OCPS | 2025-06-24 School Board Work Session

001Good morning and welcome to the Orange County School Board's work session which has been scheduled today, Tuesday, June 24th, 2025 for the purpose of discussing program evaluation and policy IIA student progression plan. The public will not have an opportunity to participate in this work session to provide public comment because this is not a regularly scheduled schoolboard meeting. No action will be taken and there will be no open public comment period in which the public normally addresses the school board on relevant topics that are related to the work of the board. Thank you so much for being here this morning. we have member Salamanca, member Douglas, member Vanos, member Gallo, and member Felder here. And Chair Jacobs is joining us telephonically. Chair, are you there? I am. Thank you. And good morning. Good morning. And member

002Ferrant is absent. As a reminder, board members will not be engaging in outside electronic or digital communication during the meeting so we can focus on the matters immediately before us. To my fellow board members and district staff, when speaking, please make sure that your microphone is turned on and speak directly into it so that our YouTube viewers can hear you clearly. Again, thank you so much for participating in or attending today's meeting. We're going to begin with a moment of silence and then the pledge of allegiance. And now for the pledge. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Vasquez. Thank you, Madam Vice

003Chair. this morning we are going to begin with members of our research and accountability department that also entails program evaluation. As the board is aware, for the last several years, we have been engaged in various strategies to ensure that we are getting the best academic return on our investment of public dollars. Program evaluation is one of the tools that we use each year. The team selects various programs that they are going to evaluate. Some of them are done internally, some of them we outsource through handover. And last year we changed the process of reporting. We thought it was so important that the board and the public is aware not only that we are following that process but that then they can see the results of those evaluations and how we use that information as we

004move forward especially in a time when financial dollars are limited. So with that I'm going to turn it over to our chief strategy officer Dr. Hero Border. Good morning, Chair Jacobs, Vice Chair Bird, members of the board, Superintendent Vasquez. Thanks for the opportunity to provide our second yearly update. I'm joined today by several members of the research mat measurement and strategy office, including senior executive director Sasser, senior director Allen, and our director of research, Dr. Shiao Jang Sun. Dr. son leads an incredible team of members that conduct program evaluation including Miss Mazo, Mr. Rodriguez, Mr. Who, Miss Woo, and Mr. Pedra. The team is committed to providing information that our district can utilize in decision making to support our students and staff. Mr. Allen will begin taking us through the presentation. Great. Thank you, Dr.

005Border, and good morning all. I'll provide an overview of today's presentation as well as the purpose and process behind the district's program evaluation efforts. Our last board program evaluation presentation was in December 2024. We will walk through three main points today before opening the conversation for discussion. First, we'll review the purpose and process of program evaluation. Then, we will spotlight outcomes from recent program evaluations and talk about the ongoing queue of work. Finally, we will have space for conversation and discussion. To briefly recap from previous presentations, program evaluation is a formal process of reviewing programs within the district with several purposes in mind. Making data informed decisions, fostering improvement, and allocating resources. OCPS uses two general processes for conducting program evaluations. Internal evaluations are conducted by members of the OCPS research department and external evaluations

006are conducted by contracted vendors and a member of our research department serves as the primary point of contact for framing the evaluation, reviewing documents and communicating with the vendor. Our program evaluations generally look at process or implementation andor outcome. Both types of evaluations are often used for the same program. Many recent evaluations in our department have followed a phased approach that begins with an implementation evaluation which is later followed by an outcome evaluation. We will present information about program evaluation findings for the following programs. AIM Institute at Genenuity Math and Success Maker. And I'll now turn the presentation to Dr. Shakong Sun to discuss findings from these program evaluations that were conducted both by OCPS research department and in collaboration with external evaluators. Good morning. First we are going to discuss the AIM institute program

007evaluation. OCPS launched AIM pathway in 1920 school year as a voluntary professional development initiative focus on literacy instruction for district leaders, school administrators and teachers. This program was founded through ESSA, supporting teachers in fulfilling statemandated professional learning requirements and enhancing literacy instruction. The program employees an interactive research-based approach structured around learning practicing and applying literacy instruction techniques aligned to the science of reading. The evaluation utilized the mixed methods approach incorporating surveys, interviews, and document analysis. Key findings from this evaluation. Findings number one, exceeding participation goals. 1,374 teachers and 164 administrators completed at least one a pathway course, surpassing participation goals by 28% and 37% respectively. 77% of participants who started the course successfully completed at least one course. Findings number two, challenges in monitoring engagement. Enrollment processes lacked consistency leading to inefficiencies in participant tracking.

008A substantial number of granted seats remain unused due to limited monitoring and fallout procedures. Also, district leaders identified the need for systematic tracking and improved utilization of participation data. Findings number three, positive participation experience. 92% of elementary administrators found the professional training useful in their leadership roles. 72% of surveyed elementary teachers expressed satisfaction with the training. Recommendations for this program. Recommendation number one, implement a structured enrollment system and proactive monitoring to maximize participation within available seats. Recommendation number two, strengthen tracking mechanisms for participant engagement and course completion. Recommendation number three, enhance communication strategies to ensure a broader understanding of program benefits and expectations. These findings and recommendations provide the foundation for refining the impathway program, maximizing its impact and literacy instruction within OCPS. Next, we are going to discuss the Ingenuity program evaluation. Ingenuity is

009an online program with video lessons, interactive tools, customizable features such as captions and translations, and formative and summative assessments. Middle and high school students who take and fail high school level core content can enroll in the program for credit recovery. Core courses include English, mathematics, science and social studies. The research department collaborated with Hover Research contracted the research partner and conducted an evaluation of the participation and performance of students in the ingenuity course recovery courses that were offered during the 2324 school year. Key findings findings number one second semester senior students have the highest course completion rate compared to all other high school students and middle school students. 98 completion 98% completion rate for second semester seniors compared to 55% completion rate for all other high schoolers and 25% completion rate for middle schoolers. The

010average final grade earned for completed courses was 89% for second semester seniors, 88% for all other high school students, and 81% for middle school students. Findings number two, students who enroll in more than oneuity course tend to have higher rates of course completion compared to students who enroll in just one course. This trend holds for both middle and high school students. Findings number three, 12% of all chronically absent students participated in compared to about 4% of non-chronically absent students. Students who are chronically absent are more likely to participate and complete Ingenuity course than peers. 72% completion rate for chronically absent students compared to 57% completion rate for non-chronically absent students. Additionally, 15% of all students who were suspended participate in compared to about 5% of students who were not suspended. However, course taken by suspended

011students were less likely to be completed than courses taken by nonsuspended students. 61% completion rate for suspended students compared to 72% completion rate for non-suspended students. Findings number four, most antinuity courses are completed faster than the time estimated by the district. Courses taken by middle school students take more time to complete compared to those taken by second semester seniors and all other high school students. Recommendations for this program OCPS request to handover was for in-depth data analysis. Therefore, Hanover did not provide recommendations in their report. Implications from this results can be drawn best by the OCPS sponsoring departments who have the most intimate knowledge of the program. Next, we are going to discuss the evaluation of the excl program. The math program is an online learning platform offering 3500 adaptive standards aligned mathematics skills. OCPS

012began districtwide implementation in 2021 to support algebra 1 instruction expanding to geometry in 2223. In the 2425 school year, it use expanded to include core mathematics instruction for grades 6 to 12 as well as targeted reading interventions for high school students. This evaluation focuses on the mathematics component of the research department in collaboration with the curriculum digital learning department conducted phase one of the program evaluation to examine implementation practices and stakeholder perceptions. Data sources include district leader interviews, teacher folks groups and surveys and usage reports. As of December 9, 2024, a total of 68,518 students were enrolled in at least one secondary mathematic course using 92% of those students having locked into the system. Key findings from this evaluation findings number one. Based on the findings from district leader interviews and teacher surveys, four major

013themes emerged across both data sources. Findings number one, variable implementation. District leaders and teachers reported significant variability in howl was used across classrooms. Although 98% of survey teachers indicate they use the program, wake usage ranged widely. 20% of the responded teachers used it for fewer than 15 minutes per week. 24% of teachers used it for 16 to 30 minutes per week. 33% of teachers use it for 31 to 60 minutes per week. And 21% of teachers use it for more than one hour per week. Findings number two, student frustration. Teachers raised concerns regarding student discouragement, particularly when incorrect answers require additional practice opportunities for students to work toward mastery. Findings number three, challenges with managing data. Il provide extensive data on student performance, but both district leaders and teachers noted the need for additional support

014to help educators effectively analyze and apply this data to inform instructions. Findings number four, teacher training and access. Variation in teacher usage reported by teachers led to uneven access to among students. Stakeholders emphasized the importance of ensuring all students benefit from this program regardless of classroom placement. While when the lab training was wellreceived, teachers indicated limited district level guidance on effective integration alignment with best standards was also inconsistent particularly for more challenging concepts. Additionally, insights from teacher folks groups include one, teachers suggested adjusting the default 80% proficiency threshold for more difficult skills to better support student motivation. Two, the flexibility to assign packeted skills supported differentiated instruction. Three, vendor le professional learning sessions were highly valued for their quality and relevance. Recommendations for this program. Final recommendations for this program will be developed following phase

015two of the evaluation which will include a quantitative analysis of student outcomes based on year and fast assessment and the EOCC data. This phase will examine the relationship between implementation fidelity on student performance. Next, I'm going to discuss the evaluation of the success maker program. The su success maker program is a continuously adaptive learning system designed for students focusing on reading and mathematics. It personalizes learning paths in real time adjusting to each students specific learning needs. The program provides differentiation for students performing on grade level, intervenes at the just right intensity for students who are not yet at the grade level and challenges high achievers and gifted students. It delivers outcome based data to inform educational decision making and aligns student learning trajectories to the scope and sequence of many core programs. In February and

016March 2025, OCPS research department conducted phase one of the success maker program evaluation will collected survey data to understand grades K to five mathematics, teachers perceptions and needs as they are related to implementing success maker math program with fidelity. Key findings from this evaluation finding number one 82% of surveyed respondents have visited the program supporting website which offers multiple supports to teachers and those who support program implementation. Findings number two, 71% of survey respondents participate in school training. Findings number three, 76% of the teachers have concerns about using the success maker math program. The top concerns are teach one teachers cannot control the lessons students take. Two, the online activities are not engaging to students. Three, it doesn't meet students needs. Four, they cannot adjust student pacing. F findings number four 61% of the responded

017teachers have observed little to no increase in student confidence since using the program. Findings number five% of the respondents say students are unable to accomplish the 45 minute per week expected usage. Recommended recommendation for this program. Recommendation number one. Many expressed the need for longer mass block having dedicated time for the use of computer program like success maker and building time into the mass curriculum resource materials. Recommendation number two they reported numerous instances of long load time the program phrasing and difficulty using the program on iPads. Respondents recommended an easier process for logging in and logging off the program. Recommendation number three, lessons were either too easy or too difficult and teachers did not know how to adapt the students level. Respondents suggested there be a second diagnostic or function for re-evaluating students. Recommendation number

018four, respondents shared that the content neither engaging nor userfriendly. The primary recommendation from respondents was that the program include instructions or directions for the students on how to answer the questions. Future directions for this program. This pro results will provide important context for the phase two of the outcome evaluation that will follow this summer which will examine the program usage data to understand impact of the program and endofear fast assessment results. I'm going to turn the conversation back to Ben. Thank you Dr. Sun. at this point we can take a look at the current queue of program evaluation. Can we take a little break real quick because we have some board members that I think might have some questions. Is that okay? Well, it's fine. I just have comments. Whoops. I just have comments about

019what they've talked about that may answer some of the questions. How many I forgot. How many more slides do you have? One more. Two. Oh, okay. Sorry. Okay. Go ahead. Yep. Perfect. So just looking at the programs that are currently in our queue for evaluation, we have the comprehensive assessment system or CASS experts, collaborative classroom, also known as SIPs, egenuity, excel math, which we've talked about today, pick read and roll, read to succeed, roen preschool and rose and post-secary programs, saga tutoring, success maker, threedimensional education, and the travel and leisure preschool and post-secary programs. Projects are at various different phases in the queue. some of these are ongoing annual evaluations. some are based on memorandums of understanding and some come through other channels for request. This time we'd be happy to turn over the presentation

020for comments and questions. Thank you so much. I just want to remind the board that we have evaluations for implementation as well as results and some of these were for implementation and some of them you saw or you heard them say they're going to look back at outcome data and tie those two together. So just a couple of comments on them. I'm going to start with egeneuity. we all we have already made changes for the upcoming school year with the intent of phasing out almost all of the use of Egeneuity based on not just the feedback from the program evaluation team but data that we've been monitoring for about two years and then feedback that we've received from it. the phase out process will begin this upcoming school year where the juniors and seniors will

021be able to use it this following year as well as the seventh and eighth graders. And then the year after it will only be available to the seniors who need it for graduation. At that point, we'll evaluate again the numbers, the impact it's having, and we may make the decision to completely eliminate the use of egeneuity. Second, I want to make comments about both and success maker. Both of those entail some technical difficulties that we need to resolve so that teachers are aware of things that they can do as far as adjustments. how to be able to make changes and that falls on us as far as training. And so we need to do a better job with that and continue to listen to the feedback we're hearing from our teachers because those that are

022using and I'll say because success maker I think is still a little bit of a pain point. Remember we used to do I ready and you remember the comments about I Ready and so we did an RFP selected success maker with input from teachers and now we're hearing that maybe I ready wasn't as bad as we were we were hearing but we do know it's the beginning stages people are getting accustomed to it and so we need to be able to work through that and then of course tie it to our data to see for those that have been using it with fidelity, how the program has been designed to be used, are they getting the results and continue to provide support? And the very first one really ties back to impact of professional development.

023It is so hard to be able to determine the true impact of PD. And one of the things that we look for is did the skills that you learn at the training transfer into the classroom? And we're seeing mixed reviews with that with many of our programs, but in particular what we're seeing with some of the reading trainings that we're doing. Most of the participants love the training, but when it comes to then going back and implementing in your classroom, we need to find out what makes for a successful transition and what are the additional supports that are needed so that our children are benefiting from the instruction from our teachers. And with that, I'll turn it back over to you. Thank you, Superintendent. I'm cute in first and I wanted to ask about the

024AIM literacy institute and I just want to get some clarification. This is what we are sent like administrators and teachers to for the science of reading, right? This is what we used for that training. That's one of the opportunities that we have for them to gain the knowledge and I know Dr. Brown Cannon is here if we need more specifics. and I think I just want to I'm just trying to understand. So there's other ones. is this like the same thing that we're have heard other board members talk about that the Reed foundation is offering? No. No. So the train so the science of reading is a broad umbrella as is I think is the best way to describe it. And so it is not a program. It's strategies that have that are researchbased that

025we know if you are used properly lead to students being able to read not just on grade level but with proficiency. So there are various entities that provide training on those skills and strategies. You also sometimes hear about OG Orton Gilliam method that is weaved into some of the training with the science of reading. It's not a standalone and it has some very specific training tied to specific areas of deficiency. So the individuals or entities that provide the training provide training on the use of those strategies. tied to the science of reading that the state has now adopted as the way we will all teach reading in the state of Florida. Okay. Okay. Thank you. And you said that we are this summer you're going to be working on comp you looking at the results

026from the fast testing on these two programs. So then I'm assuming they'll be coming back and sharing that analysis as well. Okay, perfect. next we have member Gallo. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for this presentation. I love that we do this. I love that we look at the programs, we analyze the return on investments, we figure out if it's user friendly, we do surveys to find out the perception of our teachers and our students, and then we kind of compare it with the data to figure out is if is it a keeper or if it's something that we should get rid of. so we use AI as not the only people that we use for science of reading correct don't we and science of reading is evidence and researchbased so it's like really

027a really good program and I think we're seeing that in our scores that have come out like I think we've really seen the impact of applying the science of reading in our K through2 hopefully we're doing it in preK2 now. that will just continue to grow. So is AIM who else do we use besides AIM? Because I mean I know in order to train all of our teachers it takes more probably than just one company. Yeah. And we can get the list of the different individuals that we use and there's also various models that we have adopted again in alignment with the state. some of the trainings are week long and teachers will go get the training, try it in their classrooms and then come back. Others are an entire week. we have some that

028are trained the trainer models where there's a person at the school that is trained. They then go back and train the teachers at the school. but we'll get a list to the board of the different vendors that we use to train on the science of reading. Are we using the Reed Foundation at all for summer training? yes, they've been used as as well. Are we using them this summer? they had an institute and we had teachers that went remember that during the summer and I may get this confused during the school year we typically just pay the substitute and the cost of the training during the summer we pay the cost of the training as well as the teachers get a stipen I believe it might be $125 and so sometimes it's a little bit

029more difficult to gather those dollars to be able to pay. And as a reminder, we pay the vast majority of that through title 2 dollars which are on the chopping on the chopping block, not for this upcoming year, but for the year after, and I know a lot of things can happen in the course of a year, but that is something that our team is looking at and trying to be proactive. if those dollars are not available, how are we going to be able to provide the training to to our teachers? And is the AIM training or any training that we do around the science of reading, is it just for elementary schools? Is AIM predominantly for elementary schools or do we teach all K through 12 or preK through 12? The science of reading

030is K through 12. Again, it's strategies. Okay. So if you are in K to2, you're a beginning reader and so you're learning the skill of how to read. when you then move into third grade and above, then now you are learning to understand what you're reading. However, you still have students in those upper grade levels that have not mastered how to read. And so some of those strategies that are in place at the K through2 level are out also may be applicable in the upper grades for those students that are struggling. And it's been a couple of years since I had my ELA reading hat on. So if I said anything incorrectly, please come up and correct it. Thank you, Dr. Vasquez. What do we have any and I know money's tight and it's getting

031tighter especially with the title two dollars being on the chopping block but do we have pushin resources that help our teachers in the classroom to model the teaching that they want to see like do we because I think one of the key elements to the science of reading because they do throw a lot at you in three or four days or a week and I know you can go back and implement it and then go back for more training but sometimes the most effective way to really learn how to teach the science of reading is really by someone being in your class and helping you model that. Do we provide that? I know that's got to be a huge undertaking with all the teachers that we have in elementary school, especially K through two. Oh,

032I'm so glad you brought that up. One of the areas that Tashanda started to look at this year and will come to a conclusion I suspect by November, December is the use of our reading coaches, our reading resource teachers at the school level. A few of you visited the school in was it Marietta City? and so we like that model and we are looking to see if that transition is something that we can do for the 2627 school year, especially given what we perceive to be an incredible cut to dollars for professional development. And that's that would impact not just being able to go to a training, but also many of the resource personnel that we have that are paid out of title 2 dollars. And so the idea is let's take a look at

033the role of those reading teachers, those reading coaches. What are they doing? How does that compare with what research says is how you get the best bang out of your buck with those resource people? And one of that is exactly what you pointed to, being able to come in, demonstrate how this skill could be taught using this strategy, having the teacher observe, ask questions, then giving the teacher some time to practice, invite that coach in that then could give them feedback. Yes, you did X, Y, and Z very well. You may want to think about doing this. and but that's going to take a little bit of lead time if that's a direction that we move into. But yes, we are definitely looking at that. Wonderful. Thank you. then egeneuity, I don't think it's a

034I don't think anybody's going to be shocked by my position that I'm not a fan. I'm glad that we're phasing it out. I just think that since co it's it's been abused and I think that everything that was described today, proved my point. They can do it way faster. We have so many people that are doing it. Chronic absentee kids are doing it. Like it's just we, as I've said multiple times, egeneuity in my mind based on what I know about the program does not fit within our strategic plan. So I'm glad that we're phasing it out because I don't know how we justify it when my perception is it doesn't it does not fall in line with a high quality education. What it does fall in line with is getting kids to graduate. And

035why that's admirable and there are some kids that need this. There are some kids that are struggling maybe with their health at home, with family's health. There are incidences where this could be beneficial and help a student succeed. I think by far and large, it's been abused by students. And I don't think we're high. I don't think those that are using it that can comport a complete a year-long course in several weeks are getting a high quality education. nor do I believe that they are taking that knowledge and are being able to use that knowledge or apply that knowledge whether they go into the military into a job or into college. They just don't they're going to have to relearn it. and we're not doing them any favors. We're hurting students by allowing this to

036happen. And if you talk to teachers, I haven't spoken to not one teacher, not one teacher that didn't laugh and say, "Do you know how often they cheat? Do you know how much cheating is going on in egeneuity?" So, I get I get that we offered it during COVID as a way to help students and I think that was admirable. I still struggle and I've said it from the datas before. I still struggle with only what 55% past 10th grade ELA and yet we jump to an over 90% graduation rate. So, I have to question a what are those kids giving up to be able to graduate? what are we doing to help them graduate and are we really offering a highquality education and inspiring and engaging students which is part of our strategic plan

037and if the answer is no to any of those questions then I think I think any program that we utilize should be on the chopping block even if the data is there if it does not serve our strategic plan we simply shouldn't have it in our schools and then I know that We have some data. I know that we're waiting on the fast scores, but come on y'all. We already kind of know what those fast scores are. The reason for the fast is that we can see them quickly. So we should be able to analyze already if a return on investment based on the feedback just from the teachers having issues with it them not being able to look at the data easily and analyze it to then reconstruct or redirect instruction bothers me. so

038again I mean I know that you're looking at the data and I don't does maybe the data for geometry and algebra shows that there is an increase of a pass rate when we use but if we can't like fix some of the problems within it then again I'm going to challenge the district to kind of really look at that program and see if there's something else better that might be more useful to our teachers and better for our students. and then on success maker, I didn't see one positive thing come out of success maker. Like I students don't like it. Students don't feel engaged. Teachers don't like it. They don't and I get that some of that may be the training aspect from it. It may be their need. I would also say that some

039of these teachers have already done success. My kids did Success Maker when they were in elementary school and those teachers are still in our system right now teaching school, teaching elementary school. So, some of our teachers already have tons of experience with Success Maker. so if it's not working and the kids don't like it, and I can tell you that my daughter used to Christmas tree it. They told me she was going to flunk the FCAT in third grade based on her success makers because she didn't care cuz it was boring and she didn't like doing it. She ended up getting two fours by the way on her FCAT that year. So success maker at least for my daughter was not a very good indicator of how she was going to perform on the standardized

040test just due to the lack of engagement and just she hated it. so I don't know. I think we may need to look at success maker. We can look at the results again. We already have those results. We should know if it's working or not. And I know that we have a huge emphasis on that 30 minute intervention and we only have 30 minutes and teachers are really are really being held to the fire on that 30 minute intervention. And if we're using part of it on success maker and there's glitches, the kids aren't getting anything out of it, then I have to question if it's useful and would it be better to do small groups and maybe pull in resources for those kids that are struggling versus putting them on success maker. We know

041for a fact based on being a Marriott, Georgia that people over programs is more successful and the results are higher. So again, I'm not liking the results that we got from from our teachers about success maker. So I really think that should be something that we look at and determine if we should still be using it. I mean, we have issues with chronic absenteeism and the biggest thing we hear from students on why they don't come to school is they don't feel engaged. It's boring. They don't like it. I I dare you to find me a child who likes a success maker. If if you do, then I'll back off. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you, Member Gallo. Member Vanos. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll I'll just start with some questions I had

042on AIM, and I if I missed this, I apologize. Is this an in-person training or an online training? Thanks, Miss Vano. So, I can share. I you know I personally completed the AIM Institute just because I wanted to reacquaint myself with the skills I had hoped to attain in my elementary education degree and you know I would applaud the AIM Institute for the rigor that was within the trainings it was online training however we had a facilitator so there were some sessions online where we all engaged at the same time and I would almost consider consider that facilitator like an accountability partner who kept us metriculating through the course which I think is why you see the high completion rates that were with it. And so I felt like the rigor of the training I

043received in the AIM Institute was high quality and prepared me you know refreshed my skills to be versed in the science of reading and to be able to have those discussions and look at the different components of reading and the data to see where our students were struggling. Okay, thank you for that. That's really helpful to hear. I appreciate that. you when you were talking about that program, you said that most of the people take one most of the people, I guess, teachers, educators take one course. How many courses comprise the program? Is it is it just a one course program or are there several? So, I'll let Shiao Jang add on that. But there are different components of the training, Miss Vanos, that you can that you can take. there's different levels. So, you

044know, there's the points that you need for reading the reading training required by the state, which is fulfilled through one course, which for me took several months to complete. certainly not something you would sit down in one setting or two. there's a lot of reading to do in between. there's assignments to complete and then discussions to engage upon. But there are other courses you can take from the AIM Institute as well. So Dr. Sun, do you want to build on that? Dr. Border, what you said is correct. There are different levels of courses so that both administrators and teachers can benefit from the learning the science of reading. Okay. So when you say one course that could actually be they've taken something over the course of several months. It's not that they did a one-hour

045thing and it's one and done and that's that's it. That No, it was several months, Miss Vanos. And there was scheduled engagements where kind of like the cohort that you were assigned to for the AIM Institute, you would gather online, your facilitator would facilitate a discussion, you would come to that prepared and so yeah, it went on for for several months and the rigor was certainly it was it was a high level rigor that really inundated you deep into the different components of reading. Okay. Thank you. How much does it cost? We'll follow up. Okay. And then are there any I mean it sounds like this actually is a good training program, but so I'm just asking this. Are there other I'm a big supporter of science of reading. I love that we're pushing into

046our schools in every way. I know we mentioned READ, which I know does some some good training. Are there any institutes or groups or universities that also provide training at a lower cost or free? we'll we'll get back to the board, Miss Vanos, on all the offerings that we have within OCPS and then we'll also dovetail on to that your question about other other options and costs. Okay. I appreciate that. I do think I think it's important to have a variety. I'm not suggesting that we you know just adopt one program, but it would be good just to see what is out there that's free or maybe lower cost and just so I appreciate you putting that together. So, thank you. okay. With respect to the other three, I honestly it's it's I'm glad that

047we're going to do an outcomes evaluation, but from what I've seen from your analysis and what I hear from other board members, I I really don't understand why we're spending money on these things. egenuity, I feel like it's all been said. I agree with what's been said. I guess one follow-up question I have for egeneuity is how how do we pay for that? Is that per student, by course, by completion rate, by school? How do we pay for egeneuity? I it is it we'll get you the cost but it is a fee that we pay and because of the size of our district we the rate is less than if you paid by per pupil but we'll get you the amount and it's paid out of general funds if I'm not mistaken. Okay. So, so,

048if we're paying by district, then it doesn't really matter how many. I mean, it's it's not a per student, just however many students use it. It doesn't really matter or because of the number of students that participate, we have a rate that does not limit the number of students. If my memory serves me right, if we were to drop below that threshold, then we would be paying a different price. Okay? So, let's say if you hit 2,000 students and above, this is what you pay. If you drop below 2,000, this is what you're paying. Okay, got it. Thank you. I would be curious to to take a look at that. and then also as a followup for the egeneuity, do we ever actually when a student completes a course, do we ever do we have

049any ability to determine what they actually learned or is it just they complete the course and they graduate? Do do you know what I'm asking? Yeah. So, completing the egeneuity course, Miss Vanos would satisfy the credits that they need for the course. you know, I would say that depending on where they're at, you know, if you're talking about a freshman or a sophomore that's completing a course and say mathematics, they're going to go on to other mathematics courses where the learning of that material is going to be tested within the other course that they're taking once they've complete once they've, you know, earned the credit for the course that they might have failed pro previously. Okay. But we don't actually have any information We we didn't evaluate any information. you know there may be there

050may be teachers who who do do that when students come back but it was not part of our evaluation. Okay. I a lot of what I was also going to ask has been said. So I'll just I think my concern is you know how much money are we spending on these programs that honestly I mean it seems like nobody you know I'm not sure it's really worth it. And then I would say the followup is some of the concerns that were raised that maybe that you ra that you showed like how we could improve these programs involves investing even more into them. It involves additional resources, additional people and additional help. And so at some point I you know I just question whether it's it's all worth it. We have programs that people seem to

051not like but then would why would we put more money into supporting them? So that's just sort of my overall feedback, but thank you for the analysis and presentation. We appreciate the questions. Thanks, Miss Vanos. Thank you, member Salamaka. thank you. I wanted to speak to Eden. I think we're all on the same page. I don't think it does what it's supposed to do. and in in terms of outcomes and students being prepared to graduate. I there's a difference between checking the box and actually being ready to live like after graduation and I'm not sure that our students are getting that from egenuity. So on the same page with our fellow board members for math I disagree. I've I can fill a room full of students that love math. Love it. when we were doing

052cuts last summer and we took math from middle school, I had so many parents and students emailing me saying is like the only engaging tool that my like son and daughter use. I spoke to you all when we did the debrief on this. I understood that this was a overview of just the implementation and there is a lot of discrepancy and variance on implementation which is my biggest concern. I do think it's an effective tool. I think teachers use it very differently. How many hours a week they use it is very different. and the other is that if we're only measuring hours a week in the classroom, I think we're missing the point because a lot of the students that I've spoken to who are very advanced in math say that some of their best

053teachers use this as a supplemental tool for practice after school and outside of school. And so in class you only have limited amount of time to go deep into any mathematical topic. And at Janu I mean math is a place where they go down the rabbit hole and try different and get feedback and students actually master the content and so they actually really learn from it if they engage with it. My issue with math is that some teachers use it in the classroom 20 minutes, 10 minutes. Some teachers use it 60 minutes. Some teachers don't use it at all, but they do use it as homework assignments and say, "Please go and like spend more time with this." And I don't know how we're going to measure outcomes if we're only taking into account the

054teachers in the classroom. because I actually think that some great teachers are using it outside of the classroom. It's just not going to be captured in classroom hours, which is one of the metrics that we use. Yeah, thanks for that, Miss Alamaraga. we can look at the design of the next program evaluation to see in our discussions with students if that's something we can look at that supplementary piece and so we appreciate the feedback. Yeah, but the design of math is actually engaging. So like you just play around with it. Anyone up here who doesn't like math, I promise you math pretty good. It's it's a really good user interface. and I heard it from students. I can't speak to the outcome. Sorry. I don't know what the numbers are so I can't speak to

055that today. But I think the one takeaway I have is math implementation is high variance and I'm not depending if it's good or not. I don't know if that's good or bad, but I have only heard good things. When we tried to cut it for middle school math, I heard loud and clear from parents and students that was the wrong thing to do. Thank you. Thanks, Miss Al Salamanca. Thank you, Member Salamaka. Member Douglas, thank you so much for your Thank you for your presentation, by the way. Thank you so much. Been very insightful about the different programs. I'm not very familiar with as I have taught success maker and I really didn't like it. I'm a reading teacher. as I'm not very familiar with AIM program, but I have seen the books in the

056classroom. several time when I've been in different schools. there's a program I just wanted to talk to you about that you know really helped my student as a intensive reading was reading plus I don't know reading plus was really rigorous and it gave feedback to the kids it was user friendly it was correcting their mistakes and they I mean really it was to me the best layout program that I have seen in that student even at home could correct themselves and make it better and it was so rigorous that if they were not reading they were losing points during the week. So it was great for me because he helped me push the kids to read every single week they had to they had no choice. They were coming at me at the beginning, oh

057miss, we don't like this program, we have to read. Okay, that's okay. But at the end of the of the year, they were very competitive. I mean, they wanted those points and it was wonderful. And then it was gone. So I was where is why don't we use reading plots? I don't know. Okay. But that's you know that was one of the program that I enjoy as reading you know intensive reading. May I? Yes, we do use reading plus in grades three through eight. the team can follow up as to why it's not being used at the high school level. And I want to double check success maker math. Correct. So it's not used for reading. It's just for for math. I mean success maker I have taught it when I you know I taught

058u elementary through high school. I'm just saying I didn't pay people mention it was math but yes and also ingenuity. Oh my goodness. Yes. You know I share the sentiment here about ingenuity. Seriously I mean I have seen a kid that never came to school not one day of school and walk at graduation. I'm like what? And I know why. I know why it was there but anyway it was really shocking. just wanted to say that I do appreciate I excel. I have taught I excel as well and I really liked it. I really did like it. It helped me as a math teacher when I was doing elementary school. So it was good. so that's just all my opinion about all these programs. Success maker. No. Thanks, Miss Douglas. Appreciate it. Thank you so

059much. Thank you, Member Felder. Thank you, Chair. I just want to just add my sentiments are basically the same with the my other board members, but I wanted to interject with regards to excuse me, ingenuity. I think with my experience as a teacher, it's more beneficial for the onetoone engagement and I know we all know that with teacher to student and even though Ingenuity did what it needed to do in terms of graduation rates, but making sure a student really understands the content and then also when we implemented ingenuity at such a grand rate so many teachers did not have the opportunity for summer employment and that's that was my concern also but I because of my experience as a teacher I know there's something that happens to you as a teacher when you have

060been working on a concept cept and all of a sudden the light goes on and the student, you know, they got it. It does something for you. So, I'm glad that we are re-evaluating Ingenuity. It was good for what we needed it for, but I'm I'm happy that you've presented us with the data and we can reconsider looking at ingenuity. I just wanted to let you know I appreciate your work, but from a teacher's perspective, I think the one-on-one is always better. Thank you, Member Felder. And that is it for our board members comments. I believe we're done. Superintendent, this part of this part. Yes. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you all for your hard work. Great comments. and the team will follow up via email with some of the information the board members

061requested. Thank you guys. All right, we're doing very well on time. How about that? And we all spoke too there. All righting now. we have Sarah Capesky who is coming up and I've just drawn a blank. Carla Owens, thank you. from student services, they are bringing to you the policy on student progression plan. we every year review this policy primarily based on legislation that impacts our policy. But in addition to that, we take comments and feedback that the board and the schools have given us throughout the year. So I am going to turn it over to Miss Capesky and she will begin the presentation. Thank you Dr. Vasquez. Good morning board. good to see everyone today. as Dr. Vasquez stated, we are going to be reviewing policy IA, the student progression plan, as well as

062the student progression plan handbook. we have met with board members over the past several weeks reviewing some of the changes. However, you may see some differences from our individual meetings that we have incorporated either by recommendations from cabinet legislative changes that maybe came through after we met with you or possibly answering questions and we went back and made some changes. So, we are going to go through each individual change today. As we go through, you may see some red lines that we don't stop and review during this presentation. And that's only because it's either a formatting change, grammatical error, possibly we just rewarded something to make it more better to understand for our readers. so with that, I'm going to start with the policy and then I will turn it over to Miss Owens for

063the handbook. the first change you're going to see is going to be under the criteria for student reading proficiency in kindergarten through grade three. the policy basically outlines what needs to be in the student progression plan. So we had to add in there that this includes students who have been referred to OCPS from a voluntary pre kindergarten education program. That's added pursuant to section 108.25 Florida statute which was updated last year by Senate Bill 704. However, that bill didn't come into effect until after we went through the rule making process. So, we're adding it this year to be in compliance although it's something we've already been doing. And then the second change also came through by the same bill. So, it added an update to section 10825, which is the student progression plan statute. and

064the addition states, "We're going to specify retention requirements for kindergarten for students in kindergarten through grade two based upon each student's performance in English language arts and mathematics, which again we already have in the progression plan handbook, and that the parent guardian must be notified for reading and mathematics deficiencies as outlined in section 108.25. in addition, the parent guardian must be provided with the opportunity to provide input on the retention decision. The OCPS pro progression plan must also include importance of students mastering early literacy and communication skills in order to be reading at or above grade level by the end of grade three. So again, a lot of this is already in our progression plan. It's just aligning the policy with the statute. and if something wasn't in the progression plan, we did go back

065and add it in. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Owens to present the handbook. Good morning. We'll start on page six of the handbook. The first part is the introduction where there were several changes made. Most of them were recommended for an update. For example, the first sentence includes an alignment with the OCPS 2030 strategic plan. We're ensuring every student graduates prepared, inspired, and empowered for a thriving future. We also made some updates to based on recommendations towarding as well on page six. Moving to page nine, we changed the report cards from a chart to a bulleted list just for ease of reading and understanding. And then also we updated the grading scales for our kindergarten through grade 12 students. This includes of course clarifying the meanings of OSWN and

066U for each category. And then also there is an addition of grades two through grades two through grade five were moved to the end of the chart to make the chart easier to read. There is also a recommendation to remove the scale scores for academic personal social and special area courses for OSNU as they may not be numerical equivalents. This is all added on the next page as you can see on page 10 at the top. And then it also adds of course we added the percentage symbols. We also on page 10 right in the middle we added the comment about the unweighted grading scale. We moved it from the bottom of the chart to the top of the chart just for ease of understanding. And then on page 11 you'll see that we clarified

067advanced placement international balorate IB and an and also advanced international certificate of education which is Cambridge advanced courses and then also added the addition of Cambridge ACE which refers to the Cambridge diploma. So therefore, Cambridge advance references Cambridge courses and Cambridge A's refers to Cambridge diploma and this will be seen throughout the document. On page 12, we added a few course codes for the EOCC assessments. We added AP pre-alggebra as you can see that has its own category. And then we also added the access points courses for those that are taking participating in EOCC assessments and state assess the state assessments as well. We updated the EOC assessments and grades that's throughout the middle of the page just to make it easier to understand. And that includes of course also adding in the FAA performance

068task measures and then the FAA dataf folio assessment. On page 13, we added an explanation of those two assessments of the FAA performance task and the FAA data folio. Primarily the FAA performance tasks are used to help levels that are at three levels of complexity and the results are reported through achievement levels and the data folio designed to address the needs of a small population of students who typically do not have a formal mode of communication and may be working at pre-academic levels. This section is also added to the ESC section in the handbook. On page 14, we removed grade five from the CF portion of this assessment because grade five does not include CFS where a final grade is calculated. It is only through grades 6 through 12. In the middle of page 14

069under credits grades of students who transferred to OCPS, we added the clarification. This was updated in the statute that if a student does not possess an official transcript transcript or it's a home education or personalized education program student, the personalized education program student is what was added to the statute. On page 15, we also made some clarifications. We added when grade forgiveness where grade forgiveness may occur for a high school student who receives a D or F in a full or semester course. Excuse me. Page 16, what we did is updated the assessment names because there were some clarifications that we needed to make sure we clarified, explained. And then we also added, of course, the progress monitoring piece for the preK students who take the Fast Star early literacy. On page 17, we updated

070the progress monitoring plan for criteria. We wanted to make sure that we were in line with the statute. You'll see clarification, for example, grounded in the science of reading that was added. Making sure that we added math instruction and also, of course, making sure that we have the comprehensive evidence-based reading plan added. At the bottom of page 17, we also added what was updated in statute, which is pre kindergarten who have a substantial reading deficiency in early literacy and students and students in kindergarten through grade three. So this adds of course the re researchbased resources as well. On page 18 is the same as well. on page 18 is also adding the pre kindergarten who have substantial deficiency in early mathematics. On page 19, we just added, of course, to make sure we were in

071line with statute when it comes to saying that the students attendance and conduct record, which is exactly what is said in statute, rather than the students discipline record. On page 20, we have a couple of additions. We wanted to make sure that we modified winter and spring instead of saying May, December and May, excuse me, for the EOCC assessments for those who are taking acceleration opportunities and are going through the Excel program because we don't know exactly when those assessments are being taking place. So it could be of course any month within that any of those months. So we changed it to winter and spring. At the bottom of page 20 is something that's that's new. We removed the maximum allowance for credit hours under IB. You'll also see this again as well for ACE.

072So students now do not need a maximum number of they can earn more than what's required here. So they can be awarded as many credits as possible. on page 21 we have just some clarifications where we added of course the Cambridge advanced courses and then we also removed the maximum allowance of credit hours under Cambridge. On page 22, we added clarification of the DE courses that are taken outside of OCPS or do not have an articulation agreement. We stated that of course if a student does take a DE course outside of OCPS or the articulation or there is no articulation agreement that the student may not have that count towards their GPA but may get a credit for it depending on whether they have there is an equivalent course to award credit for that DE

073course. At the top of page 23, we added an explanation of the AP capstone for the high school option. This of course the AP capstone is an explanation of the program as well as acceleration opportunities, postsecary credits and the potent the potential to get an AP diploma. On page 24, we just updated the magnet opportunities. We removed Orlando gifted academy as the type of magnet and moved it moved it to the school itself which is Orlando gifted academy and left the type of magnet gifted academy that is also done for example for middle school as well and then we added program to middle year's international balorate on page 24. on page 26, we just modified it for better understanding. And then page 27, we also of course included some clarification that the handbook provides information

074as it pertains to progression of students within with disabilities within OCPS and not Orange County, Florida. And I'm going to let Miss Capesky take over with the rest of section two. Okay. Excuse me. so the next section you'll see under the students with disabilities is in regards to the accommodations that students can receive on statewide standardized assessments. so we were asked to clarify basically the types of accommodations they can receive and how they can get paperbased testing. I believe when we first met with some of you, I may have misspoke, so I just want to clarify this, so that way you have this knowledge. For a paperbased test, if a student with an IEP or 504 requires paperbased testing, but no modifications to the paperbased portion, so they don't need larger font, they don't need

075braille, they don't need one item per page, but just the test printed out. So long as the IEP team documents that they need that in their IEP and they clearly indicate the reason for the computer-based test for the computer based test not being appropriate for the student they utilize that in the classroom throughout the year implementing that same accommodation showing that the student can succeed. Then we request the paper base from the DOE and they send it to us for any other accommodation that's not allowable on a statewide standardized assessment. So something where they would have to modify the actual assessment. so again, large print, braille, something like that's not already identified by the DOE as being permitted. Then we have to apply for what's called a unique accommodation. That has to be applied for

07660 days before the administration of the test. And then that goes to the commissioner of education for final approval. So anything where they modify the test, the commissioner of education or designate actually has to approve. we don't have any control over that. we are also going to include a link here to the statewide assessments accommodations guide that's issued by the DOE, which is actually a pretty extensive document that has three to four pages of accommodations actually listed that students can utilize so long as it's in their IEP and they are using it during the school year. So, there will be a link there so parents can go through and see the things that are available for students. And then throughout the waiver of the statewide standardized assessment section, there was references in here to it

077has to be a senior or they have to meet the course requirements for a standard high school diploma. That is not in statute. and so we remove that language. Basically, in order to receive a waiver for a student with disabilities, they have to take the assessment the 10th grade ELA assessment and the algebra 1 EOCC at least once. So, as long as they take it at least once, then they can be considered by their IEP team for the waiver. They do not have to be a senior or meet the graduation requirements, which is why this section was updated. And then we also added in information on the extraordinary exemption for students with disabilities. This is something that's already been in place. It just wasn't in the progression plan previously, and we thought it would be

078good to add it here for the parents looking for that. And this is for students that are pre prevented by either circumstance or condition. And you'll see at the bottom that we ident we define these terms as listed in statute. but they're prevented from physically demonstrating mastery of skills measured in taking the statewide standardized assessment EO EOC or the Florida alternative assessment. They may be provided with an extraordinary exemption. Those all have to go to the superintendent with all of this information that's detailed herein and then that goes to the commissioner of education for final approval. So these kiddos may have some sort of physical disability that prevents them from taking the test or would not show mastery of the subject area and instead would more focus on their disability. And then or it could

079be for a student that requires some sort of accommodation that the DOE hasn't thought of yet and so they have to they're not able to take the test because they can't have that specialized accommodation. And here for transition plannings for post-secary education and career opportunities for students with disabilities. We added in that when they have this transition plan meeting which starts in 7th grade or when the student turns 12, whichever occurs first, they're going to talk about post-secary goals, but they're also going to talk about their high school graduation and how they're going to get there. So, are they going to take the 18 credit option? Are they going to do the 24 credit option? Are they going to do a workforce program? so they're going to include that stuff on the student's IEP. and

080then the second paragraph, you'll notice that the certificate of completion is removed. that was removed by very recent legislation, House Bill 11:05, which was approved by the governor on May 30th, 2025. the certificate of completion was for students who met the credit requirements, the 18 or 24 credit hours, but did not either meet the assessment requirements, which is passing the 10th grade ELA, or P and sorry, passing the algebra 1 EOCC, or they did not meet the 2.0 GPA requirement. So, the certificate of completion, is not a high school diploma. It did allow students to walk across the stage at graduation. However, it is not equivalent to a high school diploma. within the bill 11:05, the DOE is required to create a list that they will share with school districts as to additional options that

081students have in order to meet high school graduation requirements. however, that's not required to be sub provided to school districts until the end of January 2026. And so, you'll notice later on in this progression plan, we've actually created our own list. And so, we'll go through that. and then of course when the DOE comes out with something, we'll definitely add those things next year. but we definitely wanted families to know that there are additional options and so those will be included in the student progression plan as well. And I think, oh, and then we also, as Miss Owen stated earlier, we added in information regarding the two different Florida alternative assessments, which is the F FAA performance task and the FAA data folio. And those are for our students who are on modified curriculum, which

082is access points. And this portion right here is just added to align with section 103.5716 Florida statutes regarding transition planning which we discussed earlier which is how they're going to get through high school and then post-secondary planning and again the removal of certificate of completion is also in this section and I'm going to turn it back over to Miss Owens to review the ELLL section. So on page 35 we have a couple of changes made based on the recommendation by the multilingual department. We added some clarification for when an ELLL committee will develop a plan and also just spelling out a couple of acronyms that we had there English for speakers of other languages. we also rewarded rewarded a couple of things for clarification. On page 36, we added based on the recommendation by the

083multilingual department to make sure that we added the retention considerations for ELLL students. This is this has been outlined before, but we wanted to make sure it was clear. We also at the top of p page 36 I forgot to u mention that we changed the wording so it was clear as students who cannot be considered for retention who have a due date where it's less than two years and then also at the be in the middle of page 36 we talk about the extension of the ELLL services and clarify when that takes place and who receives that on page 37, we added the graduation pathways for ELLL's ELLL students. This is for students who are in an ESOL program when less than two years. They've met all requirements for the standard high school diploma

084except for the passage of the grade 10 ELA assessment. So, there are four different pathways that they can take to satisfy that requirement. On page 39 towards the end, we added a comment about I'm sorry, a line about students who have been homeschooled must complete the final full semester at the student zone school and meet all graduation requirements to participate in OCPS graduation activities and receive an OCPS high school diploma. that was recommended by academic services so that students will of course have enough time to be enrolled in the school and then also take the necessary assessments. We I skipped a skipped a comment too. Also in the middle of page 39, we wanted to make sure that homemed parents knew exactly the location of their test is determined by OCPS not necessarily where they

085want to go. And then that was the comment about page 39 about the academic services of course preventing home education students from enrolling right away. Okay. Page 44. Mhm. Okay. On page 44, we're at the elementary section and reading deficiency. We added explanation and wording to align to the statute to make sure it was clear and understandable. And then of course the prek student information as well. At the bottom of page 44, we added the information based on legislation this past year where the parent or guardian may request a meeting with the students teacher and school administrator to discuss the student's process and whether more frequent notification of the students progress andor more frequent interventions or supports are needed. We also added at the top of page 49 that OCPS students in preK through grade

0865 rather than just grade K through five. Sorry, you said 45. Oh, 45, excuse me, will receive their coordinated screening progress monitoring for ELA at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year. that aligns of course to the statute. On page 46, we updated the statute when it comes to math students with math deficiency. There are a couple of things that we added based on new legislation. We added information about the students ability for the new world's scholarship account as well as the new world's tutoring program. And then we also added the after the initial notification schools were informed the parents or guardians at least monthly of the students progress and response to the interventions and supports that the student receives. This we are of course in the process of making a new process

087for that. So that it will be monthly high school. Okay, we're speeding right along to high school. Section five, page 54. at the top we added the requirements, a short summary of the three requirements needed for a standard high school diploma. We added that at the top of the chart on page 54. You'll also see it at the top top of the chart on page 56 as well. But before we get there, I wanted just to also direct your attention to page 55 where we added a hyperlink for the additional options for high school students to earn a standard high school diploma or equivalent. That's part of the section that we added that Miss Capesky was referring to earlier. Can you go back the removal of the online requirement? Oh, excuse me. Yes. On at

088the bottom of page 54, we removed the online course requirement as it's no longer needed. that was removed based on statute. On page 56, the requirements needed for a high school standard diploma is also there at the top of the chart. We also added based on HB 1105, the completion of two years of marching band can satisfy the requirement of performing arts or physical education but not both. And that is added in the chart on page 56. On page 57, we have that addition of that new section of the additional options for high school students to earn a standard high school diploma. And we also of course added just clarification of wording and the removal of the certificate of completion. On page 58, we added of information about concordant versus comparative scores and who qualifies

089or what qualifies for concordant and compar comparative score. it was recommended that we also provide the actual scores. What we did was we added a link to the scores because we know that scores of course do change from year to year. the top of page 59, we removed the certificate of completion. And on page 60, we just aligned the wording to to meet the statute where it says parent guardian notice and annual reporting of progress. 62 62 62 we added of course the addition of the advanced international cert certificate ofa of education the ACE was added because that was approved by the governor under house bill 1105 for And this is in addition to satisfying the requirement for the Florida seal of fine arts. On page 63, we this is the addition additional options for

090high school students to earn a standard high school diploma or equivalent. What we did was we added different avenues, different options for students to participate and of course earn their high school diploma or an equivalent. This is in light of the certificate of completion being removed. high school students can do these things as well as if there's anything else that comes out in January, we will add that as well. Okay, moving to page 68. We added the minimal requirements for the bright future scholarship. We added that at the middle of on the middle of page 68 for you or for parents to see. There is one comment on page 68 about the GPA requirement. The GPA requirement in is not in the statute. However, the individual scholarship listed above requires a specific GPA. So, we

091went ahead and added it here for the minimal requirements for the scholarship. On page 72, we added based on CTE some information and deleted some information as well when it comes to updating their programs. It was recommended by CTE to remove the LCP which will no longer be used as a method to obtain measurable skill gains. LP LCPS were a state created unit of measurement established for the purposes that are no longer intended for determining learning gains. We also removed language as it is not part of the new testing series adopted by Orange Technical College. On page 73, we added information again from CTE. The basic skills requirement is only rec required for courses that are 450 or more hours. Therefore, courses under 450 hours would not be required for the basic skills requirement. And

092then we also updated the information under GED to align with statute which is section 103.435. 435. On page 74, we removed and added it at we removed the bulleted section recommended by CTE to remove a line to remove this section because it aligns with section 103.435 435. And this also states now that students aged 16 and 17 no longer have to prove extraordinary circumstances apply. So rather they just need to provide a formal declaration of intent to terminate school enrollment. So they no longer have to show that there is an extraordinary circumstance to ask for termination of school enrollment. On page 75, we added recommendation by CTE to update and align with the CASSA steps for ESAU. This is a state approved assessment which is used to measure English reading and listening skills for students

093who want to enroll in an ESOL program. And then the only thing we added in the appendix is an explanation of the gifted academy under the magnet school programs because that was not provided earlier. It should have been in both elementary and middle school magnets. I believe that is all. Thank you. Every year this is such a joy for all the changes but we do appreciate all of the team's efforts to work on this. I know it is a lot and engaging all the various stakeholders to come to a point where you can bring it to the board I know is not an easy task. So with that we are ready to take questions and comments from the board. Thank you, Superintendent. Yes, I agree that is quite a task to get all the different

094departments to give their input, but we really do appreciate it and I know how hard you guys work on it. and the changes that have been made to it over the last couple years just for the readability ease and yes, it's so much better. It's so much easier for parents to navigate and the links, the live links in it are amazing. So, we really do appreciate you. I'm I'm queued in and my only question was this is kind of more towards the superintendent I think but page 26 where we talk about access to virtual courses during and after the normal school day. I know this has been kind of an ongoing issue. and you know, I keep being reassured that this is being addressed, but then yet I keep hearing parents come to me saying

095that the schools are telling them they can't take their virtual classes during the school day. So, can we just do something? I don't know, highlight that or underline it or just add it to the opening like beginning of the school year things we talked to our principles about again and just make sure that message is getting clear and maybe even figure out a way to make sure parents know because oftentimes parents will say to me, "Well, I'm not allowed to do that." And I'm like, "No, yes, you are." But they don't know that they are. So maybe we just need to make that more clear to parents that this these are options that we offer. great point. and I really want to give kudos to Dr. Arm Brewster who has been persistent in messaging and

096I think it has gotten a lot better. We're at the point now that if we continue to see that, we're going to take a different action with respect to whether it's the administrator or if it's the counselor that's giving misinformation because between Carla Mary and the team meeting with assistant the APIs and the counselors and Dr. Arm Rooster Dr. Arm Brewster communicating directly with principles and PELs and L's the message is out there. Now, we are going to take that as a deliberate action to not follow our process. But I do think it's a great idea that we put something together that we can send out to all of our high school families and they can then if there is maybe it's a new counselor or maybe it's someone that's new to the school and

097isn't aware in that position that they can then show yes, this is something that does allow me to do that. I know it's difficult because they lose FTE, but the reality is the parents have that choice. And the other piece is that we are really trying to push OCVS over FVS so that we are able to keep them within the OCPS family. And so that's also an initiative that Greg Boody and his team have been working on this last semester and will continue for the upcoming year. But I love the suggestion of sending something out to our families. Thank you. And along that same note, and I was planning on bringing this up in communication meeting, but yesterday at home, I received a flyer, a you know, a mailer. It was about a half page

098size and it was for a private school, private religious school in my area. and it was a beautiful mailer front and back and, you know, showed all the options this private school option. Look at what we're offering in your area. so, you know, something like that might be a great idea, too, as we talk about, you know, how we're marketing toward to our community. But, I often feel like, you know, parents just it's such a struggle for them to know all the options that are available. So maybe we do send out, you know, mailers like this to our community saying, "Look at what we're offering. We have we have flexibility. You have your child has flexibility in the way they can learn, what they can learn, different programs they can do. Look at the programs

099in your area that we offer. you know, I just think that it's not only great for information, but also for, of course, sharing all the good news. next up we have member Felder. Thank you, chair. just in what you just said, we have already kind of talked about the fact that the PR for our schools. We do the last board meeting that I attended and we gave all of those wonderful awards out to those students and what they were doing. I agree with you, board member Bird. I don't think a lot of parents family know all of the extensive opportunities that we have in OCPS and the fact that we are a public school district and a lot of the things that we offer you can't get it unless you're in public schools. And I

100think that's important. I'mma keep ringing that bell constantly reminding people this is a good thing. So, let me just I'm not going to get on the soap box, but I just want to just say a couple of things, my thoughts. Bill 11:05. and I need to just get some clarity, make sure I'm clear. So, when I talk to my constituents now, adults can work on a job for 10 years and get some type of retirement or something, some kind of acknowledgement that you have done this for 10 years. Children go to school for 12 years and if they can't pass a test or they can't they're having struggles with the academic schedule that they're having and they can no longer get certificate of completion. Now am I correct in saying that? Okay. Now, that's too

101bad. And I I know we talked about some alternatives, the CTE programs, career programs, which is a wonderful idea for them, but suppose that's not what they're interested in doing. And I don't know what we can do because this is about to be in is it already in the law? Is it going to be in law by July? It's already in law. July 1st. July 1st. Yeah. Be in law July 1st. I know for a fact a lot of parents don't understand that. They don't know that. They're not some teachers cuz I was at a breakfast and I was sharing this information. They were like, "What about access points?" And I said to them that's something you need to write your legislator or you need to go to Tallahassee. You need to, you know, come

102to board meetings so you can hear us explain really what is going on with the laws and the statues that are being passed. I think that's just not good for I can't without saying something that's offensive. That's ugly. That whole situation that children are not able to get a completion. I I hate that. I I really do. also I am happy about the children with ELLL that the fact that if they have not been here so many years they have had an opportunity to master the language. Let me tell you something. I my children that can speak Creole Spanish and English and they maybe came here five years ago or their parents came here speaking no English and in 10 years time they're functioning and they can speak. I mean, it's a lot to learn

103a foreign language. I'll never forget my experience in Taiwan. And I was looking at the street signs and everything was in symbols and I said, "If these people put my little black self out of this car, I can't tell nobody where I am." You understand me? Cuz I was on a black diva there, you know, with my group. So, I'm like it's difficult to learn another language. And when the children come over and parents come, I'm happy that we have this in place for them because it doesn't have anything to do with their academia. You know, they just don't know the language. So, I'm glad that is in place. And I don't need to sing her praises, but I'm I'm very proud of our superintendent. She was 6 years old coming over here crying the

104first day of school on the steps cuz she was so uncomfortable not knowing knowing the language. Now, she's the superintendent of a district. there's fourth in the state, eighth in the nation. You understand what I'm saying? So, I'm glad that is in place. And thirdly, I need to make sure okay, when the students are being homeschooled, am I to understand that they have to come is it a semester in the homeschool or or a year? What is it? So currently we have it in the progression plan as a full semester. However, we were hoping the board would have a discussion on that. the rule says that they have to be here at least 90 days before the administration of the assessment. That could be beginning of January. It might be December and so we in

105discussions we were considering should we extend that to a full year. okay let me just express myself. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I just want to get some clarity. Absolutely. Let me just put out there my position a year because students who have been coming to school, they have taken been taking a test, they've been involved in academic rigor and then all of a sudden you come and now you want to maybe be considered as valadictorian or saludiatoran because you've made all A's but you have not participated in the rigor in public education that will afford you the opportunity to have the position. position of validictorian and I may be standing alone and it doesn't matter I think it should be a year certainly not a se less than a semester that is my my

106idea because I think with the efforts that we put in public education what we do in OCPS the extraordinary programs I was educated in OCPS my mother worked in OCPS and now I sit on the board for OCPS PS I just can't imagine anything less. So if we have to register a vote or mine is a year at least a year if not a year certainly not less than a semester. All right. So in closing again I thank you for the effort. That's a lot of work y'all did. A lot of work baby and I I just appreciate it so much. And chair I don't think I have anything else come about. Hit that button. But thank you. Thank you, Member Felder. Member Gallo. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I will echo the sentiments of

107my fellow board members when I say thank you because this is quite an undertaking for y'all to do, just keeping up with what's happening in our schools and then checking all the legislative changes that have been made and continue to be made every year. I do have one question and this may be for Dr. Vazquez. I know in the past we had talked about the disparity between students who go who are dual enroll dual enrolled versus students that are in school especially with those half credits like US government and economics and now financial literacy because they're they're counted as one credit and it's a six-point credit so it's hard for those who who stay in our schools schools take the traditional route to keep up and for those who are vying to be in the

108top 10 to get automatic enrollment in UCF or other schools or just to be the solidatoran or valictorian it's discouraging to them so have we made any movement on that and so nothing has changed since it was brought back up last year that's not within our purview and I think I'll defer to Carla I don't want to make any mistake but that really is it's a state level and we have no control unless the legislation or the rule changes on that. So since that is out of our control, there are things within our control we could do like we could have two valid Victorians, one that's dual enrolled, one that has the traditional if that's like and I know I know you're shaking your head at me. I know that we finally got around away

109from having 24 valictorians winter park. I'm just joking. It's Stephanie a member of Vanos since next to me. So, I was just I was I was just kidding. I was just kidding. No, it was Winter Park with 24 valictorians. They did. They not anymore. But yes. Well, cuz everybody with 4.0, which they had a lot of They have smart kids there. we have smart kids everywhere. But is there something in or at least could we give thought to what we could do internally? Because I feel like that we're encouraging our best and our brightest and those who really want to be in that top 10. We're we're basically pushing them out of our schools into dual enrollment or they're taking so many classes through Florida virtual and AP classes to try to keep up that

110they're wearing themselves out. So, I just didn't know if we could give some thought to that. what we could do and it's not, you know, it's not everybody. Not everybody would partake. Not every student wants to be in the top 10 or solidatoran or valictorian, but for those I had a friend at East River back before I was school board and he wanted to be in the top 10 so bad and he took all AP classes. He passed all the AP tests and he just wanted to be in the top 10. He fell below the top 10 because after they calculated all the dual enrollments, he couldn't compete and he didn't have access. It's not like most high schools don't have access to dual enrollment on campus. We don't offer dual enrollment courses on campus

111unless they take them virtually. now they there is that ability to take them virtually but for those that that's not the way they learn well it just seems that it's for me personally it's an access issue and it's an equity issue so just food for thought on maybe in the future what we could do to level the playing field may I madame vice chair we certainly can take a look at any other ways that we could do the recognitions if you do unweight ated, there's more than 10. And so that would take into account those individuals that did not partake of dual enrollment opportunities to level the playing field. Outside of that, I'm not sure what we could do, but we'll look into it. I do want to say that we have vastly expanded access

112to dual enrollment and I would probably say the vast majority if not all of the students are in the top 10 10% of their class have taken an online course. So the maybe the ability for us to share more of those opportunities that are available online. I know we just expanded, I think, with Barry University where all high schools have that opportunity. They're looking to expand that even more. So, outside of that, I'll I'll test the team to look at that, but I just want to be transparent. There's probably not a whole lot because of the grading scale and that is even across all of the districts in in Florida. And I know that maybe some out of state, that's why the different colleges and universities have kind of pulled back from just the waiting.

113They'll look at the courses that they took and they go beyond just the GPA, which I'm very thankful because they take a look at their involvement, the diversity of their, for lack of a better term, their resume from high school. And that's something that I want to continue to push because that is what the schools are looking at. How are you engaged in your community? What are the things that you're doing? It's more than your GPA. So, but we will we'll come back to the board either through a public meeting or through an email on what we discover and what other ways we may be able to incentivize some of those or recognize some of those students that have not taken dual enrollment courses. Thank you, Dr. Fusquz. And maybe it is just communicating with

114students that they can take them virtually if they choose to during class time at school. I'd be interested to know like this has always been an access issue with me for dual enrollment because those who have cars that have the ability to drive in dual enrollment can get there. Those that don't can't. and so I was very thankful when virtual came around and it was offered and you could virtually be able to take dual enrollment classes for credit. You know, at the same side, I struggle with virtual classes just due to are they learning the content? Is it is it are they performing well virtually? We saw during COVID that wasn't always the case with our students that virtually didn't work well for them. So, I still worry about access to other programs like dual

115enrollment if they don't have a way to get there. If you live at Lake Nona and you go to Lake Nona High School, you can walk, but most high schools don't have the ability to walk across to get to a Valencia. So, I wonder if we should look at Lake Nona's grades to see if that's why they do so well is because of the students ability to walk to Valencia. Maybe maybe we need to look at that. And then I'm that was I'm joking. Look, I'm going to get tons of emails from the Lake Nona area. Go on. Leave Winter Park and Lake Nona alone. What's wrong with you? I'm joking. then I just I have a couple of questions. just really one and maybe I missed it and it's in our progression plan but

116when you look at the department of education's website and it talks about what student needs to know it talks about the option for a standard diploma it talks about the option for the scholar diploma designation the industry scholar diploma designation and then of course there's a 16 credit excel graduation that you can get as well 18 and so I'm just curious Do we have that listed in our progression plan so that parents so that ours is like if they go to the DOE and then go back to ours or like wait a minute I just don't want parents to get confused. Page 60 on page 60 we have standard diploma pathways. We do have the 24 credit program the 18 credit excel that you were mentioning earlier and then also the CTE pathway as well

117as the IB and ACE pathways. What about the scholar designation? Scholar designations are on page 61. Perfect. And then we also have on our charts. I know it's a lot of symbols, but we put symbols on there for the 18 credit what you're going to need. and then in our appendix, which isn't on this document, but it will be in the final version. We actually have the printouts from the DOE that we include as well that kind of list everything. So you have like that two-pager that's on the DO and you Oh, perfect. I figured that you did. I just I didn't hear it, so I won't ask. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you. I was going to just comment that I agree member superintendent. I think the and we've talked about this the

118more we can share with students that colleges are looking beyond that and for the exact reason like you said they were they were getting a lot of students that had you know these crazy high GPA but had no other personable skills right so they're looking at the whole picture more is what I'm hearing from college admissions specialists So I think the more we can share that with students the better and so definitely member Vanos. Thank you chair. I just want to start off by saying that member Gallao with every joke there's a hint of truth. So true. so before I get I did have a couple of questions but before I get to mine I just wanted to comment on a on a few things that my fellow board members have said. first of all,

119U. Member Gallo, when she's talking about the dual enrollment and the whole thing with class rank and all of that. you know, I'm all about expanding options for dual enrollment, advanced studies, as you know, because it's important for our students and it's important for them for their future. I mean, can we just don't hate me for saying this, but I'm just throwing this out there. Do we have can we just remove class rank? like why why are we setting our students up on a path to be ranked when it doesn't really matter and it's it's making them make these and it's it's email board member Stephanie Vanos at s h a i n i evano well I mean I know and so I'm just say but I'm throwing this concept out here because if we

120don't if we don't think about the whole system. We can make little tweaks here and we can make little tweaks there and we can do this and that and that's wonderful and fine, but I think it is a bigger problem than than just a dual enrollment class. I mean like kids aren't taking driver's ed for goodness sake because they don't want to lower their G like we need kids to take driver's ed like for all of our safety, you know? I mean, kids aren't taking orchestra or because they're not because it's weighted. I mean this is you guys this is like a crazy system that we've created. What can we do to make it less crazy? I think we can do some things. Just saying. In all seriousness, email Stephanie. Vanho ocps.net. No, we can

121absolutely look at that. First of all, big picture, as you're saying, the number of students that are impacted by this is very small, right? because it's it's the small percentage that want the Val and the SA and the top 10 in their class. So when you look at the vast number of our students that are in our high schools, it's it's not a big a big number. However, having said that, I believe it is detrimental to some of these students that continually just focus and put this pressure on them or the parents are putting on them that it's all about, you know, when the classes that they're taking. and so there was a lot of conversation and discussion when we decided to not have multiple valadictorians. I mean it was massive. We had lots of

122feedback. We won't mention any name any names of school in particular, but there were some that the parents were very very upset and it took us four years to implement it. So I'm absolutely fine in having us reach out to other districts, see how they're addressing this. Are there other strategies? if we did do away with class rank is that something that's you know asked on certain applications so because we don't want to hinder our students we absolutely will look into it I share the board's concern I am happy to see that more of our students are moving away from just the GPA they are doing band they are looking at their impact outside of their GPA and their service work in the community and at the school and I think that's having a positive

123impact all around. So, all kidding aside, we will take a look at the pros and cons if we did take away class ranking. I appreciate that and I appreciate that and maybe it's something we can bring up at at if if we have student town halls this year because I understand the immediate reaction. but you know, when you say it only impacts 10 or 12 students, it that's actually not true. Like it there's because there's more I I have two high schoolers I just want to say who have friends and like it impacts more than 10 or 12 students. It's there's more students who are feeling that pressure and that desire and can I get in there and what can I do and what did I mess up and I think it does impact more

124than just 10 or 12 students. And you know, I'm not saying take away GPA. I'm not saying take away weight. I mean, I think all those things are important. I think, you know, future future options, consider those things and I think they're important, but I think I'm I'm just saying maybe we could just have some conversations about it and just look at it. and you can feel free to email me. You're hate emails. I can take it. okay. okay. I also wanted to comment, member Felder was talking about the homeschool students graduating from our high schools. So, I just wanted to ask, so are you saying that a student could be homeschooled for K through 11 and a half and then get an OCPS diploma? Yes. Yes. Yeah. That I feel like that's also crazy.

125I now so I would support I mean a minimum of one year. If you're going to graduate from an OCPS school, I would support a minimum of one year that you are in school. Now here's my other question. When let's say a homeschool student transfers in, are they like could they say something like, "Well, I've completed all of the courses, so I'm just here for a semester, but I've actually completed all everything I need for graduation." So, they're actually not taking any like of the core classes. Do you want to? They would still have to take something. So, it would be electives or something like that if they're going to be enrolled in the school. So, they need to take some sort of courses, not just they might have met graduation requirements, but to be

126enrolled in the school, you have to take some courses. Could be electives. Okay. So they could so and would it have to be so they could just take like half a day of electives? Yes, but they also have to meet the graduation requirements of course to receive that diploma which would would include the assessments making sure that they are taking all the assessments that are needed to get the high school diploma. Okay. And so the assessments do like the algebra the correct that's just those couple the state assessments. Yes. That's all they have to do. Mhm. And then if so if a homeschool student were to transfer in, let's say in even just for senior year, I mean going back to to GPA, are we do we just simply accept the transcript from the mom

127or dad and just Yes, we're required to by the Florida Administrative Code. Okay, that's interesting. I I will go on. I would say that I would support at least one full year in our high schools, but I would be open to more than one year. if you want to get a diploma from Orange County Public Schools. Okay, those are just my follow-ups. okay. Going back to the plan, if we could just start at the beginning, when you talk when you have the grading scale in those first few pages, I know that we don't really actually start at a zero. We start at 50, right? That's only for Yes. for the quarter the report card buckets. So RC1, RC2. So the end on the report cards, the minimum grade is the MAC the lowest you can

128get is 50%. Okay. So and I understand and that reasoning I understand that. I'm just so they could actually have less than a 50% on I guess Skyward or whatever, but then it's just raised to a 50% for the report card. I'm just I'm just trying to figure out understand the discrepancy between like allowing the 0 to 50. Okay. Correct. So a teacher may calculate a student's grade below 50%, Skyward has in its system where it automatically moves it up to 50%. Okay. Okay. Okay. I mean I guess what I'm trying to say is if we if we're if this is just the system we're going to use where we're starting at 50, I it's a little confusing that it's still in here at zero, but I guess it makes sense to other people. okay.

129And then going on page 14, you were talking about the CFES. And so I just wanted to get a clarification on that. are it sounded like when we had our conversation that fifth grade is not part is not taking the CF anymore. No, it I'm sorry that's incorrect. The fifth graders are taking the CFEs. Okay. But they don't calculate towards the a student's grade in the class. So just for evaluations. Correct. Yes. So we went back and double checked and so they do take CFS for specials. They don't take it for like core courses. Okay. Okay. So, it's for specials for evaluations, but nothing for in elementary they only get the O, right? S and U. And so, there wouldn't be a grade associated with that for the special areas. Okay. And I guess we're

130going we're we're in conversations about how to deal with that. Okay. Going forward. Okay. Great. Okay. my next question was on page 28 and I'm just going to bring this up every time because I just don't understand it with this paperbased testing. I is it a requirement by the Department of Education that students who don't have the IEP can't get a paperbased test or is that a requirement of OCPS if if they do not have an IEP but they have maybe perhaps have a 504. Well, no. I'm just asking let's say you have a you know eight or nineyear-old and their parent they don't have an IEP their parent just says they are get really distracted on a screen and if you really want to understand what they know and what they're learning they need

131to take a paperbased test I'd have to check with research on that yeah I was looking to see if Harold was here I believe the answer to that it's not OCPS it's the state u there is a process if I'm not mistaken for the parents to make that request and I believe that request goes to the state, but we'll follow up with the board in writing. Yes. Okay. Because I thought you said that you had to have an IEP or some kind of accommodation in order to get that. I'm this is something I hear from parents quite a bit. Like why can't we just use a paperbased test? I mean, I understand the what you know, oh, it takes longer to grade or it's not as easy, but that's really not what's best for students.

132And if you assume that the tests are actually, you know, a reflection of what students know, then I would presume that you would want, you know, the student to take the test in the method that best reflects what they know. so I'm just kind of wondering where that comes from because it actually is something I hear about quite a bit. So, thank you for following up. and also and then also along those same lines on page 35 and I think member Felder brought up ELLL students and so I also did want to ask in that situation are and I remember there were bills but I can't remember whether they've passed or not are ELLL students tested in their native language or are they only tested in English? They are only tested in English. They do

133not have the statewide standardized assessments in their native languages. But we do have the exceptions in here for ELLL students. And they actually do you know what, I'm glad you brought that up. within that accommodations guide that I was talking about earlier, the under the students with disabilities, they also have the accommodations you can use for ELLL students as well. So I'm also going to add the hyperlink here, too, so that way parents with ELLL students know the different accommodations they can also have on the statewide standardized assessment. but unfortunately no it's not provided in their native language. Okay. Are district tests provided in native language? Not that I'm aware of. No. I would have to check with research, but no. Again, I I just wish there was a better way to assess what students

134are learning or or what their knowledge is. and I feel like it's hard to do that if they're not an Englishspeaking student. We're not really, it sounds like, able to assess what they know outside of speaking English. May I, Madam Vice Chair? There actually is an assessment that is given that assesses the acquisition of the language and I would need Joe I don't remember the name of the AC is it access for L's? Yes. and and that does assess how they are acquiring the English language. There are multiple issues with having test in the different languages. Remember our children speak over 170 different languages and dialects. teachers for the most part speak one language and so having the ability to create create and actually score and understand how to help the child based on that.

135we did have a change this year and again we'll follow up with the board that the instructions for the assessments for the very first time are in their native language. So we went ahead and purchased that so it was accessible so at least the instructions were in their in their language native language. Oh that's really good to hear. Thank you. I think that at least helps a little bit. I just again I I mean I have my own questions about some of the standardized tests but I feel like if we are assuming that they are measuring students I just want to make sure that they actually are measuring what students know. So thank you for that. I think I think I just have one more question and it is with respect to the AP scores

136and I don't remember where this is in the plan but I think we talked about it and I just wanted to get some clarity. So, in an AP class, I think what you mentioned before was that the teacher has the discretion to determine how much that AP test counts in their class. So, for example, a teacher, an AP teacher could say, if you get a three or if you get a three or four or five on the test, you get an A in my class. But another teacher could say a three is a B, a four is an A. That there's no there's no override policy that the teacher can just decide sort of however they want to treat that test for the grade. Correct. Okay. Thank you. That's all I've got. Thank you, Member

137Vanos. member Douglas, thank you so much. I just want to applaud you. This document is thorough, specific really. you have no trouble scrolling in and out with the question that we ask. It's wonderful. Thank you so much for the work that you've done. I also tend to forget that our superintendent is an ELL student like I am a little bit. Okay. But she lost her accent. I still have mine. She's good. okay. I just wanted to agree to agree with member Felder about the the homeschool student and member Vanis about the we need to be having stringent rules about those student coming in and getting into our schools. they need to follow the same rule, the same standards at our students and I agree for one year instead of just six months and just have

138some elective and just get in and you know and graduate. So yeah, I share that sentiment with them. talking about EL students, is there a possibility to have also the test translated now that we have chat GPD, they can translate in different languages like maybe faster than ever have the answer the student answers in the in English, but have the test at least in Spanish or different languages that the English and both languages. So they can choose which one because a lot of our student do not even understand what is required of them to do and they they really hesitant to answer the question they don't know and I can see confusion you know and desperation in their eyes when we give them the test because they don't understand what they've been required to do.

139So if there's any possibility that we can translate the test at least in different languages but have the answers in English I think that will be a better choice for them truly. May I? All right. So are you referring to the state assessment or the test that teachers give? The state assessment. Yes. No. No. We have no authority over that. will tell you that Texas and this I'm going to say this was prior to the pandemic so we'd have to check Texas was administering their state assessments in Spanish. I don't remember if they did other languages but they had the test that was being given in English translated and given in Spanish. I don't know if they're continuing that practice, but our state does not and we don't have control over that. Like I said,

140for the very first time, they have allowed us to give the instructions to them. And for mathematics, which is different than ELA for many students, the math concepts and processes are the same in the various languages. So, the ability to read the directions and what they need is very helpful. Unfortunately, you can't read the text in reading because part of what they're assessing is can you read the words on there. So, we can't. That is something that if the board feels strongly about they can add it to their legislative platform for this upcoming I know we just ended but for the session that will start in the fall and because we have so many second language learners and there's other the other large districts are in the same boat that may be something that the

141state is willing to look at especially since the technology exists now to so easily translate yes and the scoring is online, so that wouldn't be an issue, but something for the board to consider. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much, ladies. Thank you, Member Douglas. Member Salamaka. thank you. so a couple things that others have mentioned. On the homeschool front, I'm also completely on board on it should be at least one year for students to get that OCPS diploma. it's fairer as well as when we think about our funding and FTE and all that comes with that I think it's more than fair to say that a student should be with us for at least a year to get the diploma. And so the other thing was I'm so happy to see all the changes.

142I too was an EL kid at six, seven years old. and I remember having no clue what was going on when FCAT would go down. It was just like everybody suddenly it was from like normal school day to a test day and I was sitting in front of a piece of paper that was a test and if FCAT all in English I had no clue to do and I got like ones on all my FCATs for second third grade because I didn't know English. so like it wasn't that but I would always do my math FCAT and do great. And I think one of the hardest things from the student perspective was like how do you prove you're not academically behind when that you just don't know English? and so I had terrible FCAT scores

143until the point I learned English and after that point all my FCAT scores were great. So it's great to see that we're addressing some of this because academic underperformance as an ELL student does not necessarily mean that they're not academically proficient. And usually what I've noticed is you kind of start catching some of this in in the math scores because it's numbers. And so regardless of where you come, you kind of kind of fight your way through numbers. but yeah, even back then the test was only in English. I remember the science test being particularly difficult because that's even more complicated than plain English as well. So a lot of lot of scars from those days, but we we persevered. We're fine. We made it, fam. and then the other one was class rank. So,

144definitely email Stephanie Vanoscps. my here here's my thing with class. I agree with everyone's concerns about what our students are enduring and putting themselves under these unnecessary stress. But getting rid of rank, getting rid of GPA, it addresses a symptom of a problem, but it doesn't address the problem. And the problem is if you actually ask students like why are you doing this? they always say I just like I thought that's what I had to do like no one else like I thought I had to just get the GPA I thought that the only way to get the GPA was to do the dual enrollment to do all the stacking of classes so like the reason behind the why is actually misguidance and misinformation and so are students who understand how they're going to be

145judged based on the school that they want to go to or whatever they want to do after graduation just behave differently because they just need that guidance. And so I continue to iterate this. I don't think the number of the top 10 is a problem. I don't think that the definition of a super scholar is a problem or class rank or GPA or that things are too competitive or not. Competitive kids will always be competitive. They'll find a system to be competitive about that. There's no undoing how these students operate. And the but the biggest difference really is that there are students who put themselves under stress because they think that's what they have to do. They don't they don't know like if you ask a simple question how do you think you get into

146your ideal college? They'll be like they'll give you some random answer. None of them will be consistent. And so any energy around class rank or super scholars I always try to direct back to we need strong guidance counselors. We need strong student first information centers for students to be able to navigate and advocate for themselves when they're trying to figure this out. because even when you talk to the super scholars, they get confused about how to do this and they have all points of view. You know, I've brought this up all the time. dual enrollment with Valencia, even though we weigh it a certain way, out of state colleges do not view dual enrollment the same as they view AP and IB. And that continues to be something that a bunch of students once they

147realize that when they apply to college, they're like, I would have never done enrollment if I knew that there wasn't going to be perceived the same. Not because it's not the same, it's just that a lot of out of state universities aren't as familiar or will not be as familiar as they think about the like AP classes or IB classes. So nothing wrong with one or the other. It's just about different pathways. And so that like to the degree that we can continue to expand and our communication on pathways for students and that clarity, I think we can address more of the problem rather than the symptom. CFS, I I'm excited to have that conversation and continue having that conversation because I think every time we talk about student progression plan, there's a bunch of

148stuff on CFS that comes up that are clearly not for the student or the benefit of the student and are just more testing for the sake of testing. And I just it is frustrating every time I'm up here and I see a CF again. and AP scores. H my trauma on AP scores was I had an AP psychology teacher who had said that if we got a five on the test, we would get an A in the class. And it was a really difficult class. Got a five, did not get an A in the class because they changed their mind. And some students got it and some students didn't. And there was nothing as a student you could do. So go back to my report card. I got to be an AP psychology. and there

149was absolutely nothing anyone could do about it. And it was there were some other classes where if you got the other AP psychology teacher, it was like 80% of the class got A's. so I have a lot of points of view in this. I've I've talked to teachers about it. I understand their academic freedom. There is something that they feel very strongly about having control of that. But it is unfortunate because I actually don't think GPA and grades are as standardized as what they should be. and that that's unfortunate because it comes at the expense of the students. and it's it can be very unfair. So that's those are my thoughts. Thanks V. Thank you member Salamanca. I queued back in but I can let the superintendent respond to that if you'd like. Go ahead.

150Great. Thank you so much. So three points. I'll make them quick. So the first is in response to board member Vanos's question. It is a state requirement. I was incorrect. It's only for students that have an IEP or a 504. And so that is the paper. so number one. Number two, we are not at a point where we can share, but we have some exciting news that we'll be able to roll out probably in the next couple of weeks about student being able to navigate the pathways and the course selection in a much easier manner and have the information at their fingertips. So stay tuned for that. and the last one we, and I say we, I was CAO at the time. I think I still have scars from the conversation where we were looking

151to standardize the AP for the reasons that you have all mentioned. It's not fair, not just from school to school, but within the school. but it was very clear that was something that fell within the teachers academic freedom. It's in the contract. we can continue to have conversations about that, but teachers feel very passionate as they do with the 50. That was something that was a priority of the board at the time, which is why it made it into policy. and in all honesty, that is the fairer way of doing it because it's a 10-point scale all the way for all the grades. If you go zero to 59, the child cannot dig themselves out of that hole. And to be honest with you, we actually pulled the data back then. and the percent of

152students that would have failed if you gave them a zero versus the 50, they weren't getting away with it. But for some, maybe they were having a hard time that first nine weeks or that first semester at home. Then it was an opportunity that they could still see hope at the end of the tunnel. So, but I'd be happy to have that conversation. We did attempt to go in in that path but we were unsuccessful that thank you madam vice chair. No absolutely thank you for the clarification and no I've always like understood that reasoning. I think I think the struggles the struggle I always had was more with our lacks on due dates for work. and the only reason why is just because it's like a whole generation of kids that have absolutely no

153idea what it means to have a deadline and they don't understand. And then when they get into college, as my child did, they're shocked when a professor goes, "Sorry, deadline is 11:00. but I was sick." I'll never forget getting that call from my freshman in college. I don't understand, Mom. I told him I was sick and he's still saying it was due. I'm like, "Yeah, hello. Welcome to the real world." but she had grown up in OCPS where she was allowed to wait until the end of the semester and turn in 15 assignments that were missing. So, yeah, that's one that I've always had to struggle with. And then, of course, the AP scores. Yeah, I've gotten my ears chewed off by parents before about that one and I just had to keep saying it's

154teachers, academic, right? I you know I don't know what we do about that. I just wanted to comment real fast about member Salamanca. She's she's right on when she says you know it's just a symptom of the problem. And I agree it is a problem. Member Vanos with the pressure that these kids are under. But and I think I think she's she's got the right idea that it's really got to be around the strong guidance and the strong advising, but I also think a huge piece of this is got to be parent education and letting parents helping parents understand or not even understand but help them make that paradigm shift that it's okay if your child doesn't go to a 4-year university or if your child doesn't get into the University of Florida, which so

155many I hear so much from parents that are so heartbroken over that the likelihood of your child getting into the University of Florida at this point is very very few and far between. I mean, their average GPA was 4.5. The median GPA of what they accepted this year was 4.5. Just the median. That's not even the highest. That was their midpoint, 4.5. the median SAT score they accepted this year was I want to say it was 1450. That's the median. So, you know, the real issue is expressing to students that there are different pathways as member Salamanca said and every time I go speak to students, I just had this conversation when I was meeting with some high school students. I told them that, you know, you have other options. There are other pathways to

156get to where you want. And I tell them the story of my oldest daughter who was an AP kid but didn't get into FSU. She wanted to go to FSU that particular year. They had 80,000 applicants. They only accepted 6,500 kids. So, she didn't get in. but that didn't stop her. She moved to Tallahassee, went to Tallahassee Community College for a year, finished got her AA there, and transferred into FSU. and she just graduated with her degree from FSU. When I told kids that at at one of my high schools about a month ago, they all looked around like they had no idea that this was even an option. And I said yes, and she's about to start law school. So, it didn't stop her from where she wanted to go. She has the same

157degree. And when I said she has that same degree from FSU that the kids who went there as freshmen have, the look on their faces was like they had no idea that was like I don't know what it is. It's just like we get them on this track like it's it's college acceptance, university acceptance, and that's it. And we just have to do a better job at that. I think that piece of you know that there are whole other options. Let's look at the whole picture. What do you really want to get out of high school? What do you want to be when you get older and how do we get you there? Not not always what what college do you want to get into, but you know, what do you want to be? How

158do we get you there? What are the different ways you can get there? Because there are so many other ways that the way the state university system is now, you really have to be open to exploring and looking at. So, so those are my thoughts on that. I think member Felder queued back in. Go ahead. I'm glad you said what you said, Member Bird. When I was teaching, I had several students would say to me what college they want university want to go to. One of my students, God bless her soul, you know, she said, I want to go to Yale. I said, okay, let's see. Let's look at what the rankings and what we need to do. And they said, I need a x amount of like SAT scores. I don't have that. They

159should just let me go because I want to. I said, beloved, that it that doesn't that it didn't happen like that. I said, you just can't go because you want to. And then she said, okay, let me look at University of Florida, you know. And she didn't have the score for that. She said, I don't know why if they should want us to go to college. I said, you know what? There's a junior college in Gainesville. Let's work on that. you can go to this junior college and you can perhaps transfer to University of Florida. I say even at Valencia it's now you know you go to Valencia four years now but two years at Valencia that's automatic route into UCF if you keep your grades and do the right thing but see in saying

160that this is why public schools and OCPS makes a difference. All of these listen here all of these options that we have and you know and I'mma say it's a poe frog that won't pray his own pond. Let me tell you something we have wonderful options for students and ranking. I was sharing with member Gallo I would had a fit if we couldn't rank when I was in school baby because I ranked. You know what I'm saying? I wanted to have a ranking and I'm 68 years old so I know right now they want a ranking but you know I and this is why I think that what we offer here in this district and the work again that you ladies have done there are so many options here for success. It's so many options

161here. Why wouldn't you want to come to school? I know I understand some students have socialization issues and we have that for you too, but just the op because you don't like this or like that and I'm just going to come at the last minute and graduate. No, no, no, boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo that's not how that works. So, I appreciate the options that we have. And of course, as member Bird said earlier in this discussion, we're going to have to do better with our PR like you're getting all that mailing in for homeschooling, whatever those schools, because I think if people really knew they really knew what we have to offer, they would run they would run, you

162know, they would run to see and be a part of of this district. So, I just wanted to kind of amen you on that bird. Thank you. Thank you, Member Felder. It's always a good day when you get an amen in from member Felder. and with that, there are no more board members. Oh, general counsel. So, I just wanted to point out given this conversation, I went to Valencia Community College and I was said that was back in the day when they had if you're in the top 10% of your high school class, you would go two years for free. So, I took advantage for that, transferred up to Florida, got my degree there, transferred. Eric went to UF for law school. You know, I struggle with that with my son who was like, he's

163going to Valencia. like, "No, no, that is a guaranteed way into a 4-year university. You don't even have to mess with taking 800 student geology 1000, you know, at Florida. You can just go get your two-year degree, transfer up, get in there. It's the way to do it." And you know, it's if I can just encourage folks to do it and students to do it and not feel, you know, hey, I'm going to a junior college or a community college or they call them state colleges now. I'm showing my age. Thank you. It's the way to do it and it was a great option and I would encourage all students to do it. Thank you, Mr. Pomearini. And you know, it's it's it's parents, too, though. I'm I'm on, you know, I'm on Facebook groups

164for college acceptances and some of the comments these parents are like heartbroken like they're like devastated like they have failed or something as parents. So I think it's just a whole conversation we just have to change and it's just going to take time to to make it okay. And I think parents talking about it like you know I share my story all the time about that you know I thought for sure this was a kid that was gifted in AP and I thought for sure my kid was going to be going to his university and then when that didn't happen I you know it's okay cuz it worked out and that was the way that was the path that was supposed to happen and actually to be honest if you talk to my daughter my

165daughter will tell you that she had a the best experience there because it was she was in the honors college. It was small. They sent her to like speak at conferences, things that never would have happened at FSU actually. So, it all worked out the way it was supposed to. But I think parents sharing that and I think Mr. Pomerini, you sharing your experience with that as a parent is important to you know continue to get that message out that it's okay and life will go on and it's more important that they end up where they're supposed to be, right? and with that, we have no more speakers queued up. Is there any further business that needs to be discussed for this work session? Okay, in that case the meeting is adjourned. Thank you both.

166We appreciate you. Thank you. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.