Part 2: Virginia Board of Education Work Session 06/24/26

001Good. Back there. Okay. Um, uh, the chair would like to entertain a motion to certify the purpose of the meeting in close session. Sir Hansen, >> we [clears throat] convene today in a closed meeting pursuant to a reported vote on the motion above and in accordance with the Freedom Information Act. Section 2.2-3712 of the Code of Virginia requires that the board certify that to the best of each member's knowledge. Only public business matters lawfully exempt from open meeting requirements under this chapter and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard, discussed or considered. Any member who believes there was a departure from these requirements shall so state prior to the vote indicating the substance of the departure that in his or her judgment

002has taken place. The statement of the departure will be recorded in the minutes. >> Thank you, Mr. Hansen. Is there a second? Second. >> This motion has been seconded. Um, this will be a roll call vote. All those in Figner will signify by saying I. Dr. Bridges, >> I. >> Mr. Hansen, >> Dr. Northern >> Hi, >> Dr. Wilson. >> Hi, >> Mr. Robinson. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Kilgore. >> I >> and chair votes I. Thank you. >> Thank you. I will now uh go through our decisions. Um in the case of 2616, the chair will entertain a motion to issue the license. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> A roll call. >> Dr. Bridges. >> I miss McFersonson. >> Hi. [laughter] >> Mr. Hansen. Hi, >> Dr. Northern. >>

003Hi, >> Dr. Wilson. >> Hi, >> Mr. Robinson. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Kilgore. >> Hi, >> and chair votes. I thank you. In case number 20, 2612, the chair will entertain a motion to revoke the license of Craig Scott Small. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. All in favor signify by saying I. Dr. Bridges >> I. >> Miss McFersonson I. >> Mr. Hansen. >> Dr. Northern, >> Dr. Wilson. >> I, >> Mr. Robinson. >> I, >> Mrs. Kilgore. >> I, >> and Chair Rotes I. >> In case 2618, the chair will entertain a motion to issue the license. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? Great. Roll call. Uh, Dr. Bridges. >> Hi, >> Miss McFersonson. >> Hi, >> Mr. Hansen. Dr. Northern, Dr. Wilson, >> hi. >> Mr. Robinson,

004>> I. >> Mrs. Kilgore, >> and chair votes I. And then in case 202620, the chair will entertain a motion to issue the license. >> There's a second. >> Second. We'll call Dr. Bridges. >> I >> Miss McFersonson, >> Mr. Hansen, Dr. Northern, Dr. Wilson. >> I, >> Mr. Robinson, >> hi. >> Mrs. Kilgore, >> I >> and chair votes I. Thank you. That concludes um our um lensure portion. We the board will now take a brief 10-minut break and we'll convene shortly. Thank you. Morning. Good morning. I am going to turn it over to Superintendent Conway to um start our work session. >> Excellent. Good morning. Um, I will ask Chief of Staff Holly Koy to come forward to present on the report on the 2026 legislative session for you all. Thank you so

005much, Chief Conway. I mean, Chief, [laughter] >> that's you. >> Good morning. Thank you for that introduction. Um, it is a pleasure to be here with you, uh, board members. Um, it's Chief Conway, Superintendent Conway, um, and and Chair Ashen. Um this morning I have a brief summary uh and report out on the 2026 legislative session and some of the implications and considerations for us as a department and you as a board. Um, so, uh, generally speaking, the 2026 General Assembly, um, it was a long session, quote unquote, 60 full days for the general assembly to consider more than 2,300 bills, uh, as well as a budget. And as you you are likely well aware, the budget is just coming to conclusion here hopefully soon uh with the general assembly finalizing their version on Monday

006uh and some outstanding amendments perhaps coming from the governor but hopefully that will be closed out shortly. Uh but in those 60 days uh of those 2300 bills uh there were roughly 278 depending on your how you're counting um that impacted uh K12 education in some way shape or those about 130 actually passed though many of those as you know not in the form in which they were originally introduced. Um some of the the hot topics that were emerged throughout the session were continuations of conversations that our general assembly had been having around assessment, accountability and highquality instructional materials. Uh but then we also saw uh new topics emerge related to the JARK considerations on SPSF. Uh we saw some innovative conversations around employee child care assistance. uh public schools and immigration enforcement was a

007hot topic as well as AI education technology. And then last but not least, there was also robust discussion around the mental health supports uh that our students and children in the Commonwealth need. Um as I mentioned, some of these bills were continuation of conversations the general assembly uh had had begun or had continued even in 2025. Um and so when it comes to the kind of core teaching and learning elements and the role of the state um in the instruction assessment and accountability of our classrooms um there were three topics of particular note. Uh so high quality instructional materials the bulk of that work was really completed in the 2025 session. Uh but that work and implementation uh continues on. We saw the conversation continue around um modernizing our assessment system. So there was directives

008and funding in the budget previously to bring that work forward as well as statutory reforms that similarly have staggered implementation and reenactment clauses. And so that will be obviously the subject of much conversation later today. Um along with the legislation that provided direction to the board on accountability and school improvement. I'm asking you all to consider the JWARK recommendations that were made in December. Um I will note uh that in addition to these core kind of teaching, learning and accountability measures um there were also conversations by the general assembly on a number of different curricular topics um those will come forward to you in a variety of different forms as we implement them. Some of those topics um environmental literacy health uh water safety standards will come as you review so standards on their regular

009schedules. um some of those academic and curricular components will come forward to you in guidance documents um or other regulatory actions in the course of your work. And that is a good segue to this last slide. Um as we look ahead, we wanted to share with you some of the more immediate actions that we see on the horizon both as a department as and as we work to support you in this work. Um so today the department will send out a comprehensive legislative report to our divisions. That is the attachment on your board item. Uh the goal with that document is to provide a very short summary uh on each bill and then uh to provide some context around statutory d timelines as well as anticipated timelines that the department has on when resources or

010supports may be available to our school divisions as they consider their own um implementation of the legislation. Um when we come back to [clears throat] you in August, we do anticipate uh bringing forward a couple of regulatory items to initiate the implementation of a few different bills. Um some related to lensure or three uh the three-year CTE licenses as well as changes to the division superintendent licenses. And then finally on that slide, you'll see a few notable guidance um report documents, board of ed reports uh that are in the more immediate future. Again, just so you're aware of some things coming down the pike. On August 1st, the DOE in collaboration with the office of the attorney general uh will need to issue guidance on immigration enforcement on school campuses. Uh we anticipate this fall

011having a guidance for AI use for student instruction available for our school divisions. Um and we also anticipate then in October there will be a couple of interim reports due to the general assembly to report on uh initial steps taken to implement bills related to uh a new requirement to bianually review all CTE courses, pathways and credential offerings as well as a new uh charge from the general assembly uh to look at alternative lensure pathways and create a work group uh to study that topic and bring recommendations forward uh for future considerations by this body and others. That concludes my very short and sweet presentation, but happy to answer any questions that you may have about these topics um or other components coming out of the 2026 session. I was going to say thank you,

012Chief Superintendent, but Chief Koi. Board members, do you have any follow-up questions? Um, Superintendent Conway, anything else to add? >> Are you going to go to the right, Mr. Robinson? >> Summary and It seemed like there were two pieces that they were saying more than considered seemed like more of a directive and I'd like to better understand um those directives and and and how we should move them. >> Absolutely. Um so there were two specific pieces of legislation. Um the first was that as you mentioned um the charge to the board to consider um specific recommendations coming out of the JWAC study. The second, as you have noted, was in fact much more directive and related to school improvement and really clarifying in statute that school improvement um is a broad responsibility of the entire

013department under the superintendent's leadership and under the board's direction. Um really kind of shoring up this connection between school improvement efforts of the department and the accountability system. Just very quick follow on that on the >> the the change in labels is a change in weight growth. >> Could those be considered more directives or just considerations? >> Those were part of the list of considerations for you all to take under adisement. >> Great board members and their followers. Superintendent Conway, anything else to add? >> Not at this time. Thank you. >> Okay, I think we are next presentation. >> Joe, is that right? turn it over to Superintendent Conway first to >> wonderful. Thank you all. Thank you for uh to Joe and to the extended uh uh audience support from from JARK. Um we

014wanted to make sure that this board could hear directly from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. um uh in large part uh for two reasons. One is I think there was a recognition during the course of this general assembly and expressed by our new governor about uh the value of of of the effort that had gone into analyzing the school performance and support framework and soundness in its its recommendations. The second is as Chief Koi just noted that uh it turned into legislative uh requirement of of consideration. Um and uh as she noted a very explicit requirement on how to think differently about school improvement. With that in mind, we thought it would be valuable for you all to hear directly from the JARK folks, to be able to hear the presentation uh and

015to be able to ask questions um as you think through this new newly legislated responsibility uh to consider these recommendations. We are grateful for the thoroughess of the study, the willingness of JARK to come and to present today. Um, and as somebody who has spent uh quite a few years in Virginia state government, just knowing how much work is underneath um each of these these studies and that intentionally there's an effort to focus on on on on facts and on on data rather than than politics per se. And we are greatly appreciative uh for all the time and effort uh in this report as well as uh thanks in advance for for your presentation. Thank you, Superintendent Conway, um, for the kind words about Jark. Um, good morning everyone. My name is Joe McMahon. I'm

016a project leader and chief legislative analyst at JARK. Um, as you probably know, JARK is a legislative agency. We conduct objective nonpartisan research and analysis for our Commission of General Assembly members. I'm joining me today is our director Hal Greer, our associate, senior associate director, Justin Brown, who oversaw the work, and then the analysts that worked alongside me on this study, Kate Hopkins, Sam Leeman, and Laura White. Um, my one little disclaimer here, we're generalists. We've now moved on to completely different topic areas for the last seven months. I'm going to might rely on the team a little more than I have back in December for some of the Q&A uh if something's not coming back to me immediately. Uh so the study was completed last year in response to a resolution from our commission.

017Um I have a list here of our primary research activities. I just want to focus on a couple. Um we did extensive analysis of the school accountability results for the 2425 school year. We conducted an extensive number of interviews including national subject matter experts, school superintendent, principles. We also viewed every state board of education meeting where school accountability was discussed over the three years prior and talked to board members who were involved in the design process. I'm going to quickly move through some background, but then a majority of the presentation will be focused on our findings leading into recommendations and policy options. So, a school accountability system serves several purposes. It provides stakeholders with information about school quality and student performance. It's meant to hold school leaders accountable and motivate them to improve performance. And

018it's the tool the state uses for identifying schools and students that need additional support. An accountability system achieves these goals by quantifying and reporting on school performance. Board approved Virginia's new system, the school performance and support framework. I'm going to refer to as the SPSF or the framework. It replaced that prior system that had been in place since 2017. And the framework went into effect for the 2425 school year. Here's a look at the measures or indicators included in the framework. As you know, the the framework's really essentially a big math equation. Uh points are assigned on a per student basis for each indicator. Then the waiting of each is applied. The product of those is an indicator score and then all indicator scores are summed to produce a total summitive score for each school.

019Then the framework assigns each school a performance label that's based off that summitive score. Um in addition, schools with certain levels of low performance can also receive a federal designation which I'll discuss later on. Um, one other piece of relevant information uh is that the state board took action to raise cut scores last year. Cut scores are the numeric scores that delineate performance levels on SOS. And those changes to cut scores would result in a declined to overall ratings if fully implemented assuming no other changes are made. I can pause. I'm going to pause at each one of these slides for for questions. So any questions? So first I'll give an assessment of our overall assessment of the system. So when evaluating a school accountability system, it's important to keep in mind that because of

020the complexity of K through2 education, states varying priorities means there's no single best system. Each is a balance of policy priorities, stakeholder concerns, and transparency. States are limited to measures where data is produced consistently and reliably statewide. And there's many trade-offs to consider. Some of the big ones are which areas of performance to include, how to weight, measure, and score each indicator, and how to balance simplicity and precision. For our first finding, we found that the new accountability system is more effective and useful than the prior system. First, the framework better school performance. That differentiation is important for several reasons. Notably, pro providing more transparency and information to stakeholders. You can see here for the prior system in that 23 24 school year, all schools fell into just two performance categories with most receiving the

021highest rating. That distribution was not typical with what you see in other states and not aligned with best practices. In contrast, the framework has four performance categories and distributes a meaningful number of schools into each one, which is closer to what you see in other states and what experts recommend. Next improvement is that the framework is a single system used for state and federal accountability purposes. That means it uses identical indicators, waiting, measurement, and scoring for the purpose of meeting federal accountability requirements and for producing state results. Uh another improvement is that the framework separates school accreditation from school accountability. Uh so as you know accreditation is a measure of compliance with state requirements whereas accountability is a measure of student and school performance. Subject matter experts in a majority of school divisions view these

022two changes positively. The framework is also more precise and inclusive than the prior system. This includes how uses separate indicators for each type of performance. how it scores many of the indicators and the minimum number of student threshold or N size that is used as part of calculations and reporting. So our next finding is that the framework's overall structure is generally found but we did identify some refinements that are needed. We found that the framework structural elements such as indicators, waiting, measurement, and scoring are generally consistent with federal guidance, expert opinion or recommendations and other states accountability systems. So given that the overall structure meets this criteria, we determined that fundamental changes are not needed. Uh they'd be unnecessarily disruptive and would be administratively burdensome to schools. However, we did identify areas for improvement and

023made recommendations and provided policy options accordingly and that those will be the focus of the rest of the presentation. >> So, you fundamental changes to the system are not needed um because otherwise they would be unnecessarily disruptive. So you're talking about fundamental changes to the proposed system that the board has adopted are not necessarily needed but otherwise major changes to what we agreed um as a structure wouldn't also be necessarily disruptive and administratively burden. So I just want to be clear about that because I want everybody to know that your fundamental changes to the system. You're not talking about um the old system. You're talking about to the system that we are now operating under. Making fundamental changes to that would also be unnecessarily disruptive and administratively burdensome to school. >> Yes. And I'll just

024follow up Miss Mcperson. Um, when we talk fundamental structural changes, we're we're talking don't throw it out and start again. Don't completely change the indicators. Don't completely change the scoring indexes. It's it's more >> tweaks, changes on the margins, refinements. >> Yep. Um, so moving into uh the results of the new system, you can see here the majority of schools received an ontrack or distinguished label for the 2425 school year. Our first finding related to those results is that we found the proportion of students in a school that are economically disadvantaged is the characteristic that has the strongest relationship with school's results. This means schools with more economically disadvantaged students tend to receive lower o overall ratings from the SPSF. Now, this isn't unique to the framework or Virginia accountability systems typically reflect accountability system

025results typically reflect school student demographics, especially economic disadvantage because many commonly used indicators like test results are correlated with those factors. There's a lack of consensus among experts about how much results should reflect student demographics. So on one side of the argument is that results that strongly reflect student demographics are the product of maintaining the same expectations for all students and can help target support to address disparities. The other side is that results that are overly reflective of demographics evaluate schools on demographic factors outside of their control rather than on their effectiveness. You can see that relationship here on the left. As schools percentage of economically disadvantaged students increases, their average summitive scores decrease. By another measure, schools receiving the lowest performance labels had a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students on average. And I'll

026talk about this a bit more in a bit. Can pause there for any questions. uh this next section. >> So student population that is economically disadvant weighed one of two ways. weighed them straight across as it relates to the accountability and test performance. And because they're economically disadvantaged historically and based upon expert predictions, they are going to score lower because of status and all of the other factors that go with being economically disadvantaged, such as they may not be receiving the intensive support that they should be receiving or their schools [clears throat] have not been previously provided with all of the materials that they should have had or we could lower expectation for economically disadvantaged students and then their performance will look better on the accountability skill. So those are the options that we're kind

027of looking at. Mr. McFerson, yeah, we didn't get into the factors and and the things you named are are some of the factors that contribute to that relationship and it is it is an observed relationship between the results and the percentage of students that are economically disadvantaged. Um, we'll talk about the trade-offs there mostly through that proficiency and growth conversation. >> Okay. >> And kind of the two philosophical sides. >> Okay. So, I just wanted to make sure we were all kind of clear about where you were going in terms of defining what it looks like in terms of measurement. >> My understanding from the JR report you could figure out how the current report was distributed across But in figure 54 in the report on page 59 on um I just want to clarify,

028you know, in terms of options before the board. Um on on page 43 of the commission draft, um uh you know, you you your committee showed um the correlation difference uh between reading proficiency versus reading growth >> based on um and and uh and my understanding is, you know, that that's partially why you're seeing a a much stronger correlation in the current um [clears throat] uh ratings uh is because of the strong proficiency um weight uh but in growth you don't see as much as strong of a correlation. >> Yes, that is correct. And and I will get into more of that in the growth and proficiency section here. We could see that the proficiency indicators um one of the appendices has all the the technical correlations and um relationships between the two. But we

029could see the strongest relationship for all indicators between um scoring and economically percent of economically disadvantaged students was among the proficiency indicators. The weakest correlation albeit it still was correlated as the growth indicated. >> Thank you. Appendix G in the JR commission report. So, moving on to labeling school performance. To begin, school ratings are highly visible. They're the primary way states communicate accountability results to the public. Many states aggregate their accountability results into a single overall rating, like Virginia's framework. States use various formats for these ratings such as letter grades, stars, colors, or descriptive labels. School ratings are important because they can have both positive and negative implications such as shaping public perceptions of schools or affecting school and staff morale. The SPSF uses four descriptive labels to communicate schools overall performance and you know

030those are distinguished on track, offtrack and needs intensive support. Research shows it can be difficult to develop descriptive labels that are clear, widely understood, and broadly accepted because different stakeholders interpret terms differently. But with that being said, we found that some of the SPSF performance labels do not clearly communicate school performance or function as part of a continuous scale. Um, so the first part, um, three of the four labels do not clearly communicate school performance. There's often confusion about the terms when we were talking to experts and stakeholders. For example, ontrack and offtrack were often thought to imply a school's performance trend rather than a static snapshot. Stakeholders viewed on track is schools that are improving and offtrack as those that are declining. That means that the labels are not clearly and accurately conveying what

031they are intended to mean. The distinguished label may also not clearly communicate school performance because it can actually overstate how well some schools are doing. Uh the term distinguish suggests a school is exceptional across the board when it could be underperforming. And we could see that in the data underperformance on some indicators or have weaknesses outside of the school accountability system. And I think the the bigger piece is that the four labels do not clearly relate to one another as part of a continuous scale. There are four disconnected terms and there is no intuitive progression through the four labels. And because of this, it could be difficult for stakeholders to understand the order of labels and how they relate to one another. For example, in interviews, we heard offtrack be mispersceived as being lower a

032lower rating that needs intensive support because some people felt it sounded more negative. Others felt that may there was only experts felt that there could be perceived that there's only two ratings on track and off track if you weren't aware of the others on either side of them. Um, other descriptive labels, such as those used in West Virginia, which you can see here, allow for a more clearly continuous order. This is a better approach because it's easier for people to intuitively know where a given label fits amongst the others. So, given that the labels are unclear to some stakeholders, we have a recommendation for the board to develop new terminology for the four performance labels, it's worth saying here that it's unlikely that any set of accountability ratings will satisfy everybody. However, developing terms that

033are part of a continuous scale and more clearly and accurately convey school performance could help improve clarity and address concerns. Then just overall, we view this as a relatively minor change given it does not affect uh how schools are scored or how the accountability system functions but could meaningfully increase stakeholder buyin. So using needs intensive support which also identifies the fact that the school system may be in need of additional funding because it ties directly to the funding mechanism. >> You're recommending West Virginia's language as an example to use does not meet standard. >> But that's just a recommendation. >> Yes, M. words. Even though you say that it somehow appears to connect like if we don't meet standard now maybe next year we partially meet standard after that maybe we meet standard then finally

034we exceed standard. So somehow embedded in that you think there appears to be more of a a continuity that parents other people would understand more so than what >> correct and and I do want to emphasize yeah West Virginia is an example of this continuity. We're not recommending and you pointed that out. We're not specifically recommending that exact approach. You could use needs intensive support, needs support. Like there's all different ways to do it, but the continuity is the important piece that just >> something that appears to give us. >> Superintendent Conway and then Mr. Henson. >> Uh Joe, could you clarify? I know that some of the feedback we've heard when you talk about funding being attached to these labels, typically that is funding dedicated to support improving schools rather than sometimes there's a

035perception that schools that do better receive more funding uh for doing better. But could you clarify when you talk about funding in that prior slide that is typically with other states to uh prioritize schools that need intensive support for additional funding, not the reverse. >> Correct, Superintendent Conway? That is that's what we're referring to. We're talking about those school improvement funds or even just school improvement support from the from the department going to the needs intensive support schools or or offtrack schools depending on how that decision is made. But I think it's important for us to remember that many many of the legislators have been very concerned about the fact that in some of the schools where there are students that are economically disadvantaged that they have been deprived of funding that is needed for

036them to move forward. So needs intensive support has been somewhat identified with the fact that they also need additional funding. So I I hear you in terms of language, but I don't want us to get too far away from the fact that very that our [clears throat] legislators are very very clear about the fact that the money needs to follow where the most work is needed with the students. We don't need to mislabel what it is we're trying to do as a result. >> Mr. Hansen. >> Yeah, Dr. from a person. I agree and and I think even and again I think there's 20 different ways you would cut or splice the the words and the terminology and I do appreciate the having the constancy or the consistent um theme but um I do believe

037to your point IDA that the needs intensive support it is really what this whole effort is about is communication effort Um, and sometimes when we talk about stakeholders, um, some of the stakeholders that are in the system know this, but it's really for parents and for people who normally aren't paying attention um, as much and really need to understand locally what the needs are. Also just taking a step back as well about you know the most recent NAPE scores the learning loss that we wor in the country after co the movement that we've made but just even the most recent NAPE score still showing that our disadvantaged students um uh across the board in almost any every segment are where we need to be putting our priority to help close the achievement gap going forward.

038And so I I just I know this is just terminology and such. And I and I like West Virginia's a little bit more maybe, but then again, maybe we jumble this up and come up with a different terms that are consistent and constant, but also maybe are trying to tell the story that we're trying to for the most challen >> Thank you. I love the comments related to the the story and the signaling of needs intensive support on what we hope our state is able to do for right now it's only 200 213 schools that have that label 12%. Um my understanding from JARK's recommendations is the the most um you're signaling that the ontrack and offtrack labels are the ones that have the most both stakeholder feedback as well as the most confusion because

039of the signal of um uh you know uh that it's a trend that that may not be true. You could improve from needs intensive to uh off track. So, you're kind of on track to improve, but you're still labeled as off track. And and I think we'll hear later recommendations that include keeping the needs intensive support label and changing others, which I would support. But I just wanted to clarify from a JARK um standpoint that that uh that on track and offtrack is really partially what you're amplifying for us to cons. >> I I think that's accurate and and really distinguished as well. some of the things I mentioned that distinguish can kind of paint this school as great across the board where un there's underlying good and bad in in most schools um and

040the ontrack and off track which you said the directionality also just it's in our report offtrack just was not very favored by a lot of people just they felt it had a negative connotation felt it was worse than needs intensive support so I guess to summarize what you're saying needs intensive support is probably the one I'll look at the team that that had the least push back. So, if that helps with decision-m that that that's what we were hearing. And then to Mr. Hansen's comments too, that it just shows how difficult it is to create this terminology and convey what you're trying to convey and get a majority of stakeholders and people interested in the system to be on board. >> Joe, can I just ask you to clarify? I think it would be is

041it just the least push back or also uh if I remember you all speaking in December was also it was the one that was most clear, right? Going back to what Miss McFersonson and Mr. Hansen said that that felt like that was also just the clearest if you're looking for clarity and continuity. >> Yes, >> It's understandable. It's clear what what is being conveyed by that label. >> Joe, you could build a scale around it. We're not suggesting, but you could. And this has to be continuous. >> Kada from our team, she said yes, you could ground the scale in needs intensive support and then needs support and does not need support, something like that. Again, that's not our recommendation, but that's another way to make continuity grounded in that that term. >> Um, for

042our next finding, we found an issue is how the framework assigns performance labels to schools. The approach ignores differences in how the three school levels are measured, which ends up significantly benefiting high schools. Um, you can see here that because each level of school is evaluated on different criteria, but scored using the same scoring thresholds, the same point thresholds, high schools are much more likely than elementary and middle schools to receive a distinguished rating. Likewise, they are less likely to receive a lower rating. According to experts, you'd expect to see more similar distribution of the performance labels across each school level. Um, and this means that results across school levels are not comparable and can lack fairness. So, we have a recommendation there for the board to develop new scoring thresholds that are unique to

043each school level and result in a more comparable proportion of elementary, middle, and high schools receiving each label. So before jumping into this next section, just a bit of background. I think this will all sound familiar, but if anyone's watching, uh this gets pretty technical. So states are federally required to use their accountability system to identify low performing schools. These schools are given a federal designation, which is essentially another label in addition to their SPSF performance label. There are three types of federal designations, CSI, TSI, and ATSI, which I'll walk through on the next slides. The reason this relates to labeling school performance is that based on the rules of the framework, if schools receive one of these federal designations, it can affect the state performance label assigned by the framework. So our first finding

044here is that the framework should ensure that comprehensive support and improvement schools receive the lowest performance label. Comprehensive Support and Improvement or CSI is the most serious federal designation. It is primarily given to title one schools with the lowest overall performance in the state. Despite their low performance, many schools did not receive the lowest performance label of needs intensive support. Instead, they're labeled as off track. Experts recommend that CSI schools receive the state's lowest rating. This helps that this this helps ensure that federal and state labels are aligned, send a consistent message and then most importantly that the lowest performing schools are clearly identified and prioritized full of support. Therefore, we have a recommendation for the board to amend regulations to ensure that all CSI schools are labeled as needs intensive support. How would that

045go back regarding the high school middle school numbers? Would it >> um M chance you're asking would it balance out that disproport uh I don't think that Yeah, it's it's really technical stuff but it wouldn't. We also have a finding related to how schools with two other federal designations are labeled. The SPSF lowers all targeted support and improvement and additional targeted support and improvement schools performance labels which is imprecise and can be overly punitive. The TSI and ATSI designations indicate that a school has one or more significantly underperforming student subgroups. To reflect this, the framework rules lower the performance label of TSI and ATSI schools. The board adopted this approach to make sure that student subgroup performance is explicitly factored into schools accountability results. Without it, a school's rating could mask low performance student subgroups

046within that school. The issue with this practice and how it's uh currently being implemented is that lowering all TSI and ATSI schools performance labels is imprecise and overly punitive. First, TSI is meant to serve as a warning of poor performance in a subgroup. Uh to reflect this, we propose that TSI schools would not have their state label lowered in the first year that they're under a TSI designation, only after a second year of repeat TSI performance, which that would then indicate that student subgroup performance issues are persisting. Second, schools that are designated as TSI but already receive an offtrack label would not be lowered any further. This is a vast majority of the TSI schools. So if the point is to align the federal and state labels, we think that offtrack and TSI that that

047warning federal designation are already aligned. So no need to further lower the state label. Uh our proposed changes to the ATSI rules are similar. ATSI is a more severe um designation than TSI. So we found it appropriate uh to lower schools with distinguished or ontrack scores to offtrack. But as with TSI schools, schools designated as ATSI and that are already labeled as offtrack would not be lowered any further. So here's a highle summary of what we recommend. Rules can be changed to maintain the board's emphasis on subgroup performance while also better aligning with the intent of federal designations and avoiding being unnecessarily punitive. Yes, >> just on that last bullet about avoid being unnecessary. Does that mean in terms of designation is again part of this process is important is to prior two charts also

048might make it look like there'll be fewer schools in the needs intensive support because again simplistic there's two school houses on slide 42. um your recommendation doing the same on slide 41. So if part of this effort is to not be punitive in the way that there's a label but being helpful to target resources, I'm just wondering terminology means >> Yeah, Mr. Hansen, you're absolutely correct. These changes would leave few more schools in that offtrack designation and there would end up being fewer in the needs intensive support designation. So that ties back to the need to reconsider these thresholds. Um it was actually a vast majority of the needs intensive support schools were there not because their summitive score was in that range but because they were off track and received an ATSI or TSI

049designation and then had their score lowered to uh needs intensive support. So that's an example of all these different things working together. But but when we say the punitive piece, we're talking a school could be relatively high in the offtrack scoring 78 79 points, have one or two small subgroups underperforming and in TSI's case for just a year and then drop all the way down to that needs intensive support and and we felt that that those TSI and ATSI designations are are better aligned with the intent of offtrack. track. >> Thank you for all the clarification. So I I understand the recommendation on the TSI uh is meant from a federal designation to be a warning, not lower all the way to needs intensive. clarify the ATSI. You've now been designated multiple years as having

050subgroups that are performing at the bottom, you know, at the similar level as the bottom 5% of of the schools. And so, um, if if you have an offtrack score as an ATSI school and you were to be moved to needs intensive support, would that have the effect of heightening attention to underserved um, populations? >> Mr. Robson, yeah, I think it I think it could. So, that again, this is a policy call of whether where you feel that alignment is best served. Is ATSI better aligned with offtrack or is it better aligned with needs intensive support for those those things that you mentioned? So we as a board if we if we wanted to heighten attention to underserved groups that the a again the TSI might misalign with the federal um intent of TSI but

051the ATSIF we were to say no we actually want those receiving needs intensive support not as a punitive but because we want more attention more spotlight um on those students that that that would be a something to consider. >> Yes that that is something to consider. Uh I think internally the way we were viewing is that the CSI comprehensive support improvement is the roughly equivalent to that lowest category of needs intensive support. ATSI was a at the next level up on the federal designation. The next level up would be the state's offtrack and then TSI at least in that first year you could that school could stay as on track or stay as offtrack where it was and then after a second year it would be then put into alignment with offtrack the same as

052TSI because of the repeated underperformance but again it's all it's all judgment calls and policy decisions. And actually all of the recommendations can be implemented obviously we we'll ask staff about that but can be implemented pretty much within the framework that we've developed with some tweaking. This is not a master overhaul that delays our implementation, but that we can go on and make these tweaks and figure out roll out implementation scoring adding in your resume. >> Yeah, to add to that, Dr. McPearson, yeah, >> it's not a wholesale change everything. tweaks to the system, but there are implementation considerations. I think you're going to hear from staff. Uh that there is some sequencing, some you do got to do this before you do that type stuff that you want to make sure that schools have

053time to prepare for is something. So there are still some timing and implementation considerations. We may have factored those in when we talked about the way we were going to progressively because we took that into consideration but how we were going to progressively implement the plan itself we've already taken into consideration that it is not a major roll out but every phase of it don't we have some we have ways of telling you where you are now telling you this is where you scored as it relates to the new framework and then how we phased in all of that information going forward in terms of scores and graduation dates and things like that. So, we did take into consideration. So, it'll be interesting to make sure that we're still on track with our roll out

054that we previously agreed upon by tweaking these few things that need to be done. So my next session is on proficiency and growth indicators. Both are based on student performance on SO tests. As you know, proficiency measures whether students are meeting grade level standards and content areas. Growth is a comparison of students current year test performance to that same students performance in prior years. Together they account for majority of the rating for elementary and middle schools. Few findings here. Uh the framework's proficiency indicators are generally welldesigned and the growth indicators are an improvement over the prior system but still had shortcomings but are being changed. As I mentioned the proficiency proficiency indicators are generally welldesigned. The framework uses standalone indicators for reading, math and science and quantifies student and school performance for each. This is

055more transparent than the state's prior system which combined proficiency and growth into a single indicator. Another positive element is the use of index scoring. As you know, with an index, schools receive full credit for students who score proficient, but also partial credit for students who score below proficient and extra credit for uh those scoring advanced. This encourages focus on students at all achievement levels, not just those near the past fail line. The framework's growth indicators also have some elements. their improvement over the prior system like proficiency. Growth is a standalone indicator instead of being combined with others. It measures growth for all students, not just those who scored profic who scored below proficient as was the case with the the prior system. Um, we did find issues with the approach used for scoring the growth

056indicator for the 2425 school year, but the board is making a wholesale change of the growth measure for this current school year. So, unless there's questions, I won't go into any more details there. Our next finding is that the framework's much heavier weighting of proficiency over growth does not fully capture school's contribution to student learning and increases the impact of student demographics on school scores previous system or systems that both uh we're talking that heavier is in reference to if internal analysis of the our own system if you switched it to higher growth relative or if you just increased growth like if you made it 50/50 versus what it currently is now. Um that's what's that's where you would see some of that relationship decline. >> Just like >> Yeah. Yes. Comparing it hypothetically if

057Virginia it's like efficiency and growth if we flip-flopped them if we made them equal what it is now. That's the that's the differences we're comparing to not necessarily the old system or that that correlation other states. I think that interpretation of much heavier could also be looked at too much heavier than systems, you know, and I don't know if y'all >> you've got enough compared to >> Yeah, we have the the next slide, I believe, is or two slides. It at least compares the ratio to other states. It does not we did not compare that correlation to relationship in other states. So both proficiency and growth measure important aspects of student academic achievement. Proficiency measures how well students perform against state standards for core skills and knowledge and will help identify schools with the greatest

058proportion of students not meeting grade level standards. growth better isolates schools impact on student performance, encourages a focus on continuous improvement, and identifies schools whose students are not making enough progress from prior years. Here's the figure that I was referring to. Um, the waiting of growth and proficiency, it's really one of the biggest philosophical debates in school accountability. ESSA requires that each of the two indicators have substantial weight, but give states flexibility in how to weight them relative to one another. This figure shows the ratio between proficiency and growth by state. On the left you have states where growth is weighted higher. On the right where proficiency is weighted higher and in the middle states that give them equal waiting. Um you can see here that Virginia has the third highest ratio of proficiency relative

059to growth nationwide. Is were you able to do any evaluation on the where Arizona, Massachusetts, and Mexico Iowa are in terms of their systems and systems? Short answer is I don't have that. I'd have to to look more into that. I guess comparing NAPE scores would be the very top line way to do it, but probably more detailed analysis could be done. Was there any measurement of proficiency as it relates to NAPE scores for these other state? The growth in proficiency where higher rate of proficiency. Did you look at a model of another state that was close to us as to performance on the NAPE? >> Dr. Mcerson, we did not do that. I think that would be an interesting analysis and I don't have anything to add. because that was our our goal was

060to get the state of Virginia performance up to where you know the federal recognition would be there that we were performing at least at basic level proficiency. So if we should be rating proficiency higher than just measuring growth because of where we're trying to go and maybe we the curve is right for us >> and Dr. Dr. Mc, I do want to caution there there's a lot that would go into those needs. >> There's the accountability system, there's student demographics, funding levels. So, >> yeah, it would be a something to look at, but there's also other factors that are going to complicate that. So, as just was alluded to, the board was intentional about this decision to place more emphasis on proficiency. Reasons cited at the time include the belief that meeting grade level standards

061is a key outcome, wanting to maintain the high expectation of proficiency for all students, and citing that they heard from stakeholders such as parents and those in the business and military communities that proficiency is what they care most about. The trade-off of this waiting decision is that proficiency indicators produce results that are more highly correlated with student demographics, especially economic disadvantage. In contrast, student growth results are less correlated with student demographics, and a majority of schools and division staff as well as subject matter experts we spoke to emphasize that growth is a better measure of the extent to which a school's efforts are contributing to or affecting student performance. Because this is a policy decision with trade-offs and no single answer, we have a policy option and that is that the board could increase the

062weight assigned to the growth indicators to more fully account for school's contribution to student learning. Right? And this is my last uh major section here. It's looking at other refinements that we identified across other areas of the system. So this first one is the scoring used for the three E's college career and military readiness indicator is problematic. The scoring approach used for this indicator differs from the others. For the three E high schools earn points for student achievements in college, career and military readiness opportunities and one student can score points across multiple pathways. You can see on the slide an example of the student with achievement in all three pathways for scoring a total of 2.5 points. Um, hypothetically, a student can score a maximum of 3.5 points if they hit the highest level in

063each category. That's compared to just 1.25 or one point for each of the other indicators. This design is intended to incentivize schools to make many 3es opportunities available to students and to encourage broad student participation across each pathway. However, this allows scores to schools to score much higher on the 3E indicator than on the others, which can distort overall results. This means at least for some schools, their overall school is being driven more by the 3E and is intended by the indicators assigned weight. You can see that schools with the three indicator score with with high three indicator schools scoring highly on the three E indicator add 34% of their summitive score comprised by the indicator when the intended weight is just 25%. This effectively lessens the importance of the other indicators. Likewise, it can

064distort overall ratings which can be misleading. Essentially, a high overall score caused by the three E gives a perception of higher overall performance than is reflected across all of the school's indicators. Um, this is one of the factors contri contributing to why so many high schools received the distinguished label. As mentioned earlier in the presentation, we have a recommendation to the board to change the scoring of the 3E indicator by capping the total number of points a student or school can receive. I'd like to point out that the report provides examples of how these caps could be set in a way to strike a balance between that goal of incentivizing student achievement across multiple pathways while also limiting the indicators disproportionate impact on school scores. Um, this recommendation is no way means that there should

065be a limit on the actual number of opportunities being made available to students. Next, schools can score points toward the enlistment category with much less effort relative to other 3E pathways. This is because schools are awarded points for students earning above certain scores on the ASVAB test, even if they do not list in the military or participate in a JOTC program. The ASVAB's a one-time test, typically taking under two hours to complete. Other three E's achievements that are worth comparable amounts of points for the framework require substantially more time and effort from students. This scoring can incentivize gaming the system by having many or all students take the ASVAP test regardless of their interest in a military career. So we recommend the board change the scoring for the enlistment category so it's more commensurate with

066the time and effort required to earn points in the enrollment and employment categories. Moving to some of the topics related to English learners. Uh we found that the framework's inclusion of more English learners when measuring schools proficiency and growth aligns with federal requirements and is supported by experts. However, the board could change the exclusion period for recently arrived English learners to partially address divisioning school concerns while still aligning with ESSA requirements. For some context, Virginia's prior accountability system excluded all English learners assessments from proficiency and growth calculations for up to five years. The new framework The new framework in alignment with federal requirements excludes only recently arrived English learners for one year. Recently arrived English learners account for about 10% of English learners statewide. The framework's approach not only aligns with federal requirements, but is

067also strongly supported by subject matter experts and is much more aligned with practices in other states. Virginia's prior approach was a true national outlier. This earlier inclusion of English learners is important for several reasons, including tracking student progress, targeting support to students who are struggling, and maintaining attention on students that face the greatest challenges. The purpose is not to set the expectation that these students should be proficient by their second year. However, these rules were among school superintendents and principles top concerns with the new framework. They shared that counting test scores of students with limited English proficiency is unfair or unreasonable. There is something that can be done to at least partially address those concerns while maintaining alignment with federal requirements and best practices. SL allows for exceptions that apply to when to include recently

068arrived English learners in performance calculations. The framework currently uses exception A, but could switch to use of exception B, which would delay inclusion of recently arrived English learners from proficiency calculations until their third year in a US school. This longer delay for proficiency may be preferable to schools because it's generally more feasible for a student with limited English proficiency to demonstrate growth than achieve academic proficiency, especially early on. Therefore, we have a policy option the board could switch uh to exception B for excluding recently arrived English learners. >> Thank you. Is that a recommendation for both reading and math? The timeline from the previous slide >> would recommend exception B is for both. >> Yes, that thank you. >> It applies to both. Correct. There's some real technical stuff on it. Growth for one of

069those would act exception B actually moves growth up a year for one of the two that it would be in the report and um I think you can see it on the figure with the symbols but yes it would move proficiency for both back to that third year. >> Thank you. >> Yeah Dr. bridges >> and do do y'all have a report um any indication of where other states are taking? >> We we do if you give us one second we can track that >> they're on the case >> at my next stop >> page 63 near the top >> page 63 near the top. But >> of that use exception edit and >> so it's almost 5050 >> eight eight using one nine using ethers. Um Joe, one question for for clarity sake on

070the graphic here on 64 for exception B though in order to measure growth in year two are the recently arrived the year one presents it's the same but there actually is a difference exception A they're not taking any assessments exception B they are taking the assessment in order to understand what the growth is in year two is that correct just in terms of >> super that is correct that they would have to take an assessment in that first year to establish a baseline for then growth to be compared to in that second year when growth counts. Thank you. >> Go back one step. Did you find any discrepancy when you were looking at the whole CTE plan, workforce development and all of that that there was a advanced classes students that were taking advanced classes

071and you may not have found any discrepancy but know there's credit given inside that framework for people who taken advanced. >> Dr. Mc Pearson, we compared the criteria in that college and career readiness indicator to other states >> and as you can imagine there's a lot of stuff going on in there in other states but generally >> the things that are in this new framework align with what's common in other states. We didn't see >> that advanced coursework was nothing jumped out at us that that was >> uh in the college and career readiness piece the AP tests. Yeah. That's another one of those technical questions that I might have to >> high school. >> Oh, there's no growth in high school. That is There you >> The growth indicator does not apply in these.

072Raise that work here. got to get back to where I was here. Okay, so uh the next slide is the framework's rules for reweing the ELP progress indicator for elementary and middle schools with too few English learners reduces comparability and fairness of results. So the ELP progress indicator is a measure of English learner progress toward achieving English language proficiency as measured by the WEDA exam. This indicator is required by ESSA. So why this matters is 42% of schools have below the 15 student minimum threshold of English learners to so this indicator doesn't apply to them which means that the entire indicator is excluded when calculating their overall score. That means the 10% weight is distributed elsewhere. For high schools, that weight is distri redistributed proportionally to all remaining indicators. For elementary and middle schools, that

073weight is entirely redistributed to the growth indicator. Uh that redistribution of the entire 10% weight to growth alters how a substantial proportion of elementary and middle schools are being evaluated when compared to their counterparts that have a score for that indicator. uh this reduces the comparability of results and has implications for fairness between schools with and without the indicator. So we have a relatively straightforward recommendation to change that to proportional reweing for all school levels. Um the next finding is that the ELP progress indicator uses binary scoring rather than index scoring which does not reward partial or significant progress and differs from the scoring approach used for other indicators. The ELP progress binary scoring approach rewards a point for only students who meet their growth target. There's no partial credit for students making progress but

074who fall short of their target and no extra credit for students that exceed their target. Using a scoring index for the ELP indicator would be consistent with the board's rationale for other indicators, reflect best practices, and then this is a big one getting down into the the weeds on the math. It makes schools ELP progress indicator scores more comparable to scores for the other indicators which has implications for the fairness of results again when comparing schools with and without that indicator. So we have a recommendation to use index scoring for the ELP progress indicator. And then this is our moving into our last one here. um proficiency scoring index for assessments with three levels can produce misleading results and affect how certain students and subject areas are prioritized. So the SPSF scores as proficiency indicators

075with one of two indexes for so tests with uh four performance labels. So I'm talking about advanced proficient, basic, and below basic. Framework uses a scoring index ranging from 0.25 points to 1.25 25 points awarded for each student based off the performance level they achieve. For so tests with three performance levels, those points awarded per student range from just 75 to 1.25. What we found is that the three level scoring index awards too many points for failing students, which could lead to deprioritizing assessments in subject areas that have that three performance levels. disincentivizing focus on the lowest performing students, um reducing the framework's responsiveness to scoring changes within those subject areas, and masking low performing students contrary to federal guidance. So, you can see an example of how that all plays out. Science subject area,

076which has so tests with three performance levels, had the highest average indicator score for elementary and middle schools despite having the lowest so pass rate. And that's really an effect of essentially more points for that bottom category. Um this another relatively simple fix. The board could reduce points awarded um for uh the proficiency index calculations from 0 75 to 0.5 for students who score fail or does not meet proficiency on assessments with three performance levels. And then to conclude, it was just discussed in your legislative update. So I won't uh read through everything exactly. There were legislative executive actions taken in response to the report. A house bill asking the board to consider changes with to the framework that align with these recommendations and policy options and an executive order directing the secretary uh and

077the superintendent to present an action plan for considering these recommendations. Uh Joe, could you talk a little bit more about that recommendation? How you landed on the the 0.5 [clears throat] assuming a distribution for those who did not um achieve proficiency? Is that just a best approxim approximation because you don't have the two categories? But there's nothing necessarily that you found about science for example that would suggest that everybody scored on average lower. Um it's just that you know mathematically unless you you have two options either to split those uh or to take a lower average. Is that is that a correct understanding? >> Superintendent Conway I think we landed on the 0.5 because the other one is a 0.25 and a 75 for those two below proficiency levels. when there's only one below proficiency

078level in those three level um tests, then essentially merge that into a 0.5 and that gets you uh scoring that's comparable to the other tests that are using the four point index. There could probably be further analysis. It might be 0.53, it might be 47 if you want to get real precise to try to make them comparable, but that's where we got there. That concludes everything that I have unless there's any other questions. >> I just want to thank you. Um I feel like this was a well thoughtout report. I felt like you really listened. Um I know when you spoke to me at length and many of us on this board at length. Um and I see some of our um concerns reflected in here. Uh, and I think that it was a thoughtful

079report and well done and that we should um take much of your advice. So, >> Thank you again for the kind words that thank you for participating in our interviews and and for being very open and and transparent with us. M >> make sure I'm clear. Says that we should take into consideration that you made nine recommendations and they're two policy options. >> Let me make sure I'm seeing the two policy options. Yes, they are >> 0.75 to the 0.5. >> Um, the policy options I believe are the exception A versus exception B on the E. >> What page are you on? >> Did you put them in here >> in growth first? >> Did you set them out as your policy? >> Yeah, in the in the slides, they're labeled at the top. And

080really that gets kind of in the >> okay >> it's the growth versus proficiency waiting okay >> and the exception A versus exception B for when to include EL um learners and to get into the J those are Jark terms in our reports the recommendation is something where we have a >> hopefully I I get this accurate for how a recommendation is kind of the higher burden of we really think this should be done a policy option is There can be two different ways to do it or it's maybe not as strong as a recommendation. A few a few other considerations fall into the policy option. [laughter] >> Mr. Robinson, >> first I want to echo Dr. Northern's comments on just an exceptional research report, thoughtful um you know uh nonpartisan just just really uh

081thorough um uh considerations for us and and the BDOE team. So deeply appreciate your how much you poured into this. Um, one of the things that you do not have a recommendation around that's most unique about Virginia's new framework is the advanced coursework designation or 10% of the score in middle schools. And uh my understanding is, you know, uh uh ultimately part of the reason that you deny recognition on is cuz it it it only negatively impacted like three schools and and there was some evidence that it did positively impact uh incentivizing schools to to have students take algebra earlier. And so I'm just curious over the long you know as we consider that very unique to Virginia and I think Florida um metric are there any you know maybe not recommendations but considerations as

082we uh are are piloting this new measure for us what we what should we be learning about as we're trying to see is this acting as intended just to get um you my understanding the intent of the board is to get as many students taking advanced course work as as possible and uh so so we we may not had that one right yet because it's new and so I didn't if you had any recommendations for how we learn about that one in the years to come. >> You're right. It is it is relatively unique. Unique isn't necessarily bad. Um we didn't find enough to recommend changing it or getting rid of it. So I think that's where we landed there. Um I think we already did kind of learn something. I was surprised in the

083data that we could only find 266 students statewide that scored advanced seventh graders that scored advanced on their seventh grade math so but then were not in algebra 1 in eighth grade. So what that told me was that schools are already advancing students that show this um aptitude in math at least by eighth grade and likely before then which is why there's so few in seventh grade scoring that advance. Um, so I think and and I think you mentioned one of the stats, another set, there's really only 18 of 360 middle schools had five or more students that fell into that bucket of scored advance in seventh but did not take an advanced math in eighth. So if the incentive is to or if the intention is to incentivize this to happen, it is largely

084happening already. I do think it will help um those 18 schools and two to 300 students that are left potentially get moved up into advanced math. I may have lost my way on your question there, but I think I think it already kind of has taught us something and and I do know there was legislation too that directed schools to come up with a policy for advancing students in math. So, there's also a legislative intent to try to encourage this as well. So, they're they're getting it from a couple angles. And on that legislative intent, my understanding is the legislature actually goes further that that there there's more students that the legislature is incentivizing to take advanced math earlier than just those who score advance. And as we consider raising cut scores and other things

085where advanced is harder, you know, part of my interest and curiosity is how to get even more students into algebra earlier. And if this indicator could do that, could be used to do that. And again, I think we probably don't know enough to I didn't know if you wanted to comment on that. >> You are right that the legislative um the bill from last year it's the top I think 25 top 25 percentile of math scoring which then captures students that scored proficient as well and it recommends that they would be moved up to advanced math. Um, yeah, I' I'd have to give some thought on how changing the cut scores and there's fewer advanced students and and then where that 25th percentile falls. I'd have to give some thought to how all that works.

086>> There may be a way to to tweak to tweak this to as those things change, >> right, >> Miss McFerson? Yes. >> Yeah. I want to thank the whole JLock team, not just for the presentation, but for the hard work. I think what it does show us is that, you know, this has been a long time in the making and there's a whole lot of moving parts, but I think you help confirm that we're moving in the right direction and that's really important to the board and as you find additional things that can be helpful to us these past especially as it relates to moving forward, you know, our student population, they're like they're looking at it from I think this standpoint, you know, AI is emerging quickly [clears throat] and they are moving

087in that direction and they're looking for as much innovation as possible. So as we drill down making sure that they have the fundamentals, we kind of want to keep our eye on the fact that they really are taking that curve in a whole different direction which is why we may see some changes as it relates to math and engineering and some of the innovative things that are going to build a pathway. Like for instance, Amazon just put $1.2 billion dollar for employee improvement for workers to move up to the next skill level. So our whole workforce development innovation, you know, our new CTE platform is really going to take off. U but thank you for helping us with the fundament. >> And sher reserve's final comment. Um, I thought Jay was policy, not people. And

088so I want to say thank you um for actually bringing this to life for us. I I think um having served on this board for three years, you summed up three years in about 45 minutes. Um and I think it is encouraging uh the work that the board has done is all about the three words you use. Um, it's about improving the outcomes for our kid, making sure there's clarity for the support and the continuity. And I think what you summed up in 45 minutes, I want to say thank you and thank you for the team. Um, I at first I wrote we can do hard things and you made it sound very easy. [laughter] >> Thank you for that. We're gonna end on that positive note now. Um, with that, so thank you for

089you and for the team. Um, again, very, very thoughtful work. Um, with that, I would propose that we actually break for lunch now and then, uh, come back for the assessment accountability roadmap. >> Thank you all so much. We're almost ready. >> Hey, uh good afternoon. Uh we are going to come back into session. Um Superintendent Conway, will you introduce our next presentation? >> Absolutely. Thank you. So, uh, welcome back. Um, and again, uh, uh, in the theme of kind of making sense of of various strands of work from this morning, Deputy Superintendent Heislup and I are going to begin a conversation that will [clears throat] go into tomorrow and into the August session around thinking through the implications Yeah, >> we're good. Um, how to think through some of the the charges, challenges, and

090considerations in front of this body. Um, you heard first from Chief Koi about important pieces of legislation including multiple pieces of legislation related to accountability and uh assessment and we'll talk a little bit more about that. You then heard that what the general assembly uh rather simply framed as you need to consider the school and performance and support framework recommendations from JARK. um after a very lengthy thoughtful presentation from JARK you see the complexity of those recommendations um and then you have the work that this body has been diligently uh endeavoring over over the last few years and what we would like to do this afternoon is to kind of bring all those strands together as we think about the different components of a measurement system. a measurement system that thinks about students, the 1.2

091million students across our system, and what we want them to know and be able to do and our schools, the 1,800 schools which those students attend. And that a great part of how we measure our schools, uh, is in how those students perform. uh what they know, what they demonstrate that they know and are able to do and how they make progress uh towards towards those those standards. Um we wanted to first um uh and I'll talk through these kind of first couple slides and then turn it over to Deputy Superintendent Heislop who will take us through the the the details or kind of and and preview what we will be bringing to you for for first review tomorrow. Um what we wanted to first do is take a step back and just talk about

092how we at a vision and values perspective see these different strands coming together. Um which cover both these different areas of the work and uh the many different groups that help set expectations for our schools, right? which range from this body, the board of education uh and our appointees from a governor, the governor, him or herself, the general assembly, our senate and our uh legislature. And each uh uh each part of that system set sort of whether it's laws, whether it's setting regulations, whether it's how you do measurement kind of has an implication for this this measurement system. Um from the outset uh this governor um has been clear and has emphasized to myself to the secretary of education Dr. Jeffrey Smith a commitment to excellence and an idea that is espoused in her platform

093from last fall as well as her executive order. uh a desire and a belief in excellence um believing that every student deserves an excellent education um that puts them on track for success. I think you saw this in the JARK content. I think we've talked about this even a little bit so far this morning having this deep belief that our students are capable as any in the nation and how do we think about our responsibility to prepare them to be success. You've successful. You've heard me talk before about much of my career has been rooted in accountability for early childhood systems with this idea of how do we organize all the adults to improve interaction so that kids come to kindergarten ready for success. And I think the really important work that many of you

094have done for years is how how do we think about you know measuring students and measuring schools so that ultimately um as we make these investments in this K12 system that that results in graduates who are ready for life um and prepared for success um we as a piece of this you know kind of really bringing together assessment where we are in assessment accountability and thinking through what we are trying to achieve. Um, you know, and that is about not only and I and I always find myself a little bit lost uh in the the weeds, but like the big goal and I think we heard this from Miss McFersonson and Mr. Hansen earlier, right, is to motivate actors to change what is happening down to the classroom level to improve outcomes for students and

095really thinking through how each aspect of that of that system can can do that. Um, you've heard me talk a bit about and when we were out on the listening tour, we have heard from folks and we heard this from Jay Lark as as well. How do we balance between staying the course? Um where uh there are things that are working well for our students um where there are things that we share in common and that the politics may have changed but you know at the end of the day that we we we believe in excellence for our students. We are not comfortable with our cut scores being the lowest in the nation and we you know ultimately know that it will take all of us to dedicate resources to those schools, educators and students

096in greatest need and to know that those resources are turning into better experiences and better outcomes. Um I think what is so hard and what we want to start the conversation on today is that there is great complexity here and thinking through um how each of these these pieces play a role in this is really key. I also as I describe this vision want to kind of recognize that um as this board has incrementally kind of made progress whether that is uh strengthened our content standards which you have in math and English language arts among other subjects helped increase the rigor of our standards of learning assessments which you have thanks to your higher standards for math and English language arts um and run a process to lay out more specific performance level descriptors as

097we did last summer um to kind of really lay out what do we want our students to know and be able to do. We also have to reconcile with some of the shifts that have happened since December. Um and whether that's you know we have uh this JARK uh report and some of the recommendations on shifts to the accountability system which as you heard uh Joe reference then has implications right if you change some of the underlying measures i.e. you change those cut scores that then has to be accounted for as you think about implementing those changes. As Chief Koy noted, we had a very extensive assessment law that was passed as well as a very clear legislative requirement on competing out our entire assessment system and implementing a new system. um you know that

098is mandated by our general assembly and thinking through how do we provide a clear path forward for you all um that reflects some of those shifts while also recognizing the trajectory over the last few years to have heard from US DOE about needing to adjust our standards and our cut scores. the desire and the success of having a a measurement system for schools known as the school performance and support framework that uh does not say that all schools are the same but actually begins to differentiate um but also needing to make some shifts in that um based on what you just heard from from JARK equally important and you heard as described from Chief Koi was that you know the place potentially where JARK was the most clear and what was turned into a law

099that was very directive was an obligation for this agency to make sure that we moved away from school improvement being something that was owned simply by an office or a subset of staff at the VDOE to something that was an agencywide priority. And that was a crystal clear law that was passed and signed by the governor. And that's why we move to this slide. Just thinking about the big picture is so important. Uh you've heard me talk before um about VQB5 and my work in early childhood and sort of that one of the most important things that VQB5 does is to help ensure that resources get to those early childhood programs that we know need the most support and that you ultimately see that improvement year overyear. Um that requires consideration of multiple things. um

100whether that's the standards and being very clear about what we want our students to know learn in our classrooms and again great progress has been made in that area. What we talked a little bit about which is also kind of essential but is essential to this theory of change is that this law that was passed by the general assembly whether the laws I should say whether it's the Virginia literacy act or the law more broadly pertaining to highquality instructional materials provides a very clear path forward that goes beyond the standards and says that Virginia school divisions and leaders must use highquality instructional materials that will help students achieve mastery in line with recommendations that come from this body. And so begin to really go not only beyond clearly defining what we want students to know

101and be able to do, but then says these are the resources through a rigorous process that will help students get there. When used, used well, used with fidelity and used consistently to meet the individual needs of students. To meet the individual needs of students, we need to know where the students are. And so thinking about the assessment and as deputy superintendent Heislip will talk with you, we've got a lot of sort of parameters and expectations you know set on us as we think about assessment but at its core it's helping to ensure that there is a transparent understanding of what kids do know and be able to do as this body has grappled with in the last six months of of last year. making sure that we are setting the right bar um for that

102teaching and learning so that we are um making sure that if our students and this is an important commitment to our students and their families right if students meet that bar that they are truly prepared to be success whether that's in college career whether that's within the commonwealth or they are nationally competitive and ultimately that accountability right is is while an important piece of this is really the way in which we measure and ensure it's the lever kind of across the 1800 schools the very different leaders and educators that by having a true north right that is based in standards HQIM and assessment that HQIM becomes that pathway along with supports for our educators and that's really important a box with a curriculum is not is only a step is necessary not to to but

103not sufficient to actually seeing the educa educator use that to support children's students learning and and and and and and development of skills. And accountability becomes the very important way in which we say this is how we measure this in schools and that we're ultimately aligning assessment which is how we understand what students know and able to do with how we measure schools and understand what they are able to produce in terms of students learning and and growth over time. And as we'll talk today, I think it's just very key that we as we present this to you and we're sort of saying coming back to this body and saying here's what we understand the true north to be what we and I I describe that true north both in terms of uh less in

104terms of the standards because that's where you have already begun to define what we want students to know and to be able to do and we're not at this point in time proposing any changes to the standards. But when you think about how we measure that success for students in terms of assessment and how we measure that success for schools in terms of school performance and support framework, I think there are kind of two two sort of versions, the student and the school version of that that we must get to. And what we are proposing is how we reconcile those pieces as we as we go forward. I know uh I won't spend a ton of time on these values, but just to know that hopefully um we can agree on the true north. I

105think there we welcome uh inquiry on kind of how we actually get there reconciling both what all the work that this body has accomplished and then some of the things that have shifted in terms of JARK and the legislative mandates coming out of this session. but that these values can guide us now and along the way. Uh that I have heard from both sides of the aisle uh new and veteran board members and many of our stakeholders across the state around the importance of high expectation and I think McFersonson you noted that today in terms of setting a standard of excellence and making sure that we are supporting students to achieve that. I think as you will hear and in the complexity and in even all the recommendations made by JARK, how do we think

106about focus and how do we think about what are these changes and as Joe noted that sequence and how do we do this at a fast enough clips to make difference for kids but also in a way that we can move the system of 1800 schools and all the many classrooms and educators. Part of our ask and why we present these things together today is this idea of coherence and really thinking through how do we make sure that all these things align. An example of this and and Mr. Robinson alluded to this earlier is if not we end up sending disperate messages to the field. So in a scenario where we have laid out uh higher cut scores for math but also have a law that requires a certain percentile score to be referred to

107advanced math if you looked in the out years of that ma of of those kind of numbers. what it meant is that you were potentially at risk of referring students who were not proficient in math into advanced math, right? And again, that is a fixable issue, right? Because as we sort of raise those cut scores, I think we'll figure out how to address that. But if we're not thinking about all of the different factors here, there is a risk of of not sending kind of a clear and coherent message to the field that reinforces from standards to assessment to accountability kind of this this this vision that gets us to this true north. We believe in opportunity for every student um and and prioritizing those students who are furthest from opportun opportunity [clears throat] as

108the priority for resources. We talked about the needs intensive support um and how critical it is that we are not saying that all schools or all students are the same or telling them that they're okay. I think as you saw in the JARK report, um while I have incredible confidence and have seen extraordinary high schools across the Commonwealth, I think it is hard for me to reconcile how we can have 65% of our high schools distinguish and then significantly different numbers for elementary and middle. And so kind of it's again not a critique of high schools but sort of a recon a recognition that we we probably need to sort of you know reook at three and some of those indicators sort of to be more consistent um you know in the ways that we

109sort of look at at other schools and that if we're telling them distinguish I think as as Joe noted that that could create a risk maybe less focus on really making sure that every student is fully included and and supported if you can score more points in E and then that student furthest from opportunity is not given every possible resource to pass that reading or math test. That's the type of disconnect that uh ultimately could harm our students furthest from opportunity. And last but not least, if you've ever heard me talk about uh early childhood and accountability, just this idea of how do we make this actionable and how do we think through you don't change systems by measuring and catching people at the end. you change systems, right, by being very very clear about

110what are the adult actions that need to change in order to achieve um those results. And so as we think through with our 131 school divisions who have, you know, who are have noted to us a commitment to raise the bar and pursue excellence, who recognize the importance of measuring schools to both show the value of public education in the Commonwealth, but also noting that there's always work to be done. How do we think through a pathway over the next few years that is as focused on the improvement as it is that high bar for excellence and again that's why although uh deputy superintendent heap won't talk uh as much about that but as we think about HQIM as we think about every possible resource at our disposable whether that's the school improvement funding why

111I asked that question of Joe about those resources how do we make sure that as we set these these high expectations that we support all of our schools, particularly those that serve our students further furthest from opportunity to achieve that. Um, and so with that, what I would ask as I turn it over to Deputy Superintendent Heislop is for you all to take what we um have have compiled for you today. Um ultimately what we want to ask for for first review tomorrow is a set of of shifts you know for the upcoming year but to sort of what we felt would not be wise but to bring kind of you in pieces right if you think about the entirety of Joe's presentation it felt a little worrisome you know and he even made a

112couple illusions to the kind of complexity to just bring you pieces of this um without the big picture. I imagine, you know, and and there will be tons of questions today about, okay, but how does this match up with what we agreed on in the past? How does this match up with what the pathway is for improvement from this body today? Um, but we we wanted to do recognizing again this is first review is to lay out my perspective a very practical yearbyear here is our first proposal on how to make sense of all these things. the work you've done as a body, what we have in terms of this JARK report, what the general assembly has put in front of you and us, um, uh, recommendations in some places, requirements and others, and how

113to begin to implement that. Um, I also recognize at first review there might be many questions and additional data or things that you need us to go uh in more detail on that and I know I've asked the team to sort of be very prepared to kind of take down that information and think what we need to bring back to you to support to to support that that conversation. U with that let me pause and see if there's any initial questions there and then I'll turn it over to Deputy Superintendent Heisl. So, as it relates to the vote that we previously took about implementation of the new accountability platform and testing while we have this for a first review procedurally, it doesn't change the board's prior decision. So, we are still on the path that

114the board originally voted that we would be on and regardless of what we do with this, it would take a new vote of the board to overturn our previous decision. Right. >> Yes. So, right now, we're in the implementation phase of what we voted on. That's correct. So we we would need to see I think a chart that says this is where we are with what we voted on and this is what the new proposed transition timeline would do. So we would know what about the vote because we already voted for implementation. >> Do you want to respond to that? >> Oh yeah. So I I I think that's correct. I think one of the things that has come up um even as we have prepared these resources and begun to look at implementation um

115is that uh there was a very clear uh very very clear true north in terms of this body's agreement on what proficiency looks like across each of those areas. Right? And those numbers are very clear and were shared with this body multiple times. Um, as we looked at the details of what that exactly means yearby year, it does not appear that that is a publicly available document from last fall. So we we do need to pull that get that out get that for you in terms of again we said four-year implementation true north is are those numbers very very clear from your process that we had with 250 stakeholders right to where you landed and all of that we were able to to do that. I think the one place where we would need to

116uh be more transparent about both with you and the general public is exactly what that meant numerically each year for each assessment and then how that would change with our uh shift in the how we get there. There is no proposal to change what we're getting to. >> Okay. So you're saying the proposed transition timeline matches up with the prior vote, but the difference is what we going to do in each of the years. >> Well, let's have I think let's hold that question in terms of having the deputy walk us through that. Yes. But then thinking through there, you know, and what that actually means in terms of the interim years. [snorts] There was narrative copy and there was a set of examples shared, but there's not the kind of the in between cut

117points that we're trying to then figure out. So, a part of it is to sort of to to to get clarity on what was actually voted on and what the difference is is is is on our list of things that we absolutely need to do. But in the interim, certainly until there is a subsequent vote, that is in effect. >> Um, Dr. Bridges. >> Oh, no. I was making sure you had seen >> Sorry, I was I was Okay, >> thank you so much. It's um a pleasure to be back before this board. I worked with many of you on the initial development of the SPSF as a consultant and appreciate um the opportunity today to present this coordinated plan. I know a lot of times um as Superintendent Conway so artfully walked us through,

118you know, assessment, accountability, school improvement are inextricably linked together. And I think it makes a lot of sense to think about all these changes whether it's the things the general assembly has told us to do around assessment like recompeting the assessment RFP for the first time in 20 years the changes um to sort of the administration and scoring of assessments in Senate Bill 200 that Chief Koi talked about the changes that JARK um so artfully talked about as needing for us to consider um that I think you know bringing all of this together was our goal so we could really think about is there a way to look at all the chess pieces on the board and synchronize the implementation in the most effective way possible. We do know that our students are smart, capable,

119have high aspirations for their futures and we need to do our job to meet them there through both assessment and accountability and to reflect those expectations. So this is the proposed transition plan. And our goal here was to try and simplify and streamline all those needed changes to both assessment and accountability. And to Miss McFersonson's point, um the SPSF changes have not been brought forward to the board prior to this meeting because JARK came out last December. So all of the how we were going to implement the sort of SPSF 2.0 and those refinements, this is the sort of first time we've really brought that forward to the board for discussion. We have had a lot of conversation over the last um several years around our standards and assessments though. Um so I think this

120package here is really focused on that bigger transition roadmap but also some very specific technical policy adjustments to the accountability system that start to get at some of those JARK policy recommendations and options. But certainly not if you see a policy recommendation that Joe may have mentioned that's not in this deck, it doesn't mean we're not considering it. it's just maybe not one of the initial steps we're taking because we have to sequence things appropriately. Um so here you we're sort of calling this the measurement road map. It's not an assessment road map. It's not an accountability road map. It's trying to think about it all as a cohesive hole. We built this off of I would say a set of kind of key principles here that guided some of our initial thinking. Um but

121the most important piece here I think is that we are trying to create that clear consolidated timeline for all of these changes with a lot of opportunities for the field for the board to learn about and prepare for the changes before they take place in the 2829 school year. So that when we looked at again the changes on the assessment side, the changes on the cut scores and the changes needed for SPSS, that was the school year where the timelines could converge into a single year. Importantly, we wanted to be sure that we sort of reflected each of these key principles and I'll walk through them in turn on the next several set of slides. So, first in Superintendent Conway, and I think many members of the board have talked about this already, really building

122from the incredible work that has already been accomplished over the last several years. Um, we have new, stronger, more rigorous standards in reading and in math that were adopted in 2324. We have to build from those standards and fully incorporate them into our assessments. We have already done so in math. We are doing that this coming school year in reading. So this year is the first year this upcoming school year where our assessments will reflect fully those higher expectations that were set by this board in 2023 and 24. We are also releasing test items. Um we have not released test items for educators in many many years. This will help give them insight into how our assessments are reflecting those higher standards. And that's transparency that we plan to continue in future years. And in

123fact, the general assembly is directing us to do that. We are also um as a result of general assembly action streamlining some of our assessments. We are getting rid of eliminating the Virginia growth assessments, those interim assessments. We're also making some um moves to streamline um the high school integrated reading and writing assessment. If you remember, there is a standalone EOC writing which is what most students take. And then there was also this IR IRW test. we are just going to be phasing that out based on feedback from divisions, student usage, etc. And we also know that we're going to be making some really critical changes this coming school year to get assessment results out to parents and to the public faster within 45 days of the end of the um test administration. We are

124also reporting test results on a 0 to 100 point scale. So those parent reports that um parents will see next summer are not just going to be on our 0 to600. We're going to show them and sort of translate that score into a 0 to 100 point scale. That was something that the general assembly passed this year as a way to make assessments more intuitive for families. Um we are also, as uh superintendent Tom mentioned, releasing an RFP for an updated statewide assessment contract. um that is going to be released this summer and I can sort of give you a sense um here we say the so probably take at least a couple years to execute part of this is out of our control though we're working with VA we're working with the office of

125the attorney general we'll see what the vendors come back with we don't fully control that timeline but we are moving as fast as possible to get that work accomplished as well and I think you know as as Joe mentioned earlier the work that this board did to adopt A new accountability system is an incredible strength. It is a more effective, more efficient system than the prior one. It may need some refinements. We have those 13 policy recommendations and two policy options, but we are going to be building from that. We are not taking that away. We are not it's refining. It is not throwing the baby out with bath water. So, I we really wanted to be sure that we were considering all of these really critical pieces that have already occurred as we think

126about what the next three years look like. The second piece here that we sought to, as we alluded to earlier, is to have one major transition across all of these different moving pieces, whether that's our assessment contract, the um assessment cut scores, and the school performance and support framework. And are proposing this transition plan that has that 2829 school year as the implement year. there's a year to prepare, a year to preview, and a year to implement. Um, I will say, you know, in thinking a little bit to Miss McFersonson's question, um, part of our piece here is trying to again synchronize the most significant changes as one cohesive hole because everything is interconnected. Um during this prepare year, it would give us time to bring forward to this board more of Jayorg's recommendations to

127begin the regulatory process that we would need to for a few of the policy recommendations that the board will consider require regulatory change and that's a longer process that can take a year or more. Um so we need to begin that. We also need to be working during this prepare year on our assessment contract to be sure that we get um we're evaluating the vendors who submit proposals and selecting a high quality vendor moving forward. We also want to be sure that we can use these years in the interim to help start to preview for our school divisions, preview for our families what new accountability changes, what higher cut scores look like. Um that would certainly be the main focus of the 2728 school year that preview year. Um we're hoping that we would be

128able to provide a full look into the sort of SPSF 2.0 is we are calling it without stakes attached. So this would be sort of an insider insight look into what's coming down the pipeline before everything takes effect in the 2829 school year. And while it is not listed here, we also anticipate that in 2829 we would be under that new or updated contract. So that work is also converging under this timeline as well. Um I think a key few key points here is that this is actually a year faster to get to the proficiency cut score changes than the plan that the board voted on prior that had full implementation in the 29 2030 school year. This is full implementation in 2829. So it's same destination a little bit faster. But our goal here

129of course was to synchronize everything together. I think what may be slightly different to Miss McFerson's question is what is happening in 2627 and 2728 as well as 2829 and that we would be at full implementation at that point as opposed to in the final year of that phase and plan. So if you're if I hope that is a helpful clarification and um we really appreciate the feedback on this because again this is sort of our first opportunity. We really want to uh you know be sure that we're getting feedback from the field and input as we refine this and ultimately this will inform the report that we will be sending to the general assembly with our plan and timeline for considering the accountability changes as well. To that point, I mean, I think we

130we're committed here to continually trying to signal high expectations for both schools and for students. As Superintendent Conway mentioned, this is about being sure that our accountability system is as rigorous as our assessment system. They one is sending, you know, signals sort of to what we expect students to know and do and one is sort of sending signals to what we want the adults leading our school systems to know and do and take action. Whether that's because we've highlighted a great practice, a school that's hitting it out of the park or a school where individual groups of students may be struggling. Um, we really want to be sure that um, I can't tell you how many times in this work I've heard like implementation is the death of policy. We want to be really thoughtful

131about implementation of all these changes. That is certainly something that we heard on our listening tour during the first 100 days of this administration with Superintendent Conway and Secretary Smith was just, you know, this has been a lot of change like help us help us manage that. Clear the guide path. Show us how we can get there because I believe that we can get there. Um I know we can get there and we can have better outcomes um for for educators, for students, for families. Um but we need to have a strong transition plan in order to accomplish that. Um to that end, I think it's critical that we think about using this whole plan um to really be mindful about how we are communicating with all stakeholders, whether it's families, parents, those who work

132in our school systems, our state leadership, our board, um to give everyone the time, information, and and tools that they need to prepare for these changes. Whether it's a change or a potential change in an assessment vendor, whether it's a change in cut scores, whether it's a change in how we measure 3E, we don't want there to be surprises. We want to give folks time to actually understand what is changing, why it is changing, and when it is changing. [snorts] And that is going to require a lot of listening and learning on our part immediately following this presentation. We already have plans, Chief Ko and I, for all the people that we are going to be talking to in July and August, how we're going to be communicating with different stakeholders to get input to

133refine this. We certainly want to hear your questions during this uh presentation as well as first review tomorrow so that we can come back and refine this and be sure that we are being as clear as possible. And one of the things that I think we really do want to do is by having the time to model and to preview I think is going to be critical to building trust so that the folks who are being held accountable or the students who are being assessed and their their families understand what we are doing and have insight into it before it happens. It won't feel like a surprise because they've already seen it. Finally, I I do want to say this is critically important to me and I wish we could talk even more about it

134because the whole purpose of a measurement system. It's not a math problem. It's not about getting the right number of schools or the right distribution. It is ultimately about action and school improvement. That is why we do this and that is not an agencywide priority. And that is one thing that this general assembly made clear. They have already implemented several of Jay Lark's recommendations to ensure that this board and the agency and Superintendent Conway are specifically charged with taking responsibility for school improvement, not just for designing that accountability system in all math, but for actually improving outcomes for students. And so this is not work that is just going to be happening in the office of school improvement. We are committed to thinking about how can our office for specialized populations that serves English learners

135that serves our students with disabilities. How are they supporting school improvement? How is our office of instruction supporting school improvement? Whether that's through HQIM and ensuring that teachers have what they need to teach our high standards that this board has voted on. And we really hope that when we are using our measurement system as this kind of foundational tool, data being the foundation of how we consider school improvement, it's going to guide and create the conditions that we need for both divisions action, but also action within the the agency. Um, so it's really critical that we get these pieces right so that we can then have this effective school improvement system that's going to accelerate outcomes, especially for our students that are furthest from opportunity, but frankly for all of Virginia's students. This work will

136benefit everyone. So, we know that this work is going to take some time. It is complex as as Joe alluded to, and I will likely be spending a lot of time in front of this board over the next three years or more. Um, but we know that we can get there and we know that the outcomes, the end result is worth it because it will lead to that meaningful action that we need to see our parents, our students, our schools, our educators, our divisions taking to continually improve student outcomes. Um, so I am happy to now just turn over briefly um can run through some of these actions that we're bringing forward for tomorrow for first review. Um the first is related to that proficiency implementation plan and sort of having one change to increase

137expectations for proficiency that's synchronized with these other changes. So that would be in the 2829 school year instead of 29 2030. Same end point. We're not reopening what the cut scores would be, but it's more about the timeline and then what happens in those interim years between now in 2829. That's the first um action being brought forward. And then the actions two through five are mostly related to to the Jark recommendation. So the first is to update the SPSF performance categories immediately this fall. So we're proposing in this item for first review to no longer identify schools as off track or on track in fall 2026. Instead, we would be updating those with approaching expectations and meets expectations are the names that we put forward in for first review consideration. But I'm sure there will

138be a lot of robust discussion around that. And that doesn't preclude maybe future action on those items. But this is one step that as Joe mentioned is kind of it's one piece that is less connected to everything else. If you change those school names, it doesn't have a ripple effect on a bunch of other items in the system. So, it is something we could change sooner. The third, fourth, and fifth changes are probably even more wonky and technical. Um, one thing right now is that we don't use in high school how we look at test results. We don't look at recent data. We look at the 12th grade cohort. And for many students in 12th grade, they took that reading test in 9th grade. So, it's lagged by multiple years. And we have other measures

139for high schools that do look at the 12th grade cohort. We look at graduation rates. 3E is based on the 12th grade cohort. We don't have many measures in high school that are looking at those 9th and 10th grade students. And we think that it would be a good change to move for fall 27 to an annual measurement. So that we are looking at all the students who took assessments in high school that year rather than waiting multiple years to include them in the accountability system. That will lead to more timely actionable intervention and improvement. We also are planning to bring forward for consideration the JARK recommendation that would is related to when schools don't have enough English learners to have that English learner proficiency data point. This is what was creating a great deal

140of um unfairness and inconsistency in terms of growth mattered a whole lot more in schools that didn't serve enough English learners to have that indicator compared to those that did. So this is would be bringing forward that recommendation for fall 27. And then finally this is the policy option that Joe mentioned around exception A exception B. Here what we are proposing is because um this would take multiple years to implement statewide. Our recommendation for consideration is that for this year, we would maintain the ability for recently arrived English learners, those are students who have been in the country for less than one year to not take the reading assessment. That is our current policy. We would stick with that. We would consider though seeing if we could pilot the other option in a few divisions

141to test it out before to see, you know, what happens to the results. kind of do that modeling, that preview before it would go potentially statewide or we could bring it to this board for consideration. So, we just want to get some more information about what this would mean for students before making a drastic change that would affect um all students students and all schools and divisions. So, those are the five pieces. Like I said, if there's something that Joe mentioned earlier that we've talked about or you all have talked about in prior meetings that's not on this list, rest assured, it doesn't mean it won't be coming forward in the future, but these are the changes that we thought made sense to bring forward now for first review. For final review then would be

142in in August. Um, and do just really want to um recognize and appreciate all of the work that this board has taken over the last several years to get us to this point. I think we are at a really exciting kind of pivotal moment in Virginia where we have built a very strong foundation for of our measurement [snorts] system but over the next 3 to four years it's going from that version 1.0 to that 2.0 know it's strengthening it, it's improving it and kind of finishing the work. Um, so I'm happy to answer questions now. I know there's a lot of com content and I will be back tomorrow of course but um any questions or discussion to hear it? >> Thank you so much for your presentation. Do you have questions? >> I almost

143don't know where to start with this but I guess I'll start it. I do think it's important that we really go back and figure out where we were. And I understand this whole thing about wanting to roll out, not making some principles upset, some superintendents upset, this whole thing about names on track, off track versus meeting expectations, not meeting expectations. But at the end of the day, we have determined that Virginia's students are not prepared. And when we look at it nationally, we don't have to go back and talk about the fact that the, you know, the stats tell us about the reading and writing and the low scores in Virginia, which none of us are proud of. And I don't think we have four more years to figure out how we going to roll

144this out. So, I'd like for us to just go back. Let's look at what we talked about cut scores the date we were going to implement them and compare this to. We can pull in the tweaks that Jay said is not going to require major overhaul. But this board was committed to going into accountability and transparency as quickly as possible so we would know where we were and figure out how we would best put the resources to improve. So, I'm I'm really concerned about a foyer interpretation, not really rolling out the cut scores, not telling them what the cut scores are, and then in 2029 beginning to talk about the accountability that we took three years to build. >> So, a a couple of things. Let's let's break it piece by piece. I mean, first

145I want to just acknowledge that you putting these things side by side is a necessary step for the spotting, right? So we we can absolutely do that work. Um you the language adopted in December said 2930 right and we are moving this up a year right so that sort of aligns very closely with this idea of we cannot wait four years. I think what is is different is how we get there. And you know what this body did adopt and is in place until we change it was moving the line between approaching which was a brand new category, right? That was an interim that was not actually your true north but this interim place, right? That was different for three years solid across all these different assessments, right? and moving up the the line between

146approaching and fail basic right you know varied across that it was recommended and it was clear and resources shared you know from the TAC and other that potentially that there was some concern about doing that incrementally that was then made more complicated by the reporting on a 100point scale and some of the other things that were then adopted by the general assembly and so this just to be very to the spirit of transparency In light of all that, we are proposing a shift that would move up the kind of the full move over but would in fact not have those two year well three years of like a different fail basic and an approaching category that was you know you know that ultimately would not be passing but would be in those interim periods because

147of the confusion that that would create for parents. I think we can go map that out on paper so that we can all see that and agree to that. I think there's also a sense of um you clearly and even the feedback you all have heard that we need to be much more clear with everybody about what is and what we're proposing so that there is at a minimum transparency but this would be a shorter timeline overall timeline than what was proposed in December. Um it would not however have those interim years of the approaching which again the other piece that I hear is very important. How do we signal each of these years about the true north? And so thinking about what we provide uh for divisions in terms of the delta between where

148you are today and again with different numbers that are agreed upon and were very clear and published in September, in October, in November, in December. Um and then how do we get that to parents, right? And and and what you voted on was let's move up the fail basic and call approaching. And I think what we would recommend is that's a lot of noise and complexity over the system each year to operationalize while you're also rolling out a new assessment system. Figure out a way to communicate to parents and schools, but then move up when it is in effect and is aligned with how we measure [snorts] students and how we measure schools. I also think it it is and and maybe it's helpful to reconcile the slide that is making the one major transition.

149I think there's and the and the SPSF transition timeline in terms of like what is start of the year versus beginning of the year because I think what is what I read and and I just want to be radically transparent about it is that the proficiency cut scores increase, right? So the the tests that are taken in the fall of 28 and in the spring of 29 have the higher cut scores, but then you have on the appendix slide no change to cut scores in 2829. So I I'm I'm a little also worried that we have not done what we needed to do even in preparation for today in terms of being clear. But the idea is that by that the the the the SPSF has fully implemented in fall 29 and that what it

150reflects is higher cut scores in the implementation year 2829. Is that correct? >> That's right. Yes. This is the uh inevitable year of the data versus when the results come out problem which is perhaps the bane of anyone who does this line of work. And I fully agree that the appendix B timeline maybe made it more confusing rather than simplifying it. But the especially because the it does not always consistently reflect year of the data. So what this is intended to show is that for the assessment results that were taken from the 2829 school year and are released in the summer of 2029 that is when the full implementation of the higher cut scores would be in effect and that is one year faster than the plan that this board voted on in December. That

151is also so that fall fall of 2029 we would use the 2829 school year data and release with consequences with stakes with federal identification of new comprehensive support schools and ATSI schools. That would also happen on that same year of data. It just happens in the fall because we tend to release accountability data a little bit later than our assessment data. So, I do think it's important that we get the slides back from the time that we voted the discussion because this is not sounding to me anything like where we were. And so, Mr. Jennings, I know you made presentations back then. It's going to be helpful. We really need to see because we had we were going to implement the scores. We going to be able to see what the progress was. We were

152going to put the support in place and we were going to tell schools exactly where they were. This sounds like we're just kind of sliding towards without that transparency being in place. And I understand the intent for clarification and I understand the recommendations that Jayla, which is why I was really clear about asking him, this is not a major overhaul. what they're recommending are things that we could put in place apparently pretty quickly and stay on track. Now, I do recognize that needing a vendor for your new assessment could be a potential delay, you know, but then again, here we go. I mean, a contract, a vendor, contract gets off track, whatever. But I think we really need to go back to where we were and now look at the recommendation. I think that is

153a fair point and we can definitely bring that back for August and share ahead of time and I think what we'll also try and do to that is since the prior slides that you discussed um in November December work >> and if the board could have some information tomorrow before we go into public session it's going to be helpful if you can go back and put something together that we have because I do think we need to be able to see that tomorrow before we have this open discussion with >> I can we can at least do that with the proficiency cut scores I think because the board's discussion in November and December we didn't have the Jay report then so that information is not reflected in that but I think on the >> not

154as worried about their reation as I am there three years of studies but we made a decision >> absolutely yeah >> about what we wanted to do >> and to your point about the vendor too I do just want to assure you that we thought about the risk of a delay the soonest the new the an updated contract could be in place is the 2728 ate we but we built in buffer in case there was a delay because of you know these processes are a little bit outside of our control. So we felt you know confident more confident saying that in 2829 we'll absolutely um have that contract in place but felt less confident in saying that definitively you know we wanted to build in that time right um Mr. Henen and then Dr. Northern

155>> um [clears throat] I agree a lot with what I had just said. I also I think there's a little bit of moving the ball on what the board approved in December and what the goal or what the world would look like in 2030 versus 29. I think it's a little bit of an apples to oranges discussion and how we're getting there. I just feel like there needs to be a sense of urgency here. The purpose of this is to bring transparency for parents to the public generally. Um, this is to also help. Let's just go back a few years ago. 2017, our standards were lowered in the state. Three years later, we had COVID hit. We had the largest decline of any state in the country in our uh student performance, learning loss. The

156last four years we've been digging out of this um and there were a lot of sense of urgency things done to dig us out of the co hole whether it was the high dosage tutoring whether it was the teacher pay and retention to where the teacher shortage has been changed. One of my first board meetings was where the superintendent at the time brought forward a proposal to kick the can down the road on the chronic absenteeism problem that occurred from CO where we had I think a three or fourfold chronic absenteeism. that recommendation was thrown on its head and we were able to make uh chronic absenteeism an absolute priority to get on top of it and change it and the data now is showing that because that was made an absolute priority we are

157back to where we were at precoid levels. Um so you know if you look at this in these tanches of four years what was done [clears throat] and able to solve you know really an existential crisis that we had not faced before with the learning loss in co um it took action it didn't take um transition plans it took action plans and it took action by the legis legislature, by governor, by the board, by all of the boots on the ground with the teachers and the administrators and the parents and the students. So, this just feels to me that we're um getting a little bit into um this situation where if I have a true north, and I think the board had a true north and putting this in place um last year, it is

158a sense of urgency. It's a sense and I haven't even talked about the NATE scores and about how 60% of our minority and disadvantaged students in this commonwealth in eighth grade are not going to be ready as of where we stand as a Commonwealth today when they graduate from high school to either go into the workforce or to go to college. and um if this is put into place. And so again, those kids in eighth grade today are going to be dealing with the same system and the incremental [snorts] change. I think it's a recipe for disaster. When I talk about disaster, I'm talking about the kids and talking about where are they going to be four years from now. And I feel like a lot of this whole conversation that we've got going on

159right now is about the systems. It's about the process. It's not about the kids. It's not about the sense of urgency to and I know everybody is well-intentioned in what we're doing here and trying to get it right. But this is um massive challenge if we can't learn from the examples of 2017 to 2021 or the 2022 to 2026. Um you know these numbers and years are to me it shows absolutely no sense of urgency that we need to continue to do whatever is necessary to help us. And and again, the other true north of this is to identify the schools that need the help the most so that they can get it to the kids that need the help the most and to allow for parents to be able to make informed decisions on

160what's in the best interest for their kids um where they are going forward. So, I agree with I, you know, I'd like to see almost a side by side or at least have the information of what we did in December. I I've got it. I've been looking at it for the last few days here, but for the board, I think for public transparency to be able to show what we are doing here with apples and oranges and the delay for this. And I will tell you, as somebody who sat through a lot of the changes these last four years, this is opening up opportunity for Lucy to keep pulling out the football from Charlie Brown every time he's come to kick it or moving the goalpost or whatever you want to call it. And we

161need to get about the work of what we put in to get this accountability system in place. And again, I can rattle off a dozen states that have done this, have done this right, done it fast, done it efficiently, and I just feel like we've got to um stay focused on really what matters most here, and that's to get our accountability framework done, our transparency system done, the systems in place to help our students, to help our most needy and disadvantaged students to get to where they need to Yeah. >> Um, I'll try to be piffy. Um, I've go in so many different directions, but I'm going to start with Norview High School, uh, which is where I taught, uh, in Virginia. And I'm going to start with as a young teacher having the the

162new SOS. at that point they were fairly new. I'm going to show my age and how much uh we used to have to put the so on the board every day and how um Marjorie Staley um was the principal at the time was about I don't know 4 and 1/2t tall and she wore stilettos like this and you listen to her because she knew these kids could um succeed. She knew that all the kids were on free and reduced lunch and yada yada, but she didn't give a flip and she just kept pushing us and pushing us to high expectations. We ended up winning the board uh the Broad Prize, which is the prize that they don't give anymore, but they used to for helping to close the achievement gap nationally. It is a very

163big deal to get the Broad Prize. Um so I am so proud of my time at Northw High School and that accolade. I say all that because um like my colleague here uh let's remind ourselves what percentage of 8th grade black children are proficient. Anybody know in Virginia 8% of our black children are proficient. Um and that's in 8th grade. Uh let's see. We have 13% of proficient in eth grade. 13 of Hispanics, sorry, are white kids 38% and other races are 30. So, we don't even have anywhere near half, right? And and and what what what we're doing for some of these groups is, you know, we've already gone through we're the lowest cut scores in the country. We've already gone through um you know, all these other terrible terrible things we're now known

164for nationally. So, I don't care. Um I know that we all want to have our act together. That's what I keep hearing. I heard it through the last administration. Like everybody kind of wants to have their act together. You want to have the pieces in place. You don't want to confuse the field. I get all that. Um but we will not have everything right in the next year, in the next two years, the next three years, the next 10 years. Like the the act of school improvement is backbreaking work. I've been in this field a long time. I've I've worked in charter schools. I worked in schools myself with a lot of like this school improvement is the hardest thing we can do period. And so if we think that we can wait for the

165test score assessment to come out, we can wait for like the the data to come in for the the 3E framework on military readiness. Like there's a million things that aren't going to be ready and we have to go anyway. Like we have to go anyway. And so I just feel like um we're doing a great disservice to our kids by not continuing on with the phase in path. I mean you guys, my gosh, I was on the side of like, you know, let's not rip the band-aid off, right? And we heard so many people come in and say like, it's not fair to go 0 to 60 in one year. And they were right. You don't raise expectations like that. It makes teachers feel um demoralized. Frankly, I wouldn't have wanted them to say,

166"Oh, you got to raise, you know, the cut score in one year by 50 points." But I did copy out what we approved in December, right? So I could see what the phase in looked like because you're right. We should have gotten this in our packet. And if I'm right, it looks like and I don't know how much of a cut score we're doing in this last year. I know you guys are going to get back to us. Yeah, we we'll show you the plan for each subject area and each test because I know that document has ranges showed. >> That's right. >> And so I don't know whether this 2829 is starting from this 2627 or 27 like I don't know which one of these approaching where y'all are pegging it. But if you

167if you say you're not going to decrease expectations, then I assume 2829 would still be what we initially agreed would be, which is 453. So that's saying 400 2526 to 453. So there's no way we're going to expect kids to jump 53 points in one year. So, I don't know why we're now wanting to rip the band-aid off in one year versus having this lovely approaching thing that changes. Yes, it changes for every subject. It does. Um, that then says, "Okay, what? Here's your north star." Like, we all say want to know the North Star. Like, there's your number for the North Star. And, oh, by the way, if you're in the approaching bucket, you're still going to be counted as proficient. We're going to hold you harmless for four years just so you can

168see like this is where I'm aiming for, but I didn't get there. But you know what? I know what I was aiming for. And next year it's going to go up a little bit and it's going to go up a little after that. But it's a phased in approach. We've already had a prepare in preview year. I just looked at it like we already gave them their scores in 2025. No, they weren't perfect. Were the data probably need to be cleaned? Yes. But all of these things that I'm seeing and sorry I'm very passionate about this. Um all of these things in my estimation are a department of education challenge. They're hurdles that your staff need to get back their act together. If their data house need to be clean, you you guys need to

169work with ODU and help them get your data clean pronto. the test. I don't buy it. Like the the way that the the tests work and if our TAC is any good and if they should be, they know how to correlate a 400 scale on a as a as a um so score to a 0 to 100 scale. It's called equaentile equating. So they they can do this and the they do this all the time. This is not something that's difficult. Okay? And by the way, we shouldn't let the test um interfere with what we're doing because the test we don't want to break the trend line. So why would we say like we're going to care all about the new test when we're going to do a bridging study if we know what we're

170doing and equate the new test to the old test so that we're not breaking the trend line and that we can compare kids across years. So the test shouldn't be like states change test all the time and they do bridging studies so they can keep the um to keep to keep the scale comparable. So like why are we letting that be the big thing one of the things things that are going to hold us back. Anyway, I I think I've I've said enough there, but I do want to say that um we made such positive high. I mean, across the country, people were like, "Yay, Virginia's getting their act together." And already I'm seeing, "Oh my gosh, they're already new administration. They're changing their mind." Like, that's not the headline I want out of this.

171I want regardless of whether there's a Republican or a Democrat in office, an administration, Virginia's for high standards, and they're going to work together with colleagues that are on the right, the left, center, I don't care. And we're going to continue to do the right thing by kids on an aggressive uh aggressive yet doable timeline. >> Dr. Bridges question. the the five proposals that