001we are live okay good morning everybody it is Wednesday April 2nd this is a meeting of the board of education curriculum meeting our next meeting is scheduled for May 7th tonight today we are talking about um Elementary progress reports as well as an update on our K to3 literacy so I will turn it right over to Julie and Amy and stman um just before they start I just want to recognize both of them uh Jan here also from U uh Union representation because both of those items uh they'll discuss what we've done and the outcome but the process of what been engag in both with u the collaboration and the process with staff throughout both of these things have been pretty significant um and I say that's that's one of the things we're most proud
002of in terms of the inclusiveness of of the participation so but that that just turn it over go ahead and I just um would I want to say that this is really important to talk about mentary progress reports um as one mechanism for communicating with families and we know that our staff is really dedicated to that ongoing communication with families so while today we're going to talk specifically about conferences and those formal reports um it's also important to recognize the commitment of both our staff and our parents to have ongoing communication throughout the course of the year because especially at the elementary level children make such huge growth and and gains at different points of the year I always make the analogy of it's like when you you know you buy your kids any pair
003of shoes and you put your thumb there and think they have plenty of room and then they've outgrown it so um we want to be checking on progress more often and communicating even more often and I know we do that than these conference and progress support days um so I'll Julie and Jamie have both um been important leadership roles in this work and we'll be able to I think also speak to the teachers um the Nuance of the teachers involvement throughout the discussion so I'll turn it over to that yeah um thank you good morning everybody and I'm Jeanie tman is a fifth grade teacher at Henley also the DEA vice president um and she has been involved in this since the beginning so just some background uh this this work began people were thinking
004that our progress reports needed revision for a long time I think they hadn't been revised since 2015 or maybe prior to that um but this came out of an MOA as part of the contract negotiations in 2023 with the D EA the DEA um designated representatives for this committee and it was going it is chaired by me we began we convened a committee and we had our first meeting in Spring 2023 we developed an implemented a survey for teachers just to gather feedback on what was working what changes they wanted to see and just some big themes changing of the timing of the Fall conferences more consistency with expectations around comment EV um better alignment of the indicators with our curriculum and many challenges with the technical aspect of Aspen so overall um some themes
005that emerged positives were detail and Clarity in the academic section they like the way everything was broken down and there was a lot of specificity the social emotional learning emphasis because we know that that is really important and parents always want to know about how their child is doing in terms of relationships and and all of those learning habits and um a glow was that there was flexibility in the comment section that some people could write more some could write less some could write narrative some could write bullets so people liked being able to personalize that on the flip side um they wanted to reduce the complexity and um the time consumption it is it is it takes each teacher about six hours to complete a progress report um so it's a lot of of
006work um they wanted more clarity and alignment with the standards and with the curriculum there were some indicators that were hard to score and they wanted that improved functionality in the summer we had teams synthesize that data and work on revising the indicators and develop a goal Bank of for comments and the goal Bank was not to create a drop-down menu it was just to say these are the typical things that align with the standards the priority standards that parents always ask about that I always want to give feedback on and so we thought that that would be helpful to all of our teachers so and it was um and then we also met with Dr dad and revised the social emotional learning component so throughout this 2023 school year the math and literacy team
007took a really really deep dive at unpacking those standards and looking across like what do they really mean how do we prioritize and how do we communic how do we create um indicators in a way that's parent friendly but also that aligns with our curriculum and is not too cumbersome for teachers and then we wanted to ensure vertical cohesion K5 last school year after all of that work we had released time for grade level teachers because what we found with the people that were working on the indicators initially there would be one fourth grade teacher from one school and one second grade teacher from another so we really wanted to make sure that we had wide participation we had to do some release time um and we really dug into those indicators with with our
008teachers so we had reps from each school and each grade we worked with um Colleen Thompson and and Scott and um Chris manfredonia to review and finalize those indicators and then we used AI feedback after all of this to look for alignment cohesion in the language gaps anywhere um we reconvened the committee we reviewed the drafts we asked them to go back to their colleagues and gather feedback it was a very iterative process there were multiple times that we went back and forth um and then we met with the IT department to discuss Aspen and jeie was really instrumental in that work so she can speak to that I'm not going to go through all of these but can you click on one and I'll just give you an example and I will say we
009have made some changes since the parent feedback of parent questionnaire came back on Friday um can you scroll up uh to the social emotional you can just see our the first slide thank you the current version is aine to the castle standards and um we clean that up and we had the social and personal learning um you know just about relationships managing emotions those things that really are important for Learning and that parents always ask about and then and then work habits do they follow directions um in classroom expectations can they organize their environment can they initiate and complete tasks um and then can you scroll up to the next one the academic one of the things in our current um iteration we had effort on the as the first thing in all content areas
010and while effort is really important and that came through in our parents survey and our teacher feedback also it's not a standard so we felt that that was something that teachers could comment on and it's very important but we want to focus on the academic standards one of the things that did come out of the parent survey was that they missed the subheadings because that was helpful to organize so they're back in um but um we were we were trying to streamline but you can see and I'm not going to go through each thing but you can see how these very clearly align to the science of reading and parents can know exactly how their child is doing with more specificity um can you also scroll um I I won't go through everything because you
011do have links but it's the same thing with the writing and I want to point out one thing for the math if you could scroll up to that section when our committee first met and we started our conversation was with what is really important in each of these content areas and everybody said the mathematical practices which was something that was an important part of the standards when they were revised in 2015 but they're hard to quantify and they were not in our previous report card so we have the mathematical practices here we have them for all grades we have this is a Elementary and familyfriendly version we tried to eliminate all of the academic jargon in these indicators so that people really understand what is important in the teaching and learning of mathematics and how
012are we going to be able to communicate that to families Julie I can just add one thing to that um it's really interesting that we have so the math content standards are what probably most people would expect to see as far as you know for example children counting um adding and subtracting within 10 it's interesting that Connecticut has the mathematical practice standards and those I would say reflect more of what probably we're getting out the vision of The Graduate so it's not just enough to know the standard the finite skill it's that and how that skill is applied and integrated within the child's thinking and their work with others so that metac metacognition piece the piece about communicating really persevering making sense of a problem persevering being able to explain your thinking that is reflected
013more like in a vision of The Graduate competency so I just wanted to make that um connection for the group yeah that that is absolutely true um and I won't go through all of them you have links to all of them and and again we're still in the process of going back and forth um the parent feedback they appreciated the seal section they uh there was feedback about adjusting it to represent reflect grade level expectations and what the parents don't realize is that part of our work is to develop a handbook and that's where we'll get granular and we're really going to cross check that against yard sticks and provide specific behaviors at each grade um they appreciated the clarity overwhelmingly parents said that um the the indicators were clear to extremely clear they they
014wanted the subheadings back and that's there they talked about effort parents consistently valued personalized comments and provided some good feedback about um ways that we can improve that area of the progress report and in terms of access we asked about the technical aspect they told us that they can access their progress reports and easily in Aspen but difficulty downloading and printing so that's something also that our it department is working on in terms of parent conferences we moved as you'll recall we did this last year we moved the first conference from after Thanksgiving to Mid October and families really appreciated that earlier touch point they did ask us to a few of them consider moving up the spring conference and we talked about that as well but it's hard because of our timing January is
015our benchmarking uh winter assessment period then we have February break and teachers want to complete progress reports before conferences because they're collecting all that data and synthesizing it so we could consider moving it up a week or so but it is really hard to move it any earlier and that's pretty typical of where everybody has their spring conferences um so this is just the the timeline of conferences progress reports and we've can um how we're communicating and we will have comments on every trimester of the progress reports so some of the enhancements as I said we've already added some subheadings we're just finding this is like just very granular but more like like little nitpicky things that we're finding um in language we are developing handbooks such is going to be a teacher handbook and
016a family handbook with rubrics so that there's clarity about the expectations across each semester and we are going to develop clear expectations for comments making sure that they provide personalization consistency talk about that effort um and specifically communicate students areas of growth around academics and and um their strengths as well so some of the enhancements to as and again jeie can speak more to this we are making it more teacher friendly Our IT department is working so that teachers can preview previous progress reports uh previous trimester marks that can only look at this trimester which has been challenging teachers have to have multiple screens up at a time um they also um when they enter marks they can only enter one curricular area at a time so it's a lot of clicking in and out
017so they're fixing that up and we'll have ability for parents to be able to download a print because some people do appreciate that um and this is just an FYI a comparison of the durg um most everybody has two conferences progress reports some people have progress reports twice a year um but most have three most have two conferences so that was just interesting FYI and then in Fall we will communicate these changes to teachers and to families some Aspen training for teachers so that they understand how to navigate the changes and we'll provide a parent information session to share that handbook and handbook excuse me probably closer to when the report cards are actually going home so that it's not lost okay thank you um Mr Grambling had a question that I'll just start off
018with um and in reading it anyways um his says my only suggestion is to be more clear with parents about teacher conferences and inperson ability it sometimes seems like remote is the default option instead of in person I'm and now reading that I'm not clear if he thinks the parents are thinking that remote is is default or if the teachers are but can you speak to what you know inperson versus remote conferencing um I I think they are all iners I think we provided that remote option for Working Families um and sometimes one parent is there in person and one can join remotely so we is that a possibility that you know you could do one of each or or do it via Zoom or teams or whatever pull it closer pull it closer um
019we kind of go with inperson as our default if a parent responds to us and says hey I can't make it in I need to do a zoom at that point will provide a link but we've kind of been trying to get everybody in person it's a different conversation that makes sense to me yeah it's a different conversation okay I'm glad that we all three have the same answer so the expectation was like that's great form of assessment so the expectation is that they're in person and I Upon A parents request because we have parents that for many reasons work schedule otherwise if a parent requests we can make an accommodation for one or or both parents thank you and this of course does not preclude any phone calls to teachers that parents may have
020that there are multiple ways to to get progress yes um and I have a number of questions that are kind of in each area just on the progress reports specifically if that's okay um and I totally understand the need for consistency and I understand that if it's very very timec consuming for teachers we're trying to make you know make sure it's aligning to standards Etc um just a few questions first of all how are we reflecting in the progress report if a student is below or above grade level in different areas because it basically is scoring them on at grade level and I guess my question one of the questions would be how will a parent get feedback on their student if they are you know for instance reading above grade level and what are
021their areas where they can you know help them in that so that's one question I wanted to start with so that would that would be in the comments if a if a child is above expectations um if below also the parents would know because if the child is in our srbi mtss process we communicate that with parents parents get a phone call they get a letter I mean a lot of time people will know if they're in srbi but the the students that are above grade level don't necessarily get they're not in srbi they're not identified for that and so this is just one area where for students that you know need the additional challenge that is one question you know and I if they're just doing it within the conference and the comments I
022understand that so I had a similar KS I have a similar on this I I was my question was so it seems like there's only sometimes or often as the choices was their thought given to a thir for yes or it looks is that the same for for all of them it's the same um Below near meets or exceeds standards that the that has not changed is it still going to be I think it was like a one two three four yeah so um I had that question as well I think it would be great if we could see the next iteration I know you had said that you added the sub categories back if we could see that and also the one through fours that would be helpful um just for that comprehensive like
023view but to Robin's point I wanted to ask this too about um you know remembering when my kids were in there and you would have and I remember you know every year the principals talk and then talk about what does it mean you know that that approaching the standards is that's sort of like where everyone should be right that that's not a bad thing and they they get that whole speech but to Robin's point I think um a little additional clarity about you know what does it mean like I remember getting those report cards and it's like everything's fine and then I remember the next grading period getting a report card and it was like all fours and I'm like oh what do I do with this right like what does this mean so it
024is nice to have a little e extra content or context right so like Amy to your point about the shoes right like when I got that report card that was all fours that was you know the kid who jumped two sizes right and I think that that would just help parents a little bit um and you had mentioned something about the handbook is that just for teachers but you said that it would share so is that maybe something will have exactly what you okay great could you talk a little bit more about the handbook and like yes because the the standards are end of grade level standards so what does that look like across the year specifically what would we be looking for kids to do when they are at a at Below near at
025the standard or exceeding the standard so we want to be very clear about that to accompany the progress report because I agree with you that is it is hard to understand that and how does somebody go from one level to another what's what what does the jump up or where is the challenge right so so one just follow-up question so the academic areas you would have a one through five that was one through four because that was not on here it was it just was theal that said sometimes or often and so that was that that was a change the only thing that we put on here for the parents was the change it's hard to see the work that we did we do this in in Google and it doesn't look the same as
026what you see in Aspen so we were waiting until we're final so that we can get a template in Aspen because it's hard to read when you look at the Google Doc um sorry keep going okay so on theal um one kind of high level question is you know given that we have a lot of increased behavioral issues especially in elementary um I noticed that the new progress reports removed the more specific levels of detail on a lot of the SE components which as a parent I know were very helpful to find out for your kindergartener and first grader and second grader and you know the the new ones are they're they're much much more generic and so the question I have is Will parents get that level of specificity about their children you know
027with the relationship skills or the social awareness showing empathy or you know there are things that are really developmentally very important and the more or you know it the the new one that's proposed does not really give them that level of detailed feedback and and that that the the specific behaviors that go into each of these again that would be in the handbook like what does that look like for a kindergartener we wanted more specificity with those behaviors so that would be part of our handbook but but in a conference is a parent going to get that level of specific feedback from the teacher absolutely yeah but then doesn't that create more work for the teacher because then that's going to be in the free form text of comments as opposed to using what used
028to be a very specific set of parameters that they had to grade numerically some of those were very difficult to grade numerically okay um some of them don't apply to all children or or they you know if if they're if children are exhibiting them it's hard to say specifically like why did I why this and why this and is it all the time and is it some of the time those things are really better to have a conversation about also think I also think if it gets if you're a student or if you're a parent of a student who is maybe struggling with behavior the progress report should not be the first time you're hearing about that so you you will have conversations throughout the good good point um if I can just go on
029so on literacy just want just on that topic just only just because we like the feedback we got from the parents right um was there any feedback that like honestly in all transparency and discussion didn't want any seal discussion and stuff because like there were some it was mixed there were some that said yes we appreciate it and there were some that say um it shouldn't be on there at all and yes but the contact of it was a majority of people just want sort ofh thank you for that that's that's a good point um on literacy one high level question you know it depending on which K through3 literacy curriculum we end up getting recommended to implement will that require a change in the progress reports to the extent that those are based on
030academic standards these are based on standards and regardless of where we go the resource does not drive the expectations and we are always teaching pH awareness we are always teaching all those components and we are always have the same expectations okay um and then writing they took out every reference to handwriting and uh from experience with my elementary school kids and still today in high school I I don't get the sense that the handwriting is really as much of a priority and I'm concerned about if it's not even in a progress report and this is all grades it was taken out and then do we do we even teach cursive how do we make sure that our kids actually can write neatly and because in high school when you're in classes where there is sh
031you have to show all of your work and some of them don't allow you to take notes on a computer it has to be in a notebook we need our kids to actually be able to write and write quickly and I I I think this is a really important piece even though everything's going to computers and that's just a question no we didn't take handwriting out handwriting is still in there um you look at kindergarten in first grade no it it took out can write it handw write as legible like in kindergarten it says demonstrates proper letter formation formation it was taken out in second through fifth grade the the reason that it was taken out is because teachers are not explicitly teaching it they are doing cursive in third grade um but they don't
032spend a lot of time on it so that would be something that would teachers would yeah I just think this is a little bit of a deficiency because as as a fifth grader my son was basically graduating fifth grade and his teacher told me well he'll just have to type really fast and I don't think that that's the right answer to a parent that you want your kids to actually be able to write legibly and I I think this is still important even though and it is so it is definitely important and one of the things that we're looking at um is as we're thinking about foundational literacy skills ensuring that as children are learning letter sounds they're also learning letter formation and they're making those connections that is much more explicitly taught in in
033even to some extent prek but in a very developmentally appropriate way I would add kindergarten in first grade grade second through fifth most of the development of children's handwriting is is really firm at that point so if a child has a real deficit in that area that is making their handwriting not legible that's something that would be addressed more like in what used to be srbi but now we're talking about mtss so children who do have a deficiency there that might need occupational therapy um will have that through that type of programming but really what the research says is that predominantly how children form letters is really pretty firmly established by the end of second grade I think it's also like a oh Sor C but um yeah I just wanted to say thank you
034for that Amy I think that it's important to remember um developmental stages and just how enormous they are in elementary school you know a kindergartener and a fifth grader are so different in so many ways and it makes sense that just like we talk about the learning to read and the reading to learn phases that that is the same from a writing component to you know in a different way um I do think though that the OT is an important piece of that and I would like to have a conversation and surely I'd love for you to weigh in you know in terms of um about how great that focus is and the recognition of that those formative periods early on and the need to make sure that children who are behind are are getting
035evaluations and support um and and I think there is a bit of a balance like I totally agree with Robin that um you know there's handwriting and calligraphy and some of those things mean something different now in a digital age and yet at the same time you know know the if people can't understand what you're communicating either through legibility or something you know it's lost um you know a couple anecdotal things that I think are important because they they do seem to be bigger problems um we I remember having um handwriting was not a rubric in an upper grade and when I spoke to a teacher about a written thing I was told that the handwriting was so bad that it took them longer to grade it it's like well how can you mark them
036down when that's on a metric right so it comes in in in some of those like intangible ways that are important so you know then that led to an OT evaluation and I was told um by an OT that it was too late for a third grader um which is very troubling and hopefully a oneoff um but I do think that those are things that um I think this is Robin's point is about H how are we sort of making sure that the focus of this is important at the right phase so that it's not getting missed because even if you know if we're only cat if we're only cataloging it in those upper grades how are we making sure that it's still important in you know and then to the point about the technology
037um I do want to make sure that we're making that we are focusing on kids having those hard hand skills and that we're not defaulting to that you know we don't want to be telling kids that spelling doesn't matter and that they can use spell check we don't want to be automatically offering Adaptive Technologies with without really doing everything that we can for those kids to have the skills within that was going to be my point I mean I think as we all start thinking about screen time and and how much our kids are in front of screens in elementary school in middle school and in in high school you know I just scribbled my notes here and my it's chicken scratch and I you know taught cursive and I actually did have really nice
038handwriting at one point but because I don't use it it goes away right so how do you how do you develop and keep that that handwriting pledgeable and there is a handm connection yeah for sure so would be so I'll try to answer all those questions okay but but I'll start with this kind of three levels the first question I'd start with is instructionally and you could speak as you speak a little louder certainly I don't think um at any moment that teachers are not paying attention to handwriting they may not be grading and it may not be a specific field on the progress report but it's fair to say just from from a teacher's point of view that that's constantly being looked at and monitored so just saying that it may not be explicit
039instruction to um to both Amy and Julie's but it is going on teachers actually comment on it they help form that on on developmental pieces I'll just do instruction because I can't imagine saying not by the way I'm always um I always question when someone says something can't get better after third grade so I have this developmental Channel I never believe that okay there's there's always ways to improve our um ability because there's many reasons why there's handwriting that's illegible sometimes kids write too fast sometimes they can form letters sometimes um I see two left-handed people here Robin and you're one of them I'm one of them there's a whole different way of that works so there's a lot of reasons not just developmental but why handwriting looks the way it looks or why it
040looks like chicken scratch to quote or why it looks really beautiful and so a lot of it is the approach to writing the other part developmentally to your question Katie is we did um for OT purposes you're really looking at fine motor skills and we did actually I think it was a to conique if I remember Katie correctly many years ago we started putting OT um just kits in each classroom for all students so they had opportunities to really work on things not just sensory but things that really work on fine motor some of your students might have had um certain pinor grass that went on pencils they kind of certain things that they can hold and they can redo their grip but teachers are aware of that they have it in their classrooms they
041consult with occupational therapists so that's ongoing also developmentally looking at it and lastly excitingly and I know it was mentioned last night also um in the board of Finance we have our ootes now so we have a consistent way of really having a Cadre of Highly qualified professionals who consult with teachers who are there not on a Consulting I mean not as a Contracting basis but in-house to really work with all the teachers um students both who receive services and don't receive services so I think those are the levels you have to look at it on instructionally developmentally and what we have for all students and that really goes into a your point of mtss or srbi that are just um opportunities in the classroom for doing that I again I'm some saying there may
042not be a field to measure it but developmentally there isn't kindergarten first grade which is when they are um working on those actual fine motor skills but to Katie's point no one should ever say something can't change after third grade right or we'd all be in trouble yeah um and around the table um the other thing I'm surely I'm glad you mentioned that because you know sometimes with young children you know this is why we need to think about the whole child through mtss it could be that a child has an intentional issue right a focus issue and that's why the handw writing looks the way it does and um we will be thinking about lefties because I have a lefty myself and even with foundations it's a right-handed world the directions even in that
043program tell children to form letters the way a right-handed person would so you have to be thinking about about how a left-hand a left-handed child might interpret that and how to accommodate um for a child to form letters in a way that's appropriate for that so a couple things so do teacher viws I think my son was probably born Lefty and the teachers decided to teach him as a Wy which also has probably had problems so do the teachers actually look out for that now when they are in kindergarten to actually make sure that if they if they do kind of pick up stuff with their left hand that they teach them how to write yes they're very okay because I think they did not do that and this was you know 16 years ago
044however long um one question um with the you know maybe their brain is working so quickly and they're writing really fast and so it's messy but like I you know now in high school this actually is an issue because if they have a a you know an English assignment and it's a timed assignment and they're told they have to handwrite it first not on a computer and then type it in and this actually happened last semester in you know a 10th grade English class if their if their handwriting is so messy and they can't write quickly on a timed assessment in high school which is graded and then don't have time to finish typing because they ran out you know it it it has ramifications if by the you know end of second grade this
045is not addressed and we didn't have mtss at the time that my child was you know in that age and they weren't they didn't have in-house OTS and it was not it wasn't attended to and so I just want to make sure that going forward this is such a critical skill for our kids and it only is going to be more important when they get to high school and college and they might have to be taking notes by hand and I I just want to make sure that that's actually that the teachers are really paying attention to that wanted to say something just wanted to say that um so that we can finish our conversation about progress reports perhaps we can make um a future agenda item to discuss writing and typing as well that
046came out of the budget that was going to be my my suggestion as well thank you um moving topics to the narratives um can you just let us know what the expectations are are for teachers and is there a minimum expectation is there how is that laid out to teachers because in my you know I don't love going anecdotally but in my own anecdotal experience there's there's variation um so just curious what what you all say to the teachers about what is expected so um right now our our expectations are just a glow and a grow or strength and a and a you know challenge for each area some teachers write Pages we hope that because these indicators are more clear you know that won't be necessary but we are going to put parameters around
047the amount how we don't care if it's a narrative or a bulleted format but just you know these are the priority things that parents want to know and it is personalized and unique with some children it there's some children that you want to speak specifically about a particular content area or the social emotional behavioral so so um we just want to make sure that the comments enhance and personalize the communication about the child to the parent I mean I would argue that the comments are even more important to parents than than the ratings so um and I know how do you bring that to life right and that you know that's you know that that does take hours and hours and hours to do a class of 23 kids or whatever it is so um
048but I would just I would hope hope that that that the teachers really are taking that seriously and and putting you know 100% effort into because I do feel like that's that's what the parents care for the most and I if I could just make I agree with you because back in the day that's what you would scrapbook right you're probably not scrapbooking the one through four you're scrapbooking or putting on the refrigerator when it's easy to print them out the comments and many times what what I think even if I think about my own four children's report cards when they were younger and I'm sure I've seen them to this day and our staff they write they're really um they're looking critically at each child when they're drafting those narratives many of the things
049that they're remarking on are really in alignment with vision of a graduate so that's another way to kind of look at that right like how does the child perceive self how what is their social awareness like how are they engage engaging with others how are they communicating all of those skills are really important and I agree valued more by parents typically and by Future employers and and I think it's also an easy jumping off for for a parent teacher conference you know if there's a sentence in there that sticks out to you you're gonna start that conference with that so right um absolutely and and one of the guidelines is it's not about the curriculum that's not where you're talking about the curriculum that's where you're talking about the child you're talking about how that
050child's doing in the class and how can parents support right just um just a few questions if if we could just on math um it we removed all references to the fact fluency in third and fourth I think fifth grade too and I just I know that the way that at least maybe I'm outdated but the way we started teaching math was more on like the number line the timeline making sure you know that making sure that they could do things they know they know the concept as opposed to you know demonstrating fact fluency multiply within 100 like you know all of the the different things that used to be in for instance grade three math progress reports are we still teaching ing math facts fluently yes we are teaching strategies [Music] yes yeah it's
051in there it is in there okay but like we're doing the we're doing the kind of make sure that they have that quick quick kind of memory for just based the basic math facts up to 144 like that in grade four I think it got more detailed but yeah so we want kids to have automaticity but before they have automaticity they have to have conceptual so yes okay but we're still doing that we're still teaching okay um that was just a question on that on social studies the new progress report took out all the references to applies skills so and this is like grades two through five basically applies map skills or locates processes and applies information from text and sources so to me those skills I would think are a very fundamental part of
052making sure that they're actually learning a very critical skill for understanding social studies for example how are we so doing why the reason that that was tricky was because there are three units of Science and three units of social studies in each trimester and depending on what the focus is of the unit if it's a geography unit you'll talk about more math skills if it's focusing more on Civics you'll talk about those skills so we wanted it to be more um more General so that teachers aren't marking map skills when they're not teaching map skills because it's in there but again that will come out with more of a curriculum overview here's what we're teaching in this unit But but so for example the new one is basically saying participates actively demonstrates understanding of basic
053concepts but it doesn't talk about you know you can apply whatever skills and I think you know for a progress report I would think that the progress report would say that your student can or cannot apply whatever skills are being taught that's why I'm trying to understand why because this is so General now just about an understanding of a basic concept but it doesn't now talk about can they actually apply the skills that's why I'm to understand that and that that will be part of our curriculum actually is the ability to learn something and then use that what they're learning but how do parents know that their students can then that's use that question yeah um that would would if they have that understanding of con steps I think that I think we just hit
054on the important piece here right now and that is that this is a change and please step in and correct me if anything but my understanding is that this is a change to how we are reporting progress how we are quantifying it and and writing it in a way to share to parents before we then speak to them and dig all that out what this is not as a change to curriculum or instructional practices so in the the things that we are teaching our students the ways that we are teaching students remain the same this is simply an update to how we are communicating that out to parents I think that's a really important thing so I feel like our questions maybe are a little specific and we need to be thinking more about um
055if something was on a progress report and it's not now why is that does that mean that's not being taught anymore or is it being captured in a different way um so I think that's one important distinction I did want to ask though following up to that because we are looking at changing a piece of the curriculum and um in terms of literacy and the additional focus on bringing more grammar into the elementary school I am curious about how the progress reports might change to reflect that going forward and you'll see that there is a a line for grammar in each uh in part of writing but do we like let's say that we roll out something new next year will we expect that to be tweaked again well the standards don't change no right
056because the standards won't change and if maybe if I can add and please recck me if I'm wrong is you're much more closely related engaged in this work than than I would be at that level but the companion documents that J's referring to like a handbook should provide more discrete information about within that standard with you within the standards there are learning progressions right so what do we want children to be able to do to actually get to that standard is the end mark so Katie I think what you're asking about would be um would be more evident in the compar in handbook that goes along with the progress report because that level of detail is really important right for teachers to see and parents and one other comment and I hope jeie can jump
057in here I'm glad that you referenced the literacy piece and I know we talk about literacy all the time and math is so important too so ronie RH I hope you're listening to me as I say that and you know and really when we think about literacy you can't for children to really excel in mathematics there is such a great deal of reading involved so that's one piece I want us to also focus on perhaps in future um curriculum committee meetings the connection between the two and additionally when we think about fluency when we talk about fluency with reading for example right if children aren't fluent readers comprehension is affect is affected and impacted similarly with mathematics if children don't have fluency with mathematics their ability and their their ability to compute is hindered more
058complex problem solving is also challenging right and children's ability to do in engage in mental math but I no I could see jeie was trying to she wants to jump in I think on at least a mathematics com conversation right yeah we were talking about um fact fluency and I think sometimes we put fact fluency together with accuracy and sometimes speed is not necessarily what we need so if I'm looking at the mathematical practices where it says shows work and uses math tools to solve problems with Precision we're looking to see do they know their facts in order to work through that problem correctly so they may not be the fastest kid but they still are able to hold those math facts work through that problem I'm thinking fourth and fifth when they're getting to
059the multi-step problems where they've really got to be able to show that work which kind of goes back to the handwriting that you talked about of all of that has to be legible so handwriting is a piece back fluency is a piece being able to show your work show your thinking of how do you know that answer is right and like we've Tak that speed piece out of it and I understand that yeah um go shifting back to the the idea about like just thinking about maps and the specifics and stuff is there thought to with that handbook or whatever is going to be sent with the progress report saying okay in the second trimester in third grade social studies we did X Y and Z like is there a way I mean I know
060teachers do newsletters and that kind of stuff but is there a way to be a little more discreet of this is what we did during this this marking period and this is what you're being I would say that would be more of a curriculum um up information letter and maybe that needs to be more consistent in the handbook it's it's these are the skills and the expectations for learning specifically so for example with the grammar um what are the specific skills at each grade level that would be something that's important um the content of what of what actually parents will be able to see that in ninja planet what what yeah I I'm just thinking like a cover letter that could go with the practice like in math we worked on this and reading we
061worked on this you know that kind just so there's a little bit of a framework of this is what if the skills are to use your word a little more if the the markings are a little more generic then here is what we're what we were thinking about while we were doing that I just thought yeah just to follow up with that and I understand your point Katie about that the curriculum is one thing I guess I'm thinking about this and I'm looking at for instance grade five science and social studies um the you know we took out all reference in science and social studies to applies concept and skills or locates processes in you know information from text and other sources which is I think different than what we're proposing which is demonstrates an
062understanding of basic concepts because I think you can understand a basic concept but you might not be able to for instance locate and apply information from a text or other sources which is really a reading skill yeah now that you said that I'm going back into the reading and W but this is for for giving parents feedback about how their child is progressing over you know three different conferences throughout an academic year if if your child is able to understand a basic concept in social studies but they can't actually perform the research and find the you know the source that they need and then apply that to get to to do their basic research search paper then they may understand the basic concepts of social studies but it they won't necessarily be progressing in the
063skills that will be needed in middle school and then high school and that's where from a progress standpoint progress report standpoint I would if I as a parent I would want to know if my child is deficient in those skills where would that be communicated because these new progress reports I don't think really capture that I do think that that the teachers would get to that in literacy I think it's so integrated those skills um and with the application the level of depth at the elementary level is not the same as secondary level in those in the things that about like the application piece it's do they understand the concepts enough to share their learning it was hard to to really explain that language like what does that mean apply yes they might be creating
064Maps but you know in terms of really like like how much time are they spending creating like an intricate map that really shows the intricacies of like conceptual it's it's just at a different LEL so it's hard for the teachers to actually evaluate is that what you're saying they want to provide they want to take those key skills and be able to provide and I would think that the writing component of the progress report is not just you know in the literacy Block in the writing it also it's integrated everything science writing and all math writing like it it's all encompassing not necessarily yeah up all right more questions on this um just two quick ones I just wanted to ask when we might be able to see a preview of the handbook um I
065think that sounds like a really exciting addition and Tool um to go along with progress reports and then I also wanted to ask about um sharing of as web scores and if that if there had been any discussion about that um so historically as web scores were not shared with parents um unless they were specifically requested um and I do feel that um I think that parents like to know um I think that um it can be helpful and you know understanding the concept of like snapshot and time and the context I'm wondering if even if when the progress reports coming out if maybe as web scores up until that point are shared at that point too so then they can be part of the discussion with conferences maybe so even if it's a couple
066of aim webs can kind of Be Like You know here was our first assessment from the beginning of the year and then we did two more since then so you can see the growth and you can and then there's a conversation about it as so I'm just wondering if that is part of this discussion or even could there be just you know a piece of the progress report that this is the AMS web score from you know January 2nd this is the a I don't know I don't know how you feel about sharing all that out but we we have been talking about about how what we're sharing with families throughout the year okay um and then I'll be a part of that discussion as far as the handbook that's going to be some summer
067work so I would say probably as our for our summer update and is your plan to have this new version out as of October November of next year yeah yeah okay okay further questions on this we good all right moving on to our favorite topic of K literacy um just want to make one more note of that and Gina you are welcome to um if your kids are missing you and you want to run back that's okay but I know you've also been involved in the K3 literacy piece especially um given your role in a with with a DEA partnership so today's update is meant um to be a a brief you know kind of high level overview but one of the things that was discussed at the board table was kind of a one
068sheeter and obviously literacy is complex so we did our best to get it to one page but we did provide reading and writing so the writing spilled over onto a second page and one of the things that um I know Julie will talk us through here is that while we're looking at a resource and we're looking at the standards we also want to be thinking about instructional practices so one of the things that we also want to think about is being really clear with the components of a literacy block and we don't want to make any assumptions that any of our families understand for example what an interactive read aloud is and what the purpose of that might be to support children's reading comprehension for example so um you'll see what that that um kind
069of framework looks like and I know Julie will talk about how that will be used by the core review team that we be meeting a few more times before our May um time with this board curriculum committee again and she'll also talk about decision making process and um if Jeanie if you are staying of course I would encourage you to contribute um from with regard to what you're hearing from our colleagues and when we gather again in May we'll have colleagues around the table um representatives from this smaller core review team that are kind of analyzing and synthesizing our process for the last 16 months or so and um of course there is a special educator in that smaller subgroup who will also the intention is be with us during that may PR committee meting
070so there will be more teachers with us then to talk about the process and kind of our our proposed resolution tion of recommendation so this really is a very brief update today where as Amy said I'm going to just talk about the decision making process or subgroup just some focus groups and program comparison um these are the members of our smaller subgroup they're all on our core review team we have representation from all five elementary schools jened reg um special Educators preschool to grade three um and administration and this team started and this took us a really long time we know the components of high quality literacy instruction we know what's included from the pheic awareness bonic fluency comprehension we have but we wanted to really flesh out what does that look like so on
071the reading I think you have a copy of this one pager and we did this for reading and writing um if you could just zoom in on that as Amy said um within comprehension these are the instructional methods that we use to teach it so we wanted to make sure that everybody had Clarity and and as we're going forward this is what we're looking for this is the why this is the how and this is what students are doing and we were going to we're our team team is going to synthesize all the information and look at our current resources and into reading so this is comprehension and then the structured literacy piece the phic awareness the decoding and we even broke out phonics into decoding and encoding um the high frequency words so we
072got really granular because we this is the tool that we want to use when we make our decision and we separated reading and writing in writing again we put the explicit instruction the time for writing because we know that's important the small group differentiated instruction again we all value that and then um in coding we put it in writing because that's the transfer and that grammar and mechanics so these are the things that we are looking for um and that's what we'll be sharing with you um the we are meeting this Friday we're meeting for a full day we have a lot of data to review uh Amy and I met with every single school and had focus groups with teachers we invited everybody we had a really nice participation and it was just an
073honest discussion about what's working what's not um what do you want us to know we took notes on that we have feedback from our pilot teachers from throughout the year notes from our core review team meetings the evaluation tool by grade level which was how we organized our notes we have feedback from we sent out another survey to teachers they're so surveyed out but it was good information um we have feedback from our focus groups we have classroom observations from our administrators and then we're looking at our student data so there's a lot of information that is going into making this decision and um we have a consensus building protocol because you know you know we know that every decision needs multiple perspectives so this is our process and you can read this um we
074have another full day to go through all of this and um just this is a slide that was shared in December but just an overview of the components and I do want you to know that we are teaching the science of reading right now so I I want you to feel good about that like our program we we are using hegr which is phic awareness and we are using foundation so I don't want you to feel that um we are our kids are are on hold right now um so we have really good instruction and we're always looking at ways to strengthen it okay and again our timeline which you've seen multiple times our next curriculum committee meeting is is probably our most important and then in the board meeting thanks so Mr gremling had
075a quick question about the framework which he said was was great but he was questioning if maybe there should be another column of just you know the winner of that is there is there a you know just so you could see which one was weighing um which one was I think you'll see that yeah okay umum um we think about what the narrative is or how we bullet out information that's more specificity maybe we can highlight as good maybe have some good feedback for kind of a quick look just yeah exactly like if it's clear that you know this colum is highlighted well then there's there's the easy answer right um and then his other question was um should there be a board member in the decision- making subgroup for the P for for this
076I I mean we delegate to you to choose our curriculum so that's my love your thoughts on that so right so the way the policy's written is that the board delegates to the ad Administration to do this work and I also um think it's really important to trust in the expertise of our staff um our teaching staff again we have I just want to emphasize a steering committee that's preschool through grade 12 because we're looking at the articulation of literacy learning throughout all grades to make sure we have a coherent program because the work will clearly continue after this um because we need to be thinking about the implementation and any shifts that are made and then what happens in grades 4 through 12 and with our current kids that are in those grades that
077maybe um have had U different programming and we'll talk about that with mtss but it's really important to also trust the expertise of our staff and I I just want to emphasize our staff has really been engrossed in this work for 16 months I think it would be very challenging for anybody to just jump in now in addition to the expertise that they bring to the table as is there's been a great degree of professional learning and just really um deep conversation to this point and and I trust in that with our staff in fact with our last um small core review team meeting that has the group that Julie just showed before one of the teachers said wow this is a really smart group and I my comment was I feel like I just
078had a graduate course like a seminar um and so again I go back to the end result of this we also need to Value the process and the professional learning that's happened in the last 16 months and will continue to inform professional learning moving forward so that's the answer to that no I just agree with that and just like respectfully just dropping somebody in at the moment is not like just it wouldn't be good for the process um and it'll be a good chance you're GNA have to approve curriculum it be a good chance to have a discussion but um I just thank you for saying that Amy I can't resist the opportunity to to just give a shout out to our teachers because I know this has been a huge undertaking for them and
079to your point Julie I know that all of our teachers really care about every student and they're not willing to let you know anyone go a year without getting what they need so thank you to all of them for really putting in that work um this year and and what's going to come right with with all of that I did want to ask just a couple of quick questions um I think this framework is great this is new right this is this is a a tool that you developed for the next meeting I think that's fantastic I like the way that you broke it out with um comprehension with structured literacy with the writing um I think that's very clear and I'm excited to hear what you guys come back with as part of that
080discussion um we did have one other question I'm sorry and I lost it um maybe I didn't thank you for that um this this sounds like you guys are really getting to the final steps and formalizing it and um this looks really great so thanks for all say you're not just just one other comment thank you for recognizing that Katie and additionally again this framework which was is homegrown we did use curate earlier in the year to think about our rubri for analyzing the resources and now we're making that connection what's the Nexus between resource curriculum and instruction um thing that is really important to recognize is at the other side of this there will be a great deal of professional learning to talk about well as a school system do we have a shared
081understanding of what is what does um highquality literacy instruction Encompass what's the expectation for a literacy block you know and making sure that we have a common understanding of what all of those pieces are so that there can be really assured experiences across the district across the five schools across the grade levels and I know and that's the commitment that our staff has and that's really the work that they're leading so just in thinking about that moving forward and I don't want to put you on spot but I'm going to um you know as you think about your teachers your elementary teachers that are going to have to Institute a huge lift one way or the other do you feel like you have what you need they have what you need to be able to
082do that in a in a relatively quick timeline and can we help you with any of things with that it is a quick timeline um I think a couple of things that have come my way is making sure that we have our hands on whatever resources those are um so that teachers can start reviewing them going through them um you know I think Amy said it the professional development that's going to the professional development piece that's going to go with this is extremely important whether they're ELP whether their grade five there's going to be shifts in what we're doing um and just making sure you know know we're aligned across all five schools but we're also aligned for so you know the sooner we can get our hands on those reses the better and I
083would think that those that are doing if if inter reading is the way we're going and I don't want to have there's no spoiler I don't know anything that no one else doesn't know but you know the people that are in the buildings that have already been doing that will be will have they will be relied on heavily W thing for that professional development and we've been talking about it's not the resource it's the teacher but in our last um core review team meeting and and actually during the focus groups teachers said you know I really like to be involved in the professional learning and helping to lead and facilitate that because there's been again such deep professional learning in the last 16 months so our internal capacity is different and I believe strengthened as
084a result of this work I think there's a great opportunity for some for some leadership possibilities too for those teachers that have already been the professional learning is the most important pie because regardless of the program we always know that it's the teacher in the classroom that makes the difference I would actually maybe I know in the in the in the budget discussion we we were talking about professional learning and a half days and so on so forth and I I would maybe even consider coming back to the board for just one exception um to give these people just a chunk of time uh because your first chunk of time is is limited with everything you've got to do if you want to implement this properly uh we have to find a we bit of
085time which what I I wouldn't rule out the possibility of coming for an exception to here here's another half day just to like it it will in the long run it's going to be better for our kids and our families for this to be rolled out sort of uh like correctly and with with enough professional development for the staff so I'm not going to roll out coming back and saying I would ask the board just to consider this in this for this particular case uh some extra time for the staff good um yeah um thank you for that and I think that that's um a really important piece as we get further along right with as we're looking at what decision are we making where is Daran going in terms of what see in future
086and how are we going to get there I think that's really important and being specific about where we want to go and how we need to get there is a great conversation to have rather than you know sign sort of something general like we always kind of love this being like we need this for this so please please bring that back to us um I did have I did remember my other question I wanted to ask about um the the the student component of evaluating the programs that we're using as well so in looking at the um sorry I just blanked on it and looking at the instructional framework so that looks like a really great tool to be comparing program to program but I'm curious about how and when we might be comparing um
087the use of materials with the student and the teacher experience so for example how are we going to be evaluating the use of a program in terms of how many times does a student need to be exposed to a concept before they get it how many children are going to need mtms now versus before you know how are we kind of looking at that actual student data maybe even more than just the program um comparison data it's hard right now to see how many times I I mean we know through our assessments whether students need more time and practice um the what how they'll move through the mtss process it's all based on our assessments and and what we're seeing in students and we're not seeing a difference right now Regard in the program so
088this will be part of the continual evaluation so next year when we when we have a decision and we're moving on that that's where this work will continue into saying like you know did we need to go back and and review Concepts more than we were planning to are there certain ones that more more difficult are there what are our numbers looking like versus past that's part of the absolutely yeah and I think anytime you know regardless of the shift we make um and that we'll have that is going to that's coming into Focus now you could see it you could feel it within the group um as the group gathers you know implementation is is an issue right when you think about change management it's really important to think about how comp that is
089and you know that learning is messy for adults too and so I hope that um one of the takeaways that we'll have and I actually was speaking with a third grade teacher in another school not Henley yesterday and she said Amy I hope that the teachers can hear that from you especially in August with regardless of the resource learning is messy for adults too and we need to create As Leaders the conditions for the adults to give themselves Grace to be learning resources to be thinking about instructional shifts to be thinking about shifts and assessment practices and communicating how our kids are are making progress and so I think as a board and and a leadership team it's important for us to have that message out there that's another thing we you know we need
090the resources in hands early that's a definite theme with wherever we land we need the professional learning opportunities and um and I think this staff just needs to feel very supported um and any shifts that they make at any level you know whether it's a mathematics shift it's it's just really an important message I think we and I know you are but Cog need to be cognizant of how much we're adding right to people's plates like this is a huge huge huge lift and this might be a large shift in people's processes so and I just want to be mindful and advocate for our elementary teachers we also have they also teach all content areas and there we also have three schools that are involved in major renovation that's going to involve classroom mov sometimes
091multiple so I I just you know I want to make sure that we're really like looking out for our teachers it's a lot so we are grateful um for any further questions um I I complement the whole process I do think I agree that this framework that you've provided um with the rubric of you know all the detail here is really really helpful and I agree with Katie I mean not just for comparing resources but I would imagine it might be helpful even for future if if we did adopt a new resource for example and then it's working so well would we want to expand it to fourth and fifth grade because I think you know some resources have e extended kind of opportunities and then as we had previously talked as a board for
092middle school you know helping improve vocabulary instruction grammar instruction and to the extent that this is a k through 12 core review team maybe starting to also think about opportunities that we might have that would benefit our Middle School English and you know instruction to kind of continue to build some of those competencies and those are those were specific areas that we had talked about previously we recognize the audience at home probably can't see but we recognize that Kristen colonies um is here today and um Kristen has not been as directly involved in the in the Deep work of this but she knows that that there's momentum and that there's going to be a ripple effect and so um we're talking you know more and more about what the impact will be for 12 and
093again for our kids when we think about mtss who might have a deficiency in some area or need to shore up some skills so that would be I would expect um and I've already signaled this to Christen to Kristen another Board of bed curriculum committee topic thank you thank you I can tell you that I speaking to my peers no matter what they're doing or not doing or what they pick or not pick or select um uh I have yet to have one to discuss the process of the intense process and the significant process that our staff both teacher and administrators have committed to um so the board should feel very good about that um wherever we land in terms of it this has been a thoughtful process we've included the state the whole way
094along um I'm actually expect the state to be very supportive of whatever we do um but anyway just the process is pretty significant as you know indeed thank you all right moving on to public comment good morning if anybody online would like to participate in public comment please use the raised hand icon and wait to be Rec recognized we have no raiseed hands motion to adjer