001Um but that's the importance of like those first couple weeks of the school year or the semester or of the quarter because routines and procedures work for me. Um, let's probably gener um built a very rich attendance conversation for us and I want to do it justice and I hope I do. So, I'm going to ask her afterwards when she when people watch the recording I said did I do justice? Um so this portion is around our attendance behavior and social emotional learning data. Um we've also incorporated some of the partnerships that we've had like the um through spiffy and the surveys that they've done into to kind of give a holistic view around and some of the next steps. And so like I said Dr. Babara and her team um built this her Colleen
002and I may um and so this is on behalf of the office of student affair but from advocacy. Please let her know I did really well. So absenteeism is very important. Attendance not absentism absenteeism is important for us to study but attendance is important. If they are not here we cannot support. If a child is not present, we cannot support them. Um and so one of the things that we track um principles will tell you weekly they get a chart from Marta with some sometimes it feels like daily. Um this is the percentage you're supposed to be at. You are not here like like you are you are supposed to be at 90% or 80% and your school came up at six at 60% tip this week. Marta sends the numbers every week to the
003principles and engages in this conversation or attendance. And so chronic absenteeism means that a child has missed at least 10% of a school year, right? And attendance works would talk about those 18 days. 18 days is very significant in 180 days. Again, if they are not here, you cannot support them. I'm not saying teach them. I'm saying support them. Because in our holistic view in our system, it's not just about the academic performance. There are other long-term implications that are missed. They also don't get to engage with our great guidance counselors. They don't get to engage with their peers. They don't get to sit in a safe space or a space and say, "Hey, I'm having a hard day." and work through strategies with a teacher, with a friend or you know with a adult
004they've identified as safe. So we talk about then not just intern absenteeism but looking at students who are absent and the more that those numbers increase the more likely they are to drop out of school. The more likely they are to drop out of school because of the loss that they've experienced by not being present. it widens the gap in their instructional or I don't like to talk deficit based but this is a hard conversation so we're going to dig deep so in terms of chronic m absentesis in Massachusetts it's a significant issue and it's increased by 72% from 2019 to 2023 however if you look at our numbers in terms of comparison to our enrollment And the number of students who are eight have 18 or more absences. The percentages may seem small except
005for some but some is a small school is a therapeutic day school but it's still significant enough that we are seeing in many of our schools in double digits and even for a school as small as palum three is a lot. So we are in terms of looking at our numbers our high school being our largest population about 12% of that population has chronic absentism which equates to 99 students >> that's almost 100 students who have more than 18 absences in our system so desi district average of 17% for students with 18 plus abs absences. And you'll notice that the blue is the total percentage of students with 15 or more absences. So they're already at risk of meeting chronic truency. And then the red is the students who have already met for each site.
006So you can see how when we're matching and I'm telling you these data conversations are rich in in our small groups when we're matching on what we're looking for. Now again, Summit is a smaller setting, so the numbers like if they had three, it would be outrageous. Um, but we're looking at not just who are already considered true, but we're already looking at who's approaching TR. So, we're looking at 15. If we were to add 10 for more absences, it would you would we felt it was a lot, but you would start to see that there's a progressive trend in to in terms of absenteeism in schools. Now, one of the things that we're we're going to work towards in our tracking is at what points of the year do you see more than you
007see less, right? We're all we also have the conversations across grade levels. Um, a lot of times if you ask the principles, they're they and their team are calling and saying, "Hey, how can we help you? How can we support you? What does this look like? You know, we didn't see you here today. It's already been three days." Um, and yes, so in looking at this chart, take Crocker Farm for Hi everyone, I'm sorry I work at Animals College. Um, if I look at this Crocker Farm data, does that mean that 13% of the students have 15 or more accesses? So, so it's combining the two things. So, Wildwood 19% of the student body >> have 15 or more. Yes, because they would have 18. >> You're welcome. And thank you for that. I'm trying
008to talk. We'll keep going. So here she does a very good job of not just showing the overarching but trying to pull out by our demographics and the over representation of absentees of in terms of chroy. So in our district population these are our Caucasian students, our multi-racial students, our Hispanic or Latino students, our black or African-American students, Asian American Indian and Native Hawaiian. And so you start to see how when we pull out who makes up our percentages, what those demographics look like. We also went into our subgroups to determine which of our subgroups are more than likely to be Troy. And one of the key things that we had and we started to notice were that our students who have 504s or or in SE programs are at least two times more likely
009to be truer than others for a variety of reasons, right? And so this is why when we talk about data, we have to actually look at the whole picture of the child versus singular snapshots. So when we talk about district populations, if a student has been identified as lowincome, they are also more likely to be truent. And so she quickly switches to behavioral incidents. But in terms of attendance, we wanted to kind of present a picture of what are we looking at and how do we serve our students? And everything's going to drive into how it shows up in academics in the next presentation. So when we talk about behavioral incidents our incident data for 2526 academic year in total right now there are about 189 total incidents right seven of seven schools reporting there
010about 64 suspensions 66 minor altercations however what she says is two schools account for 63% of all our incidents that are in the data that shows here and it's our larger schools it's our middle school and our high Right. Then they also pre present in terms of you know what's happening with our suspensions and they also present in terms of physical altercations. Minor is the most common incident type districtwide. So not just with them but in all of the incidents thus listed. The one thing that she wanted to point out was that data is limited. So behavior records are captured as narratives. So a lot of what we're able to pull out, we actually have to go in and read through and identify. Now that helps with the qualitative side, but we also need to
011see how it reflects in the numbers. So there may be some anomalies in these numbers that present because it's the other thing is information about bullying, behavior, and student support. They live in separate places and so it's the team now in pulling this together have to create a convergence into one place. So the her office has completed inventory of where the information lives and are working on a plan to bring it all together to house it. Um, we've already identified or started to identify through through different conversations someone who's able to even create a dashboard that will pull this data for us and allow us to see what it looks like. It's going to take some forms and not doing things paper based because a lot of our things are also paper based. It's not
012digit digitized. Now, families are reporting. Families are having conversations. Families are calling and saying this happened with my child at school. Caregivers are coming in and saying this incident occurred in different places. They are reporting about 20% actually are considered bullying. So we pulled our or she pulled our full data the brim data for bullying. Um and from that platform 233 reports were filed between 2025 and first quarter. So last year and this year in terms of quarter 20% of those were confirmed bullying cases 80% were of a different concern. What we're finding is that although our bullying reporting software, Brim is the only software that parents or students know that they can report something that the school is going to look at or dive into. So now we have an increased which is great
013because they have an avenue but it is our avenue to report bullying. So what we're doing now is anything that is reported we have to look into but we're also identifying how do we capture parental concerns of different things that are not bullying so that's not lost because sometimes we narrow our focus and that's the conversation that's right here the routing problem and prioritizing a clear way for families and students to report concerns so the right response is given. So it's not just like okay we've ruled out bullying and move on but we've this is now how are we how are we closing the circuit or the loop um what we've also seen is that there is um a recurrence and so we have to shift our culture in terms of name calling insults and
014harassing language are present in nearly every report and we have a concern because we're seeing um homophobic or transphobic and racist incidents are recurring themes especially at our school level. So we're trying to build now what this points out is we have to shift something in the culture. This is not just a what are we doing as a system. We have to shift something in our culture in terms of how we operate. um suspension disposion. Oh, this one is a good one. So, we kind of started to break out incidents by gender, by ethnicity, by age. We wanted to even check our subgroups in terms of English learners because a lot of individuals especially newcomers like it's not just that they are they don't know how to behave. It actually talks about maybe a shift
015in culture like what I think is okay from from where I am culturally. I learned that real quick. Some of the things I say is not appropriate for Alice, but it flies in a VI but it does not sit well here. And so we're when we look at the data, it's not just about the numbers, right? We have to dig into what each one of these incidents actually say about what's happening with students. And so we're also looking at in terms of our suspensions and our behavioral data, where is the focus again? And one of the key things that we're pointing out is of the percentage male students also young teens and so and then our African-American and black students. So we we're kind of looking to see about where's that over representation and what
016do we need to do? >> Yes, >> I missed it. You do you have percentages and on the right there's by gender is it we're looking at 140 incidents total and those are the percentages I think >> so this is overarching behavior behavior >> like overarching like oh and then this is the suspensions >> so what are those what is the actual number of that you're looking at the percentages of >> on this side Yeah. So, out of the suspensions that we talked about earlier, the overarching number of suspensions, the percentage of suspensions by African-American students is 25. >> Was it 64? What was the total she? >> Oh, sorry. Okay, >> that's okay. >> Let me go back. >> Just trying to help you. >> Thank you. >> 64. There it is. >> Yes.
017Thank you. >> And then this is out of the 189. >> Thank you. you got. >> So the >> Yes, >> you have to run around with a second. >> Thank you. Um, and maybe I'm asking too soon, but do you do you find that it's a small number of students who are repeatedly being uh disciplined or needing to be disciplined or found responsible or is this really it's 66 different people? Um, so is the problem very large or really in some respects focusing? So there's a balance in this in school systems where you have repeat offenders and offenders is not the word I want to use but that's the word that you have students who have who who repeat the same behaviors or they show up differently. It's not the same behavior but they
018show up to repeated incidents. >> So you would have a name of an individual who shows up in repeated incidents. And so then we start to say, okay, if you were suspended for painting the wall black the first time, the second time you were suspended for kicking down a chair, the third time, now we're seeing that it's not a repeat in the behavior, but there is a pattern for you. Um, then we kind of have a different discussion. We start to see maybe you're not suspended. Maybe it's just a behavioral incident that was reported through eh or something around you. Then we start to look deeper and say h what time of day? Like a question that we I've been asked one time with a teacher. So what time of day does this student really
019act up? And you start to realize as a student as a teacher every time it's a math lesson you can expect her to act up. She's going to shout out. She's going to do something. So we we're trying to determine to what may be the prompt of the behavior. I hope that answers the question. So our our community is carrying significant stress. Um this is our Massachusetts statewide youth data. Our community and then there's gaps in the data. Um, one of the key things is that we wanted to to to not negate or stem away from the fact that what we may be seeing in terms of behavioral incidents is again not just a reflection of academic supports but also what is happening at home or in our community. There's a lack that's reflected in
020terms of what happens outside that comes into the school buildings in terms of understanding, beliefs, misunderstandings. Sometimes a student asks a question but because of what they ask it may be offensive to another and that shows up in a or that shows up in something. So there's a lot of times what we as a community are experiencing and think of it as adults. We've most of our lives carrying through living through these stresses stressors. These are children who are now exposed to stressors a lot earlier and there's access to everything in in in terms of what's happening in the community in their hands real time. They they I mean I'm still trying to catch up to some of the slangs that they have. I don't know. So, but the gap is that we don't currently
021have a district level way to track for example self harm concerns. Um, we do have ways that if they're they're using their devices, they might search something inappropriately, but then but there's things that they don't search. So, again, we talked about individuals who use our room reports, right? And they're reporting things. We've had where someone has used to report, I'm worried about my friend. And so now it's not a bullying report, but now they found a way. So we need to create ways to kind of fill the gaps as a system and that is our central priority especially when it comes to data and reality. The Hampshire County Youth Survey showed that in many instances students don't believe that adult intervention works. And so we um last year last year ARPS did take part in
022the Hampshire County Youth Survey. Our high school numbers were low. Our participation level numbers at high school was low. That in itself signals a gap for us. But in terms of the overarching survey from Hampshire County where 2,33 students across 17 schools, you know, answered, this is how it's showing up, not just for us, but across the county. And so, you know, we're trying to address this and make sure that we are again holding space for the whole child. And you notice in terms of mental health and safety, most days students come to school anxious. Most days they are depressed or sad. Most days they feel alone or left out. So we are trying again um do they feel like our schools are prepared for a for self harm or do adults act quickly on
023bullying? They don't feel that way across Hampshire. So we actually have to start to build those systems in place and this goes back to being reactive without proactive support. So we found a gap. here is the plan. So again, Dr. Bvar and her department have actually said that, hey, we found information about bullying. We have all of these different things, behavior, we're updating our feed and you know, when a concern is reported, it's not always clear who is responsible for tracking, but we see that investigations are being done. So we're now putting in that system of accountability. We're developing or find or firming up our SEAL programming, but it varies by school, right? Again, it varies by school. And so, there's not a consistent progression from K12. Going back to that coherence and what are
024we building? We talked about our BPI, our district-wide initiative, and reviewing how we collect and connect information about student concerns. So we identify the patterns and put supports in earlier. And so there's a series of things that are going to come next. And my team told me to say this when I started and I forgot. We will give the slideshow. Um the slides will be available after for everyone to share. So her key takeaways and I'm very grateful that she had this. The data tells a story. behavioral incidents and suspensions are concentrated to to schools. It's also that, you know, it's farfetch it's not farfetched that high school and middle schoolers have a different level of energy. Um, but African-American and black students, students in poverty, and adolescent males are disproportionately affected and identified in
025this data. These are patterns for us and not anomalies. Families are reporting, but the tool only captures one type of concern. So now it's up to us to identify or create a tool that will help us identify those additional concerns and we are not reacting or we are being proactive in our reaction to support our students and we cannot see the full picture of students at risk. We have a lot of self harm and safety concerns. I'm not going to tell you in the past two weeks how we have been up at least 9 10:00 at the night in collaboration, connection and communication with our agencies around students. And it's not just the middle school and high school. It is affecting even our elementary schools. One student is too much. And so they're struggling especially
026when they notice that the systems fall short. Um but we do have a plan. It does have a timeline and it will continue to be iterative because we're going to have to continue to course correct and move forward. And so with that, I think it is now what the averages may be hiding instruction. Hello everyone. It's lovely to see you. >> Oh, I see Anna's hand. ask question. >> Yes. >> So, um I have a firm that suspension is not a great tool. It takes kids away from learning that need learning the most. And uh it often places them in an environment that causes the reason for their suspension because if you're sending them home to an environment that is unfriendly and that's why they're acting out at school and causing the concerns, spending more
027time at home is not going to fix the problem. Um, so I'm asking what are you doing to reduce the use of suspension and there's obviously preventive measures that you can do, but also just training on when suspension is appropriate and when it's not appropriate. And I think that if what you're trying to solve is a problem that you know you you're looking at like what are you trying to solve by using suspension and if that suspension is not going to solve that problem then maybe it should be used. >> And then just to add to that obviously in school suspension is very different than out of school. So if you want to speak to those differently or at least provide the answer about that would be >> great. So I would say that and
028I'm not sure where directly should pull the data sources but I do know for example at our middle school they use ISS in school suspension right and I believe that's one of their more frequent go-tos than out of school suspension. Um they have a assigned room where you go and do your instruction. there is um supports in place. Adult supports I'm not going to pick on for this year. So the adult supports so I I firmly believe there's different levels to what happens but it all reports out as in one bucket category. Um I will also say that anything that has come to my desk in terms of an out of school beyond a certain number of days had to have been a very severe um action. Um and it I have not I have
029not seen even in emergency removals where individuals are removed from the school campus that time until they have the meeting where it is something that is I'm going to say trivial and is not something that is identified as possibly harming not just themselves but but others around them in the environment. I think that as a district leadership team or even a collective, we need to identify additional supports. Um I know for a fact that it's funny that um Mr. Paul is here because he had told me about a mentorship program. But then in the data chat with Cracker Farm last week, they brought up that there was a group of students who needed some semblance of support and their behaviors were not within what we would want to see. And so they were able to
030connect to mentors to come in and have conversations with these students. I think I know that it's beyond just training around what are the options. It's also providing clear options or steps of interventions before we get to that suspension point. So I can't pull it out right now because I don't know I I I'm not actually saying power school to say this is in school suspension versus um out of school is one big bucket. But I I do agree and acknowledge with what you're saying that many times the students act forward back to the environment that they were running from. So I feel like there are progressive steps at least in one district that we move forward and in another district we see where they lean on the community to show different examples and have
031that. So that's where we're talking about. >> Yes. >> Thank you J. I hate to belver a point about suspension, but I think that we often isolate a student who did some act that we don't like from everybody else, but in fact, there are community problems that are happening. So, bullying is often not one person bullying another person. It is a whole context of that classroom or that environment allowing a student to get isolated and bullied. You never see bullying of the person that everybody loves. It's always that person who is generally pushed out that then allows a bully to bully somebody. And so that there is responsibility of the entire class or environment that has to be addressed. And by pulling somebody out, we ignore the large part of the problem. >> So I
032would say that's one context and thank you for that. And what that lends in is that we've had conversations recently about identifying bystander um that's what it is car we're talking about bystander >> active bystander. active bystander, right? Active bystander training for for individuals because a lot of the times things occur and even in that moment even though I am in the class I might be having my own reaction to what is happening to someone else. So it is not that I do not want to support someone or I am adding to pushing them out. It might be how I am processing the moment as well. So there are some things that we can't say is the whole culture, but we can say that there are some things that we need to do as a
033system to make sure that we're supporting students and take keeping in mind that if I am seeing something occurring with someone or hearing something that's occurring with someone else, I too am processing what I am experiencing in that moment. And it may not be that I do not want to support you, but maybe I am going through something for myself. So that's the balance of where we are as a I wouldn't say that it's because everyone wants in a classroom wants to shun someone. I also have to say that you don't allow yourself to be believable. Um it's something that happens to you and what you experience. And so we have to recognize what that individual the word that we have and it's the word that is across it. The person who feels targeted or
034the target is experiencing in that moment is the reality for them. And it may be again not that they allow themselves to do that to be to be known to them, but they it's what they experience and they have no other choice in their reaction. >> Quick question. Um >> you're not allowed to ask. >> I'm not asking. So for the anxious child, >> yes, >> obviously that was like a standout. Yes. In our new data for Hampshire, >> have we looked at, >> she mentioned cleaning hands. Have we looked at cell phones and different rules around cell phones to help decrease the anxious child? So there's a desi initiative about getting the um the cell phones out of the classrooms and our senator group has pointed out recently that districts with limited financial resources
035don't have the ability to implement those initiatives have a law I don't I think is created a regulation based on the law they do have some grants and things available and I also want to step back to I understand in terms of digital safety what you're saying. I think that one of the key things that has happened recently especially in our districts is we've seen an increase of not just in school but out of school digital use and being a citizen um social media is real. Google is real. Um I yesterday I will not even say what I opened up and and I was scrolling and I said wait a minute did that say Z Summit but it wasn't name it was G Summit. something else, right? And but the access the access to information
036and the access to each other is so real time that yes, we I believe the middle school had um cell phone bags at one time where students used to you know secure the cell phones. Um I think the high school had something similar. Now there's a statewide initiative around you know implementing implementing like no cell phone schools and environments and we just I sent an email and I'm serious like even if it's not in the school environment when they leave here they still have access to their cell phones. We have to educate our children around being a digital citizen and identifying safe adults who can support them if something goes wrong or they feel uncomfortable or they see something um they feel they feel like Snapchat deletes something in 24 hours. I can put something
037on there and they can can go away. So there's a lot that we have to catch up to and try to input that within our towards our culture. Thank you. Um hello everyone. Um I have the privilege of leading the division of student academic success. That is our SSO and the lead CIA department. So you love acronyms, don't you? Uh student support uh services. We have our curriculum instruction and assessment. We have a multilingual uh learners. Those three positions. So we are just blessed to have Beth. I'm going through the office. Beth, Marita, Lisa, uh, Nancy, Nora, Maryanne, Joanne, and Sonia in our SSO department. And congratulations to Joe Anderson, graduating from college. And in I know, right? And in MLE, we have Celia. Celia's uh daughter is graduating from college right now. And congratulations
038to her. And then you have Lindsay, Jen, my dearest partner Stephanie, and myself. I'm from South Carolina and we have school I'm from a district that has 83 schools. I'm from a very big school district. We have a high school that has 2600 students. That high school is bigger than our entire three districts, but together at that every year we have a state of the district's um summit. It's every year we have this and one of the things that happens at we have before that actual Saturday leading up to a state of the schools. So principles report to their smaller constituent uh groups. One of the things that happened uh when we first started this process maybe about 20 years ago. So about 10 years in one this big high school they put their numbers
039up and they were showing oh they're above the state average and all these things. And one person in the audience said, "Hey, could you tell me how are the subgroups doing?" It's a very different story when we start looking at subgroups. But I am blessed right now to be an amormer. >> People talk about equity all the time. Yes, you do. That's what I get to do. I get to present to you all and I think I presented to almost everybody in this room where I get to disagregate the data. So, we're going to be stopped at 10:55 and they're going to they're going to hit the 1052. So, you get >> Oh, what? >> What? >> It's already 1052. >> Okay, everybody go in your folders. Please find this. >> You have a summary
040from the Oh my good. Are you serious? Yes. >> All right. So, everybody find this. Please find this. It's in your folder somewhere. I know I put it in there. So, turn to your partners to table mate. see if you can see it. >> I will. In the end, um, it's in there. So, one of the things that happens is we're taking a look at all three districts. I've presented MCCAST data for you before. Please note that MCCAST is one of the metrics, one of the point in times that we have. And when we brag about being above the state, we are going to also use it for all the other things, too. So, this is where we are taking a look from 2017 to 2025. Um, we've always been above the state. This is
041Ammeris. Uh, in English, uh, actually, no, no, take a look. 2017, we were below the state, then we jumped up and then in math, the same thing happened above the state. I know I'm going to go fast. All the questions. >> Are you sure? >> Yes. >> You know, you have Stephanie and I don't say that. >> Well, Stephanie's gonna go fast. >> Okay. Just the time. >> Thank you. So here we are with our Amoris data. Again, this is just longitudinal because because one of the things we actually need to know when we start looking at subgroups, did this just happen? And you all are here and you've been here for a for a while where you heard the narrative of oh well the demographics of our community has changed. So that's why there
042is this this you know this uh um this disperate uh type experience for our students. And actually I was looking at it. Well, we've always had this um going on for at least 10 years. Uh when we take a look at Pelum, notice that Pelum has always been above the state average um 2017 2025. Notice that even as they are above the state averages, things have changed uh in terms of proficiency and I'm looking at MCAST again meeting are exceeding. And so you take a look here in English and you take a look at math again leading above the state but still there's a trajectory that we have noticed that it's been a downward trajectory but still above the state. When we look at the regional middle school again, trends that we're looking at, we're
043looking at being above state average, but still there's been this dip and I don't know what was happening in the 2020s, 2021, but something took place and then there was a big dip. Uh, but again, still above the state average and that's where we are. And then we look at the high school again above the state average. I want to note here for our high school MCCAST. The way if you look at 2017 2018 and the numbers might seem really high, you're like, "No, wow." Um, there was a different metric for the MCAST uh data back then, but it was in the desi equivalent to beating art seating. So, I still put it on there since that's the way they aligned it. But, it was a very different um numbering metric for uh percent of
044achievement back then. But notice where we are still uh above the state average in some instances coming up in English and then going down in math. There is not only the experience students have academically in the classroom around a particular test. There's also the experience in terms of student access who's getting to take the courses that we offer. And in terms of our advanced coursework, I want you to notice that we have this 119 students in AP English, AP Global Studies, 74, AP Statistics, AP Biology. You see the numbers there and we have community partners that have just shown up for us and Sarah's sitting right in front of me, but we have 14 students that actually attend Amoris College and are taking multivariable calculus. Now, I was a high school math teacher, so I
045calculus and algebra 2. I'm like, yes, can I get an award? Um, I love it. And then we have five kids doing dual enrollment at GCC and HCC. Uh we have opportunities for our students. We have things that happen. Look at our graduation rate. We have innovative career pathways. We have lots of things happening for our kids. The question that we're going to sit with um today is is that an even experience for all of our students? So if you take a look at the advanced coursework where 61% of our students are in our advanced courses, when we look at our Hispanic students, only 39% of them are actually in those things. And if you look at our students with disabilities, it's 25.5% of the students being a part of those courses. We have a
046rich diverse community. We have multilingual learners. And I want to make sure we're clear, multilingual and Hispanic aren't the same. We have very Thank you, ma'am. Uh we have varying language uh students here and families here in cultures here in Ammeris. And so of our multilingual learners, I want you to notice access is one of our tests that we provide for our multilingual learners. And we have an 89% participation rate. You might say why be excited about participation? Because this means our students have trust us enough to take the test because not every student want to exit our ELLL services. Some of them find community there and some of them want to stay there. But we have nine students and this is our 2025 that have exited this year. And then on average it takes
047about 5.2 years for our students to actually exit out. But one thing that we have to identify and know that being multilingual is a gift. It is a a positive thing not only for our students currently in the Amoris school districts but when they graduate when they continue on in life that is a positive thing. So we have a school committee Sarah that talks about student experience. She wants to know yes I hear you but how do our students experience this? And this is just a typical student in our school system. So, I'm using our full school system. They start out third grade when we start some of our testing and notice the trajectory that happens for them. They're doing okay. They're doing okay. They dip down seven eight, but then it comes back up.
048By show of hands, how many of you have ever gone to middle school? Okay, not all of you. Some of you are like, I'm not going to middle school. I'll just pop. But middle school is one of those places that it doesn't matter if you're in Ammerst, South Carolina, Massachusetts or Walong Island, South Carolina. Middle school is hard. It is a hard place to be. Not because of the building, not because of the teachers, because of students themselves and how they're growing and where they are. And sometimes it is even more difficult if you have not had the rich instructional experiences necessary to succeed academically. And most times in middle schools, this is where you find kids who I'm not sure what's happening academically, so I'm going to act out another way or I'm going
049to find another way to um move myself. You talked about isolating isolating myself from that experience. And so you'll take a look at some of our data and you'll see that middle school's the place where some of our kids most of our kids are having the most struggles in our system. So I stand before you as a 56 year old black woman. Guess what happens if you are an SD student, a student with special education needs, a minority student person of color, if you are a student that's from a low income uh place, and if you are ELLL student with actual language needs, you are more likely to experience our system differently. And I want everybody to hear me say that clearly. Ammeris is an excellent place to be. We have an excellent district, but
050not all of our kids experience it the same way. We're going to look academically at that. So, if you've noticed this dark blue line at the top, all of our students, again, we're looking at MCAST. This is a data point that we have that we're going to use. So, most of our students are doing or all of our students just in terms of the percent of meeting or exceeding are doing exceptionally well. We have a couple subgroups. And again, this is not all of our subgroups. This is a couple of our subgroups. Black, African-American, Hispanic, Latino, English L learners, multilingual learners, uh, students with disabilities. They are experiencing this gap. It didn't just happen. Sometimes we use COVID as the well, you know, it was an experience for them long before CO. We have had
051historically gaps between subgroups in our districts. And so the question is not which curriculum do we use or what thing do we t or they need to do this. It is how as a system do we respond instructionally so that there is coherence and co and consistency that allows them to get their needs met. It is not a teacher problem. It is a system problem. We need to look deeper and we can't choose this. Well, we're going to do this this week. Oh, well, I'm gonna let that person do whatever they want, but you know, over here, we don't like it. What we have to do is figure out what does it look like as a system to consistently be meeting the needs of kids so that we can meet them where they are, but
052ensure that they have access to grade level instruction. Because if I'm a in sixth grade and I'm reading on a third grade level and you only meet me at third grade, I'm always going to be behind. There is not a way there is not an intervention of interventionist that will pull me up. If you only expose me to third grade, you have to get me introduced to grade level instruction. If your goal is to make sure that I get closer here >> or >> you're in sixth grade, I'm at a third grade level and you teach at sixth grade level without scaffolding me up. >> That there you go. Absolutely. Because the other thing happens too. Well, I'm only going to teach this is this is the grade level. I'm only going to teach that.
053There are kids that you can't just choose to leave behind. And luckily we're at a system where teachers are excellent and dedicated and truly care. And it's just as a system we need to ensure that we have consistency that we provide the professional development to learn to scaffold and to do all of those things. But also we can't do it blindly. We have to make sure we have things in place that we can actually monitor progress. We have teachers that do this every day. Be very clear. This is not oh we now have to teach people. It is oh no we just have to make sure that we build in the appropriate measures for people to get there one second. So the same thing is happening not only in ELA for grades three and six
054but in math again gaps the gap is significant there even as people go up and note even as we're improving over the years we are improving over the years the gap still exists. We have to figure it out. And so when you take a look seventh and eighth grade, same type of thing. There are ways, there are times that we have gotten up and have tried to close the gap, but then we still have those same issues across years, across the decades. Same thing for high school, grade 10. And notice that what happens again in high school remember the grading system was different because I want to remind everybody this 94% you might go what happened but the mechanism the way we created change uh for the MCCAST but that's still there and I want
055you to notice this line here we have this flat line this is meeting and exceeding what it means here is that our ELLL learners for these years none of them that's 0% % met or exceeded. This is not a student issue. This is not a teaching issue. This is not a oh our para issue or this issue. It is a systemic issue that we have to figure out the way to ensure that we're providing the leadership, the accountability, the tools, the progress monitoring to ensure that we are on a trajectory to be consistent so that it does not become the teacher of the lottery that if I'm lucky enough to get medium, I'm going get the needs met. But if I'm not, then there might be a desperate way in terms of how I saw
056it. And I see, give me one second. Um Sarah was for Opas. Opas. >> I just was wondering with the nine students that sort of exited that exited the ELLL program. Um so they scored above 4.2 in access for English showing their growth and proficiency, but it didn't meet this ELA standard. It still isn't grade level, >> right? This is >> they still aren't showing in that number. It says zero. Either those they progress >> they they might so this is MCAST >> access like two two different tests >> right two different tests >> right so they might be uh proceed uh proficient somewhere but they might they aren't >> they aren't grade level >> they are grade level for 10th grade in high school >> and we take that ELA MCAST after we've been
057here for one year so like a newcomer doesn't take it the first year but they take it the next >> that's exactly right and her point is that we have students that will come here, let's say from from Yeah. And so after they've been here a year, okay, yes, you still take the test. Maybe haven't um figured out the language, maybe haven't figured out, you know, any of those things, but yes, you should get to sit for the test. >> Has any other town figured this out? >> So here here's what I would say to that. I think there are towns that have gotten close in terms of, oh, let's figure out how do we rise all students, but not all towns in Massachusetts um have the level of diversity that Ammerst has. So, you
058might not see the gaps and um you'll notice that I said the middle school um Ammerst and I did not mention Pell, right? Somebody tell me why didn't I or Margaret knows why. Why didn't I mention tell them Sarah Best? >> We're too little >> too small. So we can report on numbers less than 10. So not all districts in Massachusetts have the same level of number of students so that we can see whether they're actually closing those gaps. That's why it's important, one of the things we talked to Pelum about is making sure we have tools um we are using digital tools uh the I already diagnostic and things like that so that we can measure on the ground in real time because this is a lagging data point. So this and what I
059mean by that is this is what happened last time. So we can't wait a year to say oh well notice there's a problem let's try to fix that. So, we need real in time in the- moment data so that we can figure out how to help students. So, I'm over here. Tanya needs this support. I can't wait till MCCAST come back to say, "Oh, I wish I would have seen that Tanya had trouble with this." Because they give us item analysis and all the things. So, I think one of the things we have to do is look across our Commonwealth to see where else do we have our common schools because they give us some schools that are in common. Where else are we um finding schools that have closed the gap? I have not
060seen them but again I have only started looking at Massachusetts last year. Um so I will continue to look and I think that's the um for our department. >> I'm just kind of is it a reasonable is it a reasonable expectation that a student who has just moved to the US and isn't speaking English is going to be proficient enough in one year. Should we be testing them at one year? Doesn't it take years to master a language? >> I love that. I'm not sure that this makes sense. like >> well and now this is math but in ELA should we expect this? I I completely agree that that's this is the way that our Commonwealth Law has it right now for Desian. But I want you to know this is not just a first
061year newcomer. These are all of our ELLL students that are temporary. So be very clear when I when you see this, this represents everyone in that category, not just the newcomer who arrived last week. >> I would want to ask the question MCCAST comes at the end of the year. By that time, how many teachers are surprised at the results of MCCAST? Don't 99% of them know these students are the ones who are having difficulty? MCCAST just reinforces that. There's nothing new. How can we find better mechanisms to identify the issues without waiting for state test and a year later? I'm glad you asked because here's the thing. We might not all agree on the way to get there, but we all have to agree that that we have to have some tools in place
062to monitor progress. We cannot depend to say, well, well, he took this test and so I know it's good. Well, no. We need to be looking at it AC according to the full year, not just when it's time for MCAST prep testing. We need to be monitoring progress and we have to decide and agree that this is important enough for us to do that. We might not all like this particular uh mechanism or this tool or that tool. But we need a tool, a consistent tool across all of our districts to monitor progress. And right now what we're using is allowing us to see that student data allowing us to see and find those students and not only find the student but provide some support around it by giving suggestions and recommendations for closing gaps.
063It is the thing we have to do not because our teachers aren't great, not because they don't have great curriculum that they've produced. It is because we're trying to close gaps. And when you have the closed gaps, you have to dig in a little deeper to really diagnose what's happening. Um, so what we're going to take a look at is Stephanie's going to come talk about something different, not just MCAST. We need other data points. We need to take a look at other things. How are we truly doing? The great thing about today and about state of the districts as state of schools that happens across the nation is it's really an opportunity to not only listen to what's happening from a a leadership level, but you get to see it and try to really
064grapple with it. And I like the word grapple. We're grappling with this because I believe everybody in this room and online wants our kids to do better. We want there to be less of an achievement gap. Our differences might be around how we get there, but at least we're all, as long as we can all agree to road in the same direction, we won't be going backwards. Thank you. So, I'm Stephanie Joyce and I'm the curriculum instruction assessment administration officer in that under that big beautiful umbrella of student academic services. Um, my allergies are acting up at the moment. You know, they'll call me. Um, so I'm going to take us through some of the math and literacy. uh data that we collect for some of the very reasons that you're asking about because we
065need we need kind of data and information in the moment. We are going to count it as a win some of what Tom has already shared with us. We're going to count it as a win that we continue to outperform state, students in the state, and students in our nation. And we want to look more closely at what's happening within our district. Um, not just how we compare outside of the district. And what you see here is that well, 52% of our students are at or above grade level in green. In yellow, we have students who are one year below. And in pink and red, we have students who are two to three or more years below grade level in performance. what we would expect to have performance meet by for expectations by the end
066of grade level. If we think of that in a waffle, you can see that we've got 52% of our students meeting grade level expectations and 48% off. So, we're going to take that we're going to take that a little further down, break it down by some grade levels, not just thinking about the district on K to six, but starting with fifth grade and then moving sixth to 8th grade. And again, you're going to see that with the trajectory in math of improvement from K to five, we've got 65% of our students at the grade level um for meeting performance benchmarks. And look at what's happened here. We were able to shrink for our students that are performing two and three years below grade level to 12%. And then we see that some of that trajectory
067begins to dip from sixth grade from 65% to 60% and dip a little further in seventh and eighth grade. But we see this gigantic spike in sixth grade to 22% of students um who are two two or three more years below grade level. That grows to 26 and stalls there at 26 and seventh and eighth grade. If we start looking at cohorts, which is another really important way to look at our data, so we're not just looking at different groups of students from year to year because then it's a little harder to compare. So this is our current fifth graders looking across three years of their growth. We can see some fairly steady math growth that's happened here. Again, getting to this fifth grade with 65% of our students um achieving at or above grade
068level. Um but we see this tremendous vulnerability that's also occurred as we see those large numbers of students two and three grade levels below um that that continues across middle school. So it's important for us to look again take this data apart and look more deeply at what that growth looks like with our student groups. And we've got really compounding equity gaps here in math performance. So again, overall for our district, um we're seeing that where our students are at 53% um at or above grade level, but for our Hispanic Latino students, only 27%. For our students who are learning English language proficiency in their classrooms, at the same time they're learning academic content, just 18% of those students in K6 um are at those levels and even smaller at 17% for our students with
069capabilities and needs who are who are most effectively met by having uh individualized education plans as well. This is performance. At the bottom, I want us to glance at what we call typical growth because that's a really that's another very important measure for us. So that we have um as district leaders, our building leaders have this data, our teachers have this data because of the platform, the data platform that we've been able to evolve and have access to in our districts. Um so typical growth is what we would expect to see by the end of a school year. 100% typical growth across the year. that works if you came into your grade level not like that sixth grader Tanya talked about who was functioning at third grade level. They're going to need way more than
070100% typical growth to catch up over a year. Um principal Robert is shaking his head and um so what we see here sorry >> I'm sorry I'm sorry >> I don't mean to interrupt it. >> That's okay. Um I have a question Son. >> Well no no no but but I have a question about grade placement. >> So for incoming students especially maybe from other countries are they tested in any way before being placed in a grade or is it simply based on their age? That's one question. Or even students from from other states or districts. And Dr. Z knows what I'm going to say. And then how are we deciding if we do whether a student can advance to the next grade? Because if we are advancing students a student let's say who is
071one year behind in math to the next grade almost by definition they're going to then be two years behind because they're not going to catch up. So um yeah, so I it seems very important to be putting students in the grade that is appropriate based on their level of learning, not just their age. >> So I'm going to say when students come to register on district, there is a grade level equivalent, especially when they come from another state. So students may come in and their last report card or last placement from the school confirmed that they were in second grade and then they need to be placed in third grade. Um it's not solely based on age. Usually we look at their records to determine what grade that they want to go. When a child
072is then placed within that classroom, it's our what I've seen when I've gone in is a level of differentiation and scaffolding based on the classroom instruction. And that's what kind of talks about the teacher lottery. So our system currently doesn't place children if they show up and they take the diagnostic and it says that they're on in fifth grade but they're in third grade we don't immediately pick pluck them and put them in fifth grade. Um because there are other factors too to placement whether or not that is like I want to say socially emotional but I want to say whether it's they're socially able to engage with their peers and favor and those types of things. What the expectation usually is is that instruction is shifting or differentiated where I may be teaching a
073standard um that's a third grade standard but I need to advance this work for the student who in geometry is far out but whereas in algebra I'm in third grade they might be not performing that well. So there's also things in terms of domains that we look at. So it all happens in terms in the classroom. So we need entry points at what we consider to be the floor of the grade level. Um thinking about the curriculum as the floor and then scaling excellence um for for our teachers and our learning environments that bring those students along but also that are well. Um, now we move to literacy. And again, we're going to take the macro evidence as a win. But as we look more closely here, again, we see this trajectory of growth that's
074happened across the fifth grade. Look what's happened to our students that are three years below. It shrinks to 5%. That more than triples in sixth grade to 17%. and continues to widen gaps in our middle school and seventh grade at 27 20% of those students and then 20 21% in eighth grade >> and I learned how to actually use the mic. So I also know how to beh So the middle school entry point is interesting, right? Because now that is also an entry point just to the whole system. So, it's not just um our own elementary students moving into our middle and high school, but it is also an entry point where other families choose. Like I was my own family when I moved here. I was going into seventh grade and I came from
075a district where wasn't as academically strong and so the supports were not that great. And when I came to seventh grade, it was the first time someone was like, "Oh, she's smart, but she can only read at a third grade level." So, it is a place that not it's not just our own students metriculating up, but it is an entry point for lots of families when they come to the area. >> Thank you. It's it's a really valid point and we spent the morning talking about that multitude of factors that contribute to how we interpret this data. So, we're being very careful not to climb a ladder of inference here about about what it means. Um, but the need, as Tommy said, about systemic indicators that are going to help us drive progress forward is
076something we're going to continue to keep our lens on, and have support. So, again, if we take a look at another cohort and some cohort trends um in literacy for our K to2 students, we see a real trajectory of growth here again. and the students that are two and three years below actually one to three years grade levels below diminishing um districtwide K to six and we see that same kind of upward momentum and we've actually garnered a 9 percentage point advantage um over over the years from K to six. Um and then we take a look at our current eighth graders and we look at them as a cohort. So we can look back at seventh grade. We see this win here again where there's 4% growth uh compared um to what they were
077in seventh grade. But we've got to really look at this gap again because the gap grows in seventh grade to 20% of students uh two and three years below grade level and expands to 21% in 8th grade. I call our attention again to typical growth over here because over here we see that this year middle of the year winter assessments that even seventh graders who are mid and above grade level 0% typical growth. Our seventh graders who were two grade levels below 0% typical growth. what we would expect to happen by the middle of the year about 50% typical growth to get that 100% typical growth in June. Let's get some eighth graders who are that early on grade level 8th grade made only 25% typical growth. And what this reminds us of is when
078there are big gaps that build and are persistent, these students at two grade levels below with 0% typical growth would need 267% typical growth by the end of the year to get to grade levels. Those are big gaps to close that you want to rectify. And finally, looking at some literacy data. Um, and thinking about um how systemic barriers are compounding things for our most complex learners. This is median typical growth. This says that while 79% of our students are medium typical growth is 79. That means half of our students are below that and half of our students are above that, maybe well above that by the middle of the year. But now we see what happens for these um students of higher need. And then we look down at our Hispanic Latino students, we
079see what appears to be good median and typical growth for these students. But as we look more closely at the performance levels now, we see that 60% of those students are one to two to three or more grade levels below. And something similar happens for our black and African-American students where they have 54% typical growth, but not enough to close those gaps when 58% of them are well below grade level in performance. Yes. >> Um we as we talked about this morning um with adolescence in middle school the social emotional the body development the brain development how that plays into social emotional acceptance. um is that is there any information or studies how that correlates into these students who are already like at this point but then they all of a sudden really feel like
080they're not fitting in and that type of thing based on all the other changes that are happening and then how does that correlate? I mean well it ties back into the original statement about needs. So if their safety needs are not being met and they're not feeling that they're adequate, then the effort to want to achieve or learn drops. So how does that get played into numbers? >> So Tina's done this beautiful job of helping us circle back to how Dr. Z started safety and wellness and those kinds of things and bringing us back around to how we want to invest all of you in thinking how do we bring that all together with the kind of data that we have. So um oh I'm sorry again. Yes please. How do you involve the parents
081in this information and ask for their help especially at home if possible to increase the the ability for reading opportunity to read etc. >> Thank you. That's a really important question. So, one of the things that we're we're pleased about with um the data platform that we've evolved over some years now is that we have family reports that are generated um in familyfriendly language that that we have in many many multiple languages that um on our elementary schools. Our teachers actually meet in fall conferences and explain those math and literacy family reports to families. And then in the middle of the year and the end of the year, they have access to those family reports and teachers are very happy to talk with uh families about them. Um we also have programs in our in
082our school system where we actually have family literacy events and family math events. So we're able to share with families about ways that they can involve um and have materials from us to invest in supporting students at home too. Our math curriculum enables family to have access any day of the week to the learning that's going on. They can see the videos the children are learning. They have weekly letters about what's included in the curriculum and tips for families every week about how they can be involved in math learning at home as well. So, thank you. It's a really important question and Tanya is going to help us wrap up and solve all the problems. Quick question where she said there was weekly reports with families. Where is that happening? >> Um in thank you
083in many cases they're coming home in backpacks um but they're also available digitally on the on the family >> but for one I guess. >> Oh thank you for asking >> K6. All right. So, Rita Pearson, now what? So, what? What happens next? Everyone I think here. Well, let me ask this question. Any of you were like, "Oh, I didn't know that. Was there that there were disparities in terms of academic?" Okay, excellent. That's a good place for us. I I need you all to know coming from a district where people are shocked that there are disparities in academics that is a good starting point. A very good starting point. How many of you know that we have excellent teachers? How many of you know we have excellent leaders and administrators? How many of you
084know we have excellent families and caring caregivers and community people? How many know that we have the best students? I mean simply the best students. Now with all of that, our system has to meet them where they are. Our system has to get to that level where we our system as a whole has the best instruction, the best supports, the best and most rigorous opportunities for kids, postsecary opportunities. I used to tell my students when I was in that classroom, I'm not just teaching you calculus or algebra 2. I'm trying to make sure that no matter what opportunity you want after high school, you get to have because sometimes if kids don't take advantage and meet the needs, their academic needs, they then become limited in what options they do have. I might not be
085able to go to Ammerst College. I might not be able to go to because my academic progress and achievement doesn't allow it. Our job is to make sure that we make the possibilities endless for our kids. And you might be sitting here saying, "Well, I work at the bank. Why aren't you telling me our students are going to be the economic drivers of this community of all of our communities? They're going to be the people leading governments and school committees and town councils and finance chairman. Those are our kids. We have to ensure that we provide them with a place, a space where they are seen, valued, known, but also educated. so that they can get there because at some point I'm going to retire. Sarah Marshall, you know I was going to get it
086in so that Leo and have my grandbaby can say, "Hey, Grandma, what'd you do?" And I can say, "I was a part of a town that got together and decided differences are not the thing that's going to drive us anymore. We're all going to row in the same direction, even if we have different beliefs of how we get there, to make sure that we do great by our kids because we deserve it. So, I thank you for your time. I apologize for going over and I'll see you in a second. So, you were supposed to take a break, >> but we're all adults. So, we're going to self-manage. So, we're going to in your folders, you have that wonderful personalized sheet that says your name and what group you belong in. Um, and so we're
087going to kind of mix us up a bit because you've been with your elbow partners, which you sat with for a while and you felt really good because you knew them. And now we're going to kind of put you in small groups to have a discussion around um the mix dialogue. So, there's also another handout with some questions around what stood out to