001See, he's not >> in our school. >> I guess you can't graduate. >> No, no, I can't graduate. >> All right, Karen. We don't have a sticker that says >> graduation rate. You can't >> I said I'm sorry >> longer. You can take it out. >> The teacher parking. >> Well, I wonder that like it'd be nice if we had some kind of >> Yeah, that's what I mean. >> That's think we need a somerict >> so that schools are picked parking to get ala promptly walked right back in and they left. having that. We should probably have some kind of pass. I have a I have a plastic thing that says Kansas. >> We're paying attention >> that says Kenya employee if I'm like in a >> at a school I've had it for
002years. >> Run the lights. just laughed when I walked back. >> Sorry about being >> on top of it. >> Maybe for that. >> Well, you don't get it. >> We'll make some >> plastic like thing on your dash. It's like a handicap. And and really we probably should be once visitor parking anyways like you should teach us >> that's the latest >> wasn't teacher everything >> and they didn't site me until 11 o'clock because I stayed after with Susan to see her son's >> class and then we did a tour of the >> sites >> we were doing different things in the school so I lingered and then I got nailed >> the road was just a vehicle for getting cinnamon butter in your exactly All right, just take it by the spoon. >>
003And I don't think they need encouragement. [laughter] >> Great time. >> Are we ready, Cindy? >> Yeah, I think so. They are putting in a box for us. So, >> welcome to the meeting of the Canyons Board of Education. Today is November 11th, 2025, and we're meeting at the district office located at 9361 introduced in Sandy, Utah. The first item on the agenda is the K12 math curriculum curriculum adoption proc. >> Dr. Amber Rodrik Langward, director of ISD, will present this to us. >> Um, thank you everybody. Well, I am really excited to be here tonight to do our first district-wide primary adoption that we've had in four years. So, the last time we were in this process was in 2021, and I was proposing ELA, biology, and chemistry curriculum. So today we are looking
004at it's all right I can just scroll >> we are again looking at three different curricula um but they are all in the same content area for math. So over the last year and a half, we have been working through the process outlined in our policy. And just as a reminder, our policy outlines four different levels of ways that we are approving different types of materials. And the district-wide primary curriculum are for core content areas intended for all students and teachers to be able to use and access. So, I'm just going to quickly walk you through um each of those adoption since we'll likely have a lot more conversation about this in the next couple of board meetings. So, tonight we're going to be talking about the proposal for elementary math curriculum which will be
005amplify Desmos. Middle school math proposal is reveal math by McGraill. And then also um for high school secondary one, two and three will also be the reveal math uh program that we are proposing. As a quick reminder in our curriculum adoption uh policy, it's really the instructional materials selection policy. We have specific procedures that we follow for a district-wide curriculum adoption. Those procedures include 25 steps to the entire process. Tonight we are on step 18. So the proposal essentially consists of the steps one through 17 for all of the instructional materials that we select be them districtwide or intervention materials. We do adhere to these 13 criteria. These 13 criteria make up the foundation of how we start researching materials. what we dig into deeper and then what we bring to the instructional committee to
006look more in depth to determine whether or not it's a good fit for a proposal for adoption. The whole reason we are even looking at adopting new materials for math K12 is that the Utah core standards have been revised or I should say are still in the process of being revised. USB has not given their final approval for those. anticipating that um as well as the reading for the next couple of months. January is what we are hearing. But in addition to those standards being revised, we also are seeing a building sense of urgency in the math community by both practitioners and researchers to really kind of double down on the research that's been continually cooperated over the last decade with regards to math instructional practice. particularly as we look at um really moving the
007focus of math instruction to being more inquirybased and really digging into that problem solving approach rather than focusing on the procedural aspects of mathematics instruction. So, we're really trying to move away from our students just plugging algorithms and mimicking whatever their teacher is modeling for them and getting them to really utilize their critical thinking skills and their um collaboration skills to really find unique ways of solving problems because we know that that's what's really transferring in terms of need for both um advanced coursework but also college and career readiness. So those things in mind really um shaped how we were looking at the new um adoption proposal. The other thing I just wanted to highlight is with that um continued urgency from the research community and our practitioners, we also introduced in the last year
008to our administrators and teachers a collaborative framework for mathematics in anticipation of the new standards and these new materials. And that collaborative framework just really is much more explicit about how we are defining the effective practices of math instruction. So you can see I've linked this in your materials that you had uh prior to tonight as well, but it just highlights some of those key actions for both teachers and students. And you can again just note um all of the folky related to inquiry, problem solving, productive strug struggle, perseverance, and really focusing in on that um reasoning as well. So, I'm going to just give a few snippets um that weren't necessarily or maybe even distill further what you read in the uh documents that were posted last week in Diligent to just kind of
009call out some of the things that our teachers are really excited about and then um we can turn the time over to y'all for questions. So, with amplify Desmos math, this is the program that we are proposing for kindergarten through fifth grade. And what I want to just call out and the work that our elementary math team has done um is really the the work within this program it's centered they call it um they say that they've built this program with curiosity in mind and I feel like we see that in every aspect of the lesson structure as well as the resources and one of the things that they've really been intentional about is how they organize the lesson sequencing around problem based learning. So there's a real um direct focus and support for teachers
010who are maybe um less adept at this point at at bringing in inquiry to the classroom, but how they can bring in that inquiry activity to really get the students being the ones that are thinking. They do that with a lot of um support and structure for hands-on experiences and bringing in that collaborative work and discussion. The other thing that really stood out to our committee about this program was how the program is intentional and weaves throughout each unit, a real focus on building the students math identity, which we really felt like was a big critical push, especially in elementary. We want our students to see themselves as mathematicians and to not let one experience of struggle um dominate their perspective of how or whether or not they are good at math. And so this
011program does that really well in terms of how they organize the lesson structure and a lot of it goes back to that problem- based learning approach. The other thing that um this program does really well with regards to its intentional design for students is how it builds math community. Part of that is in the collaboration, but also in how it's organized to personalize the learning for students and having that be part of the community experience because of how you contribute differently to that dialogue when you're um talking and working together about math. And so those are some of just the highlights that we wanted to note with regards to the elementary program. And then we also just wanted to share with you uh this quote we felt was representative of a lot of the teachers
012on the committee how they felt about this program in particular and they really called out particularly our teachers who have spent some additional time um building their math skills through the STEM or math endorsement. They were really quick to recognize the um in-depth and intentionality of the manipulatives and how those were used in the activities and really moving students from that concrete representational and abstract process of learning versus focusing on the uh plugandchug and copying the teacher. So those components were um noteworthy in our minds. We thought it would be helpful to also just give you a quick glance of what this looks like from the student experience. So, this is a a lot of text on the page, but it just it shows you the process within a lesson that our teachers and students
013will experience. So students will engage very early on in that warm-up with some critical thinking and um really putting their background knowledge but also some specific queries into starting their math routine with each lesson. You can see this graphic right here where it says activities. The launch monitor and connect activities all focus deeply on again that inquiry and collaboration. So the teacher really facilitates this um carefully with the support of how it's organized in the curriculum so they don't have to come up with all of those ideas on their own. Within that launch, monitor and connect activity process. The unit is connecting lesson to lesson with specific stories and themes to make that um learning meaningful beyond just math within those four walls. And then finally it moves into um how they synthesize their learning
014and how they are going to continue to apply and demonstrate uh their learning for their teacher. So if you think about that in practice, we've got it distilled here for you of what it might look like in fourth grade. Not that I'm biased to fourth grade or anything because I live with a fourth grader, but this is a lesson on um fractions, which excitingly enough is taught much earlier in the year in fourth grade than it currently is, which I actually think is um brilliant in some ways. So, we're excited to see that. But you can see here through going through this lesson structure how it plays out in a fractions lesson where the students are talking about um what they understand about fractions moving into the activity which might be a hands-on exploration of
015using fraction strips to notice wonder and collaborate. So that talking is a really based component of amplify and then um really thinking about how we can share strategies with each other in a small group and uh work together. The teacher at this time monitors which again really exciting to be able to see the students uh pushing their own thinking ending with that synthesis. And then what um we loved also is in the demonstration of learning, there's lots of prompts and calls for the teachers to have the students uh speak and write about their learning instead of just simply giving them the right answer, which is really um exciting to see at this level. And this structure exists from kindergarten through fifth grade. One of the things that um parents and teachers and and even our
016students always want to know when it comes to adopting a new curricula is what does this mean? What from what I'm used to and and how is it different from the program that we're already using? So, just to call out a couple of things. Uh we've been in using Envision Math for Cynthia 10 years. Oh, just 10 years because Jesse was just saying I just presented in vision math when you're on maternity leave and that >> 10 years ago, >> right? That's right. So, um it's it's been a while and so there are are definitely some things that um have left us wanting as we've been plugging along with this program, particularly this last couple of years as the skills of our teachers has increased, but also um the needs of our students has increased
017as well. So, one of the things that Envision Math has uh been doing that we're we're trying to move away from Envision Math really emphasizes that procedural understanding rather than balancing the procedural and conceptual with that discovery or not discovery but rather inquiry and critical thinking. So, the Envision math program right now doesn't have a lot of inquiry. So, the inquiry that's happening in a lot of our classrooms, the teachers are building themselves and that's taking a lot more work. There's also really inconsistent um integration of the CRA model and the use of manipulatives. So we have found that over time, particularly since COVID, that manipulatives just aren't being used with consistency in any of our classrooms, which then um closes off that collaboration, but also that depth of understanding and moving beyond that um
018chug and plug kind of mentality. And then uh because they're not even updating the program anymore, we are finding that the technology integrations are becoming increasingly outdated over time. One of our teachers when we asked last year uh what they wanted to see in a program and their feedback even about envision so that we could you know focus on maybe what's good as we look for additional uh this teacher even called out the rigid lessons in relation to the focus on that procedural understanding. So those are some of the big shifts from what folks are used to with the current program. So when we think about this elementary program for our teachers, students and our families, we have really tried to think through some of the challenges that we are uh that we can anticipate.
019I think we all know having gone through a lot of changes as leaders in education. Uh not everybody likes change. Even if you don't love what you're doing in terms of a program, um thinking about it's the devil that you know, right? Say the devil that you know, it's what you know, right? So it it really um is a good method for us to start thinking about how we can anticipate some of those struggles with the teachers. We are anticipating for a number of them it's going to be a shift to really move away from procedural um instruction to facilitating more dialogue and inquiry within the math standards. Uh that takes a lot more um management in your classroom and planning for that. So, we're anticipating that being a big shift. And also just thinking
020about what we know about inquiry based learning. Uh we've got teachers um who have all ranges of experience and what inquiry based learning has looked like 20 years ago versus now is very different. So being um really clear about what that looks like and then how we do that could be a challenge for some. Anytime you adopt a new curriculum, there's always challenges with pacing and figuring out how to differentiate with your students given the new standards. And then even if you're really great at technology, new tools always just mean new learning and figuring out where those fit and how to support your students and families with those. For our students, talking about your learning with kids is going to be a stretch for a number of them and putting that responsibility for them on
021their own learning. Um, and particularly if you are having them struggle through something really complex, that's going to be new for some of our students and and getting them comfortable with that level of perseverance and the complexity that comes with that. They'll have some navigating to do with new platforms as well that we're anticipating and and working through. And then finally with our families, we are anticipating that there will continue to be um questions about understanding these new instructional approaches to math. And so being able to make sure that we have the resources available to support our families so that they feel comfortable supporting their students with the new standards and the new materials. And a lot of that will be with how they perceive um the rigor of the program. It is going to
022feel a lot more challenging for our elementary kids, particularly well actually all levels. I'm not even going to say particularly at the younger grades because I think that we're going to hear about that from teachers, kids, and um families that this new curriculum is really challenging and I think that's actually a good thing, right? We'll we'll get through that. So that's the um Cliff's notes and run through version to hopefully add a little bit more icing to what you read in your documents that were posted on Diligent. So let's move into a secondary and I'm just the new the new model is I just keep going, right? And then we Okay. All right. I figure you'll stop me if if you if you need me to. I'm going to talk about reveal math. This is
023what we are proposing to adopt for both middle school and high school. So, I'm not going to break it down by middle school and high school because the structure actually is pretty much the same for all of the grades. So, you'll see that represented here. And some of the things that again really stood out to us with this particular program as we have been thinking about that research as well as the new standards is similar to Amplify. We really it it stands out that a lot of these new published curriculum are doing such a better job at thinking about curiosity as the anchor for how they design the lessons. And then in secondary, our secondary team and our secondary teachers have really spent the last five years in earnest, but probably even longer, really talking
024about student- centered classrooms and building in that classroom dialogue and um discourse around different ways to solve problems. And this particular program explicitly organizes components of the resources and lessons with critical questions that support that depth of discourse within each lesson. And so we liked that it it gave teachers ideas and entry points because right now their current curriculum assumes that they have all of those resources or that internal knowledge and so there's less support for them and they they're having to come up with all of those questions on their own. So this gives them a much better jumping off point to make those things happen in the classroom. We also really liked how well this program connected the students across each unit and even across the grades to thinking about math outside of the
025classroom. And it really um hones in we felt on that relevance piece which is it's critical at all stages. But then when you start to see some of the pushing of the thinking and the prompts as well as the um connections to real world in the 9 through 12 curriculum or 9 through 11, it's it's even more um exciting to see how they're connecting the students outside of math to math. So that was a big bonus in our minds. Um, just like Amplify, there's been a lot of thought put into this curriculum about how to engage students in um, hands-on learning activities. And then um, some critical tools that we've been needing at the secondary level to be able to support students who need additional um, time in math or need additional opportunities for learning
026particularly um, for language. There's an entire language resource to support our students who are still acquiring language. So those were some of the the critical highlights to note that may not have been as crystal clear in that other documentation. So again, just some highlights from some of the teachers on the committee and really what stood out to them. And um one teacher called out and I and I loved how he or she really noted specifically the student level of engagement, but also that um this teacher was able to pick up on the connections straight away within the units related to STEM and that real world application, but also um that our teachers have been really cognizant of the feedback that they're getting from families. And so they noted when um the students were able to
027engage in more hands-on versus just online. And so that was also something I think worth noting. So when we think about this particular curriculum from that student experience reveal 6 through 11 really walks through a process of what they call launch, explore, develop in this lesson. So every lesson begins with a launch and thinking creatively about math and then moves into activities similar to Amplify where they're the ones doing the digging, the thinking, the learning and the teachers facilitating that dialogue. And there's a really critical aspect of um this program. They look at each lesson across two sessions. And in between those two sessions, they have a distinct point at which the students have an opportunity to assess and rate their own understanding so that they can think deeply about what supports they might need
028to either access in between sessions or to have a conference and conversation with the teacher before they get to that second session so that they um can be successful. And so those juncture points were also really nice pause sessions for thinking about that process of inquiry but also building that uh responsibility in our learners around that math identity for our secondary students which we we want them to have some ownership of um for sure. So that was something that uh again our our math specialist but also the teachers noted and that those things were embedded in a routine just makes it a little bit easier to implement and automatic for all of the folks involved. So when we look at reveal math in terms of the key improvements that this program has in comparison to
029open up resources which is what we are using for middle school and high school at the moment. One of the things that we have heard repeatedly since we started implementation both at the middle school and high school with openup resources is that our our parents and our students have been asking for more supports home because there's um not a lot in the program. Open up resources is free and so they don't have a lot of these bells and whistles that a lot of these other programs that um we're introducing to tonight have. So students are reliant on the notes that they take in class and that's it. So any of you who have middle and high school students um you may have seen that. So that's been something that has been um frustrating and challenging
030for our teachers and us to create um or curate rather on our own. Some of the exciting things about reveal math that folks were excited about was they have an AI component in which they've built in a digital tutor. So students have the opportunity if they are struggling at home to be able to get um some interaction and feedback through that digital process as well as to be able to access some additional practice to get some instant feedback where they go back to that session two um on their next math day. So those were real big value added components compared to what um we currently have with our current uh resources. When we think about the anticipated challenges for our secondary stakeholders, there are a lot more resources than our teachers are used to with
031the current curriculum that they have. As I mentioned, open up resources is free. So, there's uh teacher materials and there's student materials and there's digital access for those materials, but there's not expanded resources to be able to integrate um in the way that some of these other comprehensive programs have. So that could lead to feeling pretty overwhelmed for a number of our teachers. And so we're anticipating that being something that we we need to work through. Um even though we've been focusing on student centered classrooms for the last little while, we have teacher turnover. We also have a number of teachers who um perhaps might be waiting out that uh process. And so working through those teachers who who are either struggling with the rationale or confidence to implement the student centered approach to learning,
032we're going to be building some professional learning around that in particular. And then finally, um, anytime there's new materials, and as I mentioned the plethora of them in this program, being able to sort through that for core instruction, the same thing will be true when we're thinking about providing intervention and additional supports for our students who have been struggling and making sure that we are guiding them in that uh the best resources to pull from. Um we're we're planning on building resources around that, but but also that being a challenge for our teachers initially for our students and families. Um like I mentioned with elementary, anytime there's new digital resources, that's just a new navigation piece for them. And uh because they're not used to having those at home resources, um that'll be something that
033will be a teaching component for all of those stakeholders. the perseverance. I think we're going to see that at all three levels and our students um wrestling with that um as they begin to take ownership of their own learning and feel comfortable in that collaborative process and talking about their thinking. So with that um that was the quick rundown of the process and overview of the program. to just think about next steps after today. Uh we'll be working with communications to get the word out about how our community, any of our stakeholders want to dig in deeper to these resources and we have those available for them digitally or they can uh make some time to come here and look at those in print if they prefer. We've created some a feedback form for them
034to offer their feedback digitally for those who have a chance to review it. And then at our next reading, um, I'm anticipating following up any questions that come to us between now and then, but also by that point, we should have more information about the costs of each of the program. That's something that purchasing is working on right now with each vendor. And then we'll be able to share with you more distinct details of the implementation plan for each level. Uh, bringing us to our third reading whenever that is. I anticipate there'll be even more follow-up questions. And at that point, um, hopefully we'll have some feedback from stakeholders to be able to share with you, um, for those folks who have had a chance to read it between now and then. Did I make
03515 minutes? I was going for the record, Andrew. I had you in mind. >> Pretty close. >> I didn't either. We were listening. >> Time for this at 15. I forgot to hit start. >> Okay. Thank you, Amber. >> You bet. Board, do you have questions? Okay. >> I love this. I love the direction it's heading. I love the fact that we're asking our students to write and speak >> because it is frustrating that we had to keep teaching them here's these formulas and these are these methods that literally if you don't want don't use them because I always let my kids choose how they wanted to solve the problem I showed them three different ways that we could do it but on the test they had to be able to do the one they
036asked so they had to know those. So that brings me to my question. My question is um how what is the assessment like for these >> um particular programs and how do they jive with um mandated testing? >> Really good question. So um for elementary we have not had a very robust assessment system with envision. Um you recall that Karen. So, our teachers are overrelying on Aadians, which it was not intended to be a tool that is over relied on because it is not so much standards aligned as much as a screener for general risk to be able to determine if our students are on track for math skills. So, we're actually really excited about the assessment platform within Amplify because it provides a a better format for teachers to be able to actually assess
037the learning that they are teaching that day, that week or that particular unit. >> Exactly. To be able to show that progress with their students, but also um much more dynamic so they can use it in PLC's and have those conversations to be able to support students. So, we actually think that um it's an upgrade for our elementary students. For our secondary, while the assessment platform is pretty good in reveal, our our teachers have a request, and this is something that we're continuing to look into as well. So, hopefully I'll have more information when we talk about cost during the second reading. But our teachers have become really invested and committed to deriva which is the assessment platform that we adopted because it was lacking in open up resources. And um our math teachers rely
038on that heavily and our students even rely on that for that instant feedback. And so we are looking at what it would cost to continue to use that as well as the costs for the new curriculum uh because it it's something that has been requested we hang on to by our teachers. But but there are some great assessment components in reveal as well similar to Amplify because the lesson structure is built with that assessment component. Um, and those exit tickets are are already prompts in terms of how you can assess each day's instruction. That in itself is going to be a value added that can be used for PLC conversations and to be able to quickly check understanding for your students in middle school and in high school. So hopefully that answers >> does answer
039it. And I also liked when I was looking through your materials that you provided us that there's kits with manipulatives. There are they're they're literally going here's the things you need to teach this. you don't have just here's the internet part and here's your workbooks but there's more and I saw dollar science when I saw that but I like the I do like the direction that it's going because math to many students is irrelevant they can't see any purpose in it why am I having to take it and even worse why do I have to take the advanced stuff and you will have flack from parents because they remember the formulas and if they don't understand what we're doing they think we're doing something really weird and I'm going no it's the same math we're
040just approaching it differently. But anyway, thank you. This this is very very helpful. Appreciate the work that you're putting into this. >> Thanks, Karen. U Mr. Lewis, >> uh I just wanted to say as a kid who struggled with math for a lot of reasons, but particularly the lack of support at home. I appreciate the the focus that this has on at home resources for students. I think that's incredible. That that'll be that'll be super super beneficial for a lot of kids. So, I just want to say I appreciate that a lot. Oh, I'm I'm glad you noticed that. I think a lot of our secondary students feel um alone at home when they're struggling in math because it's been a long time since since many of us as parents um had have done some
041and so having those resources we hope will be helpful for kids as well. >> Well, we thank you for that so much. >> Anyone else? Uh Mrs. Oaks. >> So, um you know, I've shared this with you, but I just want to allow the public to hear some of this conversation. So, in my corner of the woods, there are some parents that are definitely opinionated when it comes to integrated math versus traditional math. And when we had this conversation, you made it really clear that's not our call to make, >> correct? >> It's the state board of educations, but that you guys have been following it along. But of course, I want to make it really clear for parents if they still have those strong thoughts or opinions, they are still more than welcome to
042write into the state board and share the concerns, but you are trying to respond based off of what they have laid out thus far. >> Yes. And so to just add even one more layer of clarity, um our high school math team and curriculum adoption committee with uh knowing discussions that are happening at the state level right now and that that both models are potentially still being entertained, they really looked closely at whether or not the vendors that made it into the top couple um for consideration could accommodate both pathways and they can. So >> that's really helpful. And the other thing is I hear a lot of parents express concern about the fact that their kids are not with math working hard copy on paper things out showing their work um because there's such
043a reliance on their Chromebooks. Help me understand how this particular curriculum would work in that respect. >> Good question. And and part of that will depend on cost. So a lot of that might be part of what we dig into even deeper um in the next reading. But uh for a a real quick overview for middle school, uh what the curriculum consists of right now does include consumables. And so that is basically a a take-home textbook that all that you can write on. So instead of having your textbook that you write everything out on a sheet of paper like we were all used to, they can write all of that in their consumable and turn in that work >> like the way envision math has. >> Envision. Okay. >> Yes. or um if we continue
044with it with deriva, they'll do those things in deriva or take the picture in deriva so that it can be um autograded and they can get that feedback. For high school, there is actually a textbook, not a consumable, which was actually a big selling point for a lot of our teachers as well. They they wanted the hard textbook um to be able to address some of those questions exactly like you're mentioning, Amanda. So in that regard, it will I don't want to say follow similar to how we were taught because that's not actually even accurate. But in terms of having a disposable uh consumable resource for high schoolers, they will not they will use their textbook. They will use something like deriva or whatever the teacher organizes and they will correct, get feedback and turn
045in those assignments accordingly. >> Right? So it makes it harder for them just to copy and paste something from Google, right? and bring it over and just put it in and make it look like they know it when they don't understand it. So that's that's a been a big concern that people have brought up >> and that's again it's still dependent upon cost because with the consumable if if we can't figure out the cost situation of that then it is digital worksheets and and those kinds of things that we will have to keep in mind. But I'll share those pros and cons the second reading once we have the cost because I truly don't even know. Um Michelle Mcomes is a great negotiator and we're we're counting on her. So I'll hopefully have good news
046during our second reading. Awesome. And then my my last question is with regard to the hands-on piece. So I love this. I still have very distinct memories of being in high school and taking physics for the first time. And I was like, you mean this is what math is for? I remember thinking I'm like why did they hold on to you know didn't tell me about this way earlier um you know Rick and Reed and Susan and I we were all at the 47g conference last week it was mind-blowingly awesome and some of the conversations we had was about the importance of making sure that our kids are getting exposure to some of those scientific and technology opportunities earlier when I had two of my children that participated in the FL um Lego League competition
047early on. And the reason I really wanted to do it is because they had a teacher that would go over the math principles they had been learning and show how it worked on their robots. I'm curious about the manipulatives like do we have any introduction to robotics or those principles early on? If so, when does that happen? >> I'm just >> within the math curriculum. Yeah, >> that is something I'd have to get back to because I do not know every lesson 10 unit for all 12th grades. U so I can find out in terms of explicit STEM connections. I think each of the three programs has been thoughtful about that and so we can certainly do more demonstration of that in the second reading if that's something that that you would like us to
048consider and we can really call that out. But I would love to see something like that. I mean, in my mind, when I see opportunities for hands-on and making math meaningful, that goes right along with what our strategic plan talks about. And I I think for me that's an automatic selling point if the kids are really engaging in that. Now, like with that said, I recognize that there are a lot of teachers that might not feel comfortable in that space. So, understanding how to bring them up to speed on that, right, is going to be a trick. But I can guarantee that the kids are going to find much more interest in math if they can actually see how it moves >> well. And it starts with actually having access to the resources as a
049teacher, right? So I can have all the desire in the world, but if I'm creating everything on my own versus having a toolbox that I can pull from to be able to use my my own motivation increases. And so for middle school and high school, one of the um values of the Reveal program is the mathematical modeling for that hands-on learning. And we were just talking about this today in our math team meeting that the digital component for our teachers to be able to model because you're using such bigger numbers. It's not like tiles and the different things that we're using at the elementary level, but they have the digital modeling component so that they can show the students and that they can then access those tools within the digital uh platform as well. So,
050it's just a a higher level of how we use the hands-on and how we then capture digital or the appropriate use, which which that's what it would be versus just having the kids on um a computer. So, those things are exciting to be able to really dig into and explore, but they will take some time if our teachers haven't used tools like that in the past. >> Sure. Well, and I I just I want to remind the board, I've talked about this before, but in parts of Asia, like whether you're talking about Singapore, Japan, South Korea, like some of the nations out there that are kicking our trash on the pizza, they get kids robotics and access to it from first or second grade. And sitting through that 47g summit, like we really need to
051be thinking about some of these things and how it interfaces not only with like local industry, but national security even. I mean, it's becoming like a national security issue at this point. And so, I would be interested in knowing like how what kind of cost that would look like if we were starting to implement it earlier in the classroom and and provide opportunities for teachers to be able to meaningfully use things like that for their math. So, we can talk about the explicit um science connections and and I'll just bring us back to even one of the that sense of urgency in terms of the research with math. Getting our students to think abstractly and reason and problem solve, math is an incredible place to do that. And so if we're doing that in math
052and the way that we are teaching inquiry in math mirrors how we're teaching it in science, we are ramping up both sets of skills simultaneously, even if we're not explicitly doing robotics and engineering in math. We are building those foundations so that they can be more successful when they apply that in other classes. And so I think it's important that it's it's the explicitness with the STEM connections, but also those deeper skills and that practice that we're hopefully instilling in our kids as well >> and make it a two for one. >> Exactly. >> Okay. Anyone else? Uh Katie, >> just a little bit along the same lines with Amanda, but I love that they're this hands-on that we're we're reaching more to this kinesthetic learner. Um because some kids math is hard because it's
053so abstract. And so when we can make it concrete through this hands-on learning, I think it really helps these kids a lot more. And then I love more this crosscurricular where we're going to bring in more of the STEM concepts and things like that. So thank you. I think it's great. I understand there's costs with that, but I think in the end it's going to provide us better student engagement and learning when it comes to math and and help kids develop that confidence that they can be good at math. I I that is our definite our intent and and our our big dream from um taking advantage of this opportunity with the standards and the new curriculum. And I thought of something as you were talking in addition to us being thoughtful in the curriculum
054being thoughtful about that science component. One of the things that the elementary program also does really well is um they create a within each unit they connect the lessons with a specific theme which includes stories and story problems that relate. Can you imagine? So that your kids are able to then make connections beyond just math and science. But but again it's it becomes that full conceptual understanding um of a bigger picture than just that algorithm. So, that was like one of those as we were reviewing this uh brand. >> Okay. Thank you, [clears throat] Amber. Um I I just have to say this makes me really old because I feel like >> you've been here for these adoptions. >> It's 10 years ago, so [laughter] it's crazy. Anyway, thank you. This is really exciting, I
055think, and just the critical thinking, collaboration, and all the stuff everyone. >> [clears throat] >> Well, I have to shout out to um our fantastic teachers. They were led by an incredible team of math leaders. Cynthia Lloyd is here from our math team tonight. But she and the math team from ISD, which includes um Allison Duncan, Rachel Marshall, Hi Kirk, Leanne Fischer, and Chandra Marts. They worked with our teachers at each level and got input and really took to heart um both what the teachers are experiencing, what they know from research and best practice and and really tried to merge the two to be able to find the best program that will meet um first and foremost our kids needs and our goals for them but also support our teachers with being successful in meeting
056those needs. >> Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Your team thank you. I will do that and I'll anticipate um additional questions that you have. But if there aren't any questions between now and the next two weeks, I'll plan on coming back with costs, implementation, and explicit science connections. Did I miss anything? >> Awesome. >> Okay, that's great. >> Thanks for your time. >> Thank you. Now, we're going to go on to the annual board um indicator report and Dr. Hal Sanderson, director of research and assessment, will present this exciting and data. I'm not >> I love it. I love it every >> I mean I could but it >> painted too >> counting against my 15 minutes. I'd like to know. >> No, Amber and I have a
057contest to see who can do this and feel like I'm getting disadvantaged a little. That's too good, Amber. Appreciate that. >> No, this is important information. We want to hear it all. >> Yep. That's right. Feel a lot better already. little holy cow. >> Good evening. >> Happy Veterans Day board members with veteran family members. I ask for your help because I do have a Marine in our family and so, you know, we're learning as we go along, but love Veterans Day. Um, I'm excited to be here and talk about our annual indicators and goals that have been set. and I'd like to just kind of dive into it. Um, we're going to start with uh student achievement and uh I'll go through all of those areas. Um, hopefully my pace will be 15 minutes.
058Um, but I wanted to start with the good news in terms of recognition of many of our middle schools and many of our elementaryaries. Um, when we look at these achievement ro results, we can focus on, well, it's not where I want it to be. I like our mindset of being able to see both sides and say, well, compared to the state or compared to some other things, we're on maybe a fairly strong road. And so, both things can be true in terms of there's work to be done, but also there's some things to really celebrate. Um, we'll also focus on letter grades in terms of percent of students that have F's graduation rate and looking at ACT. And I have over there a slide um whether I'm going rogue or not. Maybe I'm going
059rogue, but I wanted to bring in um some of the incredible work. As we talk about outcomes, I really like to just highlight a few of these big big process things that multiple directors are doing. And this one is highlighting our uh teaching and learning summit that was just after the end of the school year. We had 900 of our teachers and administrators there. And you can see the topics of looking at AI and writing in terms of looking at our ML newcomers. It's like the latest things and good practice that goes on there. So as we think about outcomes, I just want to highlight a few places about some great input and process. We talk about strategic updates. Um I'm going to start with the complex slide first and that is our goals uh
060through our early learning is to look at growth within the year. So they start here in the fall and we want them to end here in the spring. But we have an interesting pattern here at Kenyons that I just want to highlight and that is as you look over time our numbers are going up yeartoear. So maybe we're not on our kindergarten looking at um 2% increase. We didn't get it this year, but if you look over the last four years, the percent who are showing those benchmarks are going up in our middle looking at first grade and uh whole words red. We reached that goal. But also look at year-to-year change that's going on. Our our fall start, our midyear as well as spring is really going up. and applying that over to the
061far right with first grade looking at some of the math skills. Um you can see it's it's gradual progress but there is progress even if we aren't making it within fall to spring but year to year. It's interesting that we are seeing that that growth. I don't know if the state gives us bonus credit for that, but um I just wanted to highlight that that there's two ways of looking at growth and on one of those metrics we can see progress. Uh talking a lot about math. So here we're looking at our end ofear rise results over the last several years and you can see that our results are typically around five to maybe 10% above the state depending on the year. This one is plus eight above the state. And then working with Superintendent
062Robbins, we wanted to also bring in average student growth. So, it's median growth. We don't have time to go too deep into it, but let's just call it typical growth of our students. And you can see that we are well above the state average on growth. Jumping over to fifth grade science, a fairly similar pattern. um our results are more kind of level but we remain well above the state and that hovers anywhere from four to plus seven above the state. We are median growth is again above the state but maybe not quite as pronounced as with fifth grade math. So we have one more year of doing our rise end of year results, but as we shift gears with math and where we go with the curriculum adopt and we're kind of following out
063the end of that pattern and at least within our district, we're going to have kind of a new baseline to be able to look at as we shift gears. And again, you had a really um I really enjoyed the conversation around direction of math. um grade A similar pattern. We are maintaining our results above the state and you can see that there's been a little bit of a downward trend for a few years but again well above the states. So if I had a glass I'd show glass and say which one is it? There's work to be done but we there are many districts that would like this chart. I will put it that way. uh science for grade 8 similar pattern. This has always been like this and it's always like plus 11 or
064plus 13 over the state. It's just it's not like a little bit. It's always just been a rock star in terms of looking at it and you can see our median growth. So grade eight science. Now um talking about changes to our state core standards, there was a significant change with our English language arts. It was so big that they had to redo the test significantly for RISE as well as bring educators together and set the standards to say what does proficient look like in these new standards and on the new test that has been finished up this last month. And so I'm showing you our new baseline. And I did kind of show you the last picture, but what you can see is we have gone from um just above the state solidly plus
065six. But even with this new uh baseline, we're plus eight above the state. So it's a really strong beginning. Again, people would like to be there. And again, that kind of progress on what we do. This is looking at our leadership conference. And it shows over a few days we've been looking at um student behavior and supporting um positive behavior within our students, looking at our multilingual, looking at homeless students and how to support them. And you can see those descriptions um for that. But again, we've had all of our assistant principles that you were supporting. This was the first chance to really bring them all together and start going through that training. um that's ongoing. Here is grade 8 English language arts. A similar picture and again it's a baseline but we're still strongly
066above this state. And that's kind of day two of our training focusing on reccalibrating school culture. So I decided to have a visual and at least be able to hand that around. You want to know what's going on with our fabulous administrators and what we're trying to do. I'd like to jump to the high school and roll over to ACT and show you our average composite score. So, it's bringing together those four tests together. And um you can see a really clear picture. I did not make this chart up because usually I give you caution, but it's really been impressive to see just that slow and steady increase. Um don't even ask me about how to get the state numbers, but we're well above them. I'll leave it at that. Um, again, uh, the book
067that's passing around, that's another quote from it. Uh, that's starting in the end of August because we are looking at it throughout the year. So, we're not just handing out the book, but in our leadership meetings as we train up our fabulous leaders, we're looking at this monthto-month in terms of implementing. And jumping over to the benchmarks for ADT, these are really aggressive benchmarks. If you remember, they're aligned to freshman college performance. I think it's about you have a 70% likelihood or higher of getting a C or greater grade in that next course into college. They're high high standards. And again, just look at over the last five years that clear pattern of clear pattern going up. Um and it's just I'm always happy when I can show charts like this because it's there's a
068lot of good going on at the high schools when we are seeing some outcomes like this. Graduation rate uh the graduation rate is not released for this year. That was last year's result. That's kind of the oldest one that we have. Um it's not finalized but I All right. It's going to go up. I'll tell you that. But I'm not going to say exactly how much, but it's going to get back to the right direction. Um, so I can I can say that. But yes, that one has our attention. And um, don't worry, it's front and center with our high schools. So, I'd like to jump over to chronically absent students and the uh, students who get an F grade and how that's associated with our graduation rate. Clearly, we want our students to be
069attending. We want them to be doing strong academic work and not being frustrated with um failure and um not getting support. This one is looking at our chronic absentee chronic absenteeism. The definition is at the bottom. According to um risk behavior, it doesn't matter if it's an excused or unexcused absent. If they're not there at class, the correlation is that it's it's more challenging and you can see um this over time again we're not quite at our board goals that you have but the direction is clear if you look over the last four years coming out of COVID it's going the right direction at the middle school level we did meet that benchmark but you can see slow and steady improvement so it's nice to show that we're going in the right ction students with
070F. Um so it's very simple for any of the grades that you had for the year. Did you receive one F or more? Um if you did have one, you would be considered in the yes category. So as we look um over time, it's around, you know, 38% um that we have of our students get tripped up. Um you can see the pattern over middle school and high school. And uh you can see that there's a little stubbornness with our middle school, but at the high school level, we're seeing that move in the right direction. And when you aggregate and bring those together, we do meet the goal in terms of that decreasing. So we can jump over to our um other indicators that you have in terms of community engagement, customer service, fiscal accountability,
071and innovation. and I'll move through those at a good pace. [snorts] Um, there are no as a board and we have no uh set goals on this except we're just monitoring those patterns and you can see that the number of volunteers that are approved and then we see on the right side their total hours. I just the number just kind of boggles in my mind when I see these numbers. Um, but yeah,und 103 100,000 hours. It just I don't know it's a big number in terms of what we're getting of volunteers and support. Um our SEC's uh the indicators that we have here are just looking at those who are getting the training and to support schools. This first one is looking at our principles which universally I probably missed one but um I'm sure
072that we could talk about the number of calls we had to try to get that last one in. Uh when we look next, we're going to look at our board at ouruh SEC chairs being trained and then our members. And that kind of shows you the pattern over the last several years. Um website metrics, another way of engaging our customers and uh across our community. And you can see that we have a new high and it's really hard to predict. It could be topicalbased. Obviously, there's conversations around schools that are probably going to heat up the metrics for this year. Um, so it it does based on thing. We had really high numbers going into COVID, as you can imagine. So, that was fun. Um, but you can also see the average minutes per page
073and that one um is really interesting for me, but it's just under three minutes per page. So, people are looking at our content and learning about what we're about. rental surveys really key metrics that we all are focused on. There's two questions that we want to focus on. And from the parent side, I'm pleased with how my child is learning at this school. And that's gone up a little bit. You can see it's kind of hovering around the high 80s. And then it asks um pleased with the support of my child's emotional well-being. Do I agree or strongly agree with that statement? And that one um has gone up over the last few years but it's but it's just a slight increase but um at least there is some movement there. Another big one is
074our very customers are students themselves. So we ask seniors as part of them wrapping up their academic time at Canyons how satisfied they are with their education that they received whether um they agree or strongly agree. And that one is a slow and steady increase. Um we I always have an asterisk of those that year just after COVID because there were some complexity that we had on a lot of different opinions. But at least over the last four years, you can see that that movement upward. And then our teachers themselves, we have our education uh satisfaction survey. And again, I talked about kind of that COVID time. there was that peak where everybody was really happy and then that overwhelming nature of 247 texting from parents to to our teachers just it was a lot
075um uh so you can see that probably playing out but look at the steady increases there and I did want to do my next visual student centered leadership this book not to ages but this is the second round of this book it's kind of yellowing but this is a fabulous book uh that we are going through with our leaders again, assistant principles, principles and everyone throughout our professional development for this year. So, as we're looking at how are our teachers feeling, we have all of these efforts of our departments working with you around supporting our teams to hopefully show that our teachers are feeling positive about what they're doing and more importantly support. uh for sake of time I'll keep it simple but just highlight the innovation center work and the topic and the energy
076that's gone into that and going into it as one of those um innovative programs has innovation in it. So we hit that one and to finish up we wanted to do the exciting world of finance and it's exciting because our marks are always really good. So we are in full compliance with our audits which we like. Our bond rating is uh maintained AAA since uh the beginning and Leon has always kept that focus right. And I do have this nice uh quote about leadership and it says that leadership is not about being in charge but it is about taking care of those in your charge. And I really like how that jumps out to me, which is as us working with you and supporting our teachers and our administrators, we're to have a servant leader
077mindset. And so we're talking about that throughout this year. And then finally, um, in terms of ratings with awards from diff different fiscal areas, uh, you can see that we are hitting the mark on those consistently. How long was this? >> 16 minutes and 40 seconds. >> I think >> Sorry. >> So, have a lot of cont. >> Where do you want to go? That's it. >> Where do we have any questions or you'd like to share? >> Um, Mrs. Oak, >> thank you. This is a lot of data to collect. >> It is >> a lot. And 16 minutes is a minor miracle. I think it's amazing. >> I never thought you could do it. Sorry, even [laughter] though I'm sorry. >> I think this is a little minor performance evaluation. So, I hope
078I did. Okay. [laughter] >> So, just real quick, if we wanted if we were curious and wanted to go down a rabbit hole um of comparing some of our numbers to other districts, where would we best look for some of that? >> Great. Um it's in the data gateway of the state. We have one thing I want to say is how great our state is on having transparency around this data. So if you go to the data gateway and it would be just um achievement results or performance and you can go full speed into it. It's great. Um and I would be glad to send out some other links to you. But if if you go there um it's some great data that you have. Um I'm really proud of how transparent Utah is around
079this. It's really nice because Yeah, it's it have fun and just let me know what you learned because it's great >> and and and as a comment, I didn't do this, but um Representative Oaks and it and I don't want to make light of it, but it has all of the disagregate disagregated data. So, as we look at our student groups that we really have front and center, we look at our students with disabilities, look at our ML learners and what their progress is, all of this data is showing what those results are as well. And I think that's just great to be able to have those conversations. You joke about me being able to hit it under the mark. I'd really like to go into those student groups, but I just I know that
080the time is is really key, but I'd love you to have me back about that. Well, and I I anticipate to that point that's something that access and opportunity go over quite a bit, right? I mean, I'm guessing that we kind of dive into >> Yeah. >> when it's available. I mean, if >> so maybe >> at least only once a year. So, >> so I I don't know. Maybe the next time access and opportunity or like one of the next times it would be interesting to follow up on that exact point because I would be very interested in networking. >> Sure. Absolutely. And I I I kind of blended in on the idea of progress report and I think around these indicators and these departments that you know I'm a small department but instructional
081supports and you want to talk about what is curriculum look like in that adoption and integration that's a great story that you need to understand and to be able to to see that all the effort that goes into it and then be able to talk about some student groups. I mean I I just think there's a lot that we could do there. on you want to entertain a round table and look at focus groups and these goals together. I think there's some exciting things that can be done. >> Yeah, >> saw it. >> I mean, we still have talked about in the past how at the next board round table we need to really talk about our indicators again and aligning them more with strategic plan. >> I was just going to make that >>
082I think these things we look at are really important. Good. Superintendent, do you have anything? >> Just and thanks to how I just want to comment to um looking at the progress of those numbers that that's a heavy heavy lift. I mean I don't think the public really understands you know through the pandemic and all the changes in our demographics and all the issues that continue to face all of that. You know to see that kind of growth is is just really a tribute to our teachers and our administrators and parents and just community entire school community at large. Um that's it's very humbling. So a lot of hard work >> any other comments >> but to your point too I think it's a good launching pad to that discussion in round table. I mean
083>> taking this data and then really kind of extrapolating okay what do we want to keep as an indicator and then maybe is there are things that we want to add as indicators that are more related to the plan but also you know what are the important metrics that are only reports that you know maybe don't necessarily have a goal uh attached to them but still important that you know the board would like to to know. So, but uh yeah, just uh big thanks to to everybody in the district for their efforts and really, you know, proud of our students. Awesome. >> I do have a question about um do you do you know why our graduation rate dipped? I mean, you said it's >> but is there do you have any idea? I mean,
084I'm just kidding. >> The reason I would do it is that superintendent can go strong right now, but I would say having conversations around that um are important and we're having them. But I think with what departments are doing, what the superintendent would like and you all as a board, I think there's some really good conversations to be had around that and what the efforts are looking like. I mean, to me, you you look at the kids that are graduating just in the last last year, year before that, and this year, all middle school >> COVID kids, right? And so, probably at the most impressionable time of their life, things were just completely flipped, you know, upside down. And and, you know, to their credit, a lot of those stressors haven't really relieved, right? I
085mean, there's still all the stressors economically, there's still all the political, uh, issues, um, families trying to make it, housing issues. So, uh, it's, you know, and and it's going to tick back up, but I think there's still there's a lot to be said about, you know, how we think about things like what does a letter grade actually mean, right? And it kind of it kind of begs the question and digs into PLC work. It it also, I think, It looks at credit recovery. It looks at intervention, student wellness, um, attendance, you know, I mean, we're still 43% chronically absentee at our high schools. I mean, that's, you know, so the fact that we're still achieving and and making kind of gains we are, I mean, you look at those ACT numbers, you wouldn't think
086that that would really align with as much as kids are missing. But so I think just trying to meld all those things together in a in the ship. I think that's that's what we want to keep working on. >> And I do think we added looking at at the Fgrades because we're hoping to catch the kids sooner. So I made it that you see that. Yeah. So >> so we got to wait and see how that works. Mrs. Oaks. So this is probably not a popular thing to say but at some point maybe it's when we do our our round table discussion but to have a conversation about how we're handling attendance you know that we really would like legislature to do some things and I know we're constantly working on that but I know
087there's things on our end that we can do too and sometimes I hear complaints particularly from high school teachers who feel a profound amount of pressure from their administrations to not fail kids even when they're really not in class much. And I think that that has to be addressed. I don't I don't want better numbers just because it's been doctorred that way. Does that make sense? Like I want it to actually reflect um the truth of what's happening. Are kids going are they really learning? I mean, one teacher said that she was told that she had to pass a student who had only been in her class three times that term wasn't talking about. And that to me is alarming and especially when we expect and and hold up the importance of hands-on learning and
088collaboration, all of those things that are the professional skills as laid out in the portrait of a canyon scholar. Like anyway, I just I think it it is having a conversation. >> I I think, you know, we really haven't >> when you think about even a standard high school grading policy itself. We we've never I mean, all of our high schools are are very, you know, individual and unique in how they they handle that. And so the balance of how do you honor and recognize teacher autonomy at the same time have a level standard that this is what that's what I'm saying about what does a letter grade mean right that it it lifts it lifts all boats um to a place that we all have agreement that okay learning means this so um and
089that's related to PLC's and bigger bigger questions so yeah I I think all of that's relevant to There's more articles coming out. I mean, The Atlantic just had one about the decrease in American literacy and how that's putting us at risk in a lot of areas and and also grade inflation. And I think that these are some things that we kind of have to wrestle with a little bit. It's I'm not saying that we don't want our kids to move on and graduate, but you know, having three college students right now, I can see what things prepared them effectively and what didn't. And I will say that like going easy on them in certain instances wasn't helpful. and they're getting their rear ends kicked right now, which you know, I'm grateful they're having that experience,
090but like there's a part of me that feels like we could do better in preparing our kids for that rigor. >> Well, one thing I I just want to circle back to, you just had instructional supports talk about a whole shift of curriculum materials on mathematics and you all, unless I was reading the room wrong, were excited about the relevance for students and keep them more engaged in it. Well, if that plays out, that should help attendance and should help a lot of those things. And I don't want to be rosecolored glasses, but I think that's real. If if if the student who is needs tactally to be able to interact with it at math and we have materials that are going to be more prevalent to support that, maybe they're not going to be
091frustrated and choose to skip the class, >> which is something our our state superintendent is talking a lot about, thankfully. And I agree with her. I think I think it's very poignant. So I don't know maybe that's something that we can discuss more. >> Thank you. >> I did write that down for a round table or maybe it's even an agenda item we bring back just talking about attendance and what our policies are what schools are doing. >> That could be very good. Okay. Anyone else? >> Wow. Can't believe we're done right now. [laughter] though. Thank you, >> Dr. Glad to come back. >> Okay. >> Well, I think that just finishes our study session. So, we will have a little break and then set the bar. Someone shows