topic. >> You said the premodule assessments are available. Are they part of like the facing guidance? Are they required, recommended, used in any way? >> They You're not going to like this. So, they reduce inconsistently. Um, so um last year we all teachers gave the first equip assessment. Uh there
060are some great resources in response to the equip assessment. The response from our teachers was that the resources were helpful, but the assessment actually didn't tell them anything of surprising. So what we actually find more is that we have teachers who are using the equip response resources. So there are many lessons to retach concepts that kids might have missed that are prerequisites for the current lesson. So I think we have more teachers using the resources that are correlated to the equip assessments than actually giving the assessments themselves. Uh but that's still a really helpful response, right? They're using their formative assessment skills to respond to students in the best way. Uh so >> yeah. Um and then we also have the topic quizzes which are the same as the topic tickets. I don't know why
061they're listed there twice. U this was screenshotted from Eureka Math. And then performance assessments and module assessments. Uh so the module assessments, that's your your unit test. Uh the performance assessment I actually encourage teachers to give not as an assessment. Uh as you can see there's a lot of assessment available. This is not including the state assessments or our common district assessments. The performance assessments are really awesome low high ceiling activities. They are they are questions that get kids talking about math integrating different components and different standards from different units. So, I encourage teachers to use those, but use those as collaborative activities rather than assessments. Uh, but they're available uh with the assessment uh information from the program. Yeah, >> you might have just said this and I might have missed it. I apologize.
062Um, so these assessments are universally given, inconsistently given. >> So, our expectation is that all teachers will give common assessments. There are three common assessments per year and I'll talk about those on the next slide. And then we'll also give appropriate assessments from the curriculum. Uh it is unreasonable to expect teachers to give all of these assessments. The children wouldn't have any time to be working on the map, right? Uh so our our response uh has been that we expect you to use assessments from Eureka Map Squared whether that's the topic tickets whether that's the module assessments and then add addition to that the four common assessments students will take throughout the year there are three common assessments that are within district and then they'll have the state test so >> so that that makes
063sense but just so I understand then that would mean like for a student I know this is unlikely But a student K through five could only have performance assessments at one in one environment or outside of the district mandated assessments in one in one like the experience of one student could be if they have performance assessments throughout their elementary and another DJF module assessment other DJF quizzes other combination I just want to be I'm saying that not as a judgmental question although it might sound that way but more as a seek to understand question around the impact of the current approach That could theoretically happen. More realistically, teachers are using the quizzes and the module assessments as the the main form of inath. >> And in your mind, is that the ideal state? >> I
064personally think there's too much assessment built into this this program. Um, and I think that the there is plenty of time for assessment. I recognize the importance of assessment. Um, and I think that my recommendation if a teacher's like, "Hey, which assessment site should I use?" My recommendation is the topic quizzes. They're frequent. They give helpful feedback to the teacher that allows for quick response and intervention. Uh, and they have they have four summitive assessments that are pretty hefty uh throughout the year. Um, so that's all right. So we have districtwide assessments. Uh we have two branches of districtwide assessments. So we have our Eureka Math Squared benchmark assessments. Um again this is our third year using Eureka Math Squared. So we're starting to get data that we can look at um over time. There
065are three assessments per year uh per grade per year, grades one through five, but they do not provide kindergarten assessments. We do have an internal kindergarten assessment uh for the end of the year. Grades one through two are paperbased and grades three through five are digital and these are cumulative assessing long-term retention. Uh so sometimes on the beginning of the year or the they're after every two modules. So we'll have two modules and then a benchmark assessment third and fourth module and then there are six total here. So that's where these are coming from. Um so this is our third year of using this program. Uh we've had we are also piloting MClass Math as an assessment resource. So we've used MClass reading and we've had a great response to that and MClass came out
066with a math assessment tool this year and we offered all grade level teams the opportunity to pilot that in lie of the benchmark assessments if that was something that they were interested in. Um so the structure is similar. There is three assessments per grade uh per year. It does include kindergarten assessments as well. It's digital. Uh and then it's curriculum agnostic. So it's assessing end of the year standards which is consistent with our reporting procedures for our report cards. So uh on the middle of the year test they might come across some questions that they haven't formally seen in the curriculum and some students might have might know how to do that and some might not. But the idea is that we're looking at endofear standards. Uh so those are our two common assessments. Uh
067>> sorry. >> Absolutely. >> Why why why a class that you talk about is like an option? Is it like was it chosen to like address a potential defic deficiency in Eureka math? Like just why was it added? >> Well, as part of the Yeah. So as part of the data strategist role and supporting just looking at assessment using these the MClass reading was successful and that was a tool that was appreciated. So being offered this to pilot is built on the successful literacy that you >> um I will say also um teachers I think appreciate having the feedback of like a consistent response to give to families akin to what they have for class reading. I think that's a great part of the system. Uh so how our resources support MTSS? We have Eureka
068Math Squared supporting all students and grade level content in tier one. Through both Eureka Math Squared and MClass Math, we have access to progress monitoring resources and turnkey intervention resources. And then uh again through both tier three intervention resources and I'll say that the Eureka Math Squared intervention resources are paperbased and MCAT has paper and digital. So, we have lots of options for supporting our students um at tier 2 and tier three. And that's that's our information about assessments. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. Um, can you talk to us about like if students how does family communication work with in terms of sharing of assessment results, sharing of like whether or not students are are receiving tiered interventions and progress monitoring? Um, what expectations are they to what degree are they?
069Like >> if my kid was getting tier three intervention, would I know Yes. Okay. Yeah. How that's that's part of know obligation tier two but I know >> yeah academic interventions it's required that we let families know about this. So and and having the information six to eight cycles. So you might hear your child's getting certain support for a certain period based on a certain skill and then that is either needs continued amp up or um decreased. >> I am one one question then we'll get it to an item that actually requested for the agenda. So, um I'm just if you could put up the vision, >> um I wanted to first of all this information is so helpful. It sounds like teachers doing such exciting thing. You're doing some exciting thing. I think there's
070so much potential for roles like hers, roles like the strategists have planning the work that you do, especially given the the commitment that the district has had over the last number of years to like have a more comproach than when I was growing up especially in math. I don't think I would if I was. I'm just curious if you look at this, you think about like if this is the direction you want to be going, what in your mind are the biggest strengths you like strengths right now in the approach to map? What are the biggest areas for growth? And what would you like us as a forum to think about, prioritize, give you all what you need to advance this work? If you want a minute to think about it, that's totally fine. >>
071Gonna say that's a lot of questions >> right now. I would say that what we're doing to support the consistent and shared experience is providing consistent professional development and allowing grade level teachers to work together across buildings to norm and to have time to discuss that. Um, for me, I think the biggest resource that I would love more of is time, right? Like we're we're doing three half day sessions, which when we say it out loud might not sound like a lot, but that's a big lift if you think about teachers leaving the classroom and substitutes and coverage. Um, and so the more support we can find for giving teachers opportunities to plan together and collaborate, uh, I think that that's that's one of the hardest things. I will say also, I wish I had
072a prop with me, but the teachers guides for Eureka Math Squared are about this thick and they are rich with resources. There's so much information there. Uh but giving teachers time to make sense of that to read it to begin with and then also to make sense of that uh is I mean if you I I just like you don't have a money tree I know you can't just engineer more time but that to me is a big sub. >> I would say the the biggest strength in the current structure that I see is the master role and the teacher leaders and that and their support. Um, I've had the privilege of attending a few staff meetings with their leading data talks and modeling active engagement and instructional strategies with mass square. So, I'm really
073grateful for that. Um, time's always going to be our resource. So, we have to ask ourselves, you know, what to stop doing to be able to continue more of something else. It is a finite resource. Um and then as far as supporting um asking educators what they need and when they tell us listen um and I and I do want to celebrate as we did in October, you know, we have double digit gains in in state tests in third and eighth grade and um a 10% increase in three out of our eight schools. So that's one indicator, but something you know that we shared out in October was a feedback loop for us. >> Um, >> to echo something Mary said earlier, like we're in year three of implementation with Eureka Squared. There's always a
074learning curve with the new curriculum. And so, we're at the point now where our teachers are comfortable with the curriculum and they're comfortable making the decisions in class that they know are going to benefit students because they have that insight that has come with years of use. And so I would expect that those numbers would continue to grow because we're continuing to have this consistency. >> Does the I just have one question. Does the assessment data um if shared year over year like through elementary school for example if you complete third grade you go to fourth grade fourth grade teachers see those you know benchmark assessments. >> Yeah I mean that's one of having that roll over is really important. There is some frustration sometimes with that being carried over year by year. That's not
075on our end but on the company's end. Um but that is important. Um what I hear just as things follow up with you know before we end I want to share what I took something. Um consistency on caregiver outreach pages. um getting input from teachers on where they are when in the curriculum concretely with the hope to support and then um an analysis of what we're currently doing and what additional support might be needed. The the only followups that I would add to that because I do think there's questions around like staffing and budget um and middle school and high school support like similar questions and information um >> got it protocol and ask question >> I suppose >> you started asking that question by showing the vision statement which I maybe I missed the
076meeting. I hadn't seen that vision statement from the beginning. And I'm wondering how you're reconciling this idea of shared experience and individual strategies. If that's what the committee came up with, what was the intent of talking about shared experience and at the end of it talking about strategies? >> For the sake of the next discussion item, I we should talk about that a little later, but that was like it's been a couple of committee meetings there talking about the vision. I just want to make sure we get to the next item and that trail board meeting. Is that okay? >> Sure. We cannot answer the question this >> I will not answer your question right now. Great. Um project innovation. Mary did you want to share a little bit? I know this but we have
077budgeted for >> Yes. Um and Lynn, um please feel free to chime in because Lynn has been leading this a great deal. So I with I didn't give any warning but I would love to invite you. Thank you. Um so project innovation is our inclusive summer programming that is K8. It has grown from first year under 100 students to over 400. Um last year we had just under 400 >> 380 students in prek8 um served by 23 class a lot of kids. So the application's going to be going out. So, I do want to make sure we're talking about it a lot so caregivers know as they're planning for summer that it is free to parents and families to have their student participate in it. There is not a requirement of a specific educational need.
078In fact, we're striving and the reason we have grown it is so that we have a heterogeneous mixture of students who can benefit from active learning. And so part of our strategy has been to look at the summer camps that fill up the first and then approach those community organizations as partners for shared experiences for kids throughout the summer. So we partner with circus culture. We partner with the children's garden as part of that. Um the location is to be determined. We have to find a building that is fairly centrally located and can meet the needs of close to 400 students >> in grades prek through eight. Very diverse age. >> So that is you know we'll thank the BJM community for hosting it last year. Great. So our hope do you want to talk
079about how we hope to leverage it to professional you know some of our ideas? >> Yeah absolutely. So we do uh we think about how um to leverage summer is one of the times when teachers have time available for professional learning um and how to be leverage our um project innovation classrooms for really um embedded and hands on professional development. So um having classrooms where teachers have the opportunity to go and observe um instructional practices being implemented with students so they can watch and then debrief with their colleagues which is something really hard to do during the school year. I'm also looking at it as an opportunity to uh really try out very intentionally some intervention strategies especially around math where we don't have as many uh really structured interventions to see how the impact
080on student learning and then grow those in our buildings throughout the year. So how can we be a curricular and a professional development labs? So that's something we're going to be mapping out and that as far as the cost of that. So as we're onboarding educators and wing welcoming them to our district, how could we have uh almost a two-eek orientation where they're part of project innovation. We also have used it to as part of our grow your own program. So hiring high school students as reading buddies who will then in the hopes that they will go on to become teachers and that's been really exciting to see. We have a few folks teacher students from our IHS alum who are enrolled in teacher school right now at this moment thanks to that. So this
081is currently funded through the 21st century grant monies from the federal government. Um we are this upcoming summer will be here five go so quick. So every 5 years we um in about March they will well actually um the last fiveear cycle they announced the grant in May and there was about a 3-w weekek window to apply um and they have it's a very robust grant application um and you know they are giving 425,000 character. So, it's it's robust and Lyn's done an awesome job reporting back so that um we will be favorites. Uh if that money is released again hopefully, actually probably should have said that out loud, but um if we will, it's something for us to think about, you know, as far as how to leverage it for support of professional development
082and teacher training. Um, and then there's a role to talk about this again with the finance team. >> I appreciate the multicon approach to helping students and also using a program that wouldn't necessarily be thought of as a way to sort of like help support and train teachers and do different things with curriculum innovation. Is it neat? how you've been able to pile on purposes for this program to just like make it better for everyone. So, it's taking full advantage of the grant money for >> Are there any other questions? I know we have to close out based on time, but if there are any >> I I think I think it's something lended for a longer discussion than the two minutes left for this meeting because I don't think that we as a board
083fully understand the value of project innovation and I would like for that to change. All right. I feel I'm I'm pretty up on it because my children have been involved and I've had conversations in the past, but I hope that in the future we can a lot more time to really understand and and one of the things that came up in the meeting that Lynn and I were in that I was there in both a a parent capacity and a board member capacity is just the idea of that handing of the baton of, you know, the end of the school year to summer and then to fall because a lot of the students involved with projects innovation need those extra supports. And so when we're talking about data and growth and student success and learning,
084this is a really important piece to that puzzle and it's really valuable in more ways than just teachers. It's it's just supporting students who need more support, you know, >> and I really appreciate you surfacing that because that helped us our our data from a smaller scale program helped us score very high on a rubric for assessing our grant application five years ago and it was bridging that gap between progression that can occur in the summer months. And so that's a really important point. Thank you for >> Well, and and one other thing that I don't think that people understand really again is that a lot of these programs are extended school year for students with IEPs. But the beauty of what we do here is including all students. And so it's an inclusive summer
085program that serves people that might not be able to afford what a lot of can afford. It is it is something that I I I really fear what might happen if there isn't funding and I really think we as a board need to raise this up and figure out what to do come March or whatever and figure out a plan. So >> isn't it a is it been funding will be raised to the finance. >> So we have funding for this cell. So we would need to plan for this if we do not get the grant again for summer of which would be in two budget cycle two budget votes. I know we're >> I know we're at time for one minute over. I apologize. Um uh thanks everyone for your participation. Thank you and
086close out.