BOE Special Curriculum Committee Meeting - June 4, 2025

001Hi, good morning everybody. It is Wednesday, June 4th. This is a special meeting of the Darian Board of Education Curriculum Committee. We this is our last one of the year. Um so thank you everybody for your hard work throughout the year and what's we'll learn what you're going to do over the summer a little bit I would think. Um we have two things on the agenda. The world language stamp proficiency assessment and our spring curriculum updates. So I will turn it over to Dr. Fedigan and we will have our next meeting in September at a date TBD. Okay, great. Thank you so much Sarah. Good morning everyone. Um we'll start today with our update on K12 world language. It wasn't too long ago that we did gather at this table for a meeting um with

002Scott Webster to provide an overall update on K12 world languages. And one of the things that we were looking at as a team this past year is the stamp assessment. And we know that that's important and it's one of the things that we use also in determining um seal of bi literacy and really it's been a a very useful tool at the secondary level at the high school. However, at the middle school um we've we really have done some analysis and want to make a recommendation for how we'll move forward with more appropriately assessing our middle school learners in grades six through eight. So, I'll turn it over to Scott Webster at this point. He'll give a very brief overview of the assessment in case you don't have it readily at your fingertips or anyone

003who's watching at home to remember exactly what that assessment is um for a proficiency assessment. And he also has brought with him one of our colleagues from MMS uh one of our French teachers who will explain to you again from her firsthand perspective how she has used the assessment and how other assessments have been more useful to her in measuring our students progress as we're preparing them to shift to the high school. So Mr. Mr. Repster, I'll turn it over to you. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Uh good morning and thank you for the opportunity for letting us chat more about assessment as our follow-up to our visit with you in January. Uh as we previously shared, uh we assess four skill areas using a variety of methods including debates, socratic discussions, and authentic project-based

004learning. And additionally, we measure proficiency through the stamp exam at DHS, as Dr. prophet said, which is one of the ways that students may qualify for the seal of bi literacy. The other way is through scoring a three on their AP language exams. Um, eighth graders also take the stamp and today we'd like to share insights on its effectiveness at that level. What is stamp? It's standardsbased measurement of proficiency. And it is an online adaptive assessment that measures language proficiency and student growth and is one of the most popular exams used by schools to qualify students for the seal of literacy including inner jur and it adjusts to individual skill levels promoting real world language use and students can complete it at their own pace. This assessment was adopted by Darianne in 2018 at both

005DHS and MMS and its purpose at MMS was to determine where students land on the actual proficiency spectrum and it was also intended to inform nth grade placement decisions but in practice this has not been effectively implemented due to the timing of the testing. After thoughtful review, we've concluded that the best approach for students moving forward is to retain STAMP at DHS while phasing it out at MMS and focusing on other assessments. Here are a few takeaways from our research and discussions. After eight years of testing at MMS, the results have confirmed our expectations of students language proficiency levels which are novice highintermediate low which are um where students should be in their skill development journey. So we are content with this discovery and the test has served its purpose in this respect. Each test

006costs about $23 per student and takes an average of two to three weeks to administer at MMS, uh, including practice and makeups, which is disruptive to the curriculum and that it limits valuable instructional time. We actually already have a more meaningful and accurate system in place to assess students skill sets, which we'll get to in a minute. Eighth graders also participate in multiple standardized assessments including NGSS, Ames, Web, ESPback, and DRP, which limit instructional time. And as you may know, recognizing this concern, the state of Connecticut recently audited schools to attest assess the frequency of these types of assessments in an effort to encourage a move toward a more balanced and effective approach to student evaluation. As we reflect on language assessment and placement practices, we'd like to share some additional points. A student's coursework,

007classroom performance, participation, and teacher recommendations provide a more comprehensive view of their abilities than a single test. Students also enter with diverse backgrounds. Some are heritage speakers while others may have strong grammar skills but limited speaking ability. So given these variations, a single test may not fully reflect their proficiency. We believe that a more holistic approach combining teacher input, classroom performance, and proficiency assessments over time typically leads to a better placement decision. Orderly in-house benchmark assessments aligned with actable rubrics offer meaningful insight into students language proficiency. These reflect best practices that we have actually been implementing for many years at each grade level and in all three languages. I'd like to introduce Kathy Chaffy who will be able to provide some more insight into these assessments. She's an eighth grade teacher and she's been using

008and seventh grade. Sorry. She's been using the the stamp for several years. So, she can give some more detailed information for you. Okay. So, um quarterly assess we um administer quarterly assessments. They're known as integrated performance assessments and they show growth over time. We use rubrics associated with national standards. And if we could see the example, um, this is an example of a writing prompt that we use in French. Students are charged with writing about a trip they've taken in the past. So they must use the pic compose verb tense and cover this set of questions including the mode of transportation and the time of year. So they um use both the present tense and the past tense. So it's a timeline kind of thing. This is a com one component of the rubric called

009language control which focuses on grammar, vocabulary and ease of expression. And these rubrics align with the national ACTful standards. And this is an example of the student writing for this IPA. And this is an example of the French speaking assessment. So students engage in conversation to exchange information using an an authentic text, an article about travel to Algeria as a basis. And they must incorporate re relevant details such as the weather and appropriate clothing for the trip. We cover um descriptions of clothing with the materials and you know the green silk polka dot skirt that I'm going to pack, that kind of thing. so that they um have all the tools that they can use to describe their clothing and their what the weather and what they're going to what they plan to do. So

010then they will also be using the near future tense so that we cover all three of the on the timeline. And this is one of the components of the speaking assessment rubric is called language functions. And it evaluates the ability to hold a conversation in the target language in a spontaneous manner. And they do this in front of the teacher so that we are there listening to them. Um, we do do practice before they take the assessment so that they do little practice conversations and uh they're told to make sure that they ask questions because in the conversation you tend to have questions instead of just saying I'm bringing my green skirt. Okay. So, they really get in the practice of of really having a conversation with each other. Um and that these are the

011type of assessments that already happen on a quarterly basis and over time it paints a clear picture of the students abilities in the four skill areas and it helps to inform student language placement for 9th grade. Um we continually refine these assessments. Actually we are working on refining these assessments as our three-year goal. So we're doing uh we started with eighth grade. Next year we're doing seventh and then we're doing sixth so that they all kind of align with each other. They look similar that the students will know uh what this is when they are handed the um IPA so they have more um confidence in taking them as they go along through the years. Um and we refine them to align with effective teaching and learning practices. And it offers a more comprehensive measure

012than stamp. and I have the great fortune of teaching both seventh and eighth grade. So, I really do get to see their growth over time. So, um I I really like the fact that I can teach both grades. Um some additional things that I just want to mention about Stamp. I've administered the test for five years and we spend two to three weeks away from the curriculum so that they can practice going online. They have practice questions. Um we it takes time to do the assessments and then we have students who have to do makeup so we have to factor that in. So it takes about three weeks. Um the question they always ask is will this go in Aspen and it really does not contribute in any way to their grade. So sometimes they

013don't take it as seriously as they should because it doesn't really reflect in their grade. Um it is expensive. The test administration can be difficult. All three languages take it at the same time. So um there's the issue of where to have everybody taking the test, especially the speaking. Um, I've been in the auditorium with a large Spanish class and you know, you can pick up other languages in the discussions. I've had to send kids in the hallway so that they can actually hear and be heard better and that does affect the scoring and stamp. Um, the equipment can be faulty. So sometimes the headphones won't work and then it's a scramble for trying to find something that has a microphone the where they can hear things. I've had students score um zeros on the

014speaking because it didn't record what they were saying. Um the data is too late to use for placement for nth grade. So, one of the reasons that was mentioned to administer stamp, we really can't use because we've already made the recommendations before we get the results back. Um, what they test doesn't necessarily correspond to the curriculum. So sometimes the students don't have the vocabulary that they need in order to write or speak about the topic given where they can with the IPAs because we've studied what they're talking about. Um, with all that said, the scores that the students receive really do correspond with what we how they receive their grades in class. So, they really are at the high novice or low intermediate. Um, and it's it it kind of confirms what we're seeing in

015class. Um, the question is, do we need to spend the money to confirm what we already know? I don't know. Um, if we had the the weeks back, we could actually add a little bit more to the units. Um, there are a lot of things that I'd like to do that I just don't have time to do. Um, right now I experimented with book creator. We don't have a language lab. So what I've done is assigned partners and they can actually record on book creator and someone at another location. So if it's homework, they can be at their own homes and the person can wait a couple of seconds and hear what that one person said and then they can respond. So they can have a conversation back and forth. Um it takes some planning

016on my part. I have to create all the groups and the books and the assignments. And if I had more time, I could do more of that and they could actually have real conversations with each other. So, um it would be nice to have some of that time back so we could do more development of those kind of things. Um, the other thing is with our assessments, for instance, the last assessment that we just gave to our eighth grade, they actually include research, which Stamp doesn't ask them to do, and um, interactive speaking, which Stamp does not have. They just have them, you know, they give a prompt and then they just have to respond. Where language is communication, communication is having conversations. So, we'd like to develop that more. Um, and that's what I

017have to say. So, thank you. Thank you for being here. Um, I'll open it up for conversation. I think my my first takeaway is that it sounds like our assessments um are holistic in nature and comprehensive in nature and it is a better um judge of how the children are doing. So, to me it makes sense not to take to have these two to three weeks. But I would like to know is there anything missing that you might want to incorporate if you if we don't go with stamp is there anything that you want to add or change so that you can get some data that you may not already be receiving? Um I don't think so. I think again like we talked about we we we do these assessments in all four skill areas

018of each quarter. So we are getting a very comprehensive view of students abilities and their proficiency levels. And then we get to see the the the growth from August through June and and if you're lucky over two years with some teachers. Good. Um thank you. I wanted to say too that I really appreciate um the way that you laid out the materials in terms of why not stamp. That was like very easy to understand into like why it was useful before and and how maybe it's not as necessary anymore. Um and I really liked the graphics. Um, I did want to ask though, um, Kathy, some of the deficiencies that you outlined that are can be problematic in the administration, how if we're keeping that at the high school, how do we mitigate those factors

019in terms of microphones and background noise and and that? Uh, you mean with the other types of assessments? No, I'm just saying that um you you highlighted a few of the problems with STAMP at the middle school and great, but if but we're still keeping it at the high school. So, how at the high school are we solving for some of those issues? Sorry. Um, we're fortunate to have two language labs at the high school. So, when we do the testing there, um, kids are at their own individual perils and so it really there there are no issues with speaking and extra noise. Thank you. Um, and thank you. I think this was a great presentation. I have a question more about Mandarin since the middle school Mandarin courses are new. are you how are

020you using eighth grade testing for ninth grade placement in Mandarin because we don't currently have an accelerated adoption in ninth or tth grade or like we do for Spanish. So I'm just curious how that would work. Right. So so we're we're lucky to see the first crew of of rising nth graders with three years of Mandarin under their belt and the teacher there is is also doing these quarterly assessments. So, we're getting a really good picture of where kids are in their proficiency levels and uh and that informs place placement and and our numbers have increased, which is exciting to see. Um what what is the anticipated ninth grade placement for high school with this current group that have had three years at this point? Uh we have two we have two levels, two sections

021of level one and two of level two which is so that has grown. So that's new for And then next year we'll have five sections of Mandarin at MMS, which we haven't had that before. So that's exciting. Great. And I know that. So, and then at DHS then ultimately at some point we would potentially think about what we would offer for seniors, right? Great question. We already have the proposal ready to go for AP Mandarin, but we'll Thank you. launch next year for the following year. Can you just go back to the history of why in 2018 you I don't know if you were involved in that. Probably not. So, um, how do why was it chosen and is there any, you know, I would just love to understand the history of why it was

022instituted in the first place? Yeah, great question. I wasn't here then, but I I do have data from our neighboring districts and um, every district does offer some kind of testing and it's a great way to have any kind of testing is is a really solid um, way to go systemically in terms of of tracking growth over time. Um, some districts have phased out STAM or Apple, which is the other one, the other assessment, like Westport, for example. They phased it out a few years ago because of budgetary challenges as well as time. Um, and they're they're getting 45% of the senior class earning the seal of bio literacy. We had 43, so we're just below that. Uh, so we're we're they do have another kind of assessment. They're in-house assessments, which are similar to

023the ones that we do. And so they are performing very successfully with those measures in place still. So so all the area districts do have some kind of assessment in place. Um some are proficiency based and cost money and others are are in house. If I can just add one thing to that while I also is not here. Um in 2018 I do understand that part of the rationale was to support placement for students as they move from the middle school to the nth grade. And also um because it's a standardized measure, if we're thinking about offering that measure, MMS and DHS grades six through 12, you have that standardized articulation throughout. But we've um we've adjusted for that because of the internal curriculum based measures that we use. And Kathy was speaking about that

024before, how we're really aligning those to the curriculum and looking at the articulation of each grade level with the progression of language skills. Okay. What's the total cost savings by removing stamp from the middle school? So this yeah about 6,000. It's 22.90 per test. We had 308 students testing in eighth grade this year. Was that built into the next year's budget? It's it is in the budget for but yeah just in case. Okay. Um just a quick one. In listening it's good presentation and good conversation. Just in listening to you, it sounds like one of the main reasons why the test was in place was for that placement, but listening to you, it sounds like it's not even being used for that. So, I was trying to think like, well, what is this actually being

025used for? I mean, maybe prep for future stamp tests is the only thing I could think of, but it sounds like you're saying that you could do other testing that would Exactly. Great question. Um, so at the high school, the the stamp is for sale by literacy, but it's also a proficiency test. It's really it's a it's a snapshot in time of the of a student's four skill areas and what they're able to do without really practicing or rehearsing for it. Um so it's uh yeah it really it did serve its purpose and then it showed that hey kids are where they're supposed to be in their development of language study and which also aligns with our area districts. Um Amy, what do you need from us? anything or just No, I just um you'll

026always hear me talk about curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional learning and how all of these things match. So, when Scott um was very new in his role being a teacher in district and working in the department, he knew that there was this um concern with the stamp assessment at the middle school not really having the return on investment. It is actually we budgeted um closer to $7,000 for this because of a 10% increase year-over-year. and his initial reaction was let's just not do the stamp this year in 24-25 and we talked about how important it is from a leadership perspective and a system perspective to really do a very thorough analysis. Um and I'm really grateful that the department did just that so that they were able to confirm that we do have these curriculum

027based measures and it was not a hasty decision. I also know how important it is though for us to be very clear with you as the board and the public in general, our parents, how we're connecting curriculum to our instructional practices and our assessment methods. So, this was really informative. Um, it's it's a wise financial decision obviously for us as an administration and a board to move in this direction, but it's also a very wise instructional um decision for us to move in to move in this way. Okay. to thank you very much. um to a much lesser degree much much much lesser degree uh some some of these assessments from professional organizations so on we're also part of a advocacy for continuing uh to support languages and so on and so forth and I

028think there's no doubt that we actually do that then some great well thank you both for being here thank you so much Kathy thank you so much and I know Kathy's going back to her seventh and eighth grade students today we appreciate you being here thanks so Arua. So, if it's okay with you, board members, we'll cruise right into the second um presentation. Thank you so much, Scott. Um we're not joined by every member of our team of our um curriculum and instruction team because as you can imagine we're wrapping up with end of year um department meetings, end of year uh goal meetings um and closing out the work of the department and also um ensuring that our our kids are ready to end the year in a strong way. So we have representation

029from several of our departments. We have Tim McGuire for um instructional technology, Christian DACA for science, Ronnie Rogier for mathematics, Greg Darren for technology, and Scott Webster will stay with us for world language. And um I can support some of the conversation for some of the other subject areas. Um historically in the past, I've noticed in my tenure in Darian, we've talked about curriculum priorities in the spring and also in the fall. I do think it's important to do that because the pace of curriculum work happens throughout the year. And so at this point today, we can provide an update for the work that's been accomplished with the FY25 budget. Um, again, to support curriculum revision, curriculum writing, instructional practices, assessment methods, and professional learning. It's also important to note that a significant portion of

030professional I'm sorry, a significant portion of curriculum writing in districts tends to fall in the month of June. We've talked about this before. I I um don't think it's best practice to really push everything into a four-week period. So, as a department, we've worked really hard and will continue to to work on pacing curriculum work uh revision and writing throughout the year so that we can really progress monitor our own work. I think the curriculum comes out much more higher quality uh when when we do that and um curriculum writing is really an exercise of professional learning. So, it's important for that to be ongoing and embedded throughout the year. Um the way that these the slide deck is prepared um has an outline of the curricular updates for each of the department areas. We're

031not going to go through each of those, but that's really meant as just a reference for the board and the general public to know what we've accomplished um as far as each of the courses and with each uh course what stage of the curriculum is written, whether it's stage one, stage two, or stage three. Um and then what we'll also do is take some time to talk about the um the highlights and achievements of each of the departments which we're proud of. We'll also outline a little bit the work moving ahead. So we'll be very busy in the month of June finishing up FY25 and then we quickly transition July 1 into our curriculum projects for the year ahead. And that will support again our intentions for professional learning as we open the new school

032year. Um, just a quick reminder, um, for anyone who who needs one or for who is new and and just watching this now, we do have a seven-year curriculum revision cycle. We've talked about the fact that curriculum writing must be dynamic. It is again an exercise of professional learning. It helps us to ensure that we're standards aligned and consistent in our practice throughout the system across five elementary schools. And as we articulate from the elementary to the secondary level, middle school and high school. Um, at the center of our curriculum is not only the standards uh that we're aligning to, but also those tenants of the vision of the graduate. And I was reading um an article recently that talked about, you know, content standards just aren't enough. We can't send kids out into the

033world just with with static knowledge. Content standards are not enough. our children need to be able to apply uh problem solve, think critically, all of those other skills and attributes that are a part of um embedded within the vision of the graduate. As a quick reminder, stage one is the part of the curriculum writing where we're talking about those standards, those long-term transfer goals, the essential enduring understandings, essential questions, knowledge, and skills for the unit. So, that's like the big picture idea. What do we want a child to be able to know and be able to do as a result of their experience in a course or a unit within a course? Stage two is where we talk about more of those daily activities and those tasks, those thinking um those opportunities that allow students

034to apply their learning. And stage three is really how we measure how did the students do and then you know when we see how they've made progress uh or along the mastery of the progression of skills that we're looking for, what do we do when we see that there's a gap? There should be contingency plans in there. We have a continued commitment to ensuring that we're writing not only with a UBD framework in mind, but with the tenants of universal design for learning. Um that is admittedly um a lot of work that we still need to do in district. It's it's a big lift for us when we think about general education and special education together. Ensuring that everyone has a clear understanding of what universal design for learning is to ensure that our curriculum

035is accessible for all of our students. So um one of the things that we've asked our partners at Edoplanet to do is to ensure that for example um the standards that are related to CAST which is the uh which is the organization that primarily is responsible for the UDL standards are embedded into the platform so that we can start to signal those out for our staff um and so that they can more readily see how they can make the curriculum accessible for every kid um in each of our classes. Just as a reminder, I know um the initial budget season maybe may may seem like it was a long time ago, but I want to remind everybody that we set as a priority for our new budget cycle for FY26 an expansion of Edup Planet.

036And one of the reasons why we did that is it's incredibly important for every staff member, every leader, every administrator, and every teacher to be able to ac access the curriculum. Prior to this expansion, only the curriculum writers had access. And that's problematic, right? We don't want to have curriculum sitting on a shelf because that's old and expired. Part of the allure of Edup Planet is ensuring that the curriculum is current and relevant and that everybody's actually literally on the same page. So, that was one of the reasons. The other piece is um we'll have more opportunity for professional learning to be systematic about our approach with how we write curriculum, how we use the UBD framework and they've um customized some um really I guess some parts of their platform for us for UDL.

037So there will be some sessions that we can use with our staff to support our staff's understanding of UDL as a curricular approach and also how to support with instructional practice. Um this is a I'm really very grateful that this is something that the board has invested in because when we think about work at the student level, the teacher level, classroom, school and district, this edgy planet platform is something that contributes to us working as a system. So, that's something that I'm really grateful that we've actually um taken, you know, to to the full extreme of where we need to with this investment and we'll continue to be um writing our curriculum and actually I was yesterday I must have sent Scott I'll apologize again probably 15 text messages and emails about different curricular documents

038um in the world language department. But it's a way to ensure that our eyes are on it, that it's accurate and again um also that our that our stakeholders parents it's very important for our parents to be able to see what are the curricular standards um resources that are being used and all of that is published through stage one. So here is the curriculum blueprint. Um I won't take you through this now but you have seen before that when you go into our website when you go into um the teaching and learning tab there is a tab for district curriculum and you can you can click on any part of this blueprint to go into um a department and into a course and access the curriculum as it's being published. Anything that has not been

039written into stage one UBD format yet still lives on our website. um because of course it takes time to to revise the curricular units as we go and you know that we have um a set plan and calendar for doing so that's very systemic. So I won't go through each of these. However, each department chair and coordinator and director has prepared um a chart which will show at the middle school and high school level 612 what we've completed with the 2425 work and with the FY25 budget to date. Again, some of our work will be continued um toward completion throughout the month of June. It's really important. I think this level of detail is quite impressive and I want to express my gratitude to this team. They know precisely where we are with every single

040course and every single unit in its development. Whether it's stage one, the initial goals, uh stage two, more the daily learning activities, or stage three, the actual assessments. Another um benefit to this edgup planet is exactly what Kathy was referring to before being a seventh and eighth grade teacher. The teachers in sixth grade and those teachers in grades nine through 12 can also at their fingertips have readily accessible what the curriculum looks like um you know for the kids coming before them and where they're sending the kids to next. So again, I won't go through all of these, but for your reference, you also know that we have our curriculum tracker um progress tracker where we can talk about the percentages of of each course that are completed um and with what degree, whether it's

041the overview, stage one, stage two or stage three. So these are there for the board and for um the rest of our dairy and public schools community for each and every department. I will also say that we were um behind with health education. So we made it a priority this year. Our health documents for health education grades 9 through 12 are all published on edge of planet and um by middle school will be completed probably by the end of June. So that was an a subject area that we definitely wanted to um have on on edge of planet on the blueprint for us. So at this time I'll pass it to each of the department chairs. They'll talk about some highle departmental achievements. um they probably will have a summary statement about the curriculum work

042that they've accomplished this year and the work as we look toward the 2526 school year and I think Ron you're up first. Thank you. Um I'm excited to share some of the highlights from this year in our math department. Uh we really focused uh this slide on professional learning, student achievement and community engagement which supports our strategic plan in the district. First, in the area of professional learning and instructional innovation, we really focused on the co-taught model of math instruction. This year with instructional rounds, an emphasis on deeper thinking, student discourse and engagement. Um, these efforts strengthened our team teaching practices and co-eing practices actually in the building and our use of thinking classroom routines just particularly in collaborative settings. Um, we also explored AI tools with I think I mentioned before when I met

043with you, the AI tools definitely focused on Desmos, which is now used on ESBAC, SAT, ACT, and RAP exams. Uh, the student success and recognition, there's like just too much I can talk about to list, but we're really proud of what's happening in the math department, especially if we look at the top four APs. We have 100% of our students that pass um the majority earning perfect scores. In our DURG, we have the most amount of students in AP courses in math. the we just had the celebration last night of our honor society students um which was incredible just to see their achievements on where we are as a district in terms of math contests but also incredible math modeling projects where they're showing how they use math in the real world. Incredible mathematicians just

044exist in Darianne and it's so exciting to celebrate them. Uh they really did have a banner year as a math team. We were the top scoring school in our division uh at the New England Association of Math Links competition along with outstanding stories at the state level and in our jur. Uh, regarding community engagement, we really worked hard this year to kind of do a bridge between MMS and DHS and our MU Alpha Theta students went to MMS and did a little math modeling for color theorem if we want to really nerd out. In terms of into sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade math classrooms, it was really just an amazing experience for those students to see the high schoolers and they actually worked on a proof. Um that that was fantastic. And also

045we started a new pi day tradition. Um students built a pi skyline where they engaged in interdisciplinary lessons. Uh created visual math displays. We actually collected over 2,500 cans uh for local food bank all through the lens of celebrating math in the month of March. So, as we look ahead, we're really just excited to continue this great work and build on the momentum of the year. Thanks, Ronnie. Can you just share with us um maybe the most significant curricular accomplishment this year within the department and the focus for um the year ahead for curriculum writing? Our focus was our foundation was really good in math in terms of stage one. So our focus was really on stage two and stage three of the curriculum design where our efforts were focused on the development of authentic

046performing tasks and thinking tasks that we uh once that spiral content strengthen math retention and deepen students conceptual understanding of both MMS and DHS. I just can I just interject a minute there? I just want to uh recognize Ronnie and everybody for being here, but she's under a plane a wee bit. That idea of the thinking classroom and mathematics has permeated the whole district. Um it's a perfect example of um ground up uh curriculum, instructional practices, engagement. Uh and now you're seeing it in elementary schools. Teachers are wanting to be involved in it. Um it it it um results in kids being highly engaged and more engaged and they're taking ownership for their learning. just as um uh she didn't even mention it in one of the accomplishments there in terms of professionally. I I

047would put that down personally but um but thank you for your leadership in that professor. Thank you Dr. Just to thank Ronnie and the math department the team because also there's a real emphasis on differentiation and and access when Dr. Dr. earlier about UDL and being able to have that access for all students that really is clear in all the mathematic classes for the accelerating learners and for the learners who still require support. So thank you for all that. Thank you for the recognition and it's a massive passion of mine and it really comes through. Thank you. Are there questions about math? Are we going to talk about the curriculum writing but have questions later for that or for mathematics? just overall the Yeah, we can do that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um I would just

048like like I would love to celebrate find a way to celebrate all these accomplishments because we don't hear about that as often and it would be great to do that sometime. I don't know how to click on the video, but you guys should watch. All right. Thank you, Ronnie. Yeah. All right. I will take the humanities next two departments. Um Kristen Connalies and Dennis Cabrera are out out within the schools right now, which is the most important place to be. So for English um actually Kristen and Dennis have done a tremendous amount of work uh together collaborating across their two departments this year at both uh both the middle school and um the high school levels. Kristen also particularly with English has spent a lot of time at the elementary school. So you can imagine

049um you've seen her involved in some of our um board of education meetings, curriculum committee meetings with regard to K3 literacy. She spent a lot of time also in fifth grade classrooms because one of the things that we're trying to do is again strengthen that articulation and the continuum of literacy systemically preschool through grade 12. So we've worked really hard on both fifth grade and and um fifth to sixth and 8th to 9th grade alignment. Um they've worked again on strengthening literacy skills not only in English classes but in the children's social studies learning experiences. And there's been ongoing engagement in professional learning organization NCTTE, which is a National Council for Teachers of English. Um, student success, we have had one of our sixth graders placed in the Connecticut State Spelling Bee. We have the

050NCTTE writing center, which um is providing peer writing support and the learning commons up at the high school, which is a really cool place to be. Um and we have supported uh again student transition with um the counseling department actually in the language arts teachers in the middle school for placement. We have the summer reading ambassadors program and the partnership with Darian public library. I will give a shout out to the Darian public library. They've done a wonderful job in collecting um different uh series of books and um summer reading recommendations for each of the grade levels that we've been able to communicate out for them. um and we really appreciate them um helping our children to be happy and joyful readers throughout the summer and there have been a number of extracurricular and supplemental

051activities that have happened in the English department um whether it's through the national English honor society or um through other clubs and activities. So social studies um again some of this be is really bears repeating um with Dennis Cabrera and the work with the um English department. I also would like to mention something that he didn't place um there might be a typo on this slide because I don't see social studies. Oh, there we go. Something that he didn't talk about here um that I think is really important to mention is the work that Dennis is doing with curriculum writing in his department um to provide SCOP training which is training that will support our students who are identified to receive multilingual language supports in classrooms. And you can imagine um how challenging it might

052be for a newcomer who has limited English proficiency skills to be in a course at Darian High School in a content you know departmental level course. And so one of the things that we need to do and again with limited um staff that's identified as ML particular staff is build the capacity of our teachers within the classroom to support those learners. And you can imagine and I'm sure um Shirley would agree that that type of differentiation is actually beneficial for all learners. So something that Dennis is doing with Patricia Thalosinos um and something that I'm helping them to build is a training that will be systemic through the department chairs to offer SCOP training um to across the department so that we can grow the capacity um inhouse for that type of work and I

053will unless there are particular questions about English and social studies I'll turn it over to Christian God. Um I I do have some questions just on English and I thank you for this presentation and also for the I I went on the website because I was trying to see the curriculum and and I just there's a technical issue just by the way on the English web page when you click the link to get to what I think is supposed to be educate it takes you to a login and password page whereas the math link does work and brings you to the curriculum blueprint. So just just um for parents that might be interested in seeing this especially as we start the new year if we could just make sure that all the links actually really

054take you to that curriculum blueprint page which and I started going through it. It's really really it's great and I think it correct me if I'm wrong. Is it mostly stage one that's shown in each department at this point? Yes. So one of the things that we mentioned before but thank you Robin for raising this again because it's a good reminder. The only part of the curriculum that school districts publish would be um not and again not every district writes with UBD framework like we do. But even those who don't, they really just show kind of the big picture standards, essential questions, enduring understandings. Um because the actual lesson plan, the level of the lesson plan is more unique to the district and to the school. Okay? And for obvious and maybe not so obvious

055reasons, we wouldn't want to be posting assessments um online. So really stage one is what um in in any public school is what that kind of content is what would be public. Okay. So on that note then um what what I as a parent would be looking for when I look at each of those pages would be okay what are the books that we're going to be reading in English in English 10 honors versus you know English 9 regular and just because we used to have on the website a you know examples of some of the texts that they would read and now it is not listed anywhere and so I understand what you're saying that you wouldn't post what stage two or stage three resources would be, but it would be really helpful maybe

056even to just have something listed in that curriculum blueprint that would show parents because I think that is something that's of interest to parents. I I completely agree and and that um that kind of transparency is really important. One of the things that we have talked about before at the board table is it would be impossible to be exhaustive and list every single text and resource. and we also really trust the expertise of our staff to make those decisions that are most appropriate for the students before them. However, in stage one, you should see the more core mentor texts. For example, again to go back to our rapidfire texting and emailing last night, I know that there are specific texts listed for example in Spanish 3 and 3 for um Gabriella Garcia Lorca, which is

057that's an author and the exact text that would be used um in that course um his his text that he's written as an author. So there there are examples of those core primary texts that are listed. And one of the things we've also talked about is that when the teachers are preparing their syllabus, something that the department chairs can also make a note of for the year and we'll remind Kristen as well and Dennis because they don't happen to be with us in this moment is that that is the level of detail that could also be on a course syllabus. That that's what I'm getting. Again, not not every single resource and not every single text, but the primary resources. Um, and and if that could be maybe even a handout or something at the

058open houses in the fall, you know, for your kids specific English class, that would be really helpful, I think, to parents because a lot of times the open houses are so rushed that they don't really get into, you know, here's this here's just some examples of what we'll be reading. So, I think that's that would be really helpful. But thank you for all this work. You're welcome. I would I would say just in full transparency to that not just to gloss over there would need to be a we discussion just about u consistency among even among departments and even within departments. So I'll just recognize that need to be part of that discussion. Thank you. Yeah, one of the things that we're really working on even down to how we invite staff to engage in

059um curriculum writing in the summer is being really systemic and consistent in our messaging across the departments. We agreed. Okay. the humanities. I guess now we're or science. [Laughter] Good good morning. I'm happy to be here this uh today. Uh so just touch base a little bit on our curriculum writing from the past year. Um we really focused on our middle school and 9th grade um curriculum over the course of this past fiscal year and we'll wrap those up. um that the we had over 20 teachers across our department 6 through 12 working on this curriculum uh writing on curriculum writing projects and and certainly um they're looking forward to continue that work as we more focused towards our 10th and 11th grade classes uh and some of our new courses that we have uh

060implemented over the past couple years. So you'll see that in our curriculum slides that Dr. Fedigan went over. Um when we think about uh sort of the the achievements of our our staff and our department over the course of the year in terms of professional learning um I'm very proud of the work that our 6 through2 department has done on um integrating performance-based assessments. Um those are contentbased assessments that are um have roots in our VOG competencies. So, uh, for example, in the middle school, we have, uh, teachers that are really focused on utilizing driving question boards to engage students in their own curiosity. Um, and those driving question boards provide teachers with questions that help frame uh, subsequent lessons. Um, and allow students to get to the phenomena at the end of our unit

061where they're asked to apply some of that learning. Um and it really gives them an opportunity to see how their own interests are are playing a role in that instructional path for our middle school uh units. Um at the high school, we have a a wide variety of uh performance-based assessments that were implemented throughout the year. Uh just this year uh or this semester, um we have a human activity as a driver of evolution performance-based assessment in our biology uh 300 level. um a patient facing science performance uh uh assessment where our honors level biology students were crafting meaningful messages about mitoic disorders. Um so really giving um an opportunity for students to show their understanding of the science but doing it in an empathetic way. of their performances. You know, they were going to

062provide a brochure that could go into a doctor's office and explain a specific motic disorder um to a a family or to somebody who had just been diagnosed. Um, in in our chemistry classes, they did a a calimemetry escape room where they really had to show a sequence of understanding in terms of uh chemistry investigations and um looking at how to uh put their answers in the correct format u in order to get to the next room so to speak. So we have a wide variety of interests and a wide variety of opportunities for our students to apply their understanding. Um, another piece that we we focused on this year was really looking at the question types and uh question design that are aligned to the eighth and 11th grade NGSS assessment. Um, so we

063what we found is our students uh get tripped up a little bit about the with the types of questions that are found in those assessments. So sometimes we ask them to to put things into a explanation um when the same content might be put into chronological order in the actual assessment. So we've looked at at some of those typologies and then are integrating those into our uh assessments in the classroom. Um and then we spent quite a bit of time looking at student work protocols and and how we can utilize student work um to getting in a greater insight into learning um and so what's happening in the classroom in terms of teaching and not necessarily what the teacher is is doing in the classroom. So looking to align instruction across uh our content areas.

064um our our students. Uh again, just a brief uh overview of some of our successes. Uh our ASR program is still um running strong. We had 45 students uh at the CT ST STEM Fair uh as well as our recent ASR um senior seminar where all students presented their progress. Uh and then our 14 seniors presented their final projects. uh um after three years of focus on their independent uh research project there. Um we had a record participation in the science Olympiad this year. Um and then nine teams participating in our uh teams uh competition and seven out of those nine teams qualified uh or met the qualifying benchmark for the the national competition that happens in the end of June. So very rarely do we send our students or is there interest in going

065to those national competitions but um we we did meet those benchmarks. Um I would say this was a banner year in terms of community involvement for our uh for our department. Um throughout the year we have bimonthly student lectures at the Derianne Library called Science in the Stacks uh where students are um from our national honors or science national honor society are uh highlighting their independent in uh interests and their curiosity outside of our classroom. So those are all independent research uh lectures that that students are um uh producing in a variety of topics. We had a departmentwide visit to the great island in in November on maybe the best day of the entire year to be walking around out there. Um, so we got a chance to engage a little bit with the history

066of the island and and start to think about um how we as science teachers may be able to utilize the resources in the islands as as those resources become available and uh and and we can think about using those. Uh and then again highlight the the STEM outreach with uh our Teched National Honor Society. We had over 60 students both in the fall semester and the spring semester visit our elementary schools. Um the fall was grades two and four and the spring was grades three and five. And so our high school students engage with teaching a uh engineering lesson to our elementary school students. uh and just to see the engagement between the two. But almost, you know, more uh exciting is to see the high school students get back into the elementary school and

067see their old teachers and see their old um sort of haunting grounds. Uh it's just a a great way to uh make those connections and sort of come full circle for our for our high school students to be back uh in their elementary schools. So, uh, lots to, again, lots to celebrate and certainly just an overview, but, uh, you very proud of of what we've been able to accomplish this year. Thanks, Christian. Sure. Go ahead. Um, I just wanted to ask, I know we talked about this in the past, but I wanted to ask where we were at in terms of looking at um, the gap between freshman regular biology and freshman honors biology. So the I when I came there was a much larger gap in terms of the the material that uh the

068honors biology class covered. Um both ninth grade biology classes have gone through uh a full um revamp of stage one goals and the assessments that are aligned with that. Uh the honors biology class does a much better job at at covering the standards that our students are being held to and and it aligns um more the the greater alignment across the entire year with our 300 level class. And where we continue to see that honors level work is we've done a lot of thinking around like what does honors level think work look like and we've focused more on the honors level thinking. So application of of the content to to a variety of uh contexts as opposed to honors level workload um where we're just jamming biological content down the throats of our our students.

069So, I think we see a much to a much higher degree. Our ninth grade students are focused on honors level thinking in our biology class. Um, meaning they're going much more deeper in in um terms of the understanding of the core concepts that our uh standards or state standards lay out as opposed to trying to to do um all of our body systems and all of the the core standards within the course of a year. So, it sounds to me like you're not planning on revisiting or making any changes between the two courses. Is that correct? We've I think we've made significant changes to to make those more aligned in terms of the content that that the students are experiencing over the course of the year. So, I would be interested then because I would

070say that um the the perspective uh from the community is that there's still a a very very large gap between the two of them. um you know just speaking plainly and generally the honors is often too hard and and and 300 is too easy and there you know there's not 350 class that you know um so I'd be curious if you if you don't have plans to revisit this. I'd love to see the numbers of students that started in honors and dropped out. I'd love to see that over the past couple years because I'm still hearing a lot um about about how truly difficult honors biology is and then how the 300 level is that there's not a place for for the middle there. Um so I I think it would be interesting to see

071the data at least on what the student performances and what the dropout rate is. Yeah, I'm I'm happy to to get specific data. I don't have that right in front of me, but anecdotally, I can I can say that the number of students that dropped down from our 400 level class over the course of time has has decreased drastically. Um, off the top of my head, I I can say between five and 10 students as where when I started seven or eight years ago, we had as many as 25 to 30 students drop. Um so in terms of drop rate we the attrition rate is very low o over the course of of the year. Um but I certainly can get uh that data. I have it for the the past five years. So I'm

072happy to provide that. Also it would be great to see what students performance is as well. um you know even the kids that stay in there like are they being successful or or are they struggling with that drop rate I mean the the improvement in the drop rate is that a result of making the class easier or better instruction better placement I guess some insight into that I would hope it's not just making the class easier just so that the kids can not drop out I I like that's so I guess I I wouldn't consider the the the fact that we've made the class easier. Um I guess those are the two opposing views that we've just seen like you know one on one hand the class is really hard and and and then are

073we seeing a lower drop rate because of the class being easier. I I would take Katie's view not to be different. I would take it to be that she was saying what's where's the opportunity for the middle. So, there's probably still are people who are doing great, but there's probably kids who are forced into the higher class that should be somewhere in the middle because 300's too easy and 400's too hard. I I I can't speak to students being forced in into a class. Um, but I'm I'm happy to provide the uh the data in terms of achievement and where we stand in terms of student uh student drops and what that looks like. and some of the work um to the curriculum is very for biology and biology honors is very recent. So I

074think one of the things would be important for us to do is go back to the actual right to the staff and see how have things gone this year. Um and to kind of come we can circle back on some of the questions that you've asked. Yeah. Thank you. And to that point, Amy, I um thank you for recogn that it it's interesting to look at too, especially when there's a change in curriculum, when there's a change in delivery. Um I think it's interesting to note too, how that's being applied across sections, too. Are are all teachers teaching in the same way? Are certain teachers um so I I think that might be interesting to not just look at um to kind of aggregate and disagregate that data. Yeah. And that's some that is something

075we look at. Implementation is very important. And again, that's how we connect curriculum to instructional practice to assessment, professional learning. Go ahead. Um, just a follow up on that. I I agree um on the honors classes and also like honors chemistry, honors biology just to make sure that instructionally between differing sections, different teachers that the teachers I have heard that some teachers will have, you know, a Google notes document about what was covered in class or something that kids could use as a resource, whereas if you're in a different section with a different teacher, they don't offer that. And you know, if you're sick and you can't have access to a resource about the notes or something that was covered in class, you know, and a teacher will say, "We'll get it from another student."

076But if you don't really have a good relationship with other students or you don't know them very well, that's a very awkward situation for a class, you know, just and it it makes it very teacher dependent. And so I think this is something it would really be helpful to have more consistency and have that dialogue with each of the teachers so that resources are provided across all sections of a particular you know if it's honors chem honors biology etc because I have heard this over the years and that's an issue that can really affect students success in a class and that sort of goes to the the ecotrack process right in terms of that consistency of you said resources whatever it is like what they're using in terms of textbooks but also all those intangibles

077I think all that consistency is really critical because to your point like then some students have an advantage over others just by virtue of which classroom they're in or we don't have textbooks anymore in many different kinds of courses and it's all subject to teacher discretion which resources they're using and so in the absence of having a textbook at home that you can go back to try to teach yourself if you're sick or something. You know, this is a an issue that I think can be a a problem for students now that we have so many virtual and um teachermade curriculum that is very, you know, it's not like you just have a textbook. So it I think that's something we should think about and that's why it's so important again that we have this

078curriculum writing and revision plan and that we have edge planet because the resources that you're talking about would be resources that for example would appear in stage two so that teachers can and because the curriculum is live right it's not just that we finish it and it's done forever as teachers are innovating which we want them to do they're able so there's a fine line between being exactly um consistent across the board and also wanting teachers to respond to the kids before them and also wanting teachers to innovate because that's how you improve practice. And one of the things that we can do with the use of edge plan it is ensure that teachers have the um the standard that's expected across curricular areas and so that they can also when we're innovating share ideas

079and share their thinking instead of you know back in the day you would have your curriculum you'd have a textbook in a room and everybody is implementing it however they choose or you have curriculum in a binder. this this makes the curriculum much more alive. And so one of the things that we continue to do is have curriculum writing teams revisit the revisions together. And one of the things I didn't mention before is that the department chairs are working very hard to ensure that there's a special educator at the table um that is working on writing the curriculum. Not so much stage one because stage one is is a very general again overview and it's really about the standards and essential questions but certainly stage two and stage three. And we want we want the

080staff to be able to have resources so that the student experience is supported appropriately across sections. So is there like a next phase of the edgup planet roll out where students now have access into that system where they can grab resources irrespective of who their teacher is? So the student view of that is more like Google class. So what yeah what teachers prepare Edgeup planet is really um it's the adult facing piece. It's it's it's not really studentfriendly. It's again it's around the standards, it's assessments, it's lesson planning, but teachers all they have Google classrooms where they would put the resources um that they share across their sections. So that would be like if you're in for biology 400 and there's three different teachers, you have access to the resources that all of the teachers

081are providing. No, you have each teacher has a Google classroom. However, work that we do and continue to do and will continue to do in the department is to ensure that collaboration. And again, this is why that the professional learning time and PLC time is so important because that's the time that teachers use to talk again about resources, challenges that they have, meeting student needs and different resources that are helping them meet with success with different learner types. That that almost seems as important as the the parent facing stuff is. It's great that the parents know what it is, but if it has no bearing on the students, who cares? Absolutely. And so that's one of the things that we're advocating for with, you know, again, professional learning time and how we use the professional

082learning time. Thank you for pointing that out. I would just add I I know that the conversation took a bit of a different direction, but Dr. Adley and I have talked about this multiple times. Um but you know at the university and the graduate level I think that um they do a really really good job at making resources available to students and especially at um working together across sections for classes. I mean I think a lot of times this is very common in the quant classes in particular but in terms of you know um teachers pre-recording and sharing videos so that students come you know which watch this 10-minute video before class so that you come with like a basic understanding or a recording of a lecture or certain part and Amy I could not

083agree with you more about how important it is for a teacher to be in front of their students and and having that discussion and that interaction and I know that you guys try to make the learning very interactive too. It's not just lecturing but for students especially at those really high level classes where we are asking a significant rigor I think that it would be a great resource for the students to be able and I mean again this this is the students who want to put the time in to re-watching that lecture to making sure that they're having the understanding for there to be that consistency and you know to me I think that it it like once we got it up and running it wouldn't be a big ask of the teachers right like

084they could they could pre-record and share. They could record their lecture in the class. Um I think that would be a boon to our students to be able to have that as a review. Um and to Robin's point too, um you know, one of the culture issues we have in Darianne is that students are afraid to miss a day. Um because you you can't miss a day because you're behind and how difficult it is to catch up. And being able to provide them again the resources they have to put the work in um I think could be a really good thing. So, I'd love to see, you know, any kind of percolating or feedback or discussion that you guys might have about how how we might be able to develop that at DHS in particular.

085There's a lot of lot of things that we could go on for that, but let's we'll go on to the next one. Okay. Next is world language. And I think if we just advance the slide for Scott. There we go. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Uh curriculum wise, um colleagues have been deeply engaged in a lot of curriculum work this year from grade kindergarten through 12 um and through from levels one all the way through AP. And um we've we're very excited this year that we're we have the focus on the K12 piece with that vertical alignment and strengthening smooth transitions between the schools. Our K5 folks are especially excited to to work on on refining the curriculum, enhancing those six levels of Spanish, and they're actually excited to get to work that cohort the

086day after school gets out. So, that's that's very exciting. Um, and the majority of our proposed projects for curriculum in our department are probably going to take place this summer. Our teachers are really excited to collaborate and get to work on those already this summer. So, that's that's wonderful. Um, in terms of achievements, teachers are collaborating more than ever, sharing high impact instructional strategies and integrating innovative tools like Smash Doodle, Wei, Video, Podcasting, and Note to enrich the language learning in the classroom, thanks to folks like Tim and our library media specialists. We've they're so excited to collaborate with us and enhance that experience for them. We're incredibly proud of our students accomp accomplishments. For this first time, we established National Language Honor Societies, as you know, in French, Latin, Mandarin, and Spanish. We held

087those ceremonies earlier this spring to recognize our seniors with their their their tassels or their cords rather, and also welcome in new inductees to the programs. We have to date so far pending a few more results. 42% of our senior class earning the seal of biteracy this year uh in six different languages including German and Russian which is an outstanding testament to our students commitment to global competence. Um, and it's not on the slide, but uh, 95% of our students earned our seniors actually earned a three or above on language APs, which is wonderful because as we mentioned before, that's another way that they can earn the seal and it is also a barometer of their proficiency in its languages. So, that is fantastic. And then outside the classroom, just like our colleagues in other

088departments expressed, uh, our students are are all over the middle of the elementary schools where a lot of our honors society students are doing their service hours and getting to to get back into their classrooms with their former kindergarten teachers. Um, and they're doing lots of other community service hours as required by the National Honor Societies by tutoring fellow students in in all grades as well as volunteering with organizations like New Covenant Center and Building One Community. And we're excited about what's ahead. We have two trips proposed, as you know, for the spring next year to France and Spain. And um, we're excited to continue to expand our students cultural and and linguistics horizon linguistic horizons that way. So, Any questions? Go ahead. Um, this is maybe more of a broad kind of a thing.

089First of all, I think all of these departmental achievement slides are so amazing and I I would love and in kind of in the spirit of our data dashboard and strategic plan to have some level of summary of some of these achievements that the students have made in each department. and whether that's on the website or somewhere that we can kind of publicize all of the great things that are happening across all these areas would really really be great. Um, and then another kind of as I' as I've seen these, you know, a lot of the the honor society students are the ones that are getting the opportunities to do different service or community hours kinds of mentoring things. I it would be nice if perhaps and this is also kind of aligned with vision

090of the graduate. If our other students in the high school, not just the ones that are in the honor society also are given some kind of opportunities systemically as part of our curriculum to participate in community or service kinds of things. uh not just the honor society students because I think all students in our community would benefit from that and that's an important part of learning and being empathetic and showing leadership that I think it would be wonderful to see. I agree with that and we've heard a couple times of, you know, high school students going back into the elementary schools and if we could do some sort of I don't know. I would love to increase the service in our in our students, but I feel like I read a curriculum document last night

091um that involved students going out into the community as a part of the regular curriculum in one of our world language classes. Is that true? Uh they do that in some of the AP classes as well. Yeah. And um I know there are there are many many field trips as well where students were able to go and like there was a trip to uh Chinatown with the men students so they get to actually use their skills. So um I was referring to what you were saying though as far as kids going out into the community and using their skills to perform good for others. But this is um I really appreciate the board's recognition of that because again this is where we talk about content and skill and that is incredibly important but the standards

092are like the floor not the ceiling. So when we think about application and actually you know again critical thinking and demonstrating those other dispositions that are incredibly important you know life after DHS. Um that is important and it is something that we'll continue to look to. There are lots of extracurricular activities aside from national honor societies for children to have those opportunities. Um, but I suspect that you will see as a part of our work, I have a meeting later this morning um with actually some of our secondary staff. Tim will actually be there as well for vision of the graduate and you'll see some of those things come out in that work and and again not just high school that really should be a trajectory preschool through grade 12. Our littles can do a

093lot within their community as well. the the kids, you know, mean particularly as they get up through the grade levels excel in and a lot of stuff. And uh one of the other areas of opportunity and I already mentioned because I know we've had I've had different discussions with different people around the table about it. Uh we've had a lot of opportunities of expansion for travel but also expansion for travel for community related experiences service related experiences in different countries um would be a a wonderful way addition to the the travel experiences for our kids and I know we've had that discussion actually so just yeah thank you Mr. Darren, good morning. Thank you for having me here this morning. Um, on the curricular side of things for career and technical education, we've had a

094very productive year. Um, we've gained momentum and our teachers are excited about writing curriculum now and reflecting on the classes that they work in and how to improve upon those. We are um a little more ahead in the middle school only because we have a about um one teacher per class and only a couple classes there. At the high school level, we have about 23 classes and a handful of writers. Uh, however, we have about 50% of our stage one completed just this year. And throughout the summer, we're going to continue on that progress. And, um, summer and into the fall, we will continue on our stage two progress on those courses um, at the high school level. And um some of our focus there will be um some of the authentic learning experiences and

095um performance tasks and performance task assessments and standards alignment. Some of the um departmental achievements, we have a lot to be proud of this year and we just have a couple of highlights that I was able to fit on this slide. Um so professional learning side of things, we had a lot of professional development within our department. um off-site learning opportunities for teachers to attend their professional um professional organization conferences. We've had teachers kind of want to learn about um electronics to better understand what they're teaching in their class. They've uh took some course work in that. Um we've done some career and um career and work experiences put on by the Department of Labor just to get career connections with our um curriculum. and we had some teachers attend the Yukon teaching and learning

096with technology conference. We applied for the Perkins 5 grant and were awarded that grant this year which supports career and technical education programs and it has also done a really great job as Dr. Ally was just mentioning to support transportation needs for our students in the community. Um for instance, we've had our sports marketing club. We had guest speakers come in and we were able to take them on bus to NBC Sports right here in Stamford to give them a real experience of what people do in this actual field. They recently just took a marketing field trip to um the Sono collection and did a scavenger hunt there to see um search for different types of products there and how they were marketed. Um we also as part of um part of those authentic learning

097opportunities we have our DIY and woodworking classes fixing or creating items for clients. And when we say clients that might mean adults in the building. We might have a DIY class change oil for a teacher in the uh in the building itself which makes it real. It's not just a mock car where you're trying things. It's someone's actual vehicle and it has to be done right and you provide a report for them. So it's it's an authentic experience when they have to do something like that. Um student successes uh DECA this year has reached 190 members. It is the largest in the state that is our business club. 120 of those students competed at the state level and 34 of them attended the international level in Florida. Um and that means the 34 who attended

098were students who placed at the state level because you have to get to either I think first, second or third in order to compete at that international level. Um our programming club uh had a number of competitions uh Pico CTF which is capture the flag. They did cyber quest and code quest comp competitions at Loheed Martin. The TSA organization which is our technology student exor uh excuse me organization which is the sister club to DECA but on the technology and engineering side of things and they took home seven trophies at the state competition at Killingly High School this year. um community and student engagement. We have a new sports marketing club this year and they started an Instagram page which really just promotes sports at the high school level and they have um a NFL

099football signed by Travis Kelce that they are going to donate to one of their followers when they reach 1,000 followers. I just looked this morning. They're at 990. So, there's about 10 people in this room that might be able to follow the DHS sports marketing and maybe you could be the lucky winner of a signed Travis Kelce football. So, they've done a great job with that. Uh the woodworking class this year, they created cedar benches for the serenity garden project that will be in the courtyard probably in the next uh next fall. Something that we're working on collaboratively. Um the Nth STEM outreach along with N or the science national honor society as Christian mentioned we did our outreach program at the elementary schools and they also did um had another successful year of the

100curiosity and experiment night where we brought in elementary and middle school students down to our cafeteria one evening and they did a lot of engineering and STEM activities and had a really great time. And we also the business and entrepreneurship class has um a Shark Tank live event where they use the auditorium and the video wall and um they we bring in community members to be um our quote unquote sharks to kind of grill the kids on why they should invest in their club or not. And that was another successful thing that we had this year. So we had a really successful year and we're um proud of all the things that we've accomplished. I just want to say um the very first conversation when I arrived to district that I had with Greg was

101about the Perkins grant. You know what have we ever thought of that? Why don't we have that? And he jumped on that immediately. And it's amazing the technology he's been able to bring into the system and how the technology is already being used um to to the benefit of our students and staff. So, thank you, Greg, for um you know, above and beyond your leadership in that area and for um get bringing those resources to our kids. And I look forward to many years of the Perkins grant and part of that grant will I think support our efforts to build more career pathways. That's definitely something we need to position. Greg and I have talked about this um and we'll continue to of course with the other department chairs as well, but be thinking about

102career pathways for children. And again, that's part of our vision of the graduate work. So, how do we make that more explicit? And Greg, I know this department's kind of been growing throughout, you know, the past few years. Are you still seeing that growth? Are you still increased interest? It fluctuates from year to year. We had a really big year this year and it kind of leveled off for next year. So, we'll have to kind of see, but hopefully with things like Perkins Grant and funding things, we could help kind of build programs and um look for some new programming. Okay. Thanks. Um and this is this is great. I love the growth that we're seeing in the awards and how the students are doing. One one question or something STEM um you know encouraging

103or and growing our programs in STEM on our website. I know right now it seems that it's very departmentalized in ter like math, science, um the career like technology and engineering courses are all kind of listed by department. But I think it would be really great on the website potentially to have something that's really more of a STEM page or steam page that kind of puts together and again this is just highlights of everything that we're doing across all those areas to really emphasize what we're doing as a district to encourage students and you know the accomplishments that we're seeing in the STEM area because otherwise you really would have to go to each different department and I think they all really kind of work together in many ways. But it's it's a it's a

104great kind of testament to everything as a district that we've been able to do. Yeah. I think I mean from science Christian and so on expanding all these opportunities I would say down the line um since I can't say but I have said it publicly anyway and I've said it in documentations family consumer science those facilities need to be looked at as at the next level of the high school to expand some of these opportunities for the kids. um not just that area but but just in all of the areas in the STEM. Um that would be one of the next things in in the high school encourage the board to look at. Um I just really wanted to give your department some recognition. Um I know my son like chooses all of his electives

105um in your department and I think that the culture that you have created as well is really one to be celebrated. They have so much fun. If anyone's not aware, with the the teched barbecues and the picnics and the the applicable skills that the kids make and the things that come out of that, I think are so exciting. And I know that the art department has long been celebrated at Darian as being a safe place for kids to be creative and to learn skills. And I really think that the the teched department is like the new upcomer on that. And I'd love to see um I I agree with all of my colleagues. I love hearing about these accomplishments. Um I I wish we could do that every meeting. Um, but I wonder if you

106have considered having, you know, um, a maker fair or maybe partnering with a section like with the art department because I would love to see the things that the kids are coming out of. And, you know, how amazing would it be if in the parking lot we had, you know, kids demonstrating cars and, you know, filling up people's windshield, wiper foot, whatever it is, you know, because these are real skills and I think it's amazing what these kids can do. um especially maybe in a town like Darianne where we outsource a lot of those skills. So I was recently in one of um the classes within the department and my comment to the kids was it's so I I need to audit some of these classes myself because I'm paying somebody to come in and

107do all of these things and the kids are very well aware of the skills that they're coming out of the out of um their experiences with. But Greg and I have had this conversation because recently there was a fair in the school and I was talking with some students. There must have been four or five of them and they built they built their own boat. Um and there was video of them. They were I saw it. It was seaorthy. They were out on it. And one of the things that Greg and I talked about was how do we make that more visible? So initially one of the things we talked about is most certainly prioritizing CTE as a board of ed education curriculum agenda focus area for the year ahead. and they talked about probably

108doing that in the spring so that we can accompany it with some type of fair like you're talking about when the kids um have completed their project. There are some kids are year-over-year working on their project. So, it would be a great way um to recognize and make more public. A lot of times, and I'll just plug this for parents who are listening, a lot of times children will question which courses they take because of how courses are weighted. It is incredibly important for us to recognize that we should be encouraging our students to take a wide variety of courses that grow them in different ways. That is a essential part of experience in high school for our children to have. Um and some of the kids most important exciting and um included feelings happen

109in these other subject areas and some of the most important learning. So thank you for recognizing that. Thank you. Okay. Okay. So, I have um a visual performing arts because as you know, spring is a very busy time of year for visual performing arts. Once again, Darian has been listed as a best community and music education. We have our students performing throughout the district and beyond and as well as state and regional festivals. Um our we've had the West Point band come um and work with our students recently and our students are also of course preparing their own compositions for the young composers concert. Um, we now have our middle school art at the Deranne Nature Center. That's the most recent display. We have um students that are receiving the Scholastic Art Awards again and

110students who have had their pieces featured in I create 2025 ex exhibition. Um, everybody knows how tremendously talented our students who are involved in theater are and theater 308 has received six awards at the Halo um Halo awards including best classical musical for lay miz and two awards for the Sanheim Awards. I happened to be sitting next to the person from the Halo Awards. I did not realize that at first at Lay Miz the first night and I was she was sitting alone. So I said, "Oh, what brings you here?" And she mentioned to me that she was here for the Halo Awards. So she was furiously taking notes and obviously very impressed with what she saw. Um I agree we continue to um broadcast and celebrate the visual and performing arts departments as we

111should do with all of our departments. to be very talented students and um I'm happy to respond to any questions and because Colleen is not here, if there's something I can't answer, we can get an answer from her directly. Okay. All right. Library Media, thank you. Good morning. Um as I look around the room, actually one of the things I love is knowing that the librarians are working quietly on the side to support all these other departments. So I heard the word about DECA high school librarian supporting DECA and Scott and I know they're supporting podcasting both the middle school and the high school uh things like Statista for the databases the math and some of the science resources. So our librarians have a touch on everyone and that's one of the things I love

112about working with them. They're they're quiet generally and so you don't hear a lot but here we go. So um as far as curriculum work this year the elementary librarians uh pulled together with me and we have started uh some work in that front that's uh new and refreshing for them. The short of it is at this point we have outlined uh a course work plan for grades K through five uh all five grades as well as a course description for that and started the stage one work in kindergarten. Um that work has started now and I anticipate it continuing uh a bit in the summer and more heavily in the fall. Um beyond that when I look at sort of our some of our accomplishments our our librarians are offering professional learning to the

113staff. So uh things such as uh artificial intelligence has present been presented by myself also some of the high school librarians to both the English department and the social studies department. Um, but they were also uh pleased this year to have the opportunity to go to uh Castles Connecticut's Association of School Librarians conference where we learned more about things such as integrating maker space activities and leading within schools and genre which is these fancy words that only librarians make up but uh these are tasks are underway. So things like genrification is happening at the high school right now. of the high school work, for example, on a reshelving project this year and they're relabeling books to to support print readership and the secondary librarians are reporting that some of those efforts are starting to pay

114off. The back the napkin numbers are something like 3% higher print readership over last year. So, I think that that's worth them. Um, I think we do need to acknowledge the uh three elementary librarians that are under uh renovation and construction. and they are excited for the outcome of the project, but it's a heavy lift getting there. So, uh, you know, I appreciate their work. I I was there just in both at homes and um uh uh over at uh oh boy, Hindley the other day looking at the movers moving their their boxes and books for them. So, that that's well underway. Um the high school uh received a wonderful gift this year and they've been uh eagerly purchasing some additional ebooks and physical books in support of that. and uh book talking has been

115a quite a big initiative this year both at the middle school and high school. So I I I love the idea of book talks and really encouraging that that readership within our students. So I think I'll pause there and sure I'll think of something I didn't mention but hear what you have. Okay. So just on the big picture we can just advance the slide one more time. Um these are certainly not comprehensive but some professional learning priorities that connect to some of the things that we've talked about throughout the year. um for art and music, the curriculum alignment and the authentic integration of arts and technology. And one of the things that um Colleen and I will be doing is also looking at how different courses um might fall under the humanities credit as we

116know there are graduation requirements. um of what might be a STEM credit with the arts and music classes because that's how students kind of vote with their feet as Ellen will say and choose their courses and we want to make sure that um we're providing a wider access to kids and not limiting play-based learning for ELP and K will continue with the scenario development and implementation. K3 literacy will obviously be our focus at the elementary level with four, five for writing and grammar. Um actually four through eight. Um we'll talk about restorative practices in the year ahead per legislation. mathematics level focus on AI integration the um thinking classroom practices which I recognize I think we need to um make more clear to probably the board and the public what that means when we talk

117about thinking classroom practices so you can look forward to that in the year ahead um world languages the listening and speaking instructional strategies um exploration of engaging and effective web-based learning resources including AI next slide we talk about science one of the things I know Christian is working hard um with the department with is aligning the assessment practices and again using consistent languages that our students would experience for example AMIA and GSS so that um sometimes it's not a gap in the content it's more how it's presented and how we're asking them to show what they know um English the 612 literacy practices and again um we will come forward to the board in the in the year ahead um Kristen Colony knows she's on deck we have some work to do with aligning what's

118happening at the elementary level um to the secondary not only with regard to curriculum but also instructional practices and looking at different groups of students and how they're performing ing um technology again with career alignment but also uh curriculum alignment but career connections and again thinking about establishing curriculum pathways for our students um and making that more explicit through curriculum um writing and revisions. So those are just some of the big picture items some of the things we'll be looking forward to coming back to the board in the year ahead. I just want to thank um our department chairs and our coordinators and our directors who are here and who are not here because um this is just a some of what has been accomplished in the last year and it's really their steadfast leadership

119um the passion that they each bring to each of their departments. um the leadership and encouragement they have for their staff um and the expectations they hold not only for students but for our staff as well that really bring these great results and experiences and we're looking forward to strengthening our practice together in the year ahead. Thank you. I mean I think it's very clear that we are not static in what we do. So um I appreciate all the hard work and I just I just want to make sure that we're being cognizant that you know the loads that we're putting on our teachers is not not too extensive. So then yeah there it's a lot just one um just on the subject of AI and I I see that in English and math that

120it's highlighted for professional development but um for English obviously the supporting academic integrity and I I just kind of broadly would love to see some kind of professional development and focus on how all of the different departments might allow our students to utilize and teachers to to utilize AI effectively so that they can get you know because it will be the the pathway of the future for in careers and everything else and so we need to help our students and teachers to make use of that but to do it with integrity and kind of ways and what tools to use etc. So I think to the extent that we can kind of help think about that with our teachers. We agree and the district technology team has actually um prepared some documents to provide guidance.

121So that will be a part of professional learning how we support staff in understanding that guidance and how to leverage AI because we should be leveraging that as a tool. And even if you didn't see it here, it doesn't mean it's not happening. There's certainly work that's happening not only in the social studies department but even in visual and performing arts. um you have you have issues with AI and ac academic integrity and performance and all those things. So it is across departments that we're approaching that concept. I think the board also the other uh the last board meet identified it for a curriculum meeting. Yeah. AI. Yeah. Yeah. We'll talk about that next year for sure. It's on the list on line 95. Yes. I would I just I would also like to recognize

122Amy and the team. Uh you don't have this level of discourse programming experiences. It also comes with some accountability for all of us, right? Um, but you don't have it without your leadership. Um, it it just won't happen that the level of discourse you're having and what you're asking and what we're asking and what you're saying. Um, it could it might be a short-term thing, right? But it'll have long-term impact if you didn't have these positions and leadership that that that they So, that's just I just like to recognize that. Thank you. Oh, good. Yes. Thank you all so much for being here. I wish we could have all day to talk about this. Um Amy, I did just want to come back to two quick things. I'd love to um in the future be

123able to have um a bit more of a robust conversation about UBD and UB um yeah, I'd love to be able to get into that a little bit more. Um and then I also just wanted to ask one technical question um regarding Edu Planet. Do we have backups to that? Are we actually putting we're using that as our resource to write curriculum if something were to happen with that platform or resource? Do we have backups? Just just thinking from a technical standpoint. Um most of the departments uh staff drafts first in a Google doc. Okay. So yeah, typically there would be there would be access to those pieces. Great. Those two pages that you see, one to two pages on the blueprint, we see behind the scenes about 150 pages, we save that on a

124PDF within our departments and it's accessible. And also also check uh we have a backup that you know every 24 hours is running it and saving. So, but as far as maintaining that platform, again, the benefit of that is that it's accessible for everyone across the system. I wasn't questioning its use. I was more just I was more No, no. I was more just thinking like if they were to go out of business or if there was some sort of like catastrophe. There's so much great work. I will say there are you'll hear from me if I'm not happy with a vendor we're using. When I text Kelsey Jascott, who is our our rep, she responds to me within two minutes. You know, I've I asked her the other day to put a different set

125of standards up, she's immediately on. I published some documents um in world language and it I didn't see it within 30 seconds and she's saying Amy give it a minute and refresh your screen that we're getting that kind of responsive um customer service support which is great. She's one of your favorites. All right, moving on to public comment. If anyone in person or online would like to participate in public comment, please come up to the podium or use the raised hand icon and wait to be recognized. Once recognized, please state your name and address for the record and note that you will have up to three minutes to comment. Please note the time with the chair. There are no raised hands. All right, motion. Thank you all. Thank you everybody. Have a great summer.