001five o'clock I will call the meeting of the Waxahachie Independent School District Board of Trustees to order please let the record show that a quorum was president and this meeting has been duly called and noticed that this meeting has been duly posted for time and manner required by law in addition to the corner of the board that is physically present this evening trustee clay Schofield will be participating in tonight's meeting via video conference as Allowed by section 551.127 of the Texas government code Mr Scofield's participation via video conference will include his ability to see and hear the meeting along with the ability of his the trustees to see and hear him the minutes for tonight's meeting will reflect Mr schofield's presence for all of the time he is able to participate fully via video conference
002the minutes will reflect his absence during portions of the meeting if any he is unable to participate via video conference at this time the board is going to convene into a closed session according to section 551.001 at sake of the Texas government code it is now 501. and the board's going to reconvene back into Open Session the board is going to reconvene back into Open session next time I'm on our agenda would be our open Forum it's where we're here for my individuals or committees this is the portion of the board meeting where the board receives input from our patrons each person who addresses the board will have five minutes to speak on his or her issue because the posting requirements the open meetings act board members will not ask questions of the patron nor
003answer any questions posed by the patron no action can be taken on any issue presented during the patron comment section of the board meeting patrons addressing the board will be notified when they are approaching the last 60 seconds of their allotted time to speak when I call your name please step to the podium and state your name and address for the record is that Mrs Rod horn I can't I can't read your first name is how you say it well there you go would you would you step forward state your name and address for the record please Mr Rogers here will be the time keeper and he will let you know when you approximately have one minute remaining my name is May Lisa right home 111 Almond Street here in Waxahachie is that all the
004information y'all need okay um I wanted to speak about amplify I have been a teacher for 20 years only three of them in Texas the other 17 were in the states of New Mexico and Tennessee um I would like to say I was able to come up with a lot of information about amplify but unfortunately I could I could not access most of the information because I wasn't a teacher I understand our local teachers could access it but me as a citizen who is concerned could not access it so I will tell you the things that I am concerned about I am concerned that the scripting part of it really bothers me as a teacher because I'm going to tell you sometimes I taught classes where I had six classes of Spanish one or six
005classes of English one over and over again every class was not the same were my goals and objectives the same 100 yes they were the same but all my classes didn't respond the same way I had to sometimes change it up sometimes I would do it the way I did it the first class and then the second class it would be like oh no they're not getting it this way I'm gonna have to be a little creative I can't imagine a classroom where I had to read word for word from a script regardless of how my students were responding to that I I see that as taking all the creativity that teachers have and we are a very creative life and just sucking it right out of it you're losing the ability to do that
006the other issues that I had with it obviously had to do with some of the vocabulary in it I understand that it's using a vocabulary that is much higher than normal for first and second graders without any uh scaffolding to help them understand it and then later on it's not it's one thing if you introduce new words and then you repeat them over and over the kids get it they understand but if there's no scaffolding there and then you come up three weeks later with the same word they're not going to know what word you're talking about they're not going to remember it so that's another issue that I had with it um the other issue that I had with it had to do with the types of stories that are in there I feel
007like some of them are inappropriate for the ages I feel like some of them like talking about the Egyptians feeding babies you know to the alligators in the Nile and those are things for for older kids they get it they understand what was going on but I wouldn't want my first or second grader coming home and telling me that I feel like that kind of puts nightmares in their mind that don't need to be there um I would just say that I feel like that surely there are other curriculums out there that you could look at that you could consider and and possibly come up with instead of one or two people deciding I feel like maybe a committee of Educators would do better to come up especially ones who have taught reading they know
008the right way to teach it the other issue I have with it is screen time my daughter is a speech language pathologist and one of the things we talk about a lot is that our kids have way way way too much screen time I've never heard a teacher or a principal come up and say you know what our kids really need is more screen time and yet that is exactly what this program seems to offer is more screen time and that's all thank you very much Andrew White please state your name and address for the record please Mr Rogers will let you know when you have approximately one minute remaining okay thank you good evening superintendent Hollingsworth board members community I first want to start I want to clarify a statement I made at the
009last board meeting so I said quote let's talk about amplify deal with it every day in my school district I spend two days a week with my math Lead Teacher she spends three hours internalizing one lesson so to clarify I am at a high school but we do not use amplify because it's an elementary middle school product but we do use Carnegie which is a scripted math program similar to that in Amplified I do have colleagues throughout the district though that use amplify every day and some other veteran teachers and administrators do spend several hours internalizing one single lesson so I just wanted to clear that up today I was reminded of the joy that comes with teaching in the moment I received a call from my office manager that one of our English teachers
010was out and a sub didn't have any work for the students so thankfully I'm a former English teacher of 16 years I went upstairs and walked into the room and students were on their phones chilling I didn't have time to go find a scripted lesson I had to improvise I told them put the phones up we're going to have school for 30 minutes at least they kind of laughed and I said no for real put up the phones and they're like Mr White you're not an English teacher anymore why are you why are you doing this like this I said go open your laptops because we don't have textbooks I said open your laptops and go to Google and type in the road not taken by Robert Frost so they typed it in they pulled
011it up I walked around everybody had their poem ready to go so for the next 30 minutes we discussed the choices that we make in life the stories that come with scars the physical and the emotional we talked about the innocence of life when we're first born but how over time choices impact Our Lives for a brief moment I was taken away from the role of an administrator and I was back in front of what matters the most and that's the kids many of our novice teachers will likely benefit from these scripted lessons some veteran teachers will internalize the lessons and make them their own because they have the skills and the experience to do so but the major piece that's been missing from the conversation over the last several weeks is what the teachers
012need teachers and support staff need much more than a product a product is not a plan a product is a piece of a plan last board meeting I asked please vote no y'all tabled it the district was going to come back with the plan tonight I look forward to seeing that plan it's been less than 30 days it's been 17. so I do look forward to the plan but not the product teachers need to know that administrators have their back when there's discipline issues in the classroom you can't teach if there's chaos in a classroom they need to know that parents and Guardians will come alongside them and support them in order for the student to be successful I've told Mr Williams the principal at Howard put my daughter in ISS if she's disrespecting the
013teachers I know disrespecting is not a verb but you get it and they put her in ISS because I support teachers 100 we need more parents and Guardians in the community to support our teachers to do their part at home and send the kids prepared to school to learn and to show respect to the teachers teachers also need support when they don't get help from the parents or the Guardians teachers need to know that they are valued not just in words but in their actions teachers need to know that they can pivot in the moment and adjust their instruction and move away from a scripted lesson as they read the room but this takes years of experience to be able to do that teachers and the support staff are the backbone of the school but
014at the head of every school is the leader the principal and their administrative team the principal ship is a lonely place at times on one hand you're there every day with your school family you've built the culture you've you've cultivated these relationships you've implemented systems that have proven to be effective over time you have sacrificed so much your vision is moving forward and then decisions are made that are beyond your control at the central office building but your job as a leader is to process this information internalize it and take it back to your team and sell it to them so they get on board it is a very hard job for administrators for sure I'll close with a quote from Dr Cowan's book Prometheus Unbound news one must remember is always bad news and
015the young people receive a poor press but they have looked at the flinching at the shadow of nuclear catastrophe they have survived a multiplicity of things foisted on them by over-indulgent parents but they are ready to be educated they are ready to learn the question is is a pre-packaged lesson the best way to learn thank you okay Brian Bullard step forward and state your name and address for the record please Mr Rogers will let you know when you have approximately one minute remaining my name is Brian Bullard I live at 134 Althea drive right here in Waxahachie Texas I graduated from Waxahachie High School I live here and I currently have two children enrolled in wasd so I'm not only a citizen and taxpayer I'm also concerned and involved parent I'm here today asking the
016board to vote no on the Amplified curriculum that is being proposed at least for the time being and until the district and the school board and the teachers and especially the tea have had an opportunity to get this material which they have not done yet according to the to their ta's website they project to maybe have this done for the 24-25 school year so I'm not sure why the district would want to move ahead of the tea on this also on the ta's website I found that amplifier was available for use at no cost all the way through August of this school year why didn't we use that opportunity to test this out and see if it would work instead of getting to the point where we now have to pay close to a million
017dollars for something we're not sure is going to to help I also found that amplify lessons are scripted as we heard I understand that scripts may be easy for new teachers but if this is going to be the primary curriculum which appears to be the case that does not allow the flexibility that teachers so often need to adapt their lesson plans we all know that students learn that not all students learn the same way so will this be adopted across the entire student body because right now amplify elar Texas is only available in English what about our bilingual program English language Learners special population and our dyslexia students ta's website also shows that there is a free supplement supplemental to tutoring state license for amplify M class if we need to adopt a new curriculum
018for the lower performing schools why not use the free intervention option this year so we can do more research and testing to see if it actually will assist with the closing of the gaps before we make this purchase of a material that is not on the list of Highly qualified instructional materials they also have a free math version of intervention that could be used to address the weaknesses in Math ta's website also has listed that Amplified K-5 M class is a vetted Texas tutor Corps the vttc is comprised of ta approved and tea subsidized tutoring providers that can support the implementation of high impact tutoring as well as assist the district in meeting the statutory requirements for the supplemental accelerated instruction as outlined in House Bill 4545 I don't know if any of you had
019or currently have a child that needs differentiation but I have two one that needs enrichment through GT and another one that is dyslexic so how is the district going to ensure that all students are receiving what they need with purely scripted lessons do we want to adopt I'm sorry do you want to adopt the curriculum to be our primary curriculum when the tea states that amplifier reading Texas K-2 and amplifier reading Texas 638 is a supplemental material and it has a disclaimer I quote these materials are not designed to cover 100 of the teaks but they are to complement enrich and extend support in particular subject and grade grade band grades three through five are not even listed under the full subject materials or under the supplemental materials I mentioned hqim as I'm sure you're
020all aware hqim our curriculum resources that among other things ensure full material and full coverage of the teaks amplify is listed on the ta's website as a supplemental material and is not designed designed to cover 100 of the teak so it is not an hqio material amplify is still going through the tea and sboe's rubric process so how is the district going to support all earners and guarantee that 100 of the material is aligned with the teaks ta currently has a list of 485 pages of instructional materials in the current adoption bulletin and amplify is not on that list why is the district going to make a 780 000 investment on a curriculum that is not on the adopted bulletin and has a disclaimer that is not designed to cover 100 of the teaks I
021admit that I'm a strict parent my kids do not have free range of Internet their phones are locked down and they do not have social media because I want to the best of my ability control what they can see and as you've heard from some of these others out of this lesson a lot of this material is not age appropriate from the the small portion that I could get my hands on there were very crude stories sexual innuendos in third grade material something I do not want my kids to be a part of so again I'm asking the board to please vote no thank you Nancy Rodriguez please step forward and state your name and address for the record please Mr Rogers will let you know when you have approximately one minute remaining Nancy Rodriguez
022610 Kaufman Street I'm the mother of an 8th grader at Coleman and a 10th grader at global I'm also a former special education social worker I urge you to reconsider this Amplified curriculum children learn many different ways some of the best ways they learn are through dialogue and experience a computerized curriculum is no substitute for a good teacher a good teacher engages students and knows that the students are not just data points or scores on a piece of paper but knows their students as individuals a good teacher understands their strengths and weaknesses and knows their students personalities and a good teacher uses this knowledge to teach coach explain and challenge as technology consumes more of Our Lives it's natural to embrace it but I think this would be a mistake in this case there are
023so many nuances only a human teacher can properly assess if you want to spend a million dollars spending on identifying students with learning deficits or learning disabilities hire a couple of social workers to help with high-risk students and hire more experienced teachers thank you Courtney Sutton state your name and address for the record please my name is Courtney Sutton I'm 1200 Northview Drive here in Waxahachie ladies and gentlemen the school board our community members Educators today I stand before you to address a critical issue that concerns the heart of our community the education of our children I want to talk to you about a pressing need for high quality instructional material and I truly believe that Amplified I recently had the privilege of visiting a neighboring Town who uses apify I watched K-5 use this
024and it blew my mind the skills that they had I got to see teachers use engaging strategies to engage their students in the curriculum they use props they did transformation in their classrooms and they even dressed up as parents and Educators we are we are we share a common goal and that is to provide the best possible education for our children at the heart of quality education lies the ability to read reading is the gateway to knowledge that Foundation upon which all learning is built amplify is not just another reading program is an Innovative and effective tool that has the power to transform the way our students learn to read the need for high quality instructional materials like amplify is undeniable I urge you all to join me in supporting this initiative and investiga investing
025in our children's future and ensuring that every student has access to the best education possible together we can Empower our teachers engage our students and strengthen our community thank you for your attention Karen Jenkins state your name and their address for the record please Karen Jenkins 2017 elderly Road Waxahachie Texas first I want to say thank you so much for extending our opportunity to look at amplify and to give yourselves time to look at the material um I will say appreciate that the district took time to take English teachers and had a presenter come in who talked about amplify she went through a process of what a lesson would look like and after seeing that she did an excellent job very organized we really appreciated her time after seeing the presentation several of us well
026we were all asked to fill out a surveys so I do hope that you got to see those surveys because teachers were pretty open in their commentary about the strengths and weaknesses of what we saw my biggest concern is if students are going to continue if we're going to go to all these online programs for students or I don't want to use the square can curriculum I don't really think that's appropriate but as a teacher seeing kids come in on a daily basis my concern is we're doing this in science we're doing it in history we're doing it in math we're doing it in English these students are going to spend every class period in front of a computer um we're already seeing with video games and telephones students are losing the ability to communicate
027and I that's something huge that we're losing with that ability to communicate they're also losing the ability to write when students are inspired to Think Through discussion and through interaction they're so much more successful I watch my own student a student of mine who just graduated this past year who even after his mom paid for three AP exams he didn't bother to show up to take the exams I didn't even know that until an English teacher was kind enough to call and tell me way after the fact all the exams are on different days he could have taken the other two had I known when I asked him Kelly what were you thinking why where were you what did you do those at that time Mama sat in the parking lot in my car and
028I said why did you do that I didn't feel that I could pass them I didn't feel prepared well as a teacher that broke my heart because he's very bright received all kinds of academic scholarships and was nationally recognized for his PSAT scores I have a daughter who was fourth in her class with a 1540 SAT score she's at UT in the honors program one of 200 freshmen who were accepted into that program she says mom I don't feel like one of the smartest kids here I feel like one of the dumbest that breaks my heart I'm not here just to talk about Advanced students but why are we turning out students who don't feel successful that concerns me instead of thinking about high quality material why aren't we thinking about high quality teachers in
029the olden days our teachers had degrees and what they taught they weren't simply taking a test and passing it and then being put in a classroom why can we not spend those thousands of dollars taking teachers who don't have a core in what they're teaching and give them an opportunity to go back to college and take some courses why don't we spend that money to make sure all kids get to take the PSAT or the act as a Junior High student our students had to pay to take it why can't we spend that money for students to take AP exams if they want to and I do know that some do have that opportunity students are embarrassed and don't want to ask Hispanic families are proud and don't want to ask let's give our students
030those opportunities I'm sorry for about 39 years a student on our campus dressed in black one day and I asked him what's the joke what are you doing and he said education died last night in Waxahachie that broke my heart teachers need the freedom to get to know their kids they need the freedom to teach I know we all need help I need help every teacher needs help and we will do whatever you give us if this is what we end up with we will embrace it we will run with it and we will do our best but I will say I have looked at some of the amplify commentaries on some of the onlines on Facebook I know it's not the best place to look but people are pretty honest they're telling me what
031I'm saying is it is supplementary it is not core teachers are still working hard to bring in additional in additional materials and I think part of this is to make our lives easier I don't know that that's going to happen but again we will do whatever you ask us to do because as teachers that's what we do but please keep the best interests at heart for our students we want to produce better students at Waxahachie instead look at materials where all these schools are having more National Merit Scholars than we are there's got to be a reason can we use some of those materials instead of looking at materials that have lower populace students using materials that I think our students can can do better for having something that challenges a little bit more thank
032you Ashley Kalin my name is Ashley Kalin my address is 105 South Ridge Street so today I stand before you to address a crucial issue in the field of Education the need to gain a working curriculum to lighten the workload of our dedicated teachers our educators are the backbone of our educational system and it's our Collective responsibility to support them in their vital role of shaping the future of our students teaching is a noble profession but it comes with an immense workload teachers not only educate our children but also act as mentors counselors and even surrogate parents they work tirelessly to ensure that every student reaches their full potential however the demands on our teachers have grown exponentially over the years especially the past 11 years I've been in education with wisd the curriculum that
033we have been using for rla has so many holes and gaps that teachers are using their own time resources and money to ensure that our students are getting what they need we are constantly pulling from here buying from there not only is it taking time away from our families but it's not aligned across the district we've been pulling our own resources for years now and we're not seeing the results that we desire and really what our students deserve by adopting amplify we can reduce the burden of lesson planning and resource creation that teachers currently face this in turn will allow them to focus more on the art of teaching itself inspiring and guiding our students to become critical thinkers problem solvers and responsible citizens it's about ensuring that our students receive the best possible education
034and that our teachers can thrive in their roles as Educators and I do believe that amplify will do that Gretchen Gray state your name and address for the record please I'm Gretchen gray 536 hey Meadow here in Waxahachie um thank you for having me I want to let you know a little bit about myself I have over 20 years experience in education 17 of those being in the classroom I've taught in three different states I've been a special ed teacher first grade second grade third grade fourth grade fifth grade I've stayed away from kindergarten my relationships with my students and their families are still so close to my heart I go back to California where a good chunk of my teaching was to see graduations and visit students for monumental life things I've gone to
035a student's funeral because those kids are so close to my heart along with their families currently I'm teaching language arts and in the departmentalized program I am a team lead for the fourth grade team at my school I'm a campus mentor so I have experience from roughly 6 30 in the morning until 5 or 5 30 all of my decisions for the most part are made with my students growth and success at the Forefront of my brain you can ask my husband I'm always working and I love that I'm so passionate about it and he supports me 100 percent I worry about their academic success especially over the last few years due to coveted learning loss which I thought was kind of hokey it's not it's definitely there um I worry about their social emotional
036well-being teachers wear so many hats and we wear them well my number one goal is to make sure my students grow I've taught in so many different schools in several States it's important to remember that curriculum doesn't make students learn delivery of instruction doesn't make students learn It's a combination of those along with drive and passion and technique that's where the real learning happens when teachers have quality instructional materials to plan out their lessons in an interesting and engaging way utilizing best practices that sort of magic happens and that's happening all across Waxahachie despite not having amplify I'm not a numbers gal my principal's here he can probably attest to the spreadsheets they're not my favorite thing in the world but he's laughing I know it I am however an incredibly hard-working and invested teacher
037for this District I have a seventh grader this year and he comes home and he tells me he shares with me all about his teachers and how passionate they are and all the cool lessons that they're doing and I am in awe because I know they don't have the resources they need that means they're creating them that means they're taking time away from their families to do that many of the district fourth grade rla and social studies teachers met last year in collaborative team meetings and on our PLC days we pulled from all the resources available to us to create engaging lessons to help our students with their number one goal growth we integrated social studies reading in writing to create cfas we discuss data from assessments we'd given all the things this group works
038so incredibly hard for the students that we love so much the amount of internalization we went through was impressive now I know that's a new education term internalization but we've been doing that for years we meet we pull the resources we need we do our lesson plans and we talk about how we will present them that's internalization the current academic growth of our students doesn't reflect how hard we're working I truly believe that it's due to a disconnect classroom to classroom school to school and even District to District the numbers people in the spreadsheet people have helped me understand something teacher autonomy has been confused with deciding to do something else because the adopted curriculum is too challenging for our students we are we are not teaching our students with grade level materials so when
039they take grade level assessments they're not getting the results they need because I've taught in different states I've used programs similar to amplify it's scripted it's not scripted for everyone it's scripted as a suggestion um that that's just a fact when you are a veteran teacher when you have experience you can go through these lessons and you can say I need this I don't need that and you do that with the newbies you do that with the rookies it's just natural it's what we do um fun ways to present those lessons we're running out of time for so with an adoption like amplify we can get into doing those fun lessons with the kids and making applesauce on Johnny Appleseed day wearing my Davy Crockett hat on Davy Crockett day those are the things that
040help make those lessons and build those relationships for our kids my first PLC training in Las Vegas thank you Barry Jacobs you state your name and address for the record please trustees good evening my name is Barry Jacobs I live at 16 Kaufman here in Waxahachie I have kids at Coleman and Global and I'm here to discuss the proposed amplify curriculum let me first say that I'm a big proponent of public schools supported the bond in the election earlier this year and I think Public Schools properly funded and managed are one of the most important assets we as a community have that said I have noticed a disturbing Trend in our schools over the past few years most of us here are old enough that when we went to school we learned from a teacher
041that is we had a flesh and blood human being who planned and delivered our lessons graded our work corrected our errors and praised our progress that's how students have learned all through history and along with whatever subject they were studying those students learned a host of other things they learned to ask questions they learned to show respect for their teachers and others in Authority they learned to interact an orderly civilized way with their peers they learn how to disagree and make an argument in a civil Manner and they learned all of those things along with whatever they were nominally studying in a remarkably efficient way because they had human teachers who were interacting with them as only human beings can assessing whether they were grasping the lesson and adjusting the pace appropriately speeding up to
042take them interested in challenged when they found the work easy and slowing down and repeating where they hit snags that's what school was like for me and I dare say trustees that's what it was like for all of you but increasingly that's not what it's like for our kids more and more our kids are taught for one of a better word by an interactive computer program they are parked in front of a screen made to watch some video and then quizzed by a computer on the content increasingly teaching amounts to some adult making sure that the kids in their charge are attending to the appropriate screen content and pacing are governed by a machine and teachers have little or no leeway to depart from that machine's demands either to offer additional explanation and enrichment where
043the kid is curious or to try alternative teaching methods where the kid just isn't getting what's first offered trustees I can tell you from my own experience with my own kids that this is a catastrophe first I can tell you categorically that the kids hate it my own kids favorite classes have become the ones not that they're good in but the ones that are least digitized whenever they're given some digitized assignment their eyes glaze over and they rush through it giving it the least possible attention they retain practically nothing to give you an example my daughter has posted a plus grades in every class she has taken at Coleman yet her map scores which measure which assess her Mastery and retention of the subject matter have fallen significantly across nearly every class in direct proportion
044to the extent that those classes are digitized which brings me to the amplify curriculum which terrifies me precisely because by all accounts it is heavily standardized and even more heavily digitized trustees the curriculum will replace wisd's teachers with Proctors now I have no doubt that amplifies salespeople can put to remarkable successes in districts that have adopted its curriculum I would suggest to you that those districts are very different from wisd I would suggest to you the schools that see the most Improvement are those with weak inexperienced teachers in communities with parents who are not interested in or supportive of their schools if your choice is between a bad teacher and a digital one then maybe amplify is the way to go but I can tell you trustees that at least in the wisd schools I
045have experienced you have for the most part great teachers if I can offer a criticism of them it is that they have been handicapped by the extent to which you have already Shackled them to a computerized standardized curriculum trustees I have trusted you to teach my kids I am begging you trust your teachers in turn you have some real Superstars teachers like Leticia James at Global and Amanda Castor and Valerie fell at Coleman set them free and I guarantee you you will be pleased with the results there are a few other things that you should keep in mind first if you do decide to adopt amplify it's going to involve significant disruption while everyone adjusts to the new system doing that mid-year is just crazy inevitably transition will mean some material skipped and other things
046done twice if you do decide to move forward with amplify why not let the teachers have the balance of this year to prepare and roll it out at the start of next year second before you spend almost a million dollars of our tax money on this program you ought to be very sure that its content is acceptable to Waxahachie parents I grew up in Amarillo which recently adopted amplify for some of its schools and is now hearing from outraged parents that its content includes unacceptable sexual innuendo critical race Theory and other divisive subject matter parents in Midland and other districts in Texas and elsewhere are raising the same concerns if this time next year you this room is full of outraged parents with tar and feathers you will have only yourselves to blame that's all
047I have trustees thank you for hearing me in closing I'll just say wasd has great schools and excellent teachers they aren't broken my friends be very careful when you try to fix them thank you Leslie Moon step forward States your name and address for the record please I'm Leslie Moon and I reside at 3447 FM . all right so I'm just up here to share I had this really incredible opportunity to go to one of the campuses that has rolled out amplify and let me tell you I grilled their teachers I pulled them aside because a lot of the things that started circulating across our district on day one when the board met they didn't really have a lot of Merit to them and I wanted to find out if the teachers at Everman had
048those same issues that we are hearing across the district we all know rumors get spread really fast one of the first things that I asked those teachers was if they had any issues with parents or students regarding content within the units they said they had not had one parent raise any issues when I asked the teachers if they had seen some type of Statistics or things that had increased with using amplify the teachers one veteran one teacher who had been teaching for six years one brand new teacher they the veterans said this was the best group of readers and writers that she had seen in years the other issue that was brought up by the principal at that school was that when they started to implement amplify they saw a significant decrease in behavioral referrals
049because students weren't able to be off task because they were being challenged our current curriculum that no one is really remembering at this moment amplify is not more or less scripted than what we have in our hands right now in our classrooms but what we are doing is we're spending significant amounts of time to find resources to supplement FNP right now which if you look at the studies on f p it does not do proper representation of minorities which is something that is needed especially in our schools like Marvin Wedgeworth and Northside where we're trying to bring up our growth to meet the state's expectations for us I firmly believe that where we are with education is alarming but this is not a localized fight this is a state fight that we need to be
050taking to until then we have to do something with our for students that are sitting in our classrooms right now because they are not getting what they need our students do not have the vocabulary and the comprehension necessary to be able to compete on those State tests that's what it comes down to this curriculum is from the state why would we not use it we have to play the game I'm sorry it's a game at this point the issues that have been raised the research is there I encourage every board member to go through thoroughly and to really think about all of your schools because we need something better and I firmly believe it's amplify okay we'll move into our action item action automated with consideration with possible approval the purchase of the curriculum from
051amplify reading as a polyp program for grades of kindergarten through eighth grade in both print and digital versions for amount not to exceed seven hundred and eighty thousand dollars Dr minicare I Just Want to Thank You board Dr Hollingsworth for allowing us to come back tonight and present this to you again you asked us at the last board meeting that we had to table this to go back do some research revisit this talk with some more teachers we've toured three more districts since we've come to you the last two weeks ago and and talk with you and I wanted to bring some people tonight so that you could hear directly from them from some teachers and you heard from some principals as well this evening so I just wanted to remind you why we're having
052this discussion so our research is clear we've seen our test scores we know how our students are performing we know they can do better so one of the reasons we're really talking about this is we know that the resource we have now for our kids in Reading is not sufficient for their needs which is why we went on this this venture to look into this product and find something better for our students I want to remind you too if you go to the TA website you look up what constitutes a high quality instructional material you will find this definition right there you'll also find a definition for an open education resource and they're very similar and the state's going through and they're revising these definitions and matching the products up with this good evening board
053I'm Christy Wittenberg and I am your Elementary reading language arts coordinator I'm a certified reading specialist and also a certified principal I've taught kindergarten first grade and fourth grade using the balanced literacy approach for 15 years structured literacy is what we're addressing today this is just a different approach to teaching all of these components this is not new to the nation but with Texas reading academies the transitions underway this approach to reading instruction ensures that all students have on grade level text now I know you've seen this already and this is the visual this is how much it takes to teach a child to read the Yellow Part our teachers are handling they've done it with Benchmark and they're teaching them the skills they need for automaticity the blue portion is what we we're missing
054it's what I did in Balance literacy it was through this lens of exposing students certain aspects and hoping they go they get it why'd we do this it's the way I was taught it's that's what I was told to do research said it's the best way research shows now it's not benchmarks handled the skills part our teachers have taken this on and they've handled it all of these must be taught explicitly this is a portion to amplify addresses we have not been teaching using on grade level text I didn't I didn't three years ago after the pandemic I was planning in a fourth grade classroom at Northside I I pulled from TPT I did my very best which everyone else in our District's doing too it was not on grade level I I don't know
055if I was just doing my best just trying to make sure these kids had what they need but what I didn't know then was that if I had on grade level texts for my students just by exposing them to this they could gain seven months of learning just exposure our current adoption does not contain the academic language or the vocabulary to Aid in this knowledge it actually doesn't even reach the reading levels that we need by the end of the school year we're talking about vocabulary I've done my research February of 2024 tea is adding reading a reading addendum it's going to have vocabulary on it it's also going to have suggested text our kindergartners right now will take the star test and will be held accountable for these words so that tells me that
056explicit vocabulary instruction is important in our state with Benchmark and hmh which our teachers are using and they're doing it well we're making sure that they have these phonic skills and on grade level material a Kinder teacher at Marvin told me that she's seen great growth with her group right now amplify is not our golden ticket it's a resource it's it's a resource it contains instructional strategies and gives students daily opportunities to write about on-grade level text this resource is nothing without an engaging teacher why is this urgent I've been asked that multiple times this is urgent because I've looked and on the essay portion the fourth graders in the state of Texas that scored a zero were 46 percent Waxahachie ISD students are 51 percent I've taught for 15 years and have never put
057any bit of questionable question questionable material in front of a student and I'm not going to start now and I'm the director of teaching and learning and as part of that a big piece is often you know considering how do we support the teachers because they're the ones that this is going to most impact as far as directly supporting student learning but at the same time we are a partnership and that includes tli and that includes campus leadership so the implementation plan is an all hands on deck approach to be able to support teachers so that we can do what's best for students so for Teacher support obviously if you choose to adopt Amplified they will have the high quality instructional materials in their hand but as Christy said that's not a book can't stand
058up and teach okay the teacher has to deliver it and research shows and talking to teachers shows having a long professional development is not going to directly change destruction in the classroom what's important is that it's ongoing that it's responsive it's embedded to their practice and it meets them at their point of need and so that is what our plan will address so as far as ongoing teaching teacher professional learning the huge piece of that is less than internalization we've been doing portions of that but we haven't been able to get as in depth with the lesson internalization process because they're doing the lesson planning they're going out and searching and curating and finding all these resources if they have it there now my conversation is how do I impact this student I know this
059student struggles with this skill so what do I need to scaffold as a teacher to help them access the content on grade level not teach down to them to scoop down and bring them up so that they can meet their full potential that peel happens during team meetings it happens in small groups having a giant training room is not as intimate as being able to have questions and dialogue with other professionals and colleagues as we shift from less than planning to less than internalization they're going to need support with that is the different thought process and a lot of this is a mindset shift so for the elementary levels we have instructional coaches on Cliff Wedgeworth Marvin and Northside and they also have teacher learning coordinators we have Elementary content coordinators you can see on
060the screen we also have dual language coordinators and GT coordinators that can all support us in this process at the secondary campus we also have our content coordinators and other coordinators that are in the tli department that will also go through this training on less than internalization and how to help teachers be able to translate what they've internalized into rigorous and engaging classroom instruction that's where the magic happens if they're having these meetings and know exactly what they're going to teach then they can bring themselves into that lesson and as we've talked about all the creativity and what makes the teacher love to teach so for the district unit learning plans this piece was important because again we're trying to give time back to teachers so they can focus on what's most important so the
061unit learning plans will be provided to support implementation through the design process as tli goes through that the lessons are going to be fully vetted to ensure alignment with the values of our community we love our students and we take it very seriously what we put in their hands and I think this podcast good evening Board of Dr Hollingsworth this is my third year as principal of Marvin and previously I taught both first and third grade reading for 10 years and served as an instructional coach for four years this is walking you through on how our teachers access the unit learning plans through the tli website and this takes us to the current fourth grade math learning plan that our teachers are utilizing with our hqim stemscopes the links are embedded and includes every aspect
062of a lesson plan cycle so let's talk about what internalization will look like so to support our teachers tli will be supporting campuses during PLC time with our instructional coaches teaching learning coordinators content coordinators and partnering with campus leadership as we begin to practice this internalization process when I visited one of the districts who has implemented internalization of hqim they walked us through the process that they are using with their teachers we actually have already been able to begin the work that we saw that was modeled the elementary principals met together last week as a PLC and we walked through this internalization process together through our current math unit learning plan so that we could then turn around and go through the same work with our teachers on campuses during designated at PLC time with
063our former framework teachers were spending so much time writing lessons and Gathering resources and they had limited time to really internalize the lessons to make strong instructional decisions for our students needs now that we have the math learning plans at our fingertips my fifth grade math teacher and I spent our PLC time just this week internalizing next week's lesson plans one of the concerns raised is that the internalization process was not going to save teachers time however we found that even in our first week of this implementation with internalization we were able to internalize the majority of the week's plans with the same amount of time teachers will still have plenty of time to add their professional teacher craft and creativity as part of the process with provided lesson plans and high quality instructional materials
064in their hands well good evening board Dr Hollingsworth and our wonderful Waxahachie Community I am Stephanie Foster and this is my sixth year as a campus principal in Waxahachie ISD I began teaching in Waxahachie in 2008 and I have top first third and fourth grade elar in every position that I have had as the teacher in this District I utilize the balanced literacy model that Miss Wittenberg was speaking of in fact that was all I ever knew so a few weeks ago when the term structured literacy first came about I actually referred to it as something that was crushing everything that I ever knew and believed about reading instruction as soon as I heard it I I was met with that that wall like no this this cannot be real it took me weeks of
065researching listening to podcasts visiting campuses and the most important thing a growth mindset to be able to realize that structured literacy is what is best for our students as the campus leader I believe it is my responsibility nobody asked me to be here tonight I asked to come and speak to this tonight to support the shift because I believe it is what is best for all of our Learners As Leaders we are confident in our plans to increase the grade level rigor our students will experience and at the same time significantly reduce teachers burden in having to plan lessons we have worked with tli to provide training unit lessons and we will have ongoing support from tli as usual we strongly encourage full adoption and implementation of these hqim resources that stated over the next
066several weeks we're going to closely monitor our teachers progress and we are going to extend Grace all around we are all learning something new together so while it's a genuine effort and it is expected we're supporting our staff through this period of change leadership instructional support so that's my my leadership team we're including we're being included in implementation training from region 10 we're working on Arby's research-based instructional strategies for rla we're completing calibration walks and we're using kick up for walkthrough data and support from other districts that have gone through the implementation process already as Miss Polk stated principals were recently able to participate in an instructional PLC and we went through the lesson internalization process as the fifth grade math teacher to gain a better understanding of what teachers will encounter as they internalize
067their provided plans while going through this process in the shoes of a teacher instead of needing to go to multiple places to create a plan we were able to start with the provided plan and as principals have Rich discussions about the depth of our teaks our time management where the teacher Sparkle would be added what items would be graded what we would continue to do to grow together and find the best ways that we could support we will also continue to attend professional development and expand our knowledge on research-based instructional strategies so we are learning alongside of our teachers for most districts when you read their mission and vision statement just like ours you're going to see the words or see words that mean all students if you were to dig into our data right
068now you would find that serving all students is an area in which we need to grow oftentimes as Educators we tend to remove the productive struggle because it just feels better for our students but every child that comes through our doors deserves our highest expectations and they have the right to grade level instruction on our wisd team all has to mean all or nobody wins I have been fortunate to spend two days over the last two weeks seeing amplify in action and learning from leaders in districts that have experienced what we are currently experiencing a situation where educators are working so hard but receiving results in their data that don't match their efforts the campuses the campus that I visited on Monday raised their ratings from an F to an A in one year's time
069because they are doing the right work I wholeheartedly believe if we match the right work with the phenomenal Educators that we already have we are going to achieve the same shifting from balanced literacy to structured literacy is requiring us all to reframe everything we know about literacy but when we know better we do better good evening board Dr Hollingsworth our community I'm Brittany Griffith I'm the principal at felty elementary and I was able to attend one of the district districts to see amplify implemented and wanted to share with you my experience I asked to go because I needed to see it if we're potentially asking teachers to make such a dramatic shift and how we teach literacy especially in the middle of the semester I needed to be able to see it to see how
070it would impact our students and teachers I know curriculum has done a lot of work and research and I understand the why behind why we need to make this shift but it's something different being in a unique position of understanding the why from the curriculum Side and being on a campus and seeing how it will change for our teachers and need to help guide them through it if we implement it what really hit home for me was that all students has to mean all students it even says our top priority on our balance scorecard is that every student grows academically every year what I've learned the past few years is that not every student is growing even when we see some areas of growth this is not due to our teachers I have amazing teachers
071just like we have throughout the district that do an amazing job with the tools they have currently been given I knew something different had to be done in order to reach all kids but change is hard so we need to make sure we're making the change for the right reasons which is for our students what I saw at the visit amazed me I saw students across multiple grade levels engaged in the stories and in their learning I saw deep rich text I heard fourth graders have conversations about the American Revolution and the founding of our country in a way I'd never heard before it gave students a frame for how to have those deep conversations and strong writing that went right alongside it I saw second graders having conversations about ancient Greek civilizations and comparing
072and contrasting what it meant to be a democracy I saw writing everywhere Rich writing that went along with their learning I saw very high academic vocabulary on word walls being used by teachers and being used by the students themselves what I saw was a very different shifts in how we approach and teach literacy but I saw kids learning and responding to their learning at a very high level yes it is very different and different and change is hard especially when I know we're all wanting to do what's best for our students and we all want to help our students grow and make sure we're making the right decision for all the students in wasd what I saw was a shift in how literacy is taught and it was based on research and done with high
073quality instructional materials I saw the level of success and I saw what we need to help our students grow thank you good evening board Dr Hollingsworth Community my husband Mark White uh my name is Karina White I'm an assistant principal at Howard Junior High School I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to see a seventh grade lesson in action at one of the recent campus visits I was able to see firsthand that amplify included the five components of literacy which are critical for adolescents Advanced word study fluency vocabulary comprehension motivation and sometimes the unspoken yet critical component which is writing I was able to ask many questions maybe too many questions and received good feedback regarding the implementation from the perspective of the teachers and administrators currently using amplify at the junior high level as
074a former Junior High English teacher I was also the secondary reading language arts curriculum coordinator for Waxahachie ISD and I'm currently a reading language arts evaluator and the mother of an eighth grader who would be immersed in these literary texts I left that campus genuinely excited the school you visited chose to use the paper anthologies and the writing journals instead of the online version every seventh grader was engaged in highlighting and annotating the text their dialogue was rich and when they read their responses aloud from their journals they were powerful I can see the potential for success and growth as our teachers internalize and customize their instruction to meet the needs of our wisd students over my 24 years in wisd I've been through many material adoptions I know that anything new will require adjustments
075it will require patience it will require everyone and I'm committed to assist our Junior High teachers and work side by side with them as they begin this journey with your approval thank you all right I'm sure there's several questions thank you anyone want to go first uh can I go back here you know in this presentation I heard what tli is going to do for amplify for amplify what was done in the previous year I mean how did we support our teachers because I know we have a wonderful curriculum Department with very talented people so what was done is support the teachers last year so a lot of their time particularly for elar is sitting in PLC meetings and helping them break teks apart see the pacing make adjustments there discuss resources dig into the
076actual like TRS documents and go deeper into the actual teks so a lot more of the planning side versus the lesson delivery on the elementary front our TLC's teacher learning coordinators went into campuses and did direct coaching with teachers in the classroom as well as the instructional coaches that are on some of our campuses so it was more one-on-one teacher support but then also helping with the planning process and plcs can someone speak to the timing maybe of implementing this curriculum and and knowing that our next grade is probably already uh cemented the results of our grade are already determined um is there is there a big rush to do it now I guess is my question I'll answer that question uh Mr Rogers part of the reason that we're having the conversation now is
077because the information that we got as far as our current projections that we're looking at now a those projections that we're receiving the state have changed multiple times as Ms Hilburn has been uh reviewing that information came to us in early September okay so and we knew that there was going to be a significant delay in the release of that information to the school districts they told us that and so we didn't get the information on our most recent set of performance until early September and that's exactly why we began to have the conversation when we did you know one of the reasons uh one of the things that we hear I've heard many times in my 31 years of doing this people will say you know school districts need to be more like businesses
078you act like uh you're such you're so bureaucratic uh you're not responsive to the data that's in front of you takes you forever to make any kind of shift or any kind of a change and our goal here is to be responsive we saw a shift in our data and we need to be responsive to it that's why we're having the conversation now and no we don't want to wait an entire school year to move around let's let's wait and delay and wait until another school year and we begin to do something like this in August of next year that'd be more comfortable it would definitely be less we wouldn't have near the conversation we're having right now but I don't think that would be the best for our kids and it would not be
079Timely we did not receive any any report before September because I know in the past when the star was given we always got something before that late in September you'll recall we had all of the do you remember the conversations about the zone of uncertainty that they laid out for us and we were having those conversations in mid-august and so what we had is very very vague information from the state so no ma'am we did did not have a strong indication of where we want we're going to land because those zones of uncertainty in some cases had a wide array of 75 or 80 points in terms of us having any idea where we stood I have a question that no one has been able to answer if not Amplified then what does anybody have
080that answer and we'll continue using the current adopted resources that we have and our teachers will continue to dig into resources and try and bridge the gap where there's holes in that resource yes ma'am I have a question oh I'm sorry I guess I'm a little confused because we've always had a curriculum and then all of a sudden now we're being told oh well they didn't have a real curriculum it's not it doesn't work it's bad whatever so when did we not uh when did we get when did we drop into this uh hole about the curriculum you know our current adopted resource I believe we got it in 2018 19 school years so we've been using that for the last several years right and um I mean is there not a way to to
081that's four years old that's really not that old and is there not a way to adjust it and help the teachers with the different programs I mean did the teacher select that uh that uh resource yes ma'am they did okay and so I guess my real issue one of my real issues with that fight is that ahead of time the teachers were not given any real input into you know looking at it ahead of time and being involved in the decision ahead of time now I understand now that a lot of them have bought into it and have been taken on trips and everything yes ma'am ma'am I'm not allowed to allow you to participate in this discussion I understand okay and and I believe I can speak to that issue I didn't speak with
082Miss Brooks but I did speak with uh Pat Hardy who's also on the State Board of Education and she uh told me that they had not adopted that they have not adopted the rubric yet that it will be so that uh will adjust the highly qualified materials so you know we're a little confused about what what's out there and what's not but Pat Hardy who's been on the State Board of Education for years told me that it had not been adopted and the rubric had not been adopted and I believe that's the same thing that Mrs Brooks said the time that this has happened I realize how quickly it's happened I've I've lived it all of this transition started September 1st with house bill 1605. amplify was listed on their website after Tas has now
083given over everything to State Board of Education they have taken the name away it is the exact same and I know this because I've lived in it for weeks now it is the same resource I fully believe that they would be looking at that as their choice for vocabulary words yes ma'am she said that when the um when the um rubric was adopted that then at that point then like it's kind of like bidding everybody would be able to put their materials forward for the State Board of Education to study and decide which ones would be left on the list and there wouldn't be just one left on the list there would be multiple left on the list and then she also said uh one thing that she also has told me that was very
084concerning is that all the teaks are not covered in amplify and that's that's what uh Miss Hardy said and like I said she's on the State Board of Education so she's been all over so this is Monday night from ca's website that says the program is designed to meet 100 of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills and the English language proficiency standards in K-5 and is available to cover Spanish language arts reading and English as a second language we also reached out to somebody at TA to get some information about this who shared with us that they've gone through four versions of this so the version that we would be looking to purchase is the fourth version of it and you're correct 25 26 is the anticipated year for that rubric to be adopted and
085those resources to be added to that list which would put us out a couple more years from right now you're welcome so it was listed as a high quality instruction material by ta then it was taken off do we really trust he had to put it back on so I'll I'll answer that Mr President so this this goes directly back to my conversation with Judith Kaufman who is the head of hqim for region 10 which is the region that serves Waxahachie and the Dallas area until House Bill 1605 amplify was absolutely considered to be hqim with the passage of House Bill 1605 the sboe has to reconsider amplify and other materials to redetermine its status as hqim that was the when that law passed indirect communication with hqim expert region 10 Judith Kaufman she stated
086amplify is already considered hqim within the definition provided House Bill 1605 changed the process for instructional materials review and approval for IMA funds placing sboe in control of deciding which materials will be on the list as hqim the bottom line in my direct communication with her she stated it is very likely that it will be improved as hqim because it meets all the definitions as that have already been outlined so that's that's where we stand with that piece our new team new team because we keep hearing about all of our new teachers and you even told us in a presentation how many we used to have an excellent Mentor program but I haven't heard about it in a while so exactly what are we doing to Mentor these teachers that are struggling we do have
087a mentor program it's called launch and Miss gilby is actually uh taking the charge on that one this year to take the lead on it the teachers through new teacher training have training through PLC processes but also they have a day just dedicate dedicated to them at the beginning of the school year for classroom management things on how to build culture those types of things at the beginning of the year then throughout the year they do have a campus Mentor that checks in with them they meet monthly and they talk about things like parent conferences and Grading and things that come up that are specific to a first-year teacher to the profession in addition they have coaching and that is being done by our Mentor teachers as well as members of the tli staff that
088will go in and do coaching on best practices and classroom instruction they also meet with teachers and sometimes this is in partnership with principals if they identify a teacher that's struggling and needs some additional support they push in and have at those conversations and help strengthen their instructional practices on the first year I had that same that same question Debbie thank you um I'll speak to the the questionable content topic um just as a and and I totally get it I totally get the piece about we'll take those lessons out and and all of that but one of the calls that I got was you know we call it highly high quality instructional materials I mean how is that high quality and um I mean why would we even why would we even want to
089promote something that we have to you know that has that in there to begin with and as a an old school PR person I can tell you that you know we I don't know I mean a year from now yeah they'll there will be a board meeting with lots of people it doesn't matter how informed they are they'll still show up and they'll call the media and I mean and I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer I'm just saying that kind of stuff happens and someone needs to address it so I'm addressing it thank you Mr if I met oh and also do we know for sure that there's only the three lessons that winner that we're going around do we know for sure that those are the only lessons like that I am aware
090of about three different instances that were either printed off and brought to me in my office or sent to me electronically uh I saw the same ones that were kind of rolling around on social media I had very direct conversations with a colleague of mine who is in a a very similar District to ours that's on the south side of the Metroplex and uh very similarly sized a little bit bigger actually and they've been using this particular curriculum for about two years and I said okay talk to me about any questionable material that you may have found a one thing that we found very clearly stated To Us by anybody who's already been using it any of those questionable materials that were floating around on the internet those are already gone that was verified again
091to me by Judith Kaufman who is specifically with region 10 and she told me those had already been removed the company that supplies this curriculum to the state of Texas has heard very clearly from its 200 plus Texas customers that this is Texas and the places that we've had conversations with are not you know liberal stronghold holds by any by any means Temple Burleson Lubbock these are not places that are are really known for you know pushing a liberal agenda and so I said talk to me about that I'm in a very conservative community and the response from my neighbor was so am I I promise you and I said okay so in your experience of two years with k through eight curriculum that's nine grade levels of curriculum in this particular instance how many
092reading samples has your team identified that you said I don't think that's going to be appropriate for our kids to rise to our County's standards and her answer to me she thought probably three and I said okay three in in your entire curriculum yes but I will tell you that's not uncommon with other curricula that we've dealt with we find other things sometimes that don't rise to Ellis County Texas standards and so we removed them so we would take the same process so I hope this is relevant because I know we just spent a lot of money on a phonics program does this have anything to do does it mesh with with amplifier is that even relevant yes sir it does it the way that amplifies um built in grades K through K through two
093there's the skills and then there's the knowledge portion and so in my planning and pacing you are able to have both and I've spoken also talking about I've asked our amplifier rep about those questionable pieces and been very open and honest with them that this is not what our district is about that it can work and I've even had teachers say Well they're writing in skills and they're writing and knowledge I know that's how it's supposed to be taught and so yes you can go on the skills and the knowledge side we have already handled the skills side with benchmark anyone else yes is there a phonics piece to amplify also okay are we gonna with that would be would we be paying for that no ma'am okay okay one of my concerns is I've
094been doing my due diligence and been on the rla and internet page and reading about amplify and it's positive and negative they're you know about all teachers I see some of you those names y'all don't see mine but but I I do read everything and anyway the uh my concern is it seems to be a very tough rollout I mean one of the not one of my concerns seems to be a really tough rollout and where I've seen success is if if the school districts that have rolled it out in the spring you know did a pilot in the spring and then did the full rollout in the fall and I just see this as being really tough on our teachers at this time to roll out this product uh and get it done by
095you know and to get any teaching and real really get the mesh going before our testing I guess and anybody will speak to that okay so I think the the most important thing that we held on to Z for teachers but we're in the business to do what's best for kids and that's where our Focus has been um making sure that what we're putting in front of our children gives them that grade level experience rigor and experience and so um of course it's important and time is going to be given and principles already are talking about plans on how to support teachers more and give them more time and get in there and the lessons and teach with them side by side all of those things are are in discussion but in the Forefront of
096everything it's about can we afford to wait one more minute knowing that we have this Rich material that we could have in front of our students um and my answer is no I don't feel like we can wait I feel like we can support our people through the tough stuff to do what's right for kids thank you thank you Miss Stephanie let me ask you so just say we say no we want you to stick with what you have okay how are you going to make that work because I think any curriculum can work if you've got the right teacher in the classroom with with so you tell me we've got support yeah we've been making it work okay we've been utilizing what we have and making it work but the definition of insanity is
097continuing to do the same thing over and over again and expecting something different from it so we can keep going and doing what we're doing and what we've been doing or we can make a change and make a drastic change and and hopefully get the results that we're looking for with our kids so everything that the teachers were using were grade level no no so if if that was true if you used on grade level things with what we have now wouldn't we see better results because that's what amplify does right using the curriculum that we currently have doesn't offer everything on grade level which is why teachers are out researching other things and trying to find other pieces then you get into like a TPT where the the teacher that created that may say
098this is the third through fifth grade resource but when you copy and paste that text into a lexile component it's going to tell you that truly it's a first or second grade text so it's not been vetted it's not high quality the tea hasn't touched it you know there hasn't been through all of those processes to prove that it's truly on grade level they do not have access to everything on grade level right now is that something that our tli group could help with I mean could they direct our and help our teachers get you know in one line and doing the same thing without the right materials if we have right materials well but uh four years ago you adopted a curriculum I mean with the help of the tli and the experts could
099they assist the teachers in getting I mean are you saying that that what we bought four years ago that the tli team couldn't help them get online huh people were here well and also my one of my first jobs um this summer was to really conduct a training of sawvis for our second through fifth grade teachers and so I hadn't really touched it much and this summer I got into it I continued and I worked in the joke that we have with our second through fifth grade teachers was I went through and I made them a manual I gave them everything they needed in a cheat sheet I still have to use the cheat sheet my own it's not it's not user friendly it's like there's a text that I can promise you it's the
100Rickshaw girl or something for when I taught fourth grade if I type that in just in a search bar nothing there's no it says there's nothing so that teacher then goes opens up what I made her goes to unit one yada yada and goes through that way it's when the teachers tell you it's not user friendly it is not I was just going to speak to the fact that reading academies is something that came about after our last adoption that was something that we started having our K through three teachers go through was with the reading Academy she was with the science of teaching reading so the adoption when we did fountains in panel and did saw this is aligned to the balance literacy which is what we knew what research was showing at the
101time the new research is with the science of teaching reading so that's why the shift and that's how we don't feel and don't see that saw this and fountains and pineal are no longer being the rich text and explicit reading instruction that we need so for our kids be able to access the level of learning that they need to have and also the State Testing is continuing to change and they've now added that writing piece starting in grade three with that extended construction response where that writing piece is so much needed and sawvis is not doing it enough where we have they're having to pull from other resources that are not necessarily truly vetted just going by what they are seeing in teacher pay teachers are Googling it or what someone has said on Facebook
102and so that's not helping us to make sure that we're having a high quality instructional materials but I guess my question is couldn't our tli team help with making sure that the materials we're presenting to our kids are vetted by our tli team I mean I mean do you see what I'm saying you know that's what we've been doing yeah right with the instructional coaches and the TLC support we've had on campuses that's what we've been doing with our classes our resource is just insufficient yeah okay so and that's sad I'm sorry go ahead oh I was just wondering regards to TL I mean were were those folks those directors and and other folks that are in that the tli department where they were they consulted on amplify we've had lots of meetings about this
103with all the directors in my business ma'am I've heard a lot of concerns about the teaching of reading and concerns from people that actually taught reading I have a friend whose daughter quit teaching because she was had to implement the amplify program and there was no time for her to do individual work with the students so with their student and actually work one-on-one so that is another one of my concerns so amplify is designed to reach 80 of your kids on that first instruction tier one instruction okay so tier two and tier three would be when you pull your kids out and you do your small group or you've got a couple of kids that you're working with that need more support but 80 of our kids we should be reaching them in that first
104first teach ER great classroom and you're on a dra level six and so the only time that I'm working with you with the techs is on a level six but in second grade you're supposed to be on a level 24 so I'm just leaving you here on this level that is below where you're supposed to be and I'm never exposing you to your grade level material that is Rich grade level material we all all of the principles in this District have intervention Al and so just like you said that 80 of tier one instruction is coming at Great level and then that intervention block that you have for 30 minutes is your opportunity to pull your students that need tier two and tier three supports I want to say thank you to each of you
105because I know that you've worked really really hard on this and that we all want what's best for our kids so I really want to thank you for your work what's the cost of amplify after this year so there are consumable portions that go with this so students will have physical workbooks in their hands they will have books they're not going to be behind a computer all day so there's a physical workbook and I have the quote here a recurring cost for next year to renew student licenses as we get more students into the district and then to replace the student workbooks oh sorry I got excited I think we were going to adjourn 235 000 is the quote that they gave me for next year's renewal of this and then to replace the student
106consumable workbooks so part of what we've talked about too with House Bill 1605 and I know there was some confusion about this as this resource goes through the next iteration isn't adopted by the State Board of Ed tea is providing additional funds to districts and one of the things that we've learned in some of the webinars that we've watched with tea and with region 10 districts that have adopted this resource will have access to that money from 1605 before other districts in the state have access to it so if this list is adopted by the state amplify makes it on there districts get forty dollars for using one of these state adopted resources plus additional twenty dollars if it's also a print resource so their money on top of the instructional materials allotment that they're
107giving to districts one of our speakers earlier made reference to a teacher survey did that did that take place uh We've shared it I know that Jenny put a bunch of the data together for you guys and shared some of the the positive things and so yeah that was in it was in our weekly board update that I sent out I sent you a synopsis of it it had it was a pretty graphic and it showed you it showed you a synopsis of those I don't have any of that in front of Veronica bring that back to you I mean I can pull them up on my phone or a computer if you'd want me to to do that right now okay Mr Bridges do you have those results Andy okay would you mind sharing
108those with us please the document it's on that board update on 9 23. I sent it to y'all it was an attachment wisd Amplified teacher feedback I can read some of this I found the email yes ma'am go ahead okay um it says kindergarten through second grade 86 teachers these grade levels completed the survey more than 94 said they believe the training objects objectives were clearly defined and then some samples of feedback quotes third through fifth grade 51 teachers from these grade levels completed the survey 90 said they believe the training object objectives were clearly defined sixth through eighth grade 21 teachers completed the survey 89 percent said they believe the training objectives were clearly defined not not just a sampling of comments not all the comments and and there's some there's comments to to
109to uh both sides it looks I mean there's just random samplings of comments I don't know if you want to read all that said I hope you all can appreciate I've been on the board four years and this is been the most torturous decision that I've had to make being a teacher and a principal and always wanted to be focused on what is best for students so you got this site over here this is best for students you got this site over here no it's not and it's just like so what do you do and that's why I've been agonizing all of us have been agonizing because we want to do what's best for our students it has to be our Focus not what's best for teachers not what's best for principal but what is
110best for students and I'm still in agony so something that was repeated in the districts that we visited was when people asked that question answers how are we going to know until we try it how will we know if we don't try Miss Timberland I can say that I've done this serve seven years and I've never seen a more divisive topic completely opposite end of the spectrum both people saying completely opposite opposite things so it makes it who's telling the truth I mean and this is certainly not something that falls in my wheelhouse I've been pretty vocal about that with rest your trustees so I I tend to rely on those of you use I have classroom experience I will never remember having 10 people signed up to speak at public forum and we've had
111some things that you would think that they would do that so I feel the same way is there anybody else that has any more comments questions because I'm gonna call for a motion here in just a second okay that the only comments I really have that um I talked to Dr Hollingsworth last week was in regards to the content who has control over the content that goes to the kids and he answered what I was hoping it would be and it was the leadership would have control before it would get to a teacher um could y'all just barely speak some of y'all that sought in action I know there's been talk about you know kids just having screen time and if scripted was it engaging were they you know interacting or did it look canned
112so to speak as some people have said [Music] or the teacher is reading aloud and there's visuals on the board that they're identifying with the story but there was never any material online or a computer in their hands to be able to be able their time with them I think that's a misconcept I can't kind of clear that up a little bit if you look on the tea website under amplify when it's listed as a supplemental material on that website that's where you click on it and it says the online platform is a supplemental material but when it's the main amplify that you're speaking to that is not an online platform this is actually good solid teaching with a teacher in front of a classroom of students it's not digital so I think that's where
113the confusion is coming at and you can see that on that main tea website it is confusing because you have to click on the resource before it shows amplify but below it shows it as a supplemental online if that's if that's the program you chose that's an excellent point Mrs Mott and I will tell you that none of the districts with whom we spoke and none of the districts who are experiencing this are using the online portion solely they all have made the purchase of the curriculum and that's what we're bringing before you today and you know to your point I understand this is an agonizing decision it's a difficult one to make but I also want to tell you that it is not one that we have taken with taken lightly and it's one
114with which we have done a lot of research and talked with people who I have deep respect for in this uh in this profession we talked to the superintendent and Temple Bobby Ott we've talked to uh assist associate superintendents who are responsible for putting this uh curriculum into play in multiple districts and that's why we've done the homework you guys specifically charged with with going back and doing more homework and we absolutely have I want to point out it's listed in the uh in the agenda as a uh as a pilot because that's exactly the approach we took we said let's put this as a pilot for our four neediest Elementary campuses and I sent out to each of our principals we said you have the opportunity to develop sufficient consensus with your leadership teams
115on your campus and let us know if you would like to opt in and they all opted in every one of them okay I'm glad you brought up the pilot iPod why can't we because I know you went to other districts but we don't know how it's going to work with our kids why can't we just pilot it with our four campuses that we know needed for the remainder of the Year see how it works with our kids and then if it does then we can look at it and we can dive into it with everybody else but I I just have a real problem with just going full force and so I'm going to throw that on the table why can't we do that well that's that's exactly why we went through and offered
116that up as an opportunity to our our team throwing it out there yes ma'am that I just think that uh because of all the information that we've had you know and everybody's we keep hearing oh it covers all the teachings no it doesn't oh it's this no it's not oh it's that's all we've been hearing so what I'm saying is pilot is at our four neediest campus and proved to us that it really does what it does for Waxahachie kids and then we can decide but this decision oh my god do we know what that would cost for the curriculum for four campuses between 250 and 300 000. I mean that's my suggestion I'd like to say something 41 years ago that's a long time I started teaching in a little town and I taught
117four subjects a coach to coach two things and I understand our people that are coming in brand new teachers believe me because I went home every night and cried I cried all weekend it was tough it was tough I had four like I said four different four classes that I was teaching but you know so I understand I believe absolutely that we have to get something in the hands of our of every teacher that is usable I just don't know that I believe that it's this product but I believe that we have to get something to teach all of the kids and to give their give their give our I'm sorry and I just called our teachers the kids all of our young teachers all of our brand new teachers all of our teachers they're
118struggling we need to help them we need to help them any way we can with whatever and uh I just don't know if this type of program is what I believe is the best thing I believe that there are a lot of other programs out there and uh that I that I'd like to see us check into those so anyway I just wanted to say that any other questions comments remember men that I thought before dancing you're talking about the students and it could be an anomaly it could not be but I don't believe it is when surveyed after one year of implementation ninety percent of the students in that school district found it to be a valuable and important resource for them and so to me a 90 student satisfaction is is the students
119speaking out and saying what they believe is important and so um I just wanted to bring that up because to me that was a very impactful number that 90 of the students after one year were positively impacted so I I heard what you said about you know just four campuses and I don't I can't speak for everybody else but I know that as one of the campuses that's not one of those four I think that that would that would not be what I would think would be best for us so I just wanted to bring it back foreign so from the the time that we knew our scores were not going to be great until now we've gone and found an answer I mean what what is what and extensively researched how much time has
120that been kind of trying to wrap my mind around that 50 plus hours for the last four or five weeks along with all of my team back here weekends evenings driving back and forth to watch my son play football in Austin I've had a show first I sit in the front seat and work and I'm on the phone and I'm working on presentations I drove to Alabama for a football game a couple weeks ago eight and a half hours there eight and a half hours back working the whole time we spent a lot of time in the background working on these things okay I'm gonna call for a motion for action item a let's read consideration with possible action for the approval the purchase of curriculum from amplifier reading is a pilot program for grades
121kindergartens or eighth grade and print and digital versions for amount not to exceed 780 thousand dollars to approve the purchase of the amplify as a pilot at North Side Cliff Wentworth for Price not to exceed 325 thousand dollars Mr Schofield did you hear that motion I couldn't understand it [Music] I like to make a motion to approve the purchase of amplify reading as a pilot program for Northside Cliff Wedgeworth and Marvin Elementary skills for Price not to exceed 325 thousand dollars did you hear that Mr Schofield got it and I'll turn this back off it's Extremely Loud and hear my apologies okay so we have a motion do I have a second second okay so I have a motion by Mrs Timmerman and I have a second by Mr McCutcheon is there any other discussion
122okay at this time I'm gonna call for a vote and I'm gonna do a roll call vote so I'm going to call each individual trustee by name and then I will record your vote I will start with Mrs Timmerman since you made the motion would that be a yay or an A yeah Mr McCutcheon Miss kriegel no externator nay Mr Schofield yes Mr Rogers no I'm gonna be a yay so motion carries four to three and at this time I will entertain a motion to adjourn so move second awesome Mr Rogers say goodbye miss kriegel all in favor say aye aye carry 7-0 thank you very much thank you Lord