001To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all public comment. We'll move on to the second item, review of the minutes of April 21st, 2025. Move to accept the minutes of 2025. >> Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none. We have a motion. We made a motion. I'm sorry. All in favor? >> Motion passed. Okay. items Connecticut state testing results that Dr. Solen shared an overview of the district's results at the opening of school meeting and we got some highlights there as well as a little preview of um the district report card which hasn't been formally released yet but just looking at it. Sorry. So, I wanted to take you through I I mirrored this presentation
002after the one that we had last year to try and keep it similar. If there are, you know, other thoughts that you have after we're we're finished, I'd be happy to take those any of those into consideration. This particular overview is one of all of the specific required state testing from the state. So, just as a recap, that's the Smarter Balanced Assessment in grades three through eight. It's the science test, which they call the NGSS, which is taken in fifth, 8th, and 11th grade. And then the SAT school day exam. The SAT school day is taken in school. Students can take it as many times as they'd like to outside of school, but it is the one measure that every 11th grader in the state needs to take. So, This isn't necessarily their highest score.
003This isn't a super score. This is just whatever they got on that day in time, but it is an apples to apples comparison with the rest of the 11th graders in the state and also with our dur. >> There's a window there's a window that they have to take it. I think it might be longer than a week. Couple of weeks in March. >> So if you look on the next page, there is the results and I showed them back five years. We took a fiveyear look back to see that one year precoid and then of course there was no testing in 2020 or 2021 but then it resumed again in 22. So in our district, the 2018 2019 results and and is probably true of most of the rest of the state had our
004highest levels of achievement in that 2018 2019 year and we have been working since to try to get back to that. So you can see across the three grades three through eight that we've been on a bit of an incline and 77.2% and 76 5% math was our strongest since I mean strongest even even counting our high in 2018 2019. So we were pleased with the math results and the 77.2 isn't quite um where we want to be to get to where we were once were but it is trending in the right direction. It's also interesting to see the increase in enrollment over those years with, you know, almost 2,000 students in grades three through eight as opposed to 18. So, it's a little bit of a increase there. If you look at the next
005page, we're looking at growth. So, while the achievement is important to us, I think what's even more important is how much our students are growing. And so the growth rate there's every student after they take the test the first time they are given a number in which it says that they will they need to make this amount of growth that will be a year's growth for them and it's either a yes or a no as to whether they meet that growth target. So on the left hand side you can see that this year we had 52.7% of students meet that growth target in ELA and 58.8 meet that growth target in math. You can see that when you look at the next column, that average percent of target achieved, you can see how much of
006the that growth our students made. So that is a nice healthy strong number. In ELA, it's one of our strongest at 71% and um in math 75.4. So trending in the right direction. and certainly an increase over the previous year. So we can move on to the next page which talks about the growth for English language arts. Again you have the school year where we hit 52.7%. I like this because it shows that increase. And then the ELA gives us the average percent of target achieved, which again in ELA stronger than where we've been, which is nice to see. On the following page, you can see the same bar graphs for math. Again, nice and nice and strong trend. Um 58.8% 8% for the growth rate and then 75.4% getting back up to those 1819
007levels of students average percent of the target that's achieved. Do we have a um in our minds a target that we want to move towards? I mean obviously you always want to move up but I know some school districts have like 75%. >> Well it's interesting we have and this is true not just in Cheshure but this is true of everywhere. We have more variability from classroom to classroom than we do from school to school. So we have some of our teachers who are are really at that over a 100%. And so we know that our kids can do it and that is where we really strive to be. We want kids to meet 100% of their growth target and that is the aim. And so when we deploy our coaches and when we deploy
008our specific focus areas, we're going in and targeting those areas because we know that it can be done. So that's I think aggressive, >> but I think that's the truth. We want to see 100% I I have a hard time wrapping my head around this >> growth rate. >> Yeah. I I don't I don't understand how it can be good to be under 60% meeting their growth rate. Is that what that means? >> Yeah. It means that under 60% of the kids now and you could have had a growth target of 100 points and you could have gotten 99 out of 100 points but it doesn't count unless you got the 100 points. >> So that's why this other graph was the average >> who makes the who makes the target the state department of
009ed but it's individual. >> Yes. So the company that is the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, they set those um the algorithms that look at that >> make the targets. >> Yep. And so when we single student >> for every single student >> so I would say does some good things >> if I would say if you got 99 of one of 100 points, we would be thrilled at your growth, but it wouldn't count >> but it wouldn't count for the growth rate. Whereas when we looked at the percentage of the growth that you made, it would obviously be very high 99 out of 100 points. >> Do we uh do we have that breakdown of students that like were they scored relative to their growth rate >> for the students? >> Yeah, we have >>
010is there a Marlene view that said okay the ones that are one or two or three points off it would have >> done it the other day as the other day. Yeah, we we were looking specifically at a fifth grader who had a perfect score on the math, ELA and math. And we wanted to know exactly how many other fifth graders scored a perfect score in ELA and math. And so we were looking at the scale score of every student in fifth grade on the spreadsheets trying to figure out, okay, how many of those kids do we have who really mastered on this one test in this one snapshot in time? How many of these kids mastered standards? Well, I don't have an exact number for you because all of our secretary is still churning
011some of the data, but um when we eyeballed it of the students that we had, we had a a pretty large class, right? >> Um but we didn't have all of the numbers. >> So, at last count with I would say not even 50% of the data in there were 30 kids. >> That's significant. Yeah. >> We thought so. So down the road, what's the plan for those kids? >> Well, we have to find out first of all how many of them are there and then we can begin to look at that and um we work with Lorie Holm also who's our talented and gifted teacher and had her working with some other teachers over P this summer to make sure that we have those bases covered. But an example of what we did with
012that was last year when we sat at this table and we said look at the sixth graders. How many of them mastered the sixth grade standards? We then removed the lowest level of math at the middle school. >> Right? >> And so we were able to bring every you know bring everybody along and there was good news there as well. >> Right. So these are fifth graders. So they have two years still in the elementary school. >> Yeah. >> Before they can get some choice. >> One more year at the elementary school. >> And so they're sixth graders now. >> Sixth graders. >> So those are fifth grade scores. >> Yeah. And we don't know like is that we would have to go back and see like is that unique? Is that happening in every
013grade level? Is that typical? Did that h has that happened over the last years? What happened to those students when they went to sixth grade? Did they all you know, so it was like >> we were we were going down the data rabbit hole, which was good. >> Yeah. >> I mean, you almost wonder like, do those kiddos need to be up in the middle school for math or for language arts or something to But then again, it was one one data point, >> right? And what does that look like when you look at their classroom performance? What is it what did their I Ready scores look like? Um, and the philosophy that we have right now is rather than move you faster ahead to go deeper in the material that we have exposure to
014and spend a little bit longer and go deeper into some of these concepts than to accelerate through to the next grade level. >> We all do. Um, the coaches certainly do working with Azra um, previously working with Kevin. Those are our our RAMs, you know. Lorie Holmes certainly usually those are already students that we've identified and they're in some type of a math >> um enrichment >> enrichment program what she call them is a math academy >> classroom teachers as well individualized math path we actually were just meeting with sixth grade teachers today and we were talking about some of the beginning of the year data so each student has their own individualized path through our I ready so there's absolutely acceleration Richmond there and they actually just enhanced the platform for essential lens lessons
015and elevated lessons. So all students have the option for some elevated math lessons. So there's that as well. >> Is that specific to the ready? >> And so how do you get parents involved on that level? >> This actually came about because of the parent conversation. I would have preferred it to come from us to them. >> I Yes. You know that all that so all that information went home and was communicated home and so they came and had had a question about okay so if this is where my student is scoring >> how many other kids are scoring exactly you know here and I don't I don't know that we want to start sending home well your child scored the same as 35 other students. >> Yeah, I'm not saying that at all. I'm
016not suggesting that. >> I'm I'm suggesting that >> somebody classroom teacher, principal, whomever would give Tony a call and say, Tony, I just, you know, just want you to know your daughter, whatever, you know, um, score here. This is what it means. Because we cannot assume, although we have a a very in intelligent base, that every parent knows what's on this paper and they might be able to supplement or support other ways, right, for this kiddo to get that kind of growth and that kind of exposure that he or she would need to really excel. That's all I'm saying. Sometimes we focus on those other kiddos, you know, with help, >> but some some other kids >> No, I'm with you. I was going to put that there's never a lack of parent feedback on
017the test scores, but I was cur so what do what what do the what gets sent home? Is there a more detailed report? Like >> so I remember >> I don't know. Yeah, I think my daughter at least my daughter was doing next gen uh smarter balance. We would get a more detailed report. >> That report goes home. That report goes home. That report is also part of the the conference. >> What that looks like? So maybe that answers some of their questions. >> Yeah, that's also part of the parent conference when students are coming in in October. That's usually one of the artifacts that the teacher has as a part of their complete picture. So they might have when we were doing the SRRI, they had a copy of the SRRI report. I Ready
018would be the same thing. I Ready would be another piece that they would look at in that parent conference. >> Anything else? >> No, I I I like the fact that I already now has the accelerated uh options too. So if kids want to take advantage of it, they could. That's nice. >> Well, and then they are ready when they get to middle school. We also use Khan Academy for some of that too. >> Um Khan Academy and some teachers are using Zern. Um some are in fifth grade most of those students again are already in one of the ummies with Lori Holm. So there's there's and coming up um in the CCC I'm thinking about I'm thinking about another opportunity for Lorie to showcase some of the things that are offered to our higher
019achieving students so that we can publicize that. >> I mean, should we do a PD for teachers? >> Lori is the academically gifted teacher. >> Oh, >> who works with our fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. >> Could she come to one of our curriculum meetings? >> Absolutely. >> Talk to us soon. >> Is she also a classroom teacher? >> No. No. She's specifically doing this. Um, she has I forget how many differentmies she has. Some are in writing, some are in math, some are they're really tailored. She she surveys the students and then tailor those and they're all because she is one person and she services all of the elementarymentaries. They're all doing those online through Google Classroom. >> So, might one child be doing more than one? >> Yes. They choose an area of
020interest. >> I mean they converse with her though. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, all right. Let's jump into the next page which is next generation science standards assessment. And this first one is um grades five, eight, and 11. Shows you what we've done over the past five years. And then Looks like this is just a duplication, but if you turn it to the next page, you can see grade five. Grade five was an 83.1. We've been strong in those areas. I'd say we made that jump from 78 to 83 in no small part due to the infusion of the additional aggra science and robotics. Um really well aligned NGSS lessons that both Mrs. Concus and Mrs. Lopez have been teaching and this semester are both teaching that robotics and coaching for the agra science. >>
021So if we look back on that other page, the first page, >> I know this is a different cohort of kids, but >> um we see our fifth graders at 83.1, right? >> And then we see downward trend for eighth grade and even further down for 11th grade. So Why? What do what do you think is happening? >> I do not think that the I think we are still working on the instructional practices of alignment to the NGSS. >> I would say more than five. I mean because it kind of goes back to 1819, >> you know, I mean a slight will appear in 22 23 went up, but it's pretty solid that those 11th graders >> I had an email from a parent the other day um that said, "I just want you to
022know that the um students in 11th grade, this was She was saying that this was reported by her her child um that they don't they there's so much testing in 11th grade that by the time they get to this do they you should ask me do you think they take it seriously and I said it's something that we're aware of um I don't think that's an excuse right I think that all the students in 11th grade across the district take that we've changed I mean across the state take it we've changed when we've given this point. I don't know if you recall, but I think we've tried to push it later in the year, so they've had more science. I think we've tried to push it earlier in the year. This one is interesting because
023we have so many students taking highlevel science coursework. Last year, we looked at making some changes and we decided not to require students to take earth science in freshman year. I know that that's is still, you know, being discussed. I think what we did this year is to really look at the recommendations for science placement a little bit differently. I think it's also still tricky to find NGSS aligned materials and resources. So, what we're beginning to do is with our middle school to look at open sed because that's something that is free number one. Um, but we would need put some significant time and energy into having the teachers pull resources out of that and and write some new units. So I also think at the high school level we go back five years that's
024when we started the longer periods. So like 82 minute periods and we have the lab. So you might have students sophomore in a class that actually ran like you know 82 plus 160 minutes. we're back at 68 minutes um more frequently. So, I can't help but wonder if that's going to contribute to, you know, seeing some improvement in terms of how the time is spread out and used. >> It'll be interesting. >> Well, I think there's a couple of things going on. I mean, we know high school kids like by 11th grade we're like, well, I'm not going into science. I don't want to be a doctor. I'm not going to a medical field in college. Why do I even need this? So I mean I think their a effect is a little bit different
025like h you know I know I have to sit for it. Then I heard another very interesting take um from some folks that said well you know we think that all those tests are just really tests for the teachers to see how good they're doing and not really for the kids. So I don't put a lot of emphasis on it. So, I mean, there there's a couple things that, you know, um I just thought I'd throw that off because that second conversation was something that just happened recently and I was taken back a little bit from my background. >> Well, yeah. >> I'm like, well, I don't know. What do we think about that? Um >> there's definitely no doubt that we look at parts of that test to see, okay, is this a curriculum
026issue? you know, we had the right curriculum. We knew for a while that we weren't happy with our seventh and eighth grade math curriculum. We wanted to change that and we we made some different gains, but um so part of it is to see are we doing are we doing right. Um it's it's tricky. It's tricky. Uh we also be with the new schedule and having looked over the last five years at a lot of the other derby schools >> um made the conscious choice to remove the lab portion of the the classes out of the chemistry lab and um biology lab. They're still going into the lab. We've just condensed the amount of time. We did however keep the lab time in for all the AP classes and the ECE. That's not something we
027could change. >> So what would be a typical um biology schedule look like? I you know would be sophomore year or could be freshman. >> Uh could be freshman or sophomore in terms of how often they meet. Yeah. >> It's so it's an eight day cycle and every class meets five out of those eight days. >> So they might have two like I think it's like every other day and then three days together and then every other day. >> So when when is the um lab >> out of the eight days, how many lab times >> it's now incorporated in the class? So um >> for the 63 minutes? >> 68 minutes. Yes. So they may decide um you know the first two days they have instruction and then that third day might be a
028lab, you know. >> Okay. So they're and this is the first year for them too. So they're working >> and they have access to labs. >> Yes. Okay. So, if we look to the next page, you can see grade five. It just spikes out grade five. And if you turn to the following page, you can see that grade five science. We were first in our dirt and that includes um districts like Reading and Greenwich and Farmington and Glastonberry. So we we feel that we made some gains in fifth grade science. >> I would say so. >> Yeah. If you um turn a few pages to grade eight, you can see our our five-year overview and then you can see that we are fifth in our DUR in 8th grade science. And that is a strong
029showing in the DER because we have been running ninth and 12th. So what we attribute that to isn't a specific science instructional practice, but rather all of the instructional practices that we have been reviewing and practicing at the middle school around building thinking classrooms, launching a task within the first five minutes of the lesson. If you talk to our um middle school division leader, he would tell you that it was all of the all of the practices together that he would attribute to that success. And then if you look at grade 11, we are again really back to where we were in 2018, which was a high for us, but slipped in our ranking. I will note that we've had some turnover in our science department this year and um so we have some some
030new folks and I think They have they all seem to be during the PD etc seem pretty energized around the new practices and have some folks who were coming in from other districts who um had some experience with that meaning we didn't have to start and train someone from scratch. They they came with a bre depth and breadth of experience. actually one of the people who was hired um came with a district curriculum background so has a lot of knowledge around the um alignment of standards. So we were happy to see that. >> And are your science teachers able to teach in curriculum area like biology? I mean I know they're probably certified in a couple areas but for the most part do they get or are they prepping for biology and chemistry? most I
031think we have a couple that overlap bio to chem but um but that's maybe one >> yeah like our physics teachers teaching fall physics >> most of our chemistry people are teaching fall chemistry they might be teaching an elective here or there but by and large they're able to focus in on prep for one and have some time some planning time with other people in a life discipline Okay. So, now we get to the SAT school day. I'll give you a chance to navigate to that page. Over last over the previous year, we stayed relatively the same in English language arts as the cohort um as the the class last year. So, we went from 80.2 to 79.9. So, relatively flat. And math, we made some gains from 49.5% to 54.9%. It will be some
032time before we see the impact of the changes of the middle school curriculum, specifically on the SAT, but we've already seen some of the some of the shifts from math having good results from DOD. And this is our ranking this year scoring 11th for ELA and eighth in the DUR for math. So I mean I'm sure that the um school counselors are talking to the students about colleges are now looking at SAT scores again. >> Yeah. >> You know >> and that would help. >> So, I just gave a couple of different ways to visualize this. Some of our conclusions are our overall continued overall healthy healthy, you know, scores. Um, we've seen improved achievement and growth in grades seventh and eighth grade in math and ELA. The um, DOD teachers, I was at their
033PD on the day that they were reviewing the scores and um, they were looking at everything. They were looking at our special ed students. They were looking at our ML students. They were looking at high needs. Truly truly they worked so hard last year and really saw the scores pay off. So that that was a that was a win. And we've already begun conversations with the special ed teachers and the math teachers from Dodd and the high school sharing practices and sharing, you know, what their mindset was prior to coming into this and then what they saw work and and sharing that. So it was from colleague to colleague. Um, if we look at our grade three scores alone for ELA, we noticed that there was a a drop there. And we're really trying to
034struggle to figure out why. We do feel like it is standard nine in um in the uh standard nine for ELA. And we've been focused on that over the summer. Asra and Pat Castle did a training for all of the school elementary school principles that was replicated for the grade three teachers on the PD day and have we have started now that we've had some changes in the roles of the reading and math um support coaches in um at the elementary schools going through that same training with them. So grade three will be a focus of ours this year. And again, we know that they were really thinking about a lot of things as they are thinking about the science of reading and phonics and paying so much attention into how they were instructing that.
035We wondered if there's only so many things any one person can keep at their at the forefront. And so while they were attending and learning something new here, they needed to also balance that. So, we're trying to help them with that coaching and support this year to see if we can't fix that that um what we see as a a dip in third grade. Um SAT I think continues to sort of slowly chug along and so I think that we've been um working to really make sure our instruction is strong in those areas and um again using the I Ready for grade seven and eight and algebra. I think will will will help and um also looking particularly at some of the practices that we employed with special education and our systems and structures around
036special education to see that we can replicate those at the high school as well. I I think um I mean it's up to you obviously these conclusions, but I I still think it's important for us to point out the data around chronic absenteeism and how we've improved and what what it is >> and how that ties in directly to climate >> and how it means when kids are sitting in their seats, we can teach them, right? Which then >> works on these scores. So I I think um I think climate is important and I'd like to see it and one of the conclusions I can draw that line through climate and attendance and achievement um because we get a lot of concerns from parents sometimes right around climate and that kind of thing but I
037think it's important that we put it out there that you know we feel we're doing the good job always can always improve >> always >> um particularly in climate especially you with some of our students, but that has a direct >> Yeah. >> I I I really appreciate you pointing that out. I I want to make sure that those results that that district report card hasn't been released yet, >> right? >> So Jeff was sort of getting some preliminary like glimpses. >> So are you doing this on Thursday? >> Doing the calculations. So that It won't be released for some time. When it's released, we'll be able to >> But are you doing this on Thursday night? >> I will do whatever the board would like me to do. If you would like me to
038review any of the >> I mean, I think it's nice if the board gets the packet at least. >> Sure. >> Yeah. I don't know if we need to go through every page, but maybe just draw some big conclusions or go through. But I agree. I think Yeah, I'll let the folks read it before Thursday if any questions. >> I mean, I know Jeff did a lot of it, but there's some other data in here. >> Yeah, >> the DUR data. There's some other things. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> This might be a stretch, but is there any correlation, you know, like going back 201819 the scores and if you put the chronic absentee rate by year, would it show that as the rate went up, maybe the scores dips a little bit. It may not
039be the only I'm just kind of curious. I know that plays a factor. >> I'll check Tony. >> Dan has mentioned like they're in the class and we can teach them if not >> show up for a test. Not really >> again. I'm just curious. >> I'll have that for Thursday. >> It's just a curiosity. >> Thank you. >> We'll put that in because I think that's a really good point that you both make. >> Thank you. This was a great report. >> Absolutely. Awesome. >> Really good. Great work. I know it's not easy. >> Thank you to the team, everyone that put this together under your leadership, Marlene. Obviously, >> thank you or so the next item, um, well, I know that's going out of order. Some of the things that we just talked
040about are sort of tied into some of the things that we're doing that I'll go over in my update. So, okay. So personal writing. >> Yeah. So the critical writing institute I think I I shared a list of all of the things that we covered at the opening of schools meeting. But I really wanted to thank Azra who came to two days of that curriculum writing institute before it was even her official start date. And she really sat down and worked shouldertoshoulder with our teachers while they were going through that process. And I think coming in in the summer the way she did, um, getting to focus, uh, solely on the curriculum that was written over the summer, um, really gave her a chance to get on the phone with our teachers and have Google
041Meets with them to provide them, I think, even a greater level of feedback than we have we have had opportunity to do during the summer in the past. And so I didn't I wanted her to just share a little bit about some um some of the projects and some of the units that she's had opportunity to work with teachers on. >> Well, it was my pleasure. The staff was amazing. It was great to get to know them in the curriculum writing institute um and just get to know an overview of the work and what they're working on. So some of the things I want to highlight both third grade team and the fourth grade team worked on an opinion writing unit and they combined two previous units really took a look at what they were
042trying to achieve and collected feedback from their teams and colleagues. Um so these two units that were written in third and fourth really focused on the student taking the role of an expert around a topic while practicing a formal writing style. Um, students really had the opportunity to formulate their opinion while pulling information from research or information or articles around that particular topic and then supporting that with evidence from the text. Um what is really noteworthy of mentioning students have an opportunity to practice using academic or technical language which shows up in our writing and reading standards and then worked through organizing their ideas while using graphic organizers. One other piece that I really want to highlight from the teachers is that they created studentfriendly rubrics that students could use for self-reflection and to give
043each other peer feedback. peer feedback as well as teacher friendly rubrics that were unpacked to help colleagues norm and calibrate around what that standard is really looking for. The other piece that really stood out during curriculum writing institute and the work with teachers was um their ability to use the building thinking um classroom instructional strategies and embed those right within our units and daily lessons. So to help teachers sort of think through, oh this is a good spot for consolidating thinking. This is a good spot where you might want to use uh vertical surfaces. So that flow was written in such a um teacher friendly way so that teachers could pick up that unit and sort of get a pretty good detailed picture around where we were going. So huge shout out to uh the
044curriculum writers that joined us this summer. It really was a pleasure working with them side by side, meeting with them over the summer if we were able to and thinking through in greater detail um around some of the areas that we really wanted to refine. So, it was it was a pleasure. It was a great way to learn about Tesa Public Schools curriculum >> and not an easy thing to jump right into. So, but thank you for sharing a little bit about what you did. >> The um writing stuff was what grade? >> Third and fourth. Yes. So building thinking classrooms is down in third and fourth grade too. The strategies all the way down to kindergarten. >> Okay. So K through eight right now. >> K through 12. >> 8 through 12 because we've
045only really seen it in the middle school. >> Ah okay. Right. >> Okay. Well, what was the trying to that could be that could be true. I know that our physics teacher I saw our physics teacher doing it the other day. Um students were all in groups of three at the vertical whiteboards and um the topic was certainly complex and they spent a lot of time supporting and helping one another. So everywhere. >> Okay. >> Everywhere and in our PD. >> Yes. >> All of our PD. You could even see in here. I think I raised >> our meetings are now done in the exact same way that that we're expecting our teachers to to use the strategies. >> Thank you for that report. >> Next is assistant superintendence update. Okay. So, I wanted to
046tell you about a few things that we're involved in and one of them goes back to um talking about math and what we're doing to continually improve in math. And this year, the high school principal, Kevin, myself, Liz with Garcia Davis, who is the math department chair, along with three other teachers who teach algebra 2, and special ed teacher, who works to support students in math and algebra 2 are all a part of what's called aworked improvement council that comes together with a couple of other districts in Connecticut with they bring their high school folks there. And we're talking a lot about not just building thinking strategies, but this idea of perfecting or practicing getting better at the craft of instruction and how we can standardize some of those practices around what the best practices
047for math instruction are. and we spent a day, it's actually up at Manchester High School with some facilitators who have been doing this work for a while. One of them um came to Dodd Middle School and coached some of our coached our math coach as well as our principal and the math teachers at Dodd with one of the strategies was getting students up and moving within the first five minutes of the class because the the research and the science behind it are that if you can get students thinking within the first five minutes, have them interacting with one another, you're going to get more productivity out of them and you're going to get them thinking right away versus as time goes down, time goes by, that cognitive load kicks in and the productivity can slow
048down. So, that was a really nice kickoff. There will be at least four in-person full days where we do that work and then we'll have some coaching and support um virtually as well. And so, Kevin and I attended last t last Tuesday um and we'll be meeting with this group to sort of continue to talk and have them bring it to their PLC's. So, sort of that same focus that we had at Dodd, we're bringing that to the high school in a little bit of a different way. So, that was some exciting um professional learning that we've been engaged in today. And this ties in Marie to you're talking about um climate and how we're always, you know, focused on getting improving our climate. And so, we've done so many things to to try and
049target that. Certainly one is the required safe school climate survey that we has had a number of iterations. Um you all had approved the last one that was recommended by the state department of education. We have with your support instituted that people attitudes towards self in school which gives us just another layer of what are the kids what are the students thinking about their experience at school? How well do they feel prepared? what what is their feeling about their academics and how how do they feel about their teachers about the building that they're in about their team etc. So along with that layer today um a group from the high school Dr. myself, um Sarah McGrimley, and also Julie Trfon all attended a full day. And again, it's part of a number of days that
050we'll be spending um really diving into into tapping into student voice. And how do you tap into student voice? What are the strategies to do that? What's the best way to do that? And how do you get to everyone? How do you get to the students in the margins? How do you get to the How are they included in the decision making? Not just in what do you want the prom theme to be and where is our um where is um our community ser what are our community service activities going to be which is also you know a nice thing to be a part of. But what about when it comes to choosing a textbook? What about when it comes to course offerings that are are are brought to the curriculum committee? What what about
051when we're looking at systems and structures and we're focusing in particular at the high school and we had a really rich conversation today where we focused in on students who receive services in special education. How can we tap further into their voice? And one example that was given by one of the participants in our group today was around students um one of the case managers at the high school um had students write to them about write to each teacher about what what sort of accommodations are most helpful to me in your class. This is what my IEP says. I'm going to put it to you in my own words. and how absolutely hungry the teachers were to get that because it it really gave them a connection and other teachers. >> Yes. Yes. And so
052that was something we were um springboarding to and at the end of the day we were devising how we're going to bring this back to Cheshire High School, how we're going to engage the teachers in that so that the teachers can further engage the students to get student voice. So there's a lot of avenues we can take with this, but I think it it certainly ties into how can we make a better experience for them? And having students as a part of something is one thing, but listening to what they say and acting on it is another. And so how can we get better at that? And we have a lot of ways in which we're doing that now. But once again, we're looking to get better at that and to see if there are
053changes that we can make that are a little deeper than what we've been using. That's great because I mean once they get to college, they have to advocate for themselves. You know, they have to search out any kind of help. So that's a great way to prep them. >> So anyway, I don't know if you have anything to add, Morin, but I felt like the group that we had there today was really great and I think we landed on a good um focus area. >> Yeah, >> those were the the two main things that I wanted to share with you that were new happenings. >> Okay, any questions before I move on? >> Okay, safe school climate surveys. This I put under old business because we had talked about this at the end of the
054year. And I just wanted to remind everyone that our intention is to not wait until the spring, but to redeploy the survey to um parents, students, and teachers. Probably in October, we're going to target the parents because we didn't get the amount of uh response that we really wanted. And so we're going to have to think about new ways of doing that. God bless you again. Um and I just didn't want anybody, you know, it's June was a long time ago. So I just wanted to remind everyone that we'd be engaging in that um for October. >> Now, are there open houses in October? >> Yes. So I thought that's >> not um uh not open houses. Open houses are happening now, but parent conferences. >> Okay. So I thought we were going to try
055to facilitate some way for them to answer if they were right there waiting in line on a laptop or something. >> Exactly. So, we have QR codes that we put outside each teacher's room so that when a parent is waiting to be the next one in line to go that they have that QR code, we're also going to just make sure everyone gets one while we're having that conference and showing them the Smarter Balance data and everything else that they can take that if they, you know, didn't weren't waiting outside the door. And we have kiosks set up so they could either take it on their phone with a QR code and we have um Chromebooks there that they could open it and it's in kiosk mode so that they can just get that >>
056I think you get participation. I I just jokingly and being jokingly it's almost my my perception is over the years it's I with I think that we get more participation when there's issues >> or controversy than in years when there isn't and not there's no I mean we don't want any issues >> right no we don't >> but I'm just looking like 17 and 2017 2019 there's some things going on we saw more respon particip I just it's not a very long survey either from what we're seeing. So >> I hope >> you'll get better response. I hope so. >> Well, people are waiting for their conferences. >> I don't know. Can we give them a ticket or something if they do it and put it in like something as they're leaving the school or
057something? >> Except the sticker. I I took the survey. >> Yeah. Like I voted. I took my survey. >> Right. Right. Which makes it tricky. >> It's it's harder. The the um the longer the school sometimes it's harder to get participation. >> It's sad. It's like there's got to be something in it for them which is their feedback but something tangible. I don't know iPad or something. >> I'm not saying use board of red fun. I'm just saying. >> Are you donating money? QR code is >> my old port of ed one. Yeah, >> still works. >> It makes us look like we're on top of things. We have a QR code. >> People will like that. Young parents will like >> You know what? They're more They're more apt to do that because it's
058easy, quick, and easy. Why not? Yeah, >> we have done it before and remember we did it at Chapman. So that's going back a while. So >> with the cure. >> Yeah. Really? >> Yeah. >> Okay. We'll give it we'll give it another try and I think that um you know we have some we give it our best shot now we'll have two sets of information. Um but I I certainly think that if we begin publicizing it now that we'll be able to get a nice response. >> Are you giving us these back? Um >> yeah, I'm going to give you another one because I'm going to add the absenteeism percentages. That was just my curiosity. >> No, Tony, that's a great idea. That's a great idea. >> I know it'll come up with some
059board members and as a correlation they can see. >> you want to give it back to me? >> Yeah. You get a more complete one. >> Okay. >> I mean, you're welcome. >> Anything else? >> Any other questions? >> Would you like a motion to >> I would love second. Okay.