State Board of Education Meeting July 11, 2024

001all right thank you um seeing that our board members are all present in our new Arrangement here uh we'll begin the second day of the July meeting which is a study session and call the meeting to order at 8:31 a.m. um this is a study session of the board uh to really think about where are we where have we been where should we be organizing ourselves to go in the context of all of the education work in California uh because it's a study session the board members and attendance will take no action on any items vice president Glover Woods will be discussing the day's overview in more detail shortly but the meeting will include some activities involving the board as a whole as well as small group discussions involving the board members members of the

002public May observe the small group discussions from Chairs set around the edge of the room which have been limited due to Public Health considerations the meeting will be live streamed and public comment may be made via email phone or in person in accordance with our public comment guidelines so item 17 is the study session on the California way policies designed for school and Student Success accomplishments for future work and perspectives from California's local education agencies and other states and I'd like to turn it over to vice president GL Woods for her initial comments and the overview of the day thank you president darling Hammond and good morning everyone just so excited about today's study session just a very quick overview of what the day will look like we are going to start with a presentation

003about the California way really to give us an opportunity to look at what has been done and what things are currently in place and today board members you're going to find that the day is anchored with really two panel presentations peppered in with some reflection that you'll have an opportunity to do so our first panel is going to be a panel of superintendents from the state of California they will share with you some Innovations they have been able to support and Implement within their districts and they will give you presentations about the district and then we'll engage in a short panel discussion with all three of them and there will be an opportunity for you to ask maybe a question or two during that time once that's done we'll go into a small group conversation

004at each of our individual tables to reflect upon what we have heard the next panel presentation you'll hear is going to be uh from leaders in other states that have gone down that road of innovation as well who have been able to do some things at the state level in really ensuring that we we are providing support to the whole child looking at how we can uh do things in a such a way that are aligned to 21st Century Learning and where we know schools should be uh Dr I'm like what is her name no I'm Dr darling Hammond is going to facilitate that pie I'm like who are you Dr darling Hammond is gonna facilitate that conversation with uh leaders from the state of Kentucky as well as New York and again you'll have

005opportunity to do uh ask a couple of questions we're going to go back into a small group reflection and be able to um again reflect on what we've heard and talk about what we may see as some potential areas of next steps for areas of focus so that's what the day is going to look like little bit of presentation little bit of reflection and we will have some time to share out a bit as well so looking forward to the morning every one and um I will turn it back over to the person whose name I really do know Dr Linda darling Hammond the doctor stuff as I get you off course um well so we you know as you could tell from um Cynthia's remarks we're really trying to set some goals here for

006ourselves like where are we and where should we be going and you a lot of state board work is things that come to us that need to be handled because they're part of the way that um you know all the different rules and laws and um programs are set up uh but we're also in a really uh intense time in American public education and in California public education and think taking the time to think about where are we and what do we think are the big goals that we should be um setting for ourselves is really this is the first of several study sessions and we want to begin that process now um so uh just to give us a little history you know back in the 1970s California built what was thought of is

007one of the nation's strongest education systems in the country then we enacted Proposition 13 in 1979 and we uh had three decades of increasingly severe budget cuts um by uh the year 2004 John merrow who was a filmmaker did a film on California called from first to worst and documented the very sad state of um everything facilities and uh all of the elements of Education in the state um is that showing up yes okay good it's not showing up as well here uh by 2010 uh about you know decade and a half ago we were one of the lowest spending states in the country about 46th one of the most unequally resourced and segregated States for students the first most segregated state for latinx students and the fourth most segregated state for black students 50th

008in the ratios of pupils to teachers administrators and counselors we were in the bottom five states on every student achievement measure and graduation and so on 46th and eighth grade reading 48th and e8th grade math 49th and 8th grade science so we had really um sort of turned California into what we often would have thought of as a Southern state where there had been few education Investments it did begin to change uh shortly thereafter Jerry Brown Brown um took office in 2011 and um came in with a different agenda Mike Kur was the chair of the board Tom toxen was the uh State superintendent uh and um we had um I'm not blocking on his name but you all know who he is thank you Bill honik who had been State superintendent came back and

009uh was part of the instructional quality commission at uh my good friend Mike Kristoff and calls us the rise of the septo denarians they did come in with a lot of experience and had been through that process of the you know decline in fact Jerry Brown was there when Proposition 13 passed and had to do the first state budget cut so they they came in with an agenda to begin to sort of try to fix that they did launch an entirely different path we had a new of course Progressive funding plan with lcff which has put both more money into the system and put it into the system in much more Equitable ways a new accountability strategy the eight State priorities were uh identified as part of the lcff legislation the dashboard then emerged from

010that lcap was designed to guide the Investments with Community part participation there was more of a focus on support rather than sanctions we had had a very punitive accountability system previously um new approach to governance there was an attempt to be more coherent in state Direction at least around the standards the curriculum Frameworks and the new assessments uh but with a lot of local decision-making and you know that the multiple measures approach that we took on actually preceded the permission from the federal government to do it we just went ahead and did it uh and then they caught on uh and um we began to look not only at test scores but at other kinds of outcomes at student engagement School climate curriculum access this was a result of the Williams lawsuit that had come

011about because of the severe inequalities and access to um everything teachers materials facilities curriculum uh implementation of the Common Core was actually one of the eight priorities and parent involvement and as you know we've been working from this you know with the dashboard and uh lots of the accountability measures since during that next decade actually lcff didn't actually start to get didn't get passed until 2013 and get didn't get really implemented until 2015 but really even over that little bit of time we had the largest gains in the country in eth grade reading we went from 406th and eighth grade reading to the national average over the course of that period of time we were one of three states with the largest gains in fourth grade reading of course you know we had lots of

012room to grow so that makes it easier uh we had very substantial gains in fourth and eighth grade math although we continue to have math as an area of uh significant concern um and then we saw particularly large gains for low-income students and those in districts receiving concentration grants and several uh economists in California Rucker Johnson uh Julian lafan have done studies that have documented how uh substantial those gains were as a results of the lcff funding the graduation rate has dramatically increased um from uh the last over that last period of time the funding increases have also continued and in this Administration there's been another 30% increase in the amount of funding going through the lcf lcff to districts so we are now um uh slightly above the national average in uh funding and

013we were you know down at the very bottom just a little bit uh just a decade ago so there's been a lot of change in a relatively short period of time uh but meanwhile you know there's a lot more that we know we need to do uh this Administration has taken a whole child approach uh trying to point resources at pupil needs uh in many ways beyond the lcff formula all the federal money we brought in was really focused on uh pupil needs and on Equity principles trying to move towards a more 21st century curriculum and assessment system which focuses more on higher order thinking skills and problem solving trying to invest in skilled teachers and leaders uh creating the possibility for for wraparound supports with Community Schools uh and been bringing um early childhood

014education um online in a much more um systematic way so the system has begun to change we now have an early start for children with expanded PK and Universal TK we have expanded learning time before and after in summer school we have uh more than 2,000 Community Schools uh across the state health and mental health supports are uh supported there are supported on-ramps for teaching that did not exist before in terms of service scholarships and residencies and grow your own programs the uh California Leadership Academy was sort of brought back we now have the 21st century leadership academy one of the many programs California had started it was successful uh other states adopted it and then we killed it so that's been a that's been a pattern in California over the last 30 years is

015you know start a good idea other people pick it up and then we don't continue it and that's part of I think a goal for us and there is a a growing um professional development infrastructure beginning to be built um so the I would say and you may think of other things that are not listed here uh so I think as a result of those Investments California did lose less ground on National tests than other States during the pandemic uh we saw continued increases in graduation rates we lost less ground in math than most States um we held stud in Reading actually uh we were one of the few states that did not fall backwards in reading and LAUSD actually saw the largest gains nationally uh I just want to tip my hat to Allison

016who was doing a lot of the work in LAUSD at that time uh and San Diego remained the top performing Urban District in the country in in reading so you know we we have suffered to be sure and our kids have suffered but uh we also had some buffer that other states didn't have because of those Investments the substantial challenges that um certainly I see and as we have our discussions and Reflections we can add to this and you may think of other things you want to add but we do have deepening poverty for children uh just in the last year from 60% to 63% of tested students the increase in the poverty rate of students taking the state test um went up again uh we'll probably soon be at two-thirds of of our kids

017in poverty uh we have had a growth in students experiencing homelessness and Foster Care in the last couple of years uh we know about the mental health challenges we know that chronic absenteeism is a concern uh we know that declining enrollment is a concern and some of that is demographics and some of it's moving out of the very expensive State of California but some of it is also students who don't feel that they can find their way in the schools that we have and um you know pods and homeschooling and things are also increasing we have learning recovery needs and then we have this rapidly changing knowledge economy uh that demands these new skills and deeper learning and that should have implications for curriculum and assessment and if if your keeping up with just the

018daily you know expansion of conversation about Ai and its implications for us you know it's just um startling uh the um California healthy kids surveys are done by um uh wested designed the surveys and many many districts use these surveys uh and they periodically publish Statewide um estimates from a random sample that they select um they found that uh at the close of the pandemic at least 40% of high school students did not experience caring adult relationships in school uh academic motivation had declined during the pandemic chronic sadness and hopelessness a feeling that there's nothing for me uh increased during the pandemic quite sharply and then uh social emotional distress also increased optimism decreased suicidal ideation has remained at at high levels we also see that in National Data 75% of high school students um

019have only negative emotions to report about their schools and the top three emotions are tired stressed and bored and um the California healthy SK kids um survey has added a boredom metric because they found it so important to understand what was going on and then meanwhile we have knowledge growing exponentially so starting around 2000 there was more new knowledge created in the world between 1999 and 2003 then in the entire history of the world pre preceding knowledge is now doubling faster than every year so our kids are going to have to work with knowledge that hasn't been discovered yet using technologies that haven't been invented yet solving major problems that we have not managed to solve uh so the world is changing at warp speed you know the Technologies are a piece of it the

020nature of work most of the jobs that will be available in 20 years won't have not been invented yet many of the jobs that I I watch every week uh the evidence of jobs disappearing that you know used to be done by people and are being done now by um you know various forms of technology climate change is accelerating rapidly geopolitical conflict around us access to food water and safe places to live are going to be affected by all of that and then the ability to invent and collaborate and problem solve is really going to be like the essential skill for survival of individuals societies and the species and it's happening at such a rapid pace and schools are trying to figure out what to do about it um across the country and in California

021we see lots and lots of evidence and surveys that Educators and parents are calling for schools uh school to reinvent schools a little bit of a typo there but uh the restarting and Reinventing school is really beginning to be a theme and it's one we haven't had an opportunity to really think and talk about um at the board um you know the current schools that we have were designed in the 1900s um when Henry Ford's factory model was the the design for schooling uh it was picked up it was it was the modern thing to do in business and industry and it became the modern thing to do in schools and it meant putting kids on an assembly line and moving them in a standardized way across a trajectory but it was not designed to

022support relationships that was not any there were I I read the history and if you want to get into it read um David TX the one best system or um Callahan's um book on um schools the efficiency of schools but they never used the word relationships it was completely about getting kids stamped with a lesson as they moved along they did not have a whole child approach uh they didn't you know think about 21st century skills or deep learning they thought that only about 5% of kids should be streamed off for some kind of thinking work and maybe go to college and they expected lots of kids to drop out there was not an idea that you should somehow try to get kids to learn if they couldn't learn when you presented the lesson they

023were expected to drop out and go in the factory in the Mills because um basically the idea was that the school should select and sort uh for the society and it was decidedly not Equitable there eugenists were operating at the same time to design different conveyor belts for kids by race and by class very explicit so that factory model was as I say organized for batch processing in large groups with standardized curriculum each teacher was an individual worker on the assembly line and unlike other countries uh our teachers have the least amount of time to be collaborative work with one another um and uh the least amount of planning time for that uh so the idea is that you know your the teacher's job is really just being in front of the kids the pressian

024age grading system was adopted here which means you get a different teacher every year in many countries kids stay with the same teacher for two or three or even four years the platoon system was the idea that the student should jump up every 45 minutes and rush to another classroom it was not invented by a mother I am quite sure of that you know ring a and have the kids and 2,000 Kids jump up and run to another part of the building and get stamped with another lesson uh the tracking was designed uh largely by racing class to create different conveyor belts and schools were explicitly designed to select and sort as I said so we've see a lot of activity across the state uh and we're going to hear from some of the leaders

025in our state that have been really working on um an agenda to you know prepare kids for the century that we're in and for the world that they're going to encounter um and based on uh much of that what we know from the new um synthesis of the science of Learning and Development which show how important it is for kids to have positive developmental relationships is a extremely important part of the learning process to be in environments filled with safety and belonging it turns out that the best work that students do is when they have low threat and high supports uh and they are being um enabled to be respected and to be um not stigmatized in any way think about all the stresses that often occur in schools those actually we now know shut

026down the learning process uh rather than opening it up uh we know that rich learning experiences grounded in inquiry uh produce more knowledge development because we are inquiring beings everything that's been invented in the world is you know because of inquiring humans who said well what about this or what about that um development of social emotional skills habits and mindsets turns out to be incredibly important both for academic success and Beyond and then integrated student supports you know uh the ways in which we support students to remove obstacles to learning to be sure that they're able to learn so that's the question for us to begin to think about today is how should we support our system for the next decade and Beyond given the amount of change that's going on uh and um the

027uh the ways in which uh our students need to be able to survive in this new world so with that I turn it back to Cynthia who is going to introduce our panel and we're going to hear from some super are doing some really extraordinary work uh and in the face of all of this seeing dramatic improvements thank you Linda really appreciate you really framing where we're going to go this morning and I as I get ready to introduce to you the uh superintendent that will be sharing with us I just want for us to Anchor our thinking again around the whole child approach that the is really at the foundation of the California way and as has already been shared with you we know that the factory model for schooling that we've all experienced

028ourselves and that our students are experiencing to this day is not the model that is going to bring the most Student Success for all students considering again that changing field you know the new skills and deeper learning implications we don't do things the way we used to not even 5 years ago let alone 10 15 20 decades ago thinking about the changing world and how we prepare our students for those jobs that we don't we can't even conceptualize things that don't even exist yet our world again as uh Dr darling Hammond said is forever changing so as we build upon the California way and a lot of the great Innovations and changes that have happened within our system since nclb we're really it's really I think our moral obligation to ensure that we also look

029at how schooling needs to be reinvented and how we as a board can support that Reinventing at the local level and uh just as I'm excited to say about the state of California we have many districts that have already started along that path and we're um blessed enough to have three superintendent from three of the districts here with us today so I'm going to introduce them to you and as I do so uh superintendent if you would make your way over to the table you see to my right uh that would be wonderful and we'll get started with our panel discussion so the first superintendent that I would like to introduce to you is Michael matsuda he is from Anaheim Union High School District he is uh the superintendent of Anaheim Union High School District

030which is located in Northern Orange County California they serve approximately 28,000 students 78% who are eligible for free and reduced meals and 28 24% who are English Learners now one of the there are many wonderful things that are happening in Anaheim Union High School District and under his leadership he's built a new educational model incorporating reverse engineered career Pathways they also have developed a graduate profile that didn't just stop at a graduate profile it has evolved into an Innovative career preparedness systems framework which is an integrated approach to learning that catalyzes young people's engagement in school Fosters positive student relationships and brings purpose and meaning to students academic and career learning so we are very excited to be able to hear from him in just a few moments we also will hear from Dr Darren

031broy from Compton Unified School District he is the superintendent of that District in Compton is located in Los Angeles California they serve approximately 26,000 students 77% that are eligible for free and reduced meals and 27% English Learners under Dr bry's leadership Compton Unified School District was brought out of the brink of receivership and has benefited from a tremendous turnaround in student outcomes even while we were responding to the co pandemic Compton was able to see Improvement in academic areas for students most recently Davis Middle School which is located in the district was named on the top 10 short list for the best school prizes 2024 for Innovation which is the only school from the United States selected in that top 10 category the school's emphasis on Project based learning and other Innovations have led to

032remarkable achievement and last but definitely not least I'd like to introduce to you Tom Rooney he is from Lindsay Unified School District he is the superintendent there and Lindsay is a rural District in central California that serves about 4,000 students nearly all of the students in the district qualify for free and reduced price meals 53% are English Learners and they also serve a homeless population of about 133% Lindsay is a school district that has reversed historically low achievement and graduation rate by taking a new approach to learning they're nationally known for their integrated approach to personal learning and the Lindsay Educators have implemented a competency based educational model that allows Learners to own and manage their own learning and uh their learning facilitators also known as teachers provide guidance and interventions and as a result

033they are seeing great achievement um in many areas for their students so this is our esteemed panel for the morning and each superintendent is going to take uh roughly 10 minutes give or take 7 to 10 minutes to share with you a bit more about their district and after each superintendent has presented I will have an opportunity to engage in a little panel discussion and ask a couple of questions that might be very helpful for us to know as we go into our board reflection last thing uh board members just as a matter of letting you know um in your folder you do have some information that uh will align with the panel presentation so at this time I'd like to bring forward our first superintendent and superintendent please know and I have the handheld

034mic right over here you may present from where you are sitting or you may also present from the podium whatever is most comfortable for you but we'll have Michael massuda from Anaheim Union High School District start us off thank you okay s thank you so much Cynthia Linda in the State Board of Education for this opportunity to share our journey in redesigning and reimagining what schools can be for the State of California as mentioned earlier the ahsd is a 7 through 12 District serving about 27,000 students across five cities 80% of our population is free and reduced lunch identified 8% McKinny vento homeless identified over 50 languages spoken at home and there are 10 generational gangs operating throughout greater Anaheim yet the vast majority of our students are thriving led by a critical mass of

035amazing teacher and instructional leaders we have been able to develop a cohesive framework bringing together State initiatives under one umbrella we call the career preparedness systems framework cpsf think about vent diagram with a student in the center of our three drivers 21st century skills we call the 5c's technical skills including CTE Pathways dual credit mentoring and internship opportunities and finally our third driver probably the most important is the development of student voice and agency these drivers are intentionally integrated during the school day the 5 C's basically are the the think about emotional and relational intelligence are taught by every teacher across every content area technical skills are developed through amazing career Pathways and mentoring experiences that take place during the school day we have been able to achieve this because of our Anaheim C collaborative

036which includes the Orange County Roop hire Ed from UCI Cal State Fullerton Cyprus in Fullerton College as well as the city of Anaheim as well as over 120 corporate and nonprofit Partners besides traditional Pathways we are now offering Pathways in cyber security artificial intelligence biotechnology Esports and game design the business incubation lab sustainability and we're currently working with UCI on nanotechnology our dual credit Partnerships with community colleges in most cases are aligned to our Pathways and we have tapped into the enormous Talent of Community College professors the third driver the most important is the development of student voice purpose and agency in a student's education one of our core values is ensuring that Education Works for students and not the other way around I Venture that if you were to ask students across the state

037whether education work work for them or do they work for education you'd likely find that the factory model is alive and well and stifles authentic student voice as with all our drivers teachers are vital especially in cultivating the 5c's and developing student voice if you visit our schools and like my esteemed colleague from Lindsay we have hundreds of Educators visiting monthly at Anaheim Union High School District you would hear from students themselves share their purpose through truncated TED Talks we call soapbox features adopted from Mikvah in uh the LA county of Education uh democracy School initiatives you will hear students give spoken word performances or share digital V videos all created through performance task designed by their teachers working collaboratively across the curriculum our counselors help students curate their growing passion expressed in their performance

038task into six-year plans that help students decide on where they want to do and what they want to do with their lives and maybe what major they will choose if you think about a TED talk often the speaker ends with a call to action and ours are no different beginning with who they are by telling their own personal stories and ending with what they want to do with their issue this is why we lead the state and students graduating with the Seal of Civic engagement now although we don't tell students how to vote they are registered because they have found their issue and have connected the dots and who is responsible who benefits and who does not benefit they are ready to participate in society as responsible citizens the three drivers of the cpsf all

039coals to support a whole child developing into a whole adult isn't that what a healthy democracy needs our cpsf really encapsulates a graduate student profile like to put a shout out to our friends at scaling Student Success which many superintendents and districts are involved with and this is all about developing over time with many stakeholders including parents students teachers and community members what a high school education means in their Community the cpsf helps us ground our lcap and spsa work which is aign to developing the student profile we monitor our cpsf primarily through a Capstone program in which all teachers build learning experiences through performance task assessments ptas these ptas are curated by students in their e portfolios and become part of their personal resumés even after High School importantly ptas allow for us to

040measure what we value and embed much student reflection in their work which is the basis of what our research partner Dr Mary Helen ordino Yang of USC calls Transcendent thinking we agree with Dr IM Morino Yang and many of you um in the State Board of Education who have spoken about the test factory model and how it is usurping students opportunities for long-term growth in all areas of their lives in the midst of a growing youth Mental Health crisis reframing our view of Education as helping students Find meaning and purpose in their learning is a powerful tool for well-being the current emphasis on learning loss and test scores is a deficit based approach approach to education which will stigmatize a generation of resilient young people as lost we believe in a whole child approach which

041values students and their families as assets and focuses on healing through personal narratives and stories when we envision cpsf and its core elements it Fosters an equitable and just approach to learning that becomes more meaningful and relevant to our students and their Futures it supports and enhances the student experience especially for those student groups often underserved and are underrepresented through the lens of the mtss this in the Anaheim Union High School District the idea is the idea tier one approach finally I'd like to commend the governor and the SBE and the educ Community for continuing to support one of its most important initiatives the community school initiative which uh 15 of our 20 schools currently benefit from actually all of our schools benefit from it has been rejuvenating not only for our community but um

042for all of the our teachers and our visitors too who come monthly to learn from us and with us and what it's done is it has allowed teachers to have the resources to connect Community issues with student learning and problem solving good things have happened in our district for example we have built an urban farm at one of our high schools Magnolia High School which is used as an agroscience laboratory in Greater Anaheim to help solve food deserts and lowincome communities thanks to our amazing teachers it is has made a huge difference in the lives of students and families across the district I'd like to um end with some data because people say well show show us the beef here what's uh uh what's really happening in terms of the student data um our graduation

043rates in the last six years have improved from 86 to 91% a through G completion has improved from 43% to 54% our CTE pathway completion uh which is different from participation we have a lot of kids participating is up from 3.6 to 10.2% and our state seal of by literacy and and thanks to Shelley spel Colman and The Californians together for initiating that so many years ago we currently have one and four of our graduates uh graduating with the state seal of biliteracy and as I said mentioned earlier we lead the state of California with students graduating with the state seal of Civic engagement at 3,39 students additionally at us at UC Irvine over four years they have reported that AHS student ahsd students have outperformed all other feeder districts both in cumulative GPA and

044persistence rates um they have they are very Amazed by this and because of that work we have been recipients uh to major czi Grant with the University of California looking at uh what we're doing the cpsf and how it's impacting student performance at the universities of California our numbers are similar at Cal State Fullerton and we're just really really excited that we're able to show uh you know both uh satellite uh data Improvement yet if you were to look at our California dashboard um we would be considered uh mediocre District based on our demography and um and that really disturbs us because all the things I share all the good work that the teachers and the community have done together um focused on the initiatives of the state and the priorities from the state um

045obviously under the hood there's a lot of exciting things happening and I know that we're going to talk more about some of our recommendations in terms of tweaking things um so that we can better um sort of allow these amazing districts that want to redesign and reimagine what school experiences can be so that we can work together with the state board and and the state of California in that Journey finally I'd like to end with a quote from a professor of education at Southern Oregon Renee Owen who just wrote um an article in Obed piece in Ed week and this is what she said quote managing dystopia is certainly more familiar to many education leaders than leading a turn toward a more Equitable Paradigm this is our opportunity to reimagine what schools can be thank

046you so much for your time thank you so much superintendent matsuda thank you very much for giving us a little bit of an insight into what's happening there in Anaheim Union High School District board members as we get ready to hear from Dr broy from Compton just wanted to let you know there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions of the panel after of course I ask questions of the panel Dr Broly would you please share with us a little bit about the great things happening in Compton Unified good morning everyone so Compton Unified School District is a school district of roughly 20,000 students uh when I arrived 12 years ago Compton Unified was not doing so well so I'm going to take you along a little journey uh fast forward backwards fast

047forward but backwards first when I arrived our graduation rates were 58% they were dismal our a through G completion rate was about 12% uh also dismal and we had a high dropout rate and our performance indicators as measured by the esac and Ela and math we were not doing well at all so fast forward let's just fast forward about eight years maybe seven years Compton became a talked about school district in terms of its uh huge turnaround and performance now I'm going to tell you how that happened so I am a student of Malcolm Baldridge performance Excellence training and we pretty much implemented that piece within our organization and we have a extreme focus on continuous Improvement so from 58% to now as of today 93% graduation rate you can clap about that if you

048want and from a 12% a through G uh completion rate a through G is the requirements to get into CSUS and see systems from 12% in in 2012 uh we exceeded 52% last year we're expected to be around 67% this year so intense focus on continuous Improvement but also an intense focus on benchmarking our performance against our surrounding competitors not organizations competitors so we Benchmark our performance against LAUSD Lynwood Downey [Music] Paramount what' you say sounds like it's working and we we measure our performance uh annually in terms of how we're performing against our surrounding uh competitors and we continuously adjust for improvement so Compton is known as a turnaround School District now we've turned that District around uh thanks to the leadership of our governing board and the ability of our administrative team to

049implement things however there's a lot of moving Parts in that so part of that is due to the Partnerships that exist uh AB 288 you guys are familiar with uh AB 288 which is dual enrollment Compton Unified uh probably about 8 years years [Music] ago uh sponsored we had an assembly member sponsored legislation as well as one of our Senators to uh make that more Equitable if you will to students so we we started early college high school and in our partnership with Compton College we found out that our students our immigrant students were being charged out of state tuition so we had our assembly member and Senator sponsor bill which was approved at the state level to make that free for every student we took the approach that students should be entitled to a

050free and appropriate education so our our immigrant students shouldn't be charged out of state tuition fees when all of our other students were not being charged that and we successfully won that for all students across the state of California so that's an example that's an example of of being Innovative and your thinking and and how you can produce results for not just your students but students across the state of California and typically when we are addressing things we're addressing it from that uh point of view is this good for Compton but also is it good for students across the state of California so Partnerships we are a High performing District when it comes to um AB 288 completion rates we have a wonderful partnership with Compton College and you know we took a program where

051very few students were participating in dual enrollment to where it is across the district at all of our Comprehensive High Schools we also have Compton Early College which is a top performing High School in the state of California and a top performing High School across the nation uh last I checked I believe we were number 32 in the state of California and number 273 nationally right there in Compton and so we're doing quite a bit but the doing is is really an intense focus with Partnerships now how have we gotten better in terms of providing outcomes for students particularly at the secondary level Gear Up grants we were successful in securing Gear Up grants with UCI and Cal State uh domingus Hills we secured roughly uh four approximately $5 million uh Gear Up grants to

052at each of those institutions and so when we talk about outcomes and we talk about uh graduation rates that's Incorporated in that process as well it's not just about the continuous improvement process we have in and implementing Malcolm Baldridge uh principles but it's also a combination of the Partnerships that we have in in place and now we were about to go for a third Grant but our graduation rates have increased so much that they don't believe we'd be successful in in securing one so that's an example we have an intense focus on Steam science technology engineering arts and math I would challenge any Public School District to show that they're doing more than what Compton Unified School District is doing in that area how did that come about partnership once again with digital promise League

053of innovative schools about 10 years ago we entered into that organization we learned from the surrounding uh school districts there were only about 50 that were in it nationally at that time we'd go on visits to learn from them and eventually we wound up hosting uh two years ago it was the most successful uh visit that had ever occurred within the league of innovative schools corts so what do we do what do we provide for students beginning at preschool coding our our preschool students are [Music] coding we continue that throughout K through 12 but our students are also exposed to Esports they're exposed to robotics they're exposed to computational thinking they are exposed to engineering additional Partnerships Partnerships are very key we have partnership with uh Ron art also known as RTX now and that

054is the Naf Academy that is in place at all of our comprehensive high schools with a focus on engineering how did that come about Ron had a need to develop uh a Workforce and they came to Compton through Naf to implement the uh engineering acmy at Compton High School Centennial High School and domingus High School so now we are literally focused on gearing those students up with CTE pathway completion that by the time they graduate from Compton Compton Unified School District they're able to enter the workforce through rathon so Partnerships are key also Domingo high school we have ja Junior Achievement ja 3de we are the second uh School District in California to have implemented a program and the ja 3de program provides students with opportunities to solve real life Fortune 500 corporate issues so

055the CEOs of the company present a challenge to the students that they're trying to address for better better productivity or better outcomes and the students actually take that on then they have to present to the company and then teams the team that does the best job uh wins wins the award for that so that is a a program that is in place at uh Dingus high school that forces kids to take on real life challenges that are happening within Fortune 500 companies to address real life issues that they're facing so Partnerships uh continuous Improvement uh Focus throughout the district all of those things have have brought about uh the changes within Compton Unified School District as we look at how we have have performed uh pertaining to assessment outcomes last year our our school district

056grew 6% in math not very many school districts grew at all in the area of math we grew uh 2% in ela and language arts so once again that is that continuous improvement process that is being worked throughout the organization so we we really have an intense uh process that is in place uh our management team consisting of our site principles they participate in data chats with me on a monthly basis so maybe Elementary one month might be Middle School another month and and and high school within that same month but they are responsible for looking at the dashboard indicators tracking their performance within the current school year to determine whether or not they're on target to do better or do worse whether it's suspensions chronic absenteeism a performance in in ela or math and

057it's just an ongoing process that we work throughout the organization so that's a little bit about what's happening within Compton Unified School District and the processes that are in place and the Innovative approaches that are happening to produce better results thank you so much thank you so much for sharing we appreciate that and we'll get to hear a little more when we have our panel discussion now I'd like to turn it over to superintendent Rooney and please go right ahead good morning um and I believe a presentation is going to be pulled up here we are so um my name is Tom Rooney the superintendent schools for Lindsay unified it is truly an honor uh to be able to um one share the Lindsay story with you in the story of Lindsay Learners um but

058in hopes that perhaps this would be a source of inspiration or source of ideas as you do your own um planning and prioritizing uh for all children throughout the state of California um thank you for Michael and Darren incredible work you're doing in your districts and the children who are um benefiting from that before I get into the Lindsay story I wanted to First acknowledge several things that have happened through the state that have been incredibly powerful for Lindsay the universal preschool we have many many of our children attending preschool and we have five star ratings on all of our preschool programs the preschool and TK um building facilities um you're going to see incredibly beautiful facilities when you come to Lindsay and in in relation to to that we also have um a very

059um wonderful and Powerful um wraparound services for our community through our mckenny vento as well as our first five programs um we have an expansive du dual enrollment program and we're a high school of a thousand Learners and we have 18 Pathways that we offer for our Learners so and most recently we have a powerful um build your own program you heard Dr um um dingham and share earlier that the um the The Residency model so what we are doing essentially U both through state and federal funding is we are having Lindsay's children go through college through local resources and come back to Lindsay to teach Lindsay's children very very powerful um and trans informational in in our work and one of these days one of those Lindsay's children is going to be the superintendent

060and and all that so um it's been an incredible journey I want to first start out with our demographics I want to give you some context of who we are and the community that we serve so as you look at these demographics you can see some very challenging things that we face related to English Learners children of poverty very limited support that can be offered at the [Music] home the community of Lindsay has this type of data the fifth most impoverished community in the state of California high unemployment very low medium household income and I share this data with you because towards the end of my presentation I'm going to share the results that are happening with these children and I want you to see this because lindsy Community might be somewhat severe compared to

061most communities in our state but there are many many states who have many many communities in our state that have similar demographics and similar challenges before we started our CH our our work of transformation to a learner centered system this was the data that we were facing this was about 15 years ago very few Learners graduated from high school and very few went to a university and those who did very few got actually ever got a degree it was a very we had when you look at this data we had the need to transform why most importantly because of these people the moms and the dads that entrust their children to us the moms and the dads throughout the state that bring their children to schools they put them on the buses they walk them

062they push the little ones and strollers and they say these are my children can you give them the opportunity they deserve and we embraced that in Lindsay fully and one way that we've how the core of how we've transformed our system over the last 15 years is we engaged the voice of the community we had a series of community forums where we essentially asked the community these five questions and I would challenge districts throughout the state to ask them have you ever asked yourself why do you actually exist it's interesting what you came up with what we come up with we exist to empower and motivate for today and tomorrow that is our mission not just learners but adults and the entire Community we also we answered questions around what are the values that we

063Embrace what are the principles that will guide our decisions but I'm going to tell you that the most important question there is what is the description of our graduate and I view this as our gift to the world this is the type of human being that's going to leave our system and on this slide you'll see what our community asked us to do they said please produce children produce young adults into society that are like this that are people who are well balanced self-directed caring and compassionate civic-minded culturally aware you're going to hear and you've already heard but a push for the local profile of a graduate this is our profile of a graduate how many of you would like your own children to be like this your own neighbors the people we meet in

064the store the people who who we see in church how many of you would like them to be this kind of a human being so in Lindsay it's not just about academic proficiency that's absolutely critical but it's also about what kind of a person you're becoming and that's described in our profile of a graduate essentially our system is built on a very basic principle that people learn in different ways in different time frames every one of us in this room everyone listening in every human being learns in a different way in a different time frame the very fundamental problem with the traditional model the factory-based model that Linda shared earlier is that it doesn't honor this basic principle it basically puts Learners in grade levels and in a certain place because of their age or

065for some other reason but it's not because of what they need it's not honoring who the individual learner is and when we started this program I tell you a quick story there as we started this program um we met with every single a we started with the Freshman Class of 2009 and we asked we talked to every single parent of an eighth grade learner and every single eighth grade learner and I was meeting with this group of eighth grade Learners there was probably about 50 of them in the room and I said next year you're all going on to Lindsay High School I want to let you know that for some of you this will be a 4-year experience but for some of you you're going to finish in three or three and a half

066and for some of you it might take four and a half or five but what we're going to do is we're going to make sure that you learn that's our commitment to you we're not just going to push you through the system because the year passed we're going to guarantee competence both academically in personal Excellence that's what we're going to commit to doing for you 13 year old boy in the back row raised his hand and he says Mr Rooney so what you're telling me what you're telling us you're telling us that you're not going to give up on us because you know what they gave up on me when I was a seven-year-old kid in the second grade and you know how come I know they gave up on me CU they keep pushing

067me through the system I wasn't learning I got further and further behind I learned to hate school and here I am an eighth grader I hate school and I barely know how to read because the adults gave up on me when I was seven years old so I would challenge all of us to think about it how many children in this state have that mindset that the adults have given up on us they've given up on me and they've given up on me because they keep letting me go through the system whether I learn or not as a matter of fact some of those kids they they push them through because they want them to go forward they want to kind of get them out of here how fair is that where's the equity in

068that this is the model of Lindsay's performance-based system we essentially are building the ideal learning experience for every Lindsay learner it has many of the components that you saw Lind this earlier I didn't realize that until I was looking at it but it's a culture of investment culture of empowerment it's a culture that is learner centered that's focused on quality instruction effective and transformational uses of technology and all of the things that you see on here I'll let you read this slide to yourself I know as the State Board of a you have the Pack this in your packet as well this is the core components it's all about the Learners we'd have to ask ourselves as as we move forward forward with policies and initiatives at the state level is it really about the

069Learners and that would be my challenge for you to make sure everything is about giving Learners what they need as opposed to something else Lindsay is a learner centered model described like [Music] this and imagine this this is right out of the vision that our community gave us that every Lindsay learner comes to school they are met at their developmental learning level they are challenged they are successful and they want to come back to school the next day how many of our Learners throughout the state want can we can say this about what a powerful thing to Aspire for that every learner wants to actually come to school every day because they're getting what they need and here's the data this is prepandemic data the current data is a little lower we're on recovery like

070some so many people people but our graduation rate now is like 96.5 but it was 98% pre pandemic you can look at the percent going to college the percent getting a degree and you saw some data earlier about the California healthy kids survey we're in a 99th percentile in several of our schools Lindsay High School being one making it essentially the safest learner connected bully free drug- free alcohol free high school in the state of California despite our demographics that I shared in the first couple of slides our transformation for learner centeredness has proven results and like others we've had over 1,200 visitors from across the nation and internationally that are coming and what they do is they come and they spend a day in the life of a Lindsay learner they spend a day

071with our Learners and currently we're part of think tanks at the international and the national level and now more recently through scaling Student Success at the state level think tanks of how are we re transforming education some of you may be familiar with this person Robert Marzano very well-known he wrote the forward to a book republished in 2017 Robert Marzano knows of thousands and thousands of school systems throughout the nation and he says that Lyn y Unified District transformed its system into one it can and should become the model for K12 education for the next several decades we are hoping that our system and the things we've learned can be of benefit to others many are learning through their [Music] visitations I'm going to push you now as the state ward of Education a little

072bit I'm going to drop some things here that that I'm just going to encourage you to think about moving away from from a traditional Factory based model is we require some things these are some things in Lindsay that we've done or we're moving [Music] towards we do not have a through F grading it's totally unequitable and it's completely subjective we have rubric based scoring we don't average grades when you start the learning you're not actually supposed to know the content and so if you get a low score at the beginning that's okay you should but they should be counted against you at the end when you have competency grade levels we have content levels not grade levels based on age Learners move based on their proficiency not on their age or the end of a

073school year the use of technology leveraging that we were well ahead of the curve every learner had a device and everyone was connected in CommunityWide we closed our schools for the pandemic on March 17th and we opened up the very next day for learning because everybody had a device everybody had connectivity and our curriculum was already online future focused thinking using space credent credentialing requirements and really thinking through that and influencing that to give every learner the person they need regardless of the credential funding based on seat time politically driven governance models and the focus limited to academic proficiency what we say is let's change those and many other things but these are key things that you could think about because the truth is how many of you believe that there are problems in our

074world show your hands there are problems in our world there are problems on many fronts corruption and challenges and the battery is running low that's okay this is this this is the last slide challenges I think they're cutting me off the point in the message of this is that the truth [Music] is these challenges are going to be solved by our children in our school system now the future of our country the future of democracy the future of the world the future of humanity depends on them solving those problems and what are we doing to meet them to get at their level to give them what they need in order to actually thrive in that future that they will live in we're counting on them and right now they're counting on us thank you thank

075you superintendent Rooney and I think that is just a great way to jump into um a burning question that I know I have and I know many who are listening have as well and I'm just going to Anchor it where you've ended knowing that the students we are serving today are the one who will the ones who are going to be faced with solving the challenges of our world some of which we know now some of which we don't even know and as an educational system and those of us in it we have a moral imperative to be sure that our young people are ready to do so so I'm going to pose a question and I'd like to give each of you maybe about two or 3 minutes to answer this question considering our

076current system in California what has enabled you to have the successes and be Innovative and you've touched on that so you really don't have to spend a lot of time on that piece but more importantly where might there be obstacles and each of you have been able to facilitate within your District um I would say a navigation around perhaps obstacles that are in place within our system what are things you feel our board members need to know as far as things that can help you further innovate and create that learner Center world for students and what obstacles and challenges are in place that but if you had your magic wand you'd be able to just move out of the way so you could innovate even further so I add yes please on that um for

077the kind of work that you're doing to spread more widely what kind of state actions would be productive thank you both for what you're doing locally but also for others who would want to do this kind of work thank you and I'll you I'll say this for in case those who are live streaming didn't hear it's about scaling up what type of things would need to happen at the state level in order to be able to scale more broadly the work you're doing so I'm going to give each of you a couple of minutes if you see my microphone waving that means your time is up so to speak because we want to give the board members time to ask a question or two as well so anyone can can take it anyone who would

078like to jump in I I'll touch upon two things uh Arts and Music so proposition 28 also the Arts and Music block grant um greater flexibility so I know there's a movement to try and have individuals with the expertise come in sort of like the vocational authorization right that allow we we're allowed to use at the secondary level there's not enough teachers so there's going to be a lot of money that's just sitting there not being used if there's not greater flexibility and issuing a vocational authorization to individuals that have the expertise to provide the education and the second one CTE California technical education so right now everything is seat-based you know they got to go through courses they got to sit behind a desk they got to take course one take course two complete

079a Capstone project that might consist of three courses that might consist of four courses depending on what what the uh subject is yet we know that industry level certifications individuals leave High School making 80 to $120,000 with the it certification but yet CDE does not recognize certifications as pathway completion that would be a wonderful way and that is a barrier but that would be a wonderful way for school districts across the state of California to get better results in terms of the college career indicator dashboard thank you Dr broy Who would like to chime in yeah I think there are big tweaks and little tweaks I think on the little tweaks we indicated um the um better more intentional alignment between the lcap work and the graduate student profiles allowing districts are you know pushing

080districts to do this work you've you've I mean it I think through scaling Student Success and other there's there's a lot of commonalities and they're going to focus the community is going to focus on on skills and uh emotional relational intelligence all the things that we've talked about here I think the other small in our view small tweak is to allow uh more attention visually uh on local indicators in the dashboard I think that would coupled with more more a focus on graduate student profile that would allow more flexibility I think some of the big tweaks Tom had talked about um in terms of you know shifting to enrollment with with um accountability measures away from uh the factory model of daily attendance I I think the other area that we are looking in in

081terms of school redesign is all to add in independent study which is more work based rather than seat based workbase does lead to more um thinking about Mastery completion and I I think these are really you know there there's I think the state needs to push for expanded Pilots you've heard from my colleagues here uh Callum Innovation zones or you know ways in which the state can work with these um districts that want to move forward and um allow them to Pilot um some of these programs to learn how to scale um I and I think the other thing too we can't forget the importance of our teachers um there's so many great teachers in each of our school districts sitting right in front of us who want to do this work but feel Shackled

082and yolked uh by some of these uh traditional uh requirements thank you for sharing that and you mentioned Innovation zones and I wanted to share with the board that uh we will have opportunity to hear even more about Innovation zones uh when we hear from some of our partners in other states as well so thank you so much for sharing that and superintendent roone again you guys have really re-imagined school for Learners and I was sitting here in the Amen Corner when you brought up about grading and why are we averaging what students know at the beginning of the year as opposed to really focusing on what it is they've learned what would you like to add to this conversation as far as what obstacles may be in place how we can do things you

083kind of threw it out there for us but go ahead take us a little further all right well just a couple I mean there's agree with what I shared with my colleague from my colleagues here about a couple of other things to consider is um it's almost a way of some finding a way to incentivize or give people permission to play in this space of future focused and redesign because right now um there's a there's a culture of compliance there a cult culture of um meet these numbers be careful what shows up on the dashboard it's going to become media it's going to get on it all of this stuff and so there's almost this this fear of actually doing something outside the box right and so my encouragement is whether it's called Innovation zones

084whether it's called giving people permission or whether it's actually incentivizing and giving grants to say we need people to reinvent the system so that it's learner centered future focused and gives every learner what they need who's going to take that challenge on when you do that people will step up because there are incredibly Innovative Souls out there that are just resting below the surface and they want to be Unleashed but they sort of can't sometimes because it's so compliance driven another element to consider is um just related to to what gets measured what's get elevated and so anything that could be done that that honors local measurements local profile of a graduate um what the local community wants for their children will actually happen there's some data that shows that many districts meet their local

085indicators why because they picked them because that's what matters to them and what matters to La unified may not be the same of what matters to Ru Lindsay which may not be the same That Matters to Inner City Sacramento so some some some local indicators in measuring that would be critical and then um I could keep going going down the list but maybe one more to consider to push out there is the um credentialing requirements because sometimes we cannot always give um the Learners the right adult they need because they don't have the right piece of paper and how fair is that that's very inequitable that somebody has to spend a year with somebody when they actually would Thrive with the person next door or they would Thrive with the person who maybe doesn't have

086that piece of paper allowing people to allowing adults to teach children regardless of the piece of paper they have I mean I'm all for some sort of requirements on that but maybe some flexibility or some um creativity and how that may look thank you and thank thank you um actually all three of you for sharing and I was again just fever Al taking notes over here about the greater flexibility in the use of funding for arts and CTE looking at that alignment to the elap and The Graduate profile and that's something that all of you kind of lifted up in different ways that you have done in uh superintendent matsudo I love the from paper to practice theme that uh is spoken of in your District um so really looking at more emphasis on those

087local indicators and incentivizing innovation all of those have been lifted up so I'd like to now provide opportunity to any board members that would like to ask a question of our panel one of the superintendents or all of them we do have um a few minutes left before we go into our break and then our small group discussion is there any board member that would like to ask a question or yes Dr darling Hammond oh you um member mcquillin put his hand up and if we can thank you member mcquillin if you use that microphone that way those live streaming can hear your question as well thank you thank you all for the presentations um we heard a little bit about the Seal of Civic engagement and I'd like to hear more a little more

088details about how you got those numbers so great thank you I think uh I think for any of the um initiatives that's really important that um districts develop what we call um the architecture systems underneath the hood right because it's easy to say that we support democracy and Civic engagement well what's underneath there and oftentimes that means um releasing or having accountability someone in charge of that teachers identified uh stipended at sites and meeting regularly so we have built an architecture underneath to ensure uh what are the requirements from the state to earn a and same goes with the Seal of biliteracy as well and that way um again we've had a number of people ask similar questions and I said that you districts have got to put skin in the game right it's easy

089again to have that poster to say we stand for democracy or multilingualism but what do you have underneath and what type of ultimately what type of out outcome data do you have so not only do we have kids getting the seal but we also look at voter registration patterns uh as well as indicators and and we have students themselves now who own it and come back as interns uh working with the county registrar's office so um it's really it there's a lot of energy around that initiative and thanks to the state for for pushing it out we appreciate that opportunity yeah uh president darling hammer and then I see member escabedo as well okay member escabedo please go ahead well again thank you for sharing um I I just want to commend it it it

090takes a lot of work and it it it takes extended work and a question that I have for you um you obviously been long at at your position which is rare uh what has helped you enhance your tenure at your District what what have we done as a state that has really helped you as a superintendent um to flourish in your position or to survive or to survive yes or surv well well I'd like to answer okay so I'm starting my 13th year as superintendent in Compton I believe the component that have well one thing that really helps is a stable Board of Education locally right so we've had a very stable Board of Education those individuals that have ran have consistently been reelected so that shows that they really believe in the vision of

091the school district and the implementation of of what's Happening locally but the focus that we have within the organization really around uh the dashboard indicators right and really focusing on continuous Improvement in terms of getting better without results I don't believe that I would be around and I'm not so sure that the board members would continually be reelected it's a great question I'm not sure I have an answer because I don't actually think about that a whole lot um but but I would say one of the things that I would say um is that I think in some ways from from my perspective is the State Board of Ed has not gotten in our way that's and that's important it's not like you know there's not like don't do don't do we haven't had like

092you know people coming down and tell us not to do this I don't think Compton has had the same thing we're just you know we are um we've been fre to do that out of control proc okay other than that one that one is you're right um but as far as like as a superintendent hasn't stopped me I I think I think it's given us political cover to do the right thing the challenge has been that uh many of these initi initiatives on the ground exist in silos right and I think that's part of our challenge in terms of rethinking and redesign um we and I really believe that uh in this political environment the emphasis on on Career Pathways and Golden State Pathways is whether you're on the right or the left um our

093consuit constituents agree that that's the way forward now for us under the hood we really want to develop that identity and that agency and linking it to careers but it to get to the culture in the classroom of identity affirmation these TED Talks we're talking about you need safe inclusive classrooms and that leads to ethnic studies you know in and and by telling your story so that's how we get to a lot of this stuff and I think that's what um some of the districts are struggling with because everything's Silo yes president darling and I was going to give the final question to about how we get how do we address the silos are there things that we should be doing to address those you all mentioned or at least two of you mentioned the

094lcap what ought to happen with the lcap you know um Darren you snuck that in and the last comment and then you had mentioned it earlier what are some of the things that we really need to be focusing on well I think you know getting back to his and then addressing that so local control has helped don't I don't think any of us can deny that but the lcap process has just gotten progressively worse it's a process that was supposed to be cleaned up to be shorter but it keeps growing and imagine imagine if you were a very small school district and you don't have the staff to take that on and that's extremely overwhelming it consumes a lot of time that could be spent differently and Mike you mentioned something about in the lcap

095uh how would we give more attention to local indicators indicators and The Graduate profile I mean there was something about the way the elab is presented and then the way the local indicators are presented and I think you make I I think if we begin with that process um if you heard from superintendent Rooney we've seen many of the results there's like something like 80 districts that have done this work and there's a lot of similarities in terms of what the communities would hope for for their high school graduates and that that's what we need in terms of creating that infrastructure and architecture the the value networks and structures under the hood based on a graduate student program file I mean I think with AI tools now the state can access uh those 80 and

096more because they're happening across the the state of California and and maybe come up with some um common agreed upon uh graduate student profiles I think there's an opportunity we have not talked about technology and and the Advent of a really powerful AI tools now there are some lessons and caveats and red flags but I think that's another big issue in terms of of access well thank you very much um let's give our panel a round of applause I'm sorry we have one other question so you'll get another round of applause in just a moment member Rosco Gonzalez please I'm just so appreciative of your conversations and as a teacher in the classroom I a line that you said um superintendent Rooney about giving every learner the person that needs they need regardless of their

097credential um really resonated with me as a mentor and induction a master teacher for over 15 years and in the profession for 25 years uh what types of flexibility would you like to see when it comes to credentialing so that we could get the appropriate educator facilitating instruction for your students because I always see myself as a facilitator a gradual release of responsibility on my students and I'm mentoring right now a teacher who is a maven when it comes to the Arts and Performing programs um Arts Theater and she has some difficulty with her credential because of testing and so forth but I think of the CTE programs and I know that um superintendent Bry you mentioned um being Innovative with schools with coding and those CTE programs and Pathways that sometimes don't have those

098Pathways to credentialing that are that look a little bit different what do you think when it comes to that I think you asked a great question and I think you gave a lot of answers as well I mean honestly honestly know that was perfect because that's those are the types of things because somebody has to jump through a certain hoop or they can't pass a certain test or they they didn't have a certain experience in order to do something even though they have incredible life experiences but they never had the job that did that around CTE for example I mean we have a incredible educator in our community Day program the most needy Learners who is just producing incredible results he couldn't pass the test he's not in the job next year that's a detriment

099to our Learners um and so that's just so I think you you named some of them it's just some that that would be the type of flexibility and I don't know if it's more time or if it's um being creative about the types of requirements that are needed and it's the same thing with Learners like with Learners they're going to show their Proficiency in different ways they really are some are not good test takers and yet if they don't pass the test we get a bad mark on something right but if they're still proficient if they show it in a different way so allow people to show adults to show their Proficiency in a variety of different ways and consider what people say about them consider about what their mentors like you say about them

100and how ready they are and how good they would be for Learners so that might be a few ideas thank you for that wonderful thank you so much superintendent Rooney and again let's please give our panelists a big round of applause thank you for opening yourselves and your districts to us at this time we are going to go to a break we'll come back at 10:15 and engage in some more conversation um superintendent I know you are so so busy and on the move and probably trying to catch some flights uh but board members if you have any questions you'd like to talk to them about on their way out please feel free to we'll see you back at 10:15 thank you agenda and this is where you will have opportunity within your small groups

101to really reflect upon what you've heard this morning again Dr darling Hammond led us with the California way where we have been where we are what things we need to keep in mind we've heard from superintendant who have lift up lifted up a few things they've talked about graduate profiles they've talked about Innovation zones flexibility that's needed incentivizing Innovation those are just some of the things that bubble to the surface so now board members you're going to engage in a small group conversation that really allows for you to reflect upon the insights and wonderings the these discussions that we had prior to the break raised for you and also kind of continuing along that theme of how can or should we as a board support those Innovative approaches at the local level and we heard

102a little bit about things that perhaps should be considered and also we heard a little blurb that some of the help is just stay out of our way so please keep that in mind as you're engaging in your conversation just to give you an idea for your time frame you're going to take from now now until roughly 10:45 10:50 I'll give you a 5 minute warning and then at 1050 somewhere about there we're going to have opportunity for just a very brief share out from each of the tables again based on what insights or wonderings did the discussion raise for you and how can we support Innovative approaches at the Lea level you will also find those questions in your folder at the very back of the section that uh had the handouts and information

103from the superintendent so you'll find the questions there as well are there any questions that you have at this time at the very back of oh that would be me my gosh okay so please go right ahead and I will give you a 5 minute warning when it is about time for us to prepare for a share out thank you oh that would be me my gosh okay so please go right ahead and I will give you a five minute warning when it is about time for us to prepare for a share out thank you your sh thank you e for for our spe what for for [Music] at e e e okay vard I just wanted to let you know um we're going to prepare to going to uh report out in just a

104couple of minutes so please take about I'd say 60 to 90 seconds I learned from the best I learned from the best take six UH 60 to 90 seconds not to share but to synthesize what the share out's going to be so you have a lead at each table that will actually report on your behalf and so I just want to give a heads up that that time is getting ready to come in just a little bit so take another minute or so to gather your thoughts and then we're going to go into our share outs shortly e e e okay you're 60 to 90 seconds has expired and then some Al righty so if we um I think you can just share from your tables to be very honest uh just take a couple

105of minutes and lift up anything that you feel would be important for the rest of the members to hear as we get ready to kind kind of put a little pause on this portion of our conversation and ready oursel for the next so is there a group that like to go first okay member esao please do okay had a great discussion here and and uh this is we we first we thought about how can we enhance flexibility and almost give permission for our leaders maybe through incentivizing how to be Innovative you know we need to learn because we've we've created such a culture of compliance we need to figure out how do we create a culture of innovation um another point that we wanted to share is that how can we better streamline lcap I

106think it was Mike that talked about you know utilizing The Graduate profile as a as a means to reverse engineer into the lcap and how we automate that process through AI or through other mechanisms I know with the um site plants most of that document is automated um can we maybe do something similar with lcap um another point that we brought is how do we better align our state initiatives you know really many of the decisions we do seem to be sometimes silo load how do we how can we create an integrative approach and how plans are created how grants are are also dispersed um instead of having all of these extraneous plans or or different type of Grants from different either federal or state grants how can we create more of an integrative approach

107for our schools to enhance their funding and then we would like to to maybe explore and better highlight uh local indicators um just something to research and and uh then how do we incentivize a greater student centered approach in the form of elevating student voice and how can we scale up Exemplar Community Schools in our state you know and that could be by looking at different funding mechanisms to um learn from what we've been doing but we have to think about how do we scale up those um those learns thank you member esav next group so I we we touched on a lot of those same things so we'll sort of start with plus one uh and then um we talked uh initially about you the importance of of moving from a learner Center to

108from a compliance driven to a learner centered approach uh and I was um Sharon said away from accountability toward practice like really thinking about how do we make the resources and the knowledge about uh how to get better more available both from CDE but also from leaders in the field and sharing across the field um we identified a couple of areas that are constraints uh on innovation one is sort of system misalignments some of which we experienced yesterday and the preschool system is different from the K12 system and the K12 system has different requirements than the community college system and when you try to make things work across the system you have to do a lot of fancy dancing um so you know thinking about how to think across systems and make them um more

109uh share share a common vision and a common way of doing doing um the work uh we talked about some things that seemed overly prescriptive um and I think as we were thinking at the school level we have several folks here who are working at the school level things like the CTE Pathways have certain restrictions Association to them credentialing requirements have certain restrictions that make it hard to get the learner centered work done and we should be looking at where we can uh create more room for that work to be done in a responsible way but but in in a way that is more um doable um certain things that we are doing we want to be sure get you know continued and you know Community Schools dual credit you know a lot of these

110things came up as really important and then how do you fit them into a system that's learner centered um one suggested that the State Board ought to hear more from successful innovators so we understand what's needed so that's kind of board meeting agenda um prioritizing as the other group said uh ways to allow for local measures uh to be more Pro prominent in the um lcap in the dashboard right now the local measures like the the dashboard for the state measures is In Living Color and the local measures are in Gray sort of on the edge um the the LC cap doesn't start with what's your vision and what's your profile of a graduate and so on so those kinds of things might be uh places to allow the both synthesis at the local level

111so there is a vision and then you know prioritizing you know how that Vision can get expressed um and make sure those measures that are locally meaningful are getting attention and then um the seals of Civic engagement and seal of biliteracy are just such powerful ways to engage kids in what matters to them and in in and in this progress towards not only meaningful learning but you know the kind of learning that will do them um Justice and enable them to contribute to society in the future so thinking about ways where some some of these things get um greater uh both attention from us and attention in the local uh Community anything else I missed thank you and so for our group and I'll I'll come up here so you don't have to turn your

112back we had um again very similar plus one plus one plus one uh one of the things we talked about and I think kind of our overall is again how do we incentivize Innovation how do we create those opportunities uh for districts to innovate in those spaces that they feel are important to where we take away that fear of innovation as was shared with one of the superintendent and how might we how might we be able to shine and highlight I think very similar to what this table said shine and highlight those spaces of innovation those places that are doing things in mul different ways in having success with students how could we um through some type of a recognition or hearing at a board meeting or things along that line again incentivize and raise

113up those that are and also let them uh serve as learning spaces for others who may want to innovate in those areas um and might wonder well how do we go about doing that another uh piece that we talked about was how to lift up those local indicators again something that came up from each of our tables here and really looking at um lifting up the local indicators and what was suggested I believe it might have been from um one of the districts linking that with that portrait of a graduate that profile of a graduate so that at the local level they're able to look at those spaces um that they determine important locally but it's anchored to their overall Vision that PO profile of a graduate uh and uh one thing that came out

114from the group as well with the superintendent is well how can you at the state level help to synthesize all of the great work that's happened throughout our state in that space because there are a lot of districts that have already engaged with their communities already develop profiles of graduates based upon that Community collaboration so is there a way we can look at that work and come up with some commonalities uh that represent the state as a whole and I I I will just kind of say with that it's not about taking away what's already been done at the local level but to also provide a state level profile as well that districts could anchor into if they have not already engaged in that local work and lastly we did have some conversation about an

115area that we have absolutely no control over as a state board as you would expect and that was around that flexibility in credentialing and really really looking at how to be sure that students have the teachers in front of them that they need um as well as students teachers in front of them that can really help reach and motivate so um again we want to emphasize that we know this is not anything that the state board has a direct hand in but there was some conversation on how to provide that flexibility um how the CTC might think about providing that flexibility without throwing out the academic knowledge that we know teacher need to have when they come into the space but we also know I think more now than ever that teachers also need to

116have those soft skills that we're talking about for students because you can have a very strong academic knowledge but if you can't motivate and engage with students it just kind of Falls flat and learning doesn't happen so how might that be able to be done and that flexibility that's necessary again not for us to figure out but just something we wanted to lift up is there anything else group or we did I capture the high levels Kim yes my best so many uh examples of sample lcaps online um but one of the things I think that we heard from the superintendent panel was how how much there has been a shift towards compliance rather than using it as a strategic planning document and even thinking about like could we give an award for most succinct

117lcap right to actually make it an efficient document that packs a punch in terms of communicating what what you need it to but makes clear that it's not supposed to be a administrative exercise that it's actually supposed to factor into student outcomes and how schools are run a lot of legislation around that yes yes the lcap that just strategic the most strategic takes on the Sharon wants to something yes um I was just one last thing that um feels important to to raise is how in all three of the districts we um heard from there's such an emphasis on student strengths um and being a strengths-based environment and um I wonder how we make our work more strength based um how we um help raise up I mean it's sort of along the lines of

118hearing more from um districts or schools that are doing really great work so we're hearing the strengths um but it's also how are we celebrating even even schools that are struggling in some ways are they writing about the things that they're doing really well and the way their kids are successful are are we giving them opportunities to really make change to support the strengths of kids not just their deficits um that just feels like if we're really trying to think about how to emulate some of what we heard we have to shift our focus a little bit um towards what's really working what assets kids already have what assets communities have um it because that's what's going to make kids want to come back the next day as you were describing earlier so thank you

119member Oaken so that's the first step in our conversation this morning and so now we're going to get opportunity to hear from those who are doing work in other states it was important for us to start right here in our home ground here in California it definitely was to hear about the California way to hear from some of our superintendents and now we can continue our learning with what may be happening with Partners in other states and experiences they've had so I'm going to turn it back over to Linda to take us to this next part all right I'm going to start by giving you a f minute break but no more than five minutes because we're going to have on the screen uh before 11 our our folks from Kentucky and New York I'll

120just say that those are two states some of us have been going to the nasby meetings and sitting on nasby committees and all of that and we've been meeting board members and board leaders and other States and seeing that there's a lot of activity going on around the same questions that we're dealing with obviously people are dealing with them across the country so uh Kentucky is a place that did a very interesting strategic plan uh that we'll hear more about um that um got presented and then New York has just recently been really rethinking the way in which they want to structure the high school experience and support U more um 21st century skills so to speak so we'll hear from both of them in just a couple minutes and I really will ask you

121to come back in 5 try to be here a minute before 11: so we can start right on time with them we don't have we don't have much we don't have much time with them you ready for them let's do it ah we have a PowerPoint Lou and Sharon are you there can you hear [Laughter] us where are they Lou and Sharon are you there yes I'm here Lou's here all right terrific we can't see your beautiful faces yet for some reason oh uh let me see can there's Sharon and there's Lou we have beautiful faces awesome somehow we're not seeing you at the same time but we're seeing you both okay all right it's good to see you I don't know if you can see us can you see us we can okay yeah

122so thank you first of all for taking time to be with us and to share with us um and um we're fortunate in Kentucky both Sharon uh Robinson who is on the screen now and Lou young who will be also in a moment have been uh chairs of their state board of education and they've been working on an agenda for quite a quite a number of years they're going to share that with us in about 10 minutes uh they start now and and take about 10 minutes to share what they're doing why and how that is helping them think about preparing uh students for the future and then we'll hear from Lester Young when he comes on from New York so I'm going to get you guys going oops all right take take it away

123there's some kind of a a menu going up here on top of your face I'm not sure why but uh who's starting is it Lou or Sharon will start I'll get us uh underway and ter thank you so much hand it off to oh well thank you it's been great to uh engage in uh kind of intelligence sharing at this uh really interesting time in our effort to serve our students in our respective States uh enjoyed catching up on uh your framework for strategic planning and also looking at the New York report uh we started uh this journey as we convened as a relatively new board well it was a new board with uh appointed by a new governor and uh we were in the midst of a uh our first commissioner search we've already

124endured our second commissioner search uh but that's another story of interest uh but in 2020 we uh adopted a strong strongly very carefully worded resolution about equity and what it meant for our students and uh we took the position that Equity to us meant that we were providing a really productive learning experience for all our students each and everyone and it was our job to work Kentucky is a local control State and I put that in quotes uh deliberately uh but it's up to every Community to take that responsibility specifically and seriously so our work was going to be from the bottom up and engaging the dynamic of local demand for Quality as a um as the frame of political and Civic support for the changes that needed to be made in the instructional process

125and in the policy environment that supports that instructional process following the adoption of that Equity resolution and the appointment of our uh first appointed commissioner by this board we launched an equity Playbook which was our tool for supporting the learning experiences and requirements of uh contacts and the C the cultural environment in the classroom necessary to support vibrant learning experiences for all students and then we meet the um effort to um listen to communities about how could the State Department of Education support their deliberation in identifying what they wanted to achieve for their students and how they can hold themselves accountable for making sure that students are receiving the required instruction and uh in the midst of all of this we are managing a very uh contentious political environment which was uh inspired by political

126Dynamics uh if the governor wanted it the state legislature which is run which is controlled by another party would find a reason to oppose so there we were in the midst of um the DBI um DBI the diversity Equity inclusion and belonging uh conversation needless to say uh this could be very very distracting so we had to understand how could we as a board hold ourselves accountable and be in a position to continue to support the work that was underway in the local communities as they were articulating their out the outcomes they desired and required for their students uh to support that effort we framed the portrait of a learner and um and that has helped to focus Us in terms of what needs to change and also Inspire our students in terms of the

127outcomes that they could actually uh achieve for themselves so let's just say that uh in the midst of all of this we are depending on a strong voice of demand for quality for all of our students and the Kentucky united we learn effort is our way of engaging with school districts and communities all over the state uh so that we can understand how to support their efforts to inform their deliberations to give volume to their demand for change and have the Kentucky Department of Education be in a position to support the further deliberations and implementation of their work uh it's been exciting to see I've always been a Grassroots kind of organizing gal and uh this is um really quite fulfilling to to watch um it is also fulfilling to watch as we have now

128come to this moment of truth if you will and that is dealing with the assessment system and the accountability system that will actually be a um it can frustrate our efforts if we let it it will inspire our efforts as long as we can continue to inspire that voice of change so uh we're there we're right there at the moment of truth are we counting what matters for our students and are we relying on those data to inform our subsequent actions on their behalf or will we become distracted I do not think we will and lose going to take you a little bit deeper uh as you try to understand why we feel so determined that we're not going to get distracted and I want to just point out to our um Team here that

129in the right hand side of your folder you have the Kentucky Board of Education call to action and uh United we learn PowerPoint um that is about to be shared by Lou take it away Lou thank you and uh as always well described well Illustrated Dr Robinson thank you and uh to Dr darling Hammond and Brooks and Gloria and everyone there thanks for inviting us to tell a bit of the Kentucky story as Sharon said um we built a we fortunately have a very solid solution built on um able access for every learner to high quality learning in Kentucky so our united we learn uh is the name of play on our state motto uh of course and we've built a kind of a three-legged stool around vibrant learning experiences for every learner um with

130Innovation number two as it is especially as it relates to assessment and accountability and then number three um with deep Community Grassroots engagement as Dr Robinson described um the call to action that you have did serve as a touchstone for us to ensure future that our future actions aligned with the values that Sharon just so eloquently described and in it we've made no bones about the fact that one of our expected outcomes one that I coined as uh borrowed a term and coined as the moonshot for Kentucky is to um develop an assessment and accountability system that matters an assessment and accountability system that is Meaningful and useful to all our Learners and I know CN is interested in that and have really relished the opportunity to spend time with members of your team to

131think about how we might lock arms and um seek those affordances from the federal government around assessment and accountability that will loosen the strangle hold that Federal accountability has on our efforts to get to the moon so we um went from the united we learn Council which was a broad um diversely representative group of um constituents across Kentucky and we sought the not so Usual Suspects to help us in that Grassroots effort and so we have built a trajectory that looks at getting to um uh in front of the federal government sometime over the course of the next um 12 to 18 months with a proposal that would get us to our moonshot and that is premised after we built this Equity Foundation that Sharon described I've got about a minute here um on this

132portrait of a learner and I think the why and why now is pretty obvious this is a national movement if we spend any time I'll come back to that if we spend any time talking about what employers want in a uh what the world economic Forum called a skills economy these are the things we hear consistently and I know in California you hear the same drum beat from family members from students themselves from business and industry from higher ed Partners so to get to that place we um leaned heavily on the development of a portrait of a learner as a model for other um districts for all of our districts in Kentucky and these were the six kind of essential skills and competencies that we settled on as we look now we have 120 of

133the 171 school districts with their own portrait of a learner and they are very very similar um but within um deference to good solid local control they there are uniquenesses about those and we want to move forward and operationalize around the portrait of a learner so we want to think Beyond um the No Child Left Behind expectations of reading and math to what we want to know for every learner to know and when we begin to operationalize around the portrait then that really begs the question if this is what we want for every kiddo in Kentucky then what has to change in schools and classrooms to catalyze that change and so the last slide that you do have access to thank you Brooks is to a set of guidance documents that are beginning to um

134push out across Kentucky uh for schools and districts to engage in this effort as we move forward so I'll pause and and um Linda turn it over to you I don't know if we're going to go straight to New York or handle questions at this time let me see if uh is uh Lester available I think we're going to shift to New York and let people think about their questions and then we'll take questions uh at the end but before we do that I do want to ask you because part of your strategy was to um create Innovation zones and that came up for us this morning do you want to say a word about what that has meant for the way you've been approaching it yeah I'll catch that one Sharon if it's okay

135we call them now because you have to have an acronym L3 districts local Laboratories of learning and so we did have a district of innovation regulation in Kentucky but this pushed it with a cgsa grant from the federal government this pushed some resources out to those districts who were already in competency Ed around portraits of a learner or were willing to jump into that Arena and um so those Laboratories have been prototyping different ways to get to those metrics that Dr Robinson talked about around what we want what is it that really matters in terms of the data that we're collecting at schools so lots of performance uh assessments defenses of learning presentations of learning exhibitions um really building out those guidance documents at the local level around um even rubrics that we want to

136see as students begin to demonstrate these 21st century essential skills thank you appreciate that it was so uh succinct we appreciate that too I think we're going to see if Lester Young can come on now from uh New York and give us a little bit more insight and then we'll get everybody uh on the zoom together as Lester ready to come up okay sure sure absolutely there you are hey Dr Lester Young good to see you hi how's everyone we're good we're good we're glad that you are beaming in to tell us how New York is tackling this sort of question of moving kids towards 21st century uh skills and abilities um so I would uh if you just allow me I I'd like to just follow up on a couple of things that my

137colleagues from Kentucky were were talking about um it's interesting this is my first time um in interacting with them but it's amazing to me that some of their strategies are similar to the strategies that we that caused us to embark on our efforts in New York and I'll just Identify two uh the first is that in in New York in in uh 2021 we passed our first diversity equity and inclusion policy for the state and within that policy we focus on the following components governance teaching and learning family community engagement uh Workforce diversity um student support systems diverse schools and learning opportunities and um student support uh discipline Wellness um this the second uh point that I heard um that's similar to what my colleagues are doing in Kentucky uh was we too um were

138We examined our assessment and accountability system and in fact we found um that we wanted to move to a system that really supported and helped schools in the 733 school districts in New York um and not take that punitive approach um you know this idea of let's find someone and make them guilty so we were trying to move away from that um and in fact I I would say and we're happy to uh talk about this and share some materials if you're interested um our our plan was approved by the way yeah but but allow me to get right into uh the heart of of what we think is perhaps the most important thing that the New York State Board of regions can be embarked on and that's the whole idea of how do we

139transform our system how do we move our system um to A system that that doesn't just work for some children but actually works for all children in the state of New York um and what the approach that we took um and I believe you all have had copies of our Blue Ribbon committee report we started a process in in 2019 before the pandemic um of how do we uh rethink what a New York State high school diploma means and how do we ensure that when young people um complete uh their K12 education that they're actually prepared to be successful at the next level of pursuit whatever that is um and we believe that the way that we had to do it was actually reexamine everything that we do in instructionally um to help young people

140in New York state and so we we've called that our Blue Ribbon committee report and I'm I'm joined uh by my colleague Vice Chancellor Judith chin who actually um directed The Blue Ribbon committee activities for us um during these last uh several years so what were some of the priorities of of the Blue Ribbon committee and there and there were four um the first is how do we incorporate um a system of multiple Pathways that would lead to one diploma so I want to underscore that prior to this in New York we had three diplomas or I should say we currently have three diplomas we have uh region diplom with distinction we have the Region's diploma and then we have what's called a local diploma and the challenge for us quite frankly is that lots

141of young people being serviced in special education were working toward and receiving a local diploma but it wasn't a New York state endorsed diploma therefore it didn't mean anything and we felt quite frankly um that that was wrong and so we uh chose as the first priority how do we develop a multiple Pathway to that leads to a high school diploma the the second priority area was the whole notion of assessment flexibility uh we believe that uh while results mattered that there were other ways for young people to to demonstrate what they know and can do other than having one exit exam in content areas which is what we we had um and so in order for a young person to earn a regions diploma in New York they had to take and past five

142regions or what we call they had the four plus one option um so they could take four plus an additional region in a particular area uh the third priority was really to address how do we meet the needs of those youngsters who were formerly um recipients of the local diploma and and that area uh was really how do we expand meaningful life ready credentials how do we create opportunities for young people um that have disabilities but that they're working toward a diploma that actually means something that when they graduate from a New York City I'm sorry New York State High School that they earn a diploma that carries the Seal of the New York State and the fourth priority area um was this whole um area of cultur responsive culturally responsive curriculum instruction and assessments

143uh we felt very strongly that uh you know as all of the research suggests that culturally responsiveness is is appropriate it's just good teaching um but we wanted to make sure that that in a state that's becoming increasingly more and more diverse it's going to continue to be diverse it's not going to be less diverse that we have to have better ways of reaching all of our young young people um the other point that I would add U that's similar to the Kentucky model is that our Blue Ribbon committee recommended that uh New York adopt a portrait of a graduate I think that is really the heart of the Enterprise I would say to you that uh because I I I think it's important that we we get into to the question and answer period

144um what I like to describe our effort as a transformational um initiative in New York state that transforms our system that was a system that was based on a factory model that has become a system of Maintenance to transform it to a system that supports each and every young person in New York state and allows them to go as far as their hopes dreams and hard work will take them and we're very serious about that and so we were really saying how do we transform New York State system um to to A system that really works for each and every young person the other the other critical point here in addition to A system that works is also to to prepare our young people for a world that is changing at a rate that's actually

145breathtaking I mean when you think about the amount of new knowledge that is occurring um and you ask well how are our schools organized in a way so that we can begin to provide the kinds of learning opportunities that will prepare youngsters for a world that doesn't even exist now and so when when I talk to superintendents or School leaders you know what I constantly say to them is that you know we're actually preparing young people uh for a world that doesn't exist um and when we think about the professions that these young people will be in when they complete their education they don't exist now and so how do we organize our schools and our learning opportunities to ensure that each and every young person is is act actually ready and prepared so um

146we didn't have a PowerPoint although we do have lots of materials that we can share um and we and most of than everything that I've said to you uh this afternoon is on our website as well thank you and you know um in the 12 recommendations that came out of the blue ribbon commission there is this Focus as you said on the portrait of The Graduate on the ways in which students might um engage in performance assess assments as ways to you know demonstrate the uh competencies to um you know use multiple approaches and I know that one of the things that you did in your competitive State Grant was to allow for um students to engage in the New York performance standards Consortium portfolios and Career Technical portfolios and so on so i' just

147love to hear you take a minute to talk about this question of how you help people demonstrate those kind of competencies yeah yeah sure uh and thank you for the question um when we talked about the whole issue of assessment of flexibility we were able um to do two things we had uh what's called a uh a a performance Learning Network assessment pilot um we started this as a a small initiative that was really designed to create opportunities for local districts and uh to to begin to develop performance-based strategies and so um that initial pilot was so successful that we were able to expand it to a to a larger initiative Statewide um that we're going to be beginning in the fall um where we've identified a cohort of schools across the state that will

148actually be looking at the per you know performance initiatives uh they'll be looking at uh the Consortium Network that you mentioned um they're also going to be looking at um the kinds of C assessment opportunities um they they will look at it you know International Balor so they're looking at a a myriad of of perform space initiatives across the state and what we're hoping um will come from that uh will be real opportunities uh to create for more young people across the state of New York to participate uh the other point that I would make about our assessment recommendations um the powerful thing that we did is we decoupled the region assessments from the graduation requirements um in New York state students will still have the opportunity to take the exams but what we what

149we did is we decoupled the exam from the diploma requirement and so going forward once we uh and I you know I'm I'm taking this very positively these recommendations are coming before the board in November so uh what we're hoping is that once these recommendations come before the board after November we'll have um a a a really a different system that that serves the needs of all young people in New York state thank you that's really um interesting I wonder if we could get all the folks on a panel together now on the zoom can we get the gallery view and see if there are questions from the board um you know what I think uh what's interesting about the fact that both of the States uh and many of the districts are looking at

150this question of how what is the kind of graduate we want and what are the ways in which we create the opportunities to acquire these skills that are not currently part of uh the way we measure learning uh is you know a big challenge that so many people are taking on uh I'm going to see I'm going to face the board here so I can see who wants to get in with some comments or questions Francisco are you pointing at um Allison or are you wanting to comment or what what is that I just felt Allison wanted to say something but you know I will the the whole aspect of Performance Based assessment intrigues me in the sense of you know taking it at a scale at a state level scale right um any ideas

151of how you're utilizing the emerging technology IES as a means to capture this performance-based assessment when you're looking at it as a state level and and and then when you look at these portraits I mean it is transformational how do you measure that how do you measure a critical thinker right how is that embedded in you in these performance assessments that you're thinking about who wants to take that on Lou you look like you're ready to go and then Sharon's ready to go go ahead yeah I was hoping we'd get to get that granular in our conversation um and it's not unlike like what Terry's talking about at the high school level in New York um these local Laboratories of learning that I mentioned are looking at how we can bring some scientific rigor to

152the process of local performance accountability for per performance assessment and local accountability so that eventually in our moonshot ass assessment and accountability that matters we will have some very valid and Reliable Tools uh and Technology will be a big part of that at the very minimum we already have um all of our local Laboratories 17 of them using um technology to Archive evidence of student learning so isue the notion of old-fashioned uh three- ring binder portfolios but think about portfolios of evidence of student learning that the student manages herself teachers have very little contact access to but very little contact with the evidence that students uh are putting into their portfolio we also are starting to talk about calibrating uh performance quality uh evidence of student learning across districts again building in a rigorous assessment

153of the work and then we know Francisco that um technolog is going to have to come to play there whether it's um trusted artificial intelligence or uh accessing data through our learning management systems we think that's going to be critical to that and we're doing a lot of prototyping in that regard right now in Kentucky as well Sharon do you want to add you're on mute I think you're still on mute I can't still on mute I'm not sure what's going on there the other panelist yeah I don't know other panelists can hear or not but there there um one other point that I want to add is um one that that uh Lester pointed out in their efforts and we pointed out as well our job as a Department of Education as we are

154the Agents of the the uh responsible parties if you will to see that the department is doing what it should do is helping that system make room for work that is beyond compliance with what already is and grow the capacity to support the emergent Innovation that we are encouraging and support it with the same degree of technical rigor that we require of our the the assessments that we're giving right now we want we want validity we want reliability if we say you are a uh a critical thinker we want to know what is the evidence the validity of that evidence who else would recognize it as valid evidence and does this measure give you a reliable a data set that you can work with time after time after does is is it a reliable measure

155so the the the technical requirements do not get excused one little bit because it is performance assessment it requires essentially the same kind of strong consensus building among those who we trust to know uh and the articulation of those definitions the further examination of those definitions over time it it's it's very very organic and it has to be ongoing but it's it's work of reliability and validity but it is just around a different measure gotcha um and let me just before you um speak to that L let me see if there's any other burning questions because our time is limited uh yeah and then bler you could answer both questions at once we we'll stack up some questions cuz we have about 10 more minutes probably go ahead okay uh thank you guys so much

156for joining in with us I was really intrigued about the L3 districts uh that are in Kentucky and I'm New York I'm sure probably has some Innovation Zone work or going on as well so my question is uh for the L3 districts what process was used to identify districts as L3 if you will or for to be selected as uh a learning laboratory district and once they were identified or selected what does the ongoing support for those districts look like okay we're going to hold that question I'm going to get to see if there's any more and then we're going to ask the team to select the questions that they want to answer and I know Lester mentioned a cohort of districts that they've recently selected also so it's probably analogous are there any other

157burning questions yes Kim Rel to the L3 piece sorry uh related to the L3 piece just what what was necessary because it sounds like part of what the l3s were enabled to do was to depart from sort of the ongoing set of mandates um and what what filled the funding streams that would have been otherwise required to be complied with was it State funding that backfilled if it was non-compliant with a Federal mandate um or was it a public private partnership um but how what enabled them to the first question would be did that cause any loss of funding and if so what backfill okay yeah thank you any other burning questions yes Sharon this way we can like kind of have a a conversation around this um hello and thank you um my my

158question is related to Cynthia's which is the the question I'm puzzling is as the at the at the state level our role I think is to um create the environment and provide the resources for great work to happen um and I'm wondering so like the L3 zones are an example of that right um I'm wondering how what you think the most important thing like what's the most important first change you need to do to take that mindset set up that our work is about um enabling good work to be happening at at different levels that makes sense great any other burning questions because we're gonna all right guys um Lester you were next in the que so if you're ready you could take first crack at whichever ones of those you want to uh address

159and then we'll go to Sharon and Lou sure um well you know I want to just just say a word about mindsets because you're absolutely right you know this work uh is is not just about doing things it is also about how do we create the kinds of opportunities where locally we can have those mindset discussions because it's really about changing mindset about what is high quality and how do you how does one demonstrate that and so to to get back to that to that first question um we looked at our assessment approach is how do we expand learning experiences um and how do we create opportunities for young people to provide evidence of their proficiency on our learning standards so it's you know so when we start out with and and I'm sure all

160of you have a set of Standards um that you are working toward and it's in addition to the standards what's new is that we're also requiring that they demonstrate proficiency on the components of the portrait of The Graduate and so what we're hoping um in in doing both is that we're able to maintain a set of high standards there there's a level of rigor but we're also looking at how well they are prepared to be successful at the next level which is which is very different than how do you just achieve a score on a regent exam um and so that was kind of baked into the approach that we're using um regarding the funding piece um we began at a public private partnership our initial pilot um was funded by the carnegy corporation and

161and then it was so successful um that we uh received a second Grant from the US doe to expand the pilot to to more districts across the state and so there there really was no loss in funding um but there more opportunities for um District teams to come together with with teams from across the state to begin to support each other in in the uh Network performance pilot that we're going to be engaging in next school year or beginning next school year thank you so much um I'm G to go to our Kentucky friends and you know Lester used the term learning experiences for students and one of the things I loved about the three um uh goals that you said in Kentucky was the term vibrant learning experiences and we spent some time this

162morning talking about you know our our students feeling both supported in school and engaged and interested in what they're ENC you know doing and I think that's fundamental to what Lester was talking about as well but let me punt that to you the set of questions so L go ahead and talk about our funding of the l3s and okay sure sure so I mentioned earlier and I didn't give you the name competitive grant for State assessments was a US dooe Grant uh called cgsa so we did get funding there and so we invited l3s uh any District who would be interested in prototyping in the L3 project when Kentucky united we learn was first launched and we did it in three cohorts and that's where the 17 districts stepped up that's about 10% of Kentucky

163districts and so they were self- selected we didn't turn anybody away but we saw some pretty uh pretty wide range of Readiness across those 17 which was great for our prototyping right we wanted to meet those who were already in the water those who were at the edge of the water and those who were saying like where's the water so we had that um kind of a configuration in those who were um willing to give this a try and so they received um this they were very small grants um in the range of40 to $50,000 um from CGS a and eser funds we put out $ 26.9 million to our eight Regional cooperatives to implement deeper learning strategies as part of our Esser funding and so a lot of these things coupled together uh and

164we were saw some synergies in the funding around that effort as well and then I think the original question also said what were they allowed to do so it was all about prototyping we didn't uh we we have a an interesting waiver regulation in Kentucky we can wave any regulation at the State Board level except two life safety and assessment and accountability so needless to say the last one just trips us up at every turn um but so we encourage this kind of let a thousand roses bloom mentality around things that we wanted to try so we saw performance-based transcripts we saw performance-based credentialing which has been on the books in Kentucky for some time I mentioned the digital portfolios performance assessment at grades 58 and and 12 pretty typically and none of those required

165any waivers um but they also didn't get the districts as far as they wanted to go so certainly a limiting factor Sharon did you want to add on any of these questions that we've heard because we're going to transition shortly so I want to give you a last opportunity I'm just going to make a political uh advertisement and say uh I think we're going to have to develop a coalition of demanding uh States uh to help guide the the authorization of Essa so get ready California look to work with you as allies Sharon started out saying she's always been an organizer you know she was desegregating lunch counters years ago and doing all kinds of other things so I know you can't control yourself there always got to be a next thing but this thank

166you so much this has been really enlightening inspiring I know we've been thinking a lot about these same kind of issues and we just appreciate you taking time to inform and Inspire us so let's thank our friends from Kentucky and New York Linda can I say hi to my friend ID from nasby yes please thank you very much and we'll see you again take care take care byebye we can by shift over now to our small groups again um as uh our folks go back to their whatever they were doing before they got to us thank you so much um so we're going to go you know back into the conversation uh again you have some questions there in your folder about like what you know uh what are your wonderings what you know things

167strike you as useful important to pursue further are there things that then should shape uh goals that we want to begin to think about or objectives for ourselves and we will take about um 20 minutes to talk and then we're going to have an opportunity to report out again and and then have a whole group conversation e e e e e e we're going to ask you to report in about one minute so just get your thoughts together e [Laughter] all right I'm aware that we want to get to next steps and some of you have flights at two so I want to uh be sure that we have a chance both to hear from each group and then to do a little uh shared conversation we do need to take uh an opportunity at

168the very end for public comment because every item has public comment so um we're going to try to keep the ball rolling here who would like to report out first you ready uh some some s some ideas is how can CTC explore Competency Based credential a just a thought uh how can we develop or or is somebody who' be willing to scribe a little bit across like one of those I'll post I oh okay we didn't do our Post-its I I miss that I'll take not thank you you can do Post-its for us so Competency Based cred well well you don't take them until he's ready for them to be taken all right go ahead Francisco how can we develop or aggregate existing California graduate portraits uhhuh either develop a portrait and or aggregate agregate

169what what's existing already um how can we incentivize Equitable grading methods grading grading methods yes and and then how do we how do we as a system get better at assessing soft skills such as critical thinking and at the same time how can we ensure that um we have the soft skills embedded in in our in perhaps a through G requirements oh good luck with [Laughter] that uh any other additions from this table group that you okay great um and what about this table group we have postage also all right you say them we'll write them and put them up there great good good good make sure everybody's got the postage that they need we'll be ready okay very similar feeling like we're in a deficit you know thing here like we have to crawl

170out different differ from standard like how far are we from met met exceeded the standard have posted not I know so um oh I was going to read this one that's not ours that's the one I was going to put up there alrighty so um areas that we thought would be important to explore and uh look at a little bit deeper in the future going back also to that portrait profile of a graduate we felt that that would be very important to really start exploring at the state level and nestled under that would be how we can connect things such as performance-based assessments portfolio uh graduation using portfolios all of those different type of things could be tied in at the local level if so desired but we really felt that having that portrait or

171profile of graduate and those competencies needed to be in place so that these different pieces could be anchored into it and also so we could look at our system as a whole and make some determination with what type of things are happening that support that at the local level and where might we again have obstacles that we need to further explore we talked about um having some type of a way to encourage Innovation through Innovation Pilots um looking at bringing forward um again what that might look like uh anchoring on the thoughts and ideas from Kentucky and their L3 districts how we how might we be able to incentivize or allow for something along that line uh to be supported and uh lastly strategic planning to really look at aligning our current systems to again

172see where that supports this vision of whole child education ensuring that we're preparing our students for the world that doesn't exist and again where might there be gaps or what things may need to be tweaked so a lot of those little discret pieces we were talking about like the lcap or CTE completion and all of those pathway completion might Nestle under that area of aligning our system tighter towards the vision we would have uh for that portrait or profile of a graduate boy great minds think alike so those posters might almost uh capture ours but we're going to do our own Post-its because we want to be um closer to the standard right so we were really also grabbed by the jobs for a world that doesn't exist yet um phrasing I think that was

173Lester who may have talked about that uh and talked about what is well how do we get there right because it means shifting from passive learning and sort of spitting back facts to students being proactively engaged in managing their own learning and Project based learning is a key element of that and how do we support uh that we also felt that it would be good for us to engage in a portrait of a graduate um and not we could have clarified not to fo that on districts that already have done that work and are organized around it but to uh guide our own thinking about this kind sort of strategic planning like okay how are we making progress to this at the state level and then for districts that have not undertaken that it might

174be um an inspiration or a um you know a default starting place for them to to engage in that kind of work as well because then you could think about well how do was that then line up with what we're doing in the curriculum and assessments and other things that we're responsible for um Gabriella is very engaged with the smarter balanced um assessment processes so she knows a lot about what it looks like and so we asked her like you know how close are we with the kind of Assessments we have uh her answer was the performance task s are the best part of it basically they're the closest and uh that we uh could continue to improve the performance uh assessment elements there and of course in science we're just getting ready to take

175take that up uh but um but also to be cognizant that when we're thinking about any kind of Assessments uh students need multiple opportunities right that we have to get out of this idea that there's a day and then you take a test and then you have a score and then that tells you what you need and that um the the way in which the um assessments that are used to move in a competency based uh Arena have to be different and broader uh than what we currently do in testing um teacher leadership and learning around this approach to learning is really important and so at some point we have to think about that how do you build capacity um for um uh getting uh students um engaged in this kind of learning the notion

176of habits of mind and habits of thinking which often accompany the work around portrait of a graduate uh is what actually allows you to beess successful in any Endeavor so this question about how do you prepare students for jobs that don't yet exist has to do with you know what are the ways in which you're developing those habits of mind and those habits of thinking and then that gets you back to how do you assess and support that work um um we had a conversation about what makes a kid actually want to come to school and the importance of the curriculum and assessment work that we do the pathways and other things to include Choice uh and relevance and real world connections um we did uh stumble on the realization again that the high school

177really is set up the most like a factory and uh having to having a way to help people redesign the high school may be an important element or some some incentives or model models or ways of learning about what's possible and then the last thing that we talked about was um the uh possibilities for um uh portfolios that could get communicated to colleges for admission for you know an electronic um support system for that um a way to um continue to think about how AI can be helpful in that work uh was also um our sort of maybe not our closing thought but what did I miss I got it all all right all right so a lot of similarity across so this is our opportunity to kind of talk across the groups and think

178for a few minutes um within maybe the next 15 minutes if we're extremely mindful of our um flights that are coming up um uh to what we want to think about as um cross cutting ideas next steps questions other things we ought to be pursuing in future study sessions um you know how do we want to manage our own learning uh around this thoughts Francisco I I would love to know more about um the Science assessment once it it begins to form itself and is there a possibility we can use this new assessment as a template or other assessments that's an interesting idea and you know the a couple of both of those States had gotten competitive state grants that's what we were talking about yesterday that we've just applied for for the science so

179if we're successful in getting it in how could they not give it to California um then I think that you know that question will be directly on the table so good question aay um yes just to dovetail on um Francisco's comment about the Competency Based credentials uh that perhaps in some cases we had talked about this a while back uh our micro or badges right you know like micro badges that uh can be used and maybe revisiting that and we could be talking to our colleagues at the CTC IA is our liaison to the CTC but there are states North Carolina's among them that are really looking at micr credentials and in some of these areas where we have the most difficulty like the art and music uh conversation that came up you know you

180could imagine a performance-based way or a short uh shorter than taking a whole new major approach to getting a um some kind of a a uh badging you know when you mentioned Competency Based credentials I was initially thinking about Competency Based credentials for students as well right uh then there's a lot of um effort you know to get Beyond seat time as the only variable for um confirming that you've mastered something we were we were talking about the met and a lot of what they do is sort of figuring out how to um credential the competencies that you've mastered um along the way Sharon um I was just thinking so your question was where we might go with from here right yeah um I I love the idea of um continuing to think about continuing

181to find models of really good work and hearing about them and then asking ourselves um what can we do at the state level to support and grow that work whether it's to do more or in some cases do less just to grow and support that work yeah one of the things about this sort of innovation Zone Innovation District idea that I think is important is that if if one does something like that you don't want it to stay in just a few places you want to actually have an obligation for informing both policy and the learning of others yeah my my point was more like um how do we learn you know if the work is happening at a certain level how do we then ask ourselves and those people the question what do you

182need from us so that it can it can grow and thrive in other places or you can do this work more deeply yeah um so creating the resources and environment for but that for that to be more Universal rather than exceptional yeah and as a constant way of doing the work yeah other I don't know if um we're able to answer this today but I was just curious about what would be next steps as a state for us to create a a portrait of a learner um and if you know can is that something that can be done within the the realm of the State Board of Education and or come to the board for approval or again I don't know if we can answer that but I think we can explore the Avenues are

183that uh our possibilities and then maybe come back around with that um Brenda yeah I just um in light of sharing the information that was shared today and giving other superintendents maybe the courage or uh more information on how they can become Innovative maybe if we had future guests as Sharon mentioned maybe it could be a bigger webinar that you can invite superintendents to also just make a point of inviting them so that they can hear because it might ignite some of them to have the courage to reach out to some of these other superintendents and maybe they have a burning desire to do something Innovative and it may just uh invigorate them to want to do to pursue so maybe just find a way to um just get the word out to more districts

184and superintendents yeah and you know we have a lot of um learning you know conferences and webinars and other ways to um focus people on learning from each other that can be more focused on Future Ready schools for example other yeah I I think uh just kind of going back to some of the things we've talked about really looking at what that profile of a graduate would be and utilizing those profiles of a graduate or portrait of a graduate that are already out there looking at the districts and really looking at what the commonalities are from all of those different uh profiles that may currently exist and then using that as a base to build from or to synthesize um to set the view from a state level could be very helpful and underneath that

185if I don't know if underneath is the right way to visualize it once that's there it can serve as the anchor for what Innovation can be incentivized and how to allow for districts to identify and say Hey you know we have some Innovations we want to try and do and looking at a process to allow for that to happen it's a good way to get started any other questions thoughts Kim and then Anya looks like you were about to go ahead Anya yeah I was going to say with the profile of a graduate or a Lear learner one involves students in those conversations about what they want to how they Envision themselves in the future and the skills that they see themselves needing as well as once you've kind of determined those skills making sure

186that's not just a a poster or just you know something that a graphic but actually conveying that to students as these are the skills that we expect you to graduate and leave school with and here's why they're important especially when you're looking at that piece where students are bored or tired or don't want to come to school but here is why this is important and this is how we engage students uh so I think that's important I think the assessments piece is also really important for that um making it so you're applying those skills because students will forget information the next year they um you know after they pass out of a class or a grade but you'll remember those experiences where you're applying those skills and the knowledge you've learned and I think I

187think that's really valuable um so I would emphasize that going forward as well perfect um the the comments earlier about the um the portrait of a graduate I think gives rise to a conversation about what are the systems that we need to make sure our working together in support of building the competencies of that um future graduate of a California school and that I I think is what's alluded to on the sticky notes around what strategic planning might make sense for the future for the board to think about building the scaffolding underneath that portrait um the other Innovation piece I think that was a recurrent theme was thinking about how to lift up um local indicators around um a notion of a more Competency Based assess M um that is goes beyond ASAC um and

188I think that um speaks to both the idea of not just um what did you learn and what is sort of demonstrated on a test but also what future opportunities are and future pathways are open to students as a result of having gained that competency which gets to both postsecondary but also career I know I just wanted to um add to the conversation and maybe just reiterate one piece I think it would be really important for us to look at current systems what's working similar what Kim said what's working what's not but look at what we already have and see where things may need to be streamlined what pieces are we expecting to be done at the Lea level that perhaps don't need to be done in that same way at this time so having

189exploration of what currently exists to see if it's still what's needed as we have this future focused vision for schools and for students you're talking about um really doing an excavation of the geological dig of regulations that accumulates over many many decades right and it and much of what uh is embedded in that is rooted in the factory model that we inherited and then we regulate around that and so there's a lot there's a lot there uh Sharon I just wanted to Echo that that the the one like in my head thinking from the practitioner level um for us to spend time on developing something new if that's at the expense of us spending time thinking about what's out there that's actually useful and what isn't um I would personally root for the latter over

190the former you know particularly since the former might result in more more yeah that's that's my that's more layering on yeah so like or if there's a way that the portrait of The Graduate somehow creates a coherence to of the things that already exist and so therefore makes it simpler because you can get it at a big picture fantastic um but if it if it just becomes another thing that schools feel like they need to think through and work on and um I'm not sure I think it's worth our time well and I I would agree with you that we should not think of that as a mandate or as something that's another thing coming down but as a way to to our own strategic thinking and planning around to what extent is what we

191have consistent with supportive of uh and to what extent does that you know suggest that we need to think differently about any aspect of the system yeah Jim I would Echo a lot of what's been said so far but um continuing to lift up the voice of our students uh because we're creating a world or creating careers and jobs that don't exist right now and preparing students for those jobs that we don't even know about yet so yeah yeah absolutely any other yes Kim and then back to Allison without saying but I feel like it's an important thing to reiterate that a critical role of of State oversight and encouragement incentivizing is as we think about jobs that the the jobs for the future that have not yet been invented that we don't inadvertently forget

192to build in equity from the beginning so that the jobs for the future don't inadvertently box out people who have always lived for this from opportunity well that's right and I think you know the Compton examples that we we um Dr Bry didn't get deeply into all of the work they're doing around uh stem Steam and Project based learning and so on which is what that middle school is being internationally recognized for but you know it's really um thinking about what kinds of skills you're likely to need in the future and and approaching that from a very purposeful and Equitable frame of reference rather than quite often you know you get little Innovations here there in the other place I mean we heard from folks today who are in districts that are serving students that

193have often been left behind um but often the Innovations go to the places that have more resources and we don't have a system to then think about how the good stuff gets to everyone right so I think that's a really important Point um Alison were you waiting um yeah this I'm losing track so correct me if I miss someone um might this might sound a little off the- wall but I I think it was superintendent muda today who spoke about uh collecting uh street level data or map level data as opposed to just satellite level data and so I know when I think about our state dashboards a lot of times we're collecting that high level highest level data um because it's valid and reliable and it's standardized and everything else standardized does not always

194mean valid nor does it always mean reliable just want say that because those words get used a lot but it is standardized thank you thank you um but I do think what's going to sound a little wonky is I think when when when I used to supervise schools one of the things I would always look like look at as I would look at the eyes of the kids as they were walking into the campus to see if their eyes were like lit up and excited to come to school that day and um I think it was our superintendent from Lindsay who said in their mission one of the things that they you know want is students who want to come back to school the following day and I think that if there are ways um

195in our work as we move forward as the state board that we could think about highlighting any data points giving them maybe different weight like the data you shared with the healthy kids survey the percent of students who have a trusting relationship in high school um I don't sometimes those data points don't have the same kind of weight that other data points carry as we think about our accountability system so I just want to raise that as maybe a something for exploration well you know we uh have been examining the question about student surveys the common and we've now required that they be annual and I think we probably required that they be on the lcap reporting it's just another five pages on the LC cap right but but you know it is a way

196to say that that's important and we you know we could think about are there better ways to to um underscore the importance of student voice and to get that raised up but you to your to your point uh that is fundamental right it's really fundamental whether kids are in a context where they feel supported and happy about being in school that's like and if you see the parent surveys you the number one thing parents want for their kids is to be engaged yeah and to be happy in school um it's like they say more of that right so and the point you brought up about them adding boredom to their to the survey yeah I thought that was interesting I learned that when I was doing that research the other thing that we have a

197lot of that we don't question I think what a lot of what we're saying is we should question you know things from this framework like whatever it is that we're doing and whatever is in the system we should question it and and ask is it promoting the goals that we want and one of the things that's very common is the notion that came in with common cor standards of uh we're teaching the grade level standards and we're doing it quite often with a pacing guide and we know that kids don't learn at the same rate in the same way and yet we require teachers both to do that and to meet the needs of every kid and we haven't resolved that fundamental tension and conflict in the directives that come to schools and I was

198a high school teacher and I experienced that in my high school teaching from the very beginning and it has you know been something that's been a passion of mine ever since how do you enable teachers to actually meet kids where they are because that's what's going to allow them to grow more rapidly there's a lot of evidence around it so anyway there's a lot of things we take for granted in the discourse that are actually problematic to the achievement into the goals and I think we just have to bring that lens of okay what is actually going to enable student learning and of course the using grade level standards and using the pacing guide has a an important um goal and it's a reason why people want to do it because it comes from an

199equity concern right but then we also know the way people learn is not that they don't they don't learn in the same way and at the same P so the standardization assumption behind a lot of what we do is often antithetical to the goal that we're trying to achieve and we're just going to have to really wrestle with these dilemmas that are in the system in so many ways and think about how do you promote the equity goal uh and ensure that kids are getting what they need and not you know being taught down to and so on but also enable them to learn there's a study done on math that showed that the kids that were allowed to be taught at at where they needed it rather than being forced to teach to grade

200level standards gain seven times more growth than the folks who are just being moved through the pacing guide the kids whose teachers felt they had to move them through the pacing guide so we we just are going to have to start to wrestle with some of these uh dilemmas if we really really want to get you know all kids coming to school feeling good about it and you know achieving maximally um and I say that because just as an example because at the State Board level we're dealing with these kinds of macro uh kinds of guidance that when they get down to the level of the student or the child can be more problematic than we realize or at the level of the teacher and the principal anyway on that note any any uh other

201thoughts that folks have about next steps I want to move us uh towards public comment which is our last item of the day I just think this is a fabulous discussion Jim were you about to add one more thing go ahead you can do it I see you ready I I'm remembering the comment about local indicators and um your recommend flipping that and how local indicators are so much more meaningful and yeah can drive uh the community and students thank you it's kind of an an an analogy too to what you know we need for kids well that's a good point on which to end and we're going to continue to kind of figure out how we continue to think and learn together and study and make progress U we thank our guests who came

202we still have some of them with us and those who sat through this uh with us today we appreciate that uh and at this point uh we're going to open the phone line for public comment uh if you are worried about catching your flight I know there's a little bit of anxiety um in some places you should feel free if you need we're going to open the phone line for the public comment queue uh members of the public wishing to provide comment on this item may do so uh by um tell calling the telephone number and using the access code provided on the slide that should be showing up but I don't see it yet is there a slide is the public comment slide coming up and then of course we encourage you to state

203your name and affiliation for the record and turn down the volume uh on your um computer speaker if you are watching the live feed and then we'll see if there's any public comment in the room and I'm going to look to my uh state board uh colleagues here to manage this part of the process oh we do [Laughter] Shelly I'm gonna sit here I guess board president and board member shelle Spiegel Coleman from Californians together what an honor it was for me to be here and to listen to your conversation and to hear from our presenters what I loved the most was looking at the potential every presenter talked to us about what is the potential and it's our job to make sure that we get to that that we know how to get to

204that potential so in the second conversation that you had I had a great conversation with the superintendent from Lindsay because I said everybody's talking about a high school portrait graduate but what does that mean in K and one and TK and Elementary School I worry about our state indicators that are very secondary oriented and he had such a wonderful wonderful um uh they do they have they have rubrics and TK and K students they know they tell us what they are able to do to meet those criteria that they have so I want us when we think about it not to think because that's what we've done with our old system think about the high school but build the whole system from elementary because that's what's going to make the big difference and lastly I

205want to say you I would have to say one thing about being able to perform in multiple languages when we do our performances being able to do it in multiple languages thank you thank you and we have four others who have already signed up to speak uh in person if I could please have Diana Vu Lindsay tornator leangela Reed and Roman Sterns please line up um where the public comment microphone is thank you afternoon Dr uh good afternoon state board members Diana Vu on behalf of the association of California school administrator AXA really appre appreciates the board's discussion today especially as it focuses on the California way um um at a local level we encourage the State Board to maintain this momentum of and Innovative thinking and look forward to future board agenda items that

206could facilitate ongoing dialogue and opportunities to Spotlight La achievements challenges and student successes thank you thank you next speaker please you have one minute good afternoon board members Lindsay tornator on behalf of the California county superintendent um would like to Echo the appreciation from my colleague uh from AXA uh thank you for to this to the panelists to the State Board staff and to all of you for letting us listen in to your really Innovative and learner centered thinking um really leaving today with a a real appreciation and inspiration towards what we could achieve together um and also uh would like to to definitely asked to see the momentum continue we'd love to see additional board items um to Echo uh member kulen and member Lewis's comments around best practices to highlight and also an

207intention to include uh more administrators especially district and County superintendents um and finally uh another topic maybe to add to this discussion is the question around one Co Ent Federal and State accountability system and the ways in which this might get some things caught in the middle of being able to innovate this is a topic top of mind for the county superintendents especially around our juvenile court and Community Schools that we operate and D schools um thank you again hope everyone stays cool on your commute and thank you thank you next speaker please good afternoon leangela Reed on behalf of the small school districts Association um want to Echo the comments um of my colleagues from AA and from the county soups and um the inspiration that was provided today the vision the opportunity for

208the future um I really appreciated the conversation of not just a portrait of a graduate but a portrait of a learner I think that's really important um in Smalls we do well because parents are involved because they're all one I think if we the more we have that integration the better we will be and I think you all really showed how the importance of relationships so it's not just data it's that that and so we the smalls look forward we would love to provide any kind of um presentations or examples of what's going on in Smalls we're pretty proud of it and um and we also would ask that we look how we can expand it so we don't have pockets of Excellence but we have lines of Excellence so thank you good afternoon I'm

209Roman Sterns director of scaling Student Success a California partnership that nurtures the development of whole child um we I loved everything I heard today it's wholly consistent with our um our policy white paper which I I'm not sure I hope is in I think is in your packets um but I can share afterwards um the panels were both exceptional surface a lot of the topics that emerged from our policy white paper and a couple of sources of information that might be helpful as we look forward there were a couple questions about um where might be a starting point for establishing a Statewide portrait of a graduate that is voluntarily adopted in local districts that haven't yet gone through the work there are currently on our website we have an interactive map of all the districts

210with portraits of a graduate they're about 82 I think currently um West dead for us about a year ago did an analysis of 54 55 of those and consolidate so we have that to start with could be a good starting point um but there are many other opportunities here I think that emerg today in terms of flipping the dashboard the local indicators on top Etc thank you thank you and we do have two callers in the queue I will open the phone line now uh caller with the last four digits 6764 you are now live please start your public comment you have one minute thank you good afternoon this is Dena Wilson director of accountability support and monitoring for Los Angeles County Office of Education thank you so much for holding a study session on

211this important topic our County office as well as my County office's colleagues across the state play a key role in supporting our leas and operationalizing the state board's Vision provided in the California way we'd loved to have been with you all for the discussion here today and we look forward to engaging with you around this topic as we move forward County offices of Education provide technical assistance to all elas in understanding the accountability system and utilizing the data to make informed decisions we provide professional development to build capacity in areas such as mtss and serving the needs of specific student groups such as our English Learners we also ensure District lcaps are developed in response to identified needs address educational partner input and meet the legal requirements set forth by the state Leo is proud

212of our leas and the work that we do to support them in proving St now com we have a wonderful presentation this morning from Dr broy of Compton USD our office is proud to have worked alongside Compton over the past several years next caller with the last four digits 8256 you are now live please start your public comment you have one minute hi this is Robert man Waring from children now um children now is super excited that the board is taking on this discussion of the role of the state in fostering Innovation uh as you take on that role we we want you to recognize that there likely will need to be safeguards is built in to provide some some guard rails for the students with the greatest needs uh for example as you discuss

213minimum standards for a portrait of a graduate what would that mean and what would be the equity assurance that Kimo Bronson was Raising in her comments as an example um there's a lived experience that often students with the greatest need uh get just a minimum requirements and sometimes even less uh California currently has the largest achievement gaps by income for 8th grade math and second largest in the nation for fourth grade reading uh we point you to a fantastic paper by Dr darling Hammond and her LPI colleagues on the California way and some of the recommendations that are specific to the board in that uh continue to refin current policies and deeper implementation thank you caller thank you that concludes public comment for item number 17 so with that little public service announcement uh I

214do want to close the meeting Brooks are you over there because you want to say something or just trying to close down the meeting uh I do want to uh ask my um vice president Glover Woods if she likes to add any thoughts you can see that we had a great time doing our team teaching today and sending our little notes back and forth and we really appreciate the enthusiasm that everyone brought to the table do you want to add a couple of thoughts as we close out very very brief just want to thank uh everyone who came and shared and presented and the board for engaging in the conversation and I'm quite excited about where we are going as a state and I know we'll be able to do that together thank you and

215uh to answer Jim's questions we are going to consolidate all the notes we're going to figure out like what we have heard and get back to you and have a conversation about next steps and we will continue um the process so uh this is just the beginning uh not the end uh we hope everybody you know makes your flights and has a good trip home May the force be with you uh and we will see you in September we adjourn the meeting at 12:45 [Applause]