Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Curriculum and Instruction Committee Meeting, Thursday, February 8, 2024

Date: Thursday, February 8, 2024
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 35m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/911421645?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-21. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] good morning everyone I'd like to call this February 8th 2024 meeting of the curriculum instruction committee to order my name is Lauren Chernoff and I'm here with my esteemed colleagues dr. Deans and dr. Rashid I am the chair of this committee and we are excited to be with you all today we appreciate you coming the purpose of the meeting today we have several action items on two policies and then we have information items on our gifted plan we will be reviewing the process of and feedback related to policy 50/30 for assessment and grading and discussing the new instructional framework and have an

[00:00:37] update on that so with that we will get started with item 2.1 public comment before we proceed we value public input if there's anyone from the public who wishes to address the committee we ask that you fill out the registration form and I think we already did that so we will open the floor to public comments If you wish to speak, please come forward, state your name, and limit your comments to three minutes.

[00:01:02] We have one speaker today, and that is Sandy Sullivan. Good morning. I'm Sandy Sullivan, an elementary school teacher who currently serves the members of the Loudon Education Association as their president.

[00:01:18] I look forward to when these committee meetings are held so that your educators and the general public who have regular work hours will be able to attend and participate. Regarding the assessment and grading policy, I urge you, as you review the assessment and grading policy, to seek input from all educators who work directly with our students and will have to implement whatever policies you adopt, not just focus groups.

[00:01:39] Grading and assessment policies must define clear expectations which prepare our students for future work and education. Thank you. All right. We will move on now to item 3.1, and we will approve the draft minutes.

[00:01:58] Can you guys hear me okay? they said they were having trouble with them they're fine okay so if we need to approve the minutes from our last meeting has everyone had a chance to review the minutes are there any Corrections or additions seeing none I entertain a motion to approve the minutes a second all those in favor aye all those opposed all right the minutes are approved with that we will now move

[00:02:34] on to our action items we have item 4.1 revisions to policy 8310 theatrical presentations and I believe there was a last-minute update on the regulations so I will pass this over to mr. Slevin to give us an update and talk us through it thank you miss Chernoff for policy 8310 there hasn't been any changes made to the policy since we presented it as an information item but there was some discussion around the approval process for theater teachers and working with the principals so we wanted to share the regulation and talk a little bit about

[00:03:12] that today based on the feedback from the board we can revisit the regulation to have a little bit more specificity about the principal approval process but just looking at and I realize you're just receiving this but you know we talk about a principal could even have an advisory panel we asked principals to posted on their website we with the summary there and there's clear statement that everything about the program is at that principal approval and so recognizing

[00:03:48] that the concern came from a teacher that perhaps had an experience we could revisit that regulation to see if we could more formalize some of the steps to ensure that there's a good clear agreement between teachers and the principle in the in the regulation I have a clarifying question does that mean that we would not vote to approve to move the action item to information for the whole board today or can the regulation be addressed separately from the policy the regulation is a staff document that so we there's no formal approval process through the board so the policy could move forward as an

[00:04:27] information as a action item here to be information to the full board is there any thank you is there any discussion or questions so would we have opportunity to to entertain or review that adjustment that you're going to make before voting before sending it to the full board that's at the discretion of the committee if you would like us to change the regulation before moving to the full board that's to your discretion I would recommend that we have the

[00:05:06] change before we send it to the I tend to agree even though we can do it separately I think that the concern is that the theater teachers just really want to have some backing in terms of like having proof that it was approved at least that's the feedback that I've gotten and it could be as simple as an email I don't think they're asking for a lot but I think it would be good to have that in conjunction with the policy so that we don't give the perception that we're passing this without making some changes so with that I guess we will what's your recommendation back this is action at the next C&I meeting that

[00:05:41] sounds good thank you so much all right let's move on to our next agenda item which is 4.2 revisions to policy 8360 school publications digital and print we had this as an information item last time and now it is moved to action so I will pass this over as well to get the review and I believe there were a couple of updates on the policy in the red line version thank you miss Chernoff yes this school publications policy has one change on line 22 to 23 the previous statement was this also includes materials that advocate prejudice hatred

[00:06:18] and violence or harassment and based on dr. Rashid's feedback we did add the statement but is not limited to between lines 22 and 23 thank you mr. Slevin are there any questions or discussion items all right with that we will have this moved then to the full board for an information item I believe next Tuesday is the plan pending approval by the chair yes we would attempt to get it on the meeting next Tuesday yeah sounds good all right next we are moving on to

[00:06:57] our information items and I want to say a very big thank you to Miss King for letting us bump you last time due to our many comments and conversation and bringing you here today so we are excited to hear about the next steps on the gifted plan and so I will pass it over to you right well first of all thank you so much for having me back to talk about the LCPS gifted plan I'm going to provide a little context around why we develop a gifted plan I'll give a

[00:07:36] very high level overview of the plan highlight some of those key elements that you should really know about and talk about the timeline okay so school divisions in Virginia are required by the Virginia Department of Education to identify gifted learners and provide instructional services to meet their needs and I know that sounds a little crazy that we would identify them and be required to serve them it just seems like that makes sense but believe it or not there are other states that are required to identify them but not

[00:08:14] required to provide services but that is something that we the guidance that we get by the Virginia Department of Education. So we are also required to develop a gifted plan that is really the blueprint on how we're gonna do this. So our plan includes the division's philosophy statement on gifted education, a definition of giftedness, goals for the program, how the division will identify students in need of services, how we will notify the school community about gifted services, and other components related to program operations.

[00:08:50] And before a gifted plan is submitted to the Virginia Department of Education, it must be supported by the division's Gifted Education Advisory Committee, or GEAC, and approved by the division's school board. And as you heard earlier this month, or in January, at the GEAC presentation, GEAC has reviewed the gifted plan, provided feedback on the plan, and approved the plan for presentation to the board.

[00:09:20] So over the last year, the plan has also been reviewed by LCPS gifted resource teachers through work groups and small committee meetings. And the changes in the document reflect the revisions to the gifted evaluation process that have been made over the course of a few years now, and the transition from a center-based gifted program at the elementary level to a school-based gifted model.

[00:09:47] And then our office has also had the opportunity to collaborate with outside experts in the field of gifted education to identify these new approaches and protocols that are outlined in the plan. So our office received guidance for the development of the plan from the Virginia Department of Education through the regulations governing educational services for gifted students.

[00:10:14] so our gifted regulations and the Virginia Board of Education adopted the regulations which outline the requirements the school divisions need to include in their local plans and each local school board is charged with approving a gifted plan approximately every four excuse me every five years and we can do so in between that five years if we choose to do so okay so now we're going to move on to address the various sections of the plan and the first section of the plan provides an overview of our division's philosophy on

[00:10:49] gifted education and our division's definition of giftedness and the section highlights the following you'll see them here gifted services align with and support the LCPS commitment to rigorous instruction and deeper learning gifted services are essential for addressing the academic and the social-emotional needs of gifted learners gifted services benefit the school community as a whole For example, search is taught to all K-3 students.

[00:11:21] Each elementary school and middle school has a gifted resource teacher based at that school who supports staff in differentiating instruction for our gifted learners. And, of course, the plan emphasizes rigor and differentiation.

[00:11:42] Right. So here's the definition of giftedness in LCPS. LCPS defines giftedness as having abilities and or potential for intellectual and academic accomplishment so outstanding that specialized services are required to meet a student's educational needs. And the plan further explains that gifted learners may demonstrate or have the potential to demonstrate persistent intellectual curiosity, those students who ask you questions all day long, superior reasoning, that's that critical and creative

[00:12:16] thinking, exceptional problem-solving, advanced use or accelerated acquisition of language, rapid acquisition and mastery of facts, concepts, and principles, those kids who pick things up pretty quickly and don't need a lot of practice in specific areas of strength, and/or creative and imaginative expression beyond their age-level peers. So please notice that we are charged with identifying both students who are already showing us giftedness in their performance and students who are really demonstrating that potential that gifted

[00:12:53] potential the gifted evaluation process is twofold we know that some students come to us with many experiences and others come to us with significantly different opportunities to learn they come to us with that gifted potential so So as stated in our gifted regulations, we must identify both students for services.

[00:13:18] So part two is really an overview and focuses on our program goals and objectives. Here are some highlights from our program goals. We strive to administer research-based gifted identification procedures and practices that are implemented in a consistent and efficient manner across the division, provide multiple programs and a continuum of services for grades K through 12 that are appropriately differentiated for gifted learners. We want to continue to increase access to gifted services from students in populations historically

[00:13:55] underrepresented in gifted educational programs and other advanced academic opportunities and enhanced communication and collaboration among our gifted staff, classroom teachers, other staff members like our EL partners and our special education partners administrators parents and guardians in the community so moving on to section 3 this addresses screening referrals identification and placement this is really the core of the plan so some of the important topics that are included in section 3 information about our universal

[00:14:33] evaluation process in third grade when referrals are actually needed information about our relatively new level of services in elementary school called DCI grades four and five which is provided for students who demonstrated exemplary performance in a given domain such as math language arts or both during that gifted evaluation process and a description of advanced academic course options and specialized program options for high school gifted learners also in section three additional highlights include the fact that we use multiple

[00:15:13] indicators in the gifted evaluation process including a portfolio of performance tasks ability testing and achievement testing keeping in mind that no single criterion is used to determine a student's eligibility or exclude them from services we use local norms to determine supporting scores on ability and achievement testing and there are both local and division identification and placement committees that weigh in and contribute to eligibility decisions it's not just me okay we really work at the division level and the school level

[00:15:51] parent and guardian permission must be received before a child can begin services right so sections four and five they focus on notification procedures and changes and services and this is where stakeholders can go in the plan to find out where families can find information about gifted programs and the gifted evaluation process, how families are notified about eligibility decisions, how families can appeal an eligibility decision, and how families

[00:16:29] can withdraw a student from services and/or re-enter them back in to the gifted program. Part 6. The first part of 6 is really important because it provides an overview of all of the gifted services and special programs for which gifted learners may apply it identifies how gifted learners have opportunities to work not only with their age level peers or grade level peers other gifted learners and there are times where they can work independently on projects of interest to them it outlines instructional strategies used with

[00:17:07] gifted learners such as PBL curriculum compacting and clustering and it shares how gifted learners are assessed within the gifted program moving along On Section 7, it includes strategies for providing appropriately differentiated curriculum for our gifted learners.

[00:17:28] Some issues addressed are how the LCPS core curriculum can be differentiated through extensions, acceleration, and enrichment to provide depth and complexity to support the continued growth both academically and in their social-emotional learning for our gifted learners; how gifted learners engage in rigorous challenging curriculum units that are designed by gifted resource teachers to meet their academic and social-emotional needs. Also focus on how students engage in curricula developed specifically for

[00:18:04] gifted learners. That's when we pull in Jacob's Ladder and mentoring mathematical minds that are specifically designed for gifted learners. And it also talks about how our program aligns with our national gifted programming standards. Part eight we're getting there part eight so this provides an overview of advanced opportunities at the elementary middle and high school levels it also includes a listing of the variety of measures that are in place to increase access to

[00:18:42] program opportunities for all students and the current practices include universal ability testing universal evaluations and third grade with an opt-out option teacher administrator parent and student referral operation excuse me, options, the use of multiple indicators in the gifted evaluation process, the use of local norms, and the implementation of EDGE and other talent development programs, program opportunities.

[00:19:14] And this section is also in the plan and it includes, excuse me, it includes information about acceleration evaluations, determine the need for whole grade acceleration or what we commonly know as grade skipping.

[00:19:27] Then we get to section 9 and it addresses personal and professional learning and it outlines the certification requirements of gifted resource teachers. It highlights that local courses are being developed to provide classroom teachers with the foundation for working with gifted learners and it shares that gifted resource teachers are available as a resource for school staff to assist in meeting the needs of gifted learners and can provide professional learning opportunities at the school level.

[00:20:00] and it also talks about how families can learn to support gifted learners by attending gifted advisory committee meetings and also the edge family Academy and finally we get to the last two parts parts 10 and 11 and they outline the process for developing the gifted advisory committee and a process for the gifted advisory committee to provide feedback to the board like our board presentations and the guidelines for running that local gifted education

[00:20:34] advisory committee and we also have just some general highlights from the GIAC bylaws and then finally next steps school divisions are required to submit a copy of their approved plan at the time of the Virginia Department of Education's request for a technical review and our plan will be up for review I believe in the fall of 2025 so that's when we need to send it in and and there's a process for reviewing it and then providing feedback to our department so and just

[00:21:13] one other thing i wanted to mention this is really a living document and it can be updated annually or as needed um through an a an addendum process i'm happy to answer any questions that you have thank you so much for that presentation um is there any discussion or questions from my colleagues when you moved from thank you that was very a very comprehensive presentation when you moved

[00:21:47] from center base to school base how long ago was that it was kind of a rolling change and i believe we started in 1819 so we went i think we started with six schools the first year and then went to 11 and 14 and then doubled that and so last year was the first year where all of the elementary schools run the new model okay okay and um when you do the screening do you do

[00:22:24] it in a multilingual approach with parents and students when the students are screened mm-hmm do you have a multi-language yes screener that can adapt to the students yes when they for example when they take the kogat they can take it in their home language also we we collaborate very closely with the EL team so that they can have support there if a student needs it during the

[00:23:01] during the COGAP process but also during the portfolio process and then we also have various other accommodations in place for our like for our special ed students if they need a scribe during the portfolio process they could do that that's why that collaboration during this process is so important so we really need to make sure we pull in our special education teachers and our L teachers to provide that guidance I just want to speak to that from my personal experience they really work the collaboration piece since it's school

[00:23:41] embedded now is so effective we had a little guy in kindergarten who had some issues with language and, you know, had a lot of behaviors and we were really not dialed in on the gifted part. But then we noticed that after we were teaching our lessons, he would create songs out of the content and was singing the information to himself and to us. And we were all like, well, this is, there's something here. And so the conversation started happening between EL, between the classroom teacher, and just sort of starting to pay attention to some of those

[00:24:17] potential behaviors, and he is thriving in the gifted program now because of those conversations. So I just wanted to speak to that, that embedded, school-embedded program is so valuable because it's not just the kids that present as already having those skills, it's these other kids that, you know, just manifest it in different ways. So just wanted to add that.

[00:24:45] building-based teachers who are being trained to work with the gifted in the classroom. You said that last year was the first year it was fully in implementation stage.

[00:25:02] Are those classroom teachers, are those traditional classroom teachers fully trained yet, or is that also a work in progress? That's definitely a work in progress. are in the midst we have developed a couple of courses for them to take one is working with gifted students in the regular classroom and we've implemented that on a small level but now we have some team members who are really taking it on as their goals to get that wider spread throughout the division and we are also talking about supporting our students from our special populations

[00:25:39] developing a program a course that is specifically on identifying and serving students from underrepresented populations so we're really hoping to roll that out so that every teacher has an opportunity to take okay okay and you talked talked about the program been aligned on a national level um what about how it compares to surrounding local school districts and they're gifted screening and identification well we have done some things that are of

[00:26:13] their divisions are looking to follow in terms of looking at local norms so comparing students with other students at their same school or comparing gifted excuse me our L students to other L students in this process and so there are other divisions are looking at what we're doing and saying okay well they're doing it now maybe we can make the jump and we can try it so we're really excited about that but I meet monthly with the gifted supervisors in this in our neighboring divisions and so we talk about a lot of these things and what are you trying and what are you trying and that's been very helpful for example the

[00:26:52] edge program is modeled after really an internationally recognized program in Fairfax County called young scholars so you know those are things that we share together and we are also actually hosting the Virginia Association for the gifted conference here in Loudon in March and so we will have gifted resource teachers and supervisors from across the state and definitely our neighboring divisions here so that we can learn together about you know how to best serve our gifted learners from all backgrounds I definitely be interested

[00:27:27] in attending. That would be great. I will send you an invitation. What about the website? I've heard from the parents a lot about not being able to find things on the website. So is there any priority in getting that information about gifted screening and giftedness to the community and all segments of the community? Even those who don't have access to the website or to a computer to get to the website what other what other means of publication do you have

[00:28:04] to advertise to the to the community well I will say one thing that really helped us it doesn't help the second part of your question but helps the first part of the question we are now lcps org slash gifted and talented and that really made a difference so that parents and community don't have to hunt for things so that really helped we also put videos about our process on the webpage and we send out an email blast to all parents of the specific grade levels that go through the evaluation process and then we do send that home as

[00:28:41] needed because we know that some parents don't have access to that so we will share that information as needed at the school level as well in the past we have done gifted gifted information nights so where we go out to schools I think COVID we kind of shifted away and have gone more towards using videos to help get the message out there and email blasts but we will be moving back to those as needed so that parents can learn about our programs but we also we

[00:29:14] just provided a program with the face community so or the face program so we provided for parents of English language learners all about the gifted program and all about the eligibility process so they we have that and we'll be visiting we were just invited to visit a school to come and do the same thing so talk about our programs and and the eligibility process and letting parents know that they can initiate this process I think that's really important to know is for parents as well so we'll be doing that just later this month okay with all the new special programs that have been rolled out do the gifted

[00:29:54] parents get any notification of that in advance in case they need to go into health services or other areas that are new to to LCPS in fact we have the special programs team a member from each of the different special programs presented the gifted education advisory committee so they were there for the whole meeting and they and the parents were very thankful they had that opportunity to learn in depth about the different opportunities okay thank you so one of the

[00:30:32] recommendations from the gifted advisory committee was actually to continue to invest in special programs so was that in december or was it in january january so you may recall the gifted community sees that as a as a key strategy in supporting gifted giftedness in terms of continuing to invest in special programs they're aware of it and we're going to continue to collaborate with that group when it comes to special programs the other thing i would add just to brag a little bit on wendy and her team is as you know we use let's talk for constituent management and since september the department of teaching learning has fielded over 450 let's talks mostly from parents some

[00:31:10] staff but the vast majority of them have come through the gifted office with questions about eligibility with questions about testing and consistently responding to the queries consistently getting good ratings on responses. And so it really has helped us learn just the amount of questions and interest there is in our community. So just a shout out to Wendy and just to share with you all, like we're really leaning into Let's Talk as a department. We want people to feel connected to get answers. And we were just having conversations yesterday to inform our website because many of the questions are, you know, you can contact your teacher at your school

[00:31:46] or here's the document. So as we learn more what people are looking for, we can better our website so we're trying to be reflective about that so just a shout out to Wendy and her team for that thank you dr. she did you have any questions yes wonderful thank you miss King that was a great presentation very informative just a couple questions maybe you already answered it the is there an opportunity for teacher feedback for once they start I guess rolling in the process of the

[00:32:20] curriculum like can they give feedback and if so is there a committee of some sort that could take it into consideration to possibly apply changes of any some sort to the program yes and I'll give you an example our spectrum curriculum we are looking to really update some of our units so we just recently sent a call out to our gifted resource teachers we're putting a committee together and we're gonna start from the beginning we're gonna start with our business and economics unit and update the units make sure that we can look out and see if there are any additional materials that we'd like to

[00:32:56] incorporate into the teaching of that unit is going to be driven by our gifted resource teachers thank you for that and also I guess it's early right now but are there any measures set on how these students will do later on is there any measures set for that it's just so how we can see their performance and that's something we've been working with the research department on in terms of looking at a program review of the gifted program now that we have actually

[00:33:28] made a full transition to our new model so that is something that we're looking at also oh and the structure of the program like if you were to make this into like a flow chart is there someone that's the head of it and if there is someone that's the head of it do they also share teaching responsibilities in addition to being the head of this program I'm just curious yes so if you if I don't answer this correctly just let me know so at the school level you have the gifted resource teacher and the gifted resource teacher has a variety of responsibilities some of them are

[00:34:05] teaching like teaching search or teaching fusion or pushing into a math or language arts classroom and providing support to the gifted learners there but also on the flip side they will conduct cogat testing at times they will run the entire eligibility process for the school they will work on curriculum so it's a lot of responsibility at the school level for the gifted resource teacher so it's a combination but it's a common the the teaching is in collaboration

[00:34:41] with the classroom teachers so some of the gifted model is pull out and i actually do have a graphic that kind of shows a little bit about just visually how to look at the program so i can provide that for you but um at the fourth and fifth grade level the gifted resource teacher will sometimes pull out students to work on what we call our enrichment curriculum.

[00:35:06] And that focuses on leadership and innovation. And then other times they will push into the classroom and support differentiation for gifted learners. And that works really well. For example, if the teacher is working with small groups, gifted resource teacher can pull gifted learners identified for that particular subject, such as math, but also can at times pool students who may have demonstrated mastery of a concept and would benefit from the lesson that the teacher is doing that day to enrich the curriculum. Thank you for that. I ask only because you know I just wanted to make sure there wasn't too much of an overwhelming I guess you could say

[00:35:46] amount of work for the person that's the head of the program. So oftentimes we see that someone will be the head of the program, they have teaching responsibilities, they have all like a whole slew of things and on top of that they are the go-to person for the entire I guess you could say flowchart in that situation. That's why that's a concern. And piggybacking off that question, I was wondering about, and maybe I don't know if this is the right time to ask for this or to question about it, in terms of once they get credentialed, I saw the slide in regards to their credentialing, their professional development. I was wondering if as they get more and more

[00:36:23] credentialed, does their, I guess, pay scale or compensation increase as that commensurates with time and also with this flow chart the person that's the head I'm assuming their compensation is higher than than the rest I just want to throw that out there I think the answer is no thank you thank you so much add one thing to that since we do have a team at the division level what we have done is set up a

[00:37:01] clustering support system so a member of the gifted team may be focused on elementary but they also focus on a cluster so if they have the Dulles South cluster the gifted teachers in that cluster will go straight to them with questions and then that person also supports them maybe with testing or with developing curriculum so that they have a person they can go to at in our office who can support them as needed it's kind of a variety of things like I said it could be curriculum it could be helping them develop some lesson plans for edge

[00:37:41] it could be testing so we do have that support system and this is the first year that we've done that and it's worked extremely well so they feel like they have someone who can help support them so the only thing I would add to is as we've looked at the gifted program over the years and there's been interest from the board and expanding services changing services it really comes down to that staffing standard with gifted teachers they do have a lot of items on your plate on their plate as you can see so the more we add we do need to make sure that they can balance all the different responsibilities at the school

[00:38:16] level and there were no item no adjustment to the staffing standards this budget cycle but there has been in previous budget years what is that staffing standard do you know it if not we can circle back I don't want to get the numbers wrong yeah we can circle back but I can I'd be curious yeah it differentiates between elementary and middle school obviously because of the programming right yeah any other discussion or questions I think I'm good

[00:38:55] several of the questions they had were ones I had so thank you so much miss King we will look forward to hearing about the next steps as you go and I think that that's all we need to do at this time correct so this will come back in March as an action item awesome come back in March as an action item I'm I'm anticipating likely board interest in this, so I'll probably invite Ms. King, assuming it is approved in March, to go to the full board to give an update similar to the full board when this is presented, and it'll go for information and then action at the full

[00:39:34] board following approval if that's done in March. Does that make sense? Yes. All right. Thank you. Can I have a point of order? You can. and I was setting up Miss King for her presentation there was a can you remind me who made the motion and seconded the motion to approve the school publications I mean oh we didn't do it you didn't do them no we didn't okay so we need to do that I just moved it to the full board so I am NOT going to set up the grading and assessment policy until you guys do that but can we return to that yeah you will you will need to make a motion to recommend to the full

[00:40:10] board policy revised policy 83 60 83 60 as an information item all right I move that the revisions of policy 83 60 be moved to the full board as an information item is there a second second all those in favor aye opposed seeing none we will move that as an information I thank you mr. Slevin I'm gonna get the presentation set up for dr. Ellis wonderful will take us into the

[00:40:47] next yes mention if you want to introduce us so the next information item is the review of process and feedback related to policy 50/30 assessment and grading and I there's a whole history here which I'm sure miss dr. Ellis is going to give us this was actually put on from my request lots of feedback from teachers and the community that I have heard throughout my campaign but also since being in office that just kind of wanted to level set on this policy bring it back into the conversation get the history and background about where we've been so that we may make decisions

[00:41:26] about where we might go so I really appreciate you all being responsive to that and I'm looking forward to hearing about this very much so thank you thank you very much Ms. Chernoff good morning committee so I do have some information about the process that we went through back in 2018 and I would like to introduce I know you know these people but I think as the committee is forming I think it's just important to remind you of who they are so I have some very important people who were instrumental in navigating this process mr. Slevin who was transitioning from the middle

[00:42:05] school office to teaching and learning was part of the process additionally the three current level directors we have miss Elaine layman elementary education mr. Martinez middle school education and miss Gonzales sales high school education they led this process with with many other stakeholders as you'll see so we began in 2018 this policy had was actually a combination of multiple policies that had not been revised in quite some time and so we really took

[00:42:40] this as an opportunity to align our not working okay thanks so we took this as an opportunity to align policy with practices and really commit to our mission which was and still is empowering students to make meaningful contributions to the world we utilized our existing assessment and philosophy to guide the policy development and one of our big areas of

[00:43:19] focus was consistency of practice across schools while the the policy is k-12 really the conversation was at the secondary level in terms of consistency of practice so in April of 2018 we gathered a group together and discussed the purpose the timeline and process for feedback we shared that information with the curriculum instruction committee at the time in June of that same year we facilitated a discussion with staff with various staff groups regarding the

[00:43:55] process the timeline and then also current research around assessment and grading and probably the heaviest lift was the and most important was the involvement of our stakeholder groups so we scheduled multiple stakeholder groups to get input we really wanted their perceptions around assessment and grading and then input on what they believed assessment and grading should look like so those stakeholder groups included parents they included teachers we were intentional to make sure we had representatives from LEA in that teacher

[00:44:30] group central office at the time it was Department of Instruction and pupil services similar to teaching and learning and student services now and then our Department of Digital Innovation was also involved we involve students at the secondary level we also collaborated with college colleges and universities to get their feedback on assessment and grading and included principals and school leaders as well August through October we held those

[00:45:09] stakeholder and input and perception groups we provided updates to the curriculum and instruction committee along the way we were we were working with an external consultant who had extensive experience in assessment and grading she provided us some exemplar policies to use as models we also got some research and white papers from her those are in board docs for you to review if you're interested in learning more about assessment and grading research later that year in November we one recommendation that came out of the of

[00:45:47] conversations was for the development of an assessment for deeper learning work group so we created that work group that included principals teachers parents and representatives from central office as well we continued with the work of the assessment for deeper learning work group they drafted the assessment and grading policy and regulation based on all that research based on all that input from stakeholder groups and the exemplars provided by the consultant we

[00:46:21] presented an initial draft at the April 2019 CNI committee we took the committee's feedback revival revised and finalized drafts and presented a final draft to the CNI committee for approval I will just as a side note point out that we did not have our feedback process for policies in place at that time so it was not posted for public feedback because that process hasn't hadn't been started yet in 2019 but we were getting feedback from from the groups that I mentioned in September the curriculum and instruction committee saw

[00:47:00] the policy again so as you can tell there was a lot of conversation about this policy as you can imagine and I'm sure you have each heard both in your campaigns and even since you've been elected there are a lot of feelings about assessment and grading there's really no other way to say it and so we have lots of extensive conversation in October of 2019 the policy was finally presented to the school board for their approval for implementation during the 2021 school year so we had a conversation about making sure we weren't changing the rules in the middle of the game for both teachers and students and

[00:47:39] so given the timing of the approval we waited until the the start of the next school year then as you might remember we had a global pandemic and the train was humming along quite nicely we had developed professional learning for teachers and leaders we had a really talented group of assistant principals that worked with the level offices to develop training modules all of that came screeching to a halt I think we had one session the night before school

[00:48:18] closed and then and then cope it happened so again just as just as context so I wanted to talk a little bit about the policy itself and then I'll actually circle back to the professional learning so I've lifted this straight from the from the policy I won't read it and I will say that the philosophy of assessment and grading was really important for all of the groups that participated in the feedback and particularly toward toward gaining that consistency around assessment and grading so assessment and grading of

[00:48:54] student progress are based on the idea that students have unique needs individual patterns of progress and learning we need to honor that in our work and the most important piece for me anyway is that last statement that grades shall not reflect behavior but rather a student's mastery of content or competencies I will say that that was also a really big shift for some people and we're still navigating that as I'm sure you've heard so there were three big ideas in the new policy that I also wanted to highlight the first topic and

[00:49:34] each of these big ideas there were many many many conversations about each of these topics to get to the point of the language in the policy and again have just lifted these sections straight from the policy for our discussion today so the first big idea is around homework and that when homework is assigned it will be a natural extension of the school day so no new information it should be for reinforcement and application of concepts that have already been learned and taught the second big idea is around reassessment reassessment encourages growth a growth mindset and allows students to

[00:50:14] demonstrate mastery so I I am sure you have heard feedback on this teachers will provide opportunity for reassessment of major summative assessments to students who score below an 80% remediation or reteaching may be required prior to reassessment I will also add that this was happening in the majority of our schools already if you can't see the them nodding furiously back there they're agreeing with me this was happening in the majority of our schools and it was not consistent so sometimes it was a reassessment for

[00:50:51] anything below an A or below a 70 or the the rules were different at each school so one of the one of the goals was to be consistent and then the third oh Oh, actually, this is still aligned with, I'm sorry, with the reassessment, no it's not.

[00:51:13] So the third big idea was what we affectionately know as the 50 floor. So assessment and grading and quarter grades, again, this is just for secondary students, and going back to that growth mindset, students who receive a grade of 50 or below, or below 50, sorry, they often feel that there's no chance for recovery.

[00:51:36] I actually, the next slide has a screenshot from another school district that really, pretty accurately describes the challenge that a student faces when they get a failing grade. And it's often impossible to recover from.

[00:51:51] So going back to that motivation and promoting a growth mindset, based on the research that we had at the time, we implemented what you'll see in the research as a 50 floor. So the policy very explicitly states that LCPS supports a floor of 50% when assessing student achievement in quarter and final grades.

[00:52:13] In high school courses, the floor of 50 does not apply to the final quarter of a course. So that 50 floor is another thing that people are really passionate about on both sides. There are some who cannot imagine giving a student below 50, and there are others who don't agree with it you know for a variety of reasons so so this is something that we do here we and we do hear the same feedback that you do we don't hear it from every school and so a lot of it I think goes back to that

[00:52:46] implementation that I talked about that was really interrupted due to COVID so this is a screenshot again from a another school district from Greenville County Public Schools that just gives an example of really how detrimental even just one zero that a student receives could have on a student's overall grade really that's just for your reference I won't go into detail and then I did want to circle back and make sure you were aware of the training that we did have

[00:53:21] and I will say that we struggled with the implementation of the training due to COVID and we were we really struggled to get the train back on the tracks so we were really proud of the work that this group did it was a dynamic group of assistant principals and the high school and the middle school office spent an inordinate amount of time putting these trainings together you should have access to them in in board docs and let me know if you do not these trainings are still available and and again I think it came down to the the

[00:53:56] things that we were facing during the implementation process so in terms of feedback and next steps I really appreciate you bringing this topic to the committee and for the opportunity to share this history and information the the policy will be up for its five-year revision in 2026 we do think that it's important to gather feedback on implementation in a in a systemic way so we've heard anecdotally from people as I'm sure you have as well I will say

[00:54:34] that the superintendent is picking up on this theme in his listening sessions as as well he's only about halfway through those listening sessions but that's definitely risen as a theme from the from the staff feedback sessions so we we do understand that it's important to gather that feedback and we're talking internally about how to do that in a systemic and very public way so we can bring that feedback to you to a working group in anticipation of revisions of the policy in 2026 we also see that there's an opportunity to review the professional learning

[00:55:11] around assessment and grading back to that consistency piece we don't hear concerns from every school and the concerns that we do see are probably around implementation that's more of a hunch than anything research-based so that being said there is an opportunity to review our professional learning around it and potentially provide more or clarifying Clarifying training to support so that is the work to date and I'm happy to answer any questions and

[00:55:46] You're welcome to ask the level directors questions as well. Thank you so much. Dr. Ellis. This is so informative and I have so many thoughts around it as I'm sure many of us do But I really want to pull out what you said about feelings There are so many feelings about this on both sides and I think one of the to revisit it is around this idea of equity and the idea of a grading floor an idea of second chances and really balancing that with also making sure we are setting high expectations that students aren't taking advantage that

[00:56:25] students aren't being prepared for the real world or post-secondary options and I really appreciate you opening it back up I know it was a long process I see the timeline here um part of my thinking and bringing this to the table is exactly that this is going to be a long road i don't anticipate if we decide to pursue it i don't anticipate that it will be quickly or in place right away i wouldn't want that i think we we have to go back to the drawing board because although there was great intention for consistency and for implementation

[00:57:01] given all the factors including a worldwide pandemic um intention definitely did not match impact and i think that that's where it's our job to say let's revisit um and i would just mention that even though it's up for 2026 which sounds right around the corner that would be beginning the process in 2026 which would probably be implementing in 2028 which is not right around the corner in my opinion so that was also sort of the urgency that i had um in talking to dr spence as well. I know that this is on his mind, as you mentioned, from the listening sessions.

[00:57:36] And I feel it a great advantage for us to sort of get the wheels greased as we head into that presentation that he's going to do about the vision going forward based off of the year that he spent here in LCPS. So in kind of wanting to get ahead of it and be aligned, and also thinking we have multiple calendars, right? We have the year-long calendar, we have the fiscal calendar, but we also have a school calendar. And this has to be implemented in a way that it can start at the beginning of the year so that teachers can feel that they are being effective and consistent in their grading so so so grateful one of my questions was just around the training can you just

[00:58:15] clarify a little bit more you said none of the modules were fully rolled out because of kovat or one of them had started I just missed the clarification on that so I may ask mr. Martinez to jump in you'll have to come to the microphone sorry um they were they were all available you're the next contestant on the price is right come on down or miss either one yes please come over here i know i can't see it

[00:58:44] thank you for this opportunity um yes these were all rolled out so ms gonzalez sales and i even had evening activities um where we trained um teachers deans um and took their opinions high school and middle school um about this coincidentally last night at the superintendent's uh listening session i was facilitating a table and that was a hot topic and it seems to revolve around three things

[00:59:21] change is hard every statement started with when i was when i was a student well teachers are usually very successful students which is why we went into teaching and what dr ellis uh said and what Mr. Slevin paved before I became director really helped in us thinking in a growth mindset.

[00:59:44] I was a principal at Sterling Middle School. My students needed second chances. Middle schoolers may not be as motivated as we'd like them to be, and maybe they weren't students like I was. However, two people really shared with me, a parent and a student at Sterling Middle School, when teachers say that we're not preparing students for the real world. One parent was an attorney. Because of the language barrier, he took the bar exam three times, but he became a lawyer. He never puts on his resume that he took the bar exam three times. A student said, Mr.

[01:00:21] Martinez, I finally got my license. This is when I was a high school principal at Herndon. It took me four times because of the language barrier to take that driver's license. So if we're preparing students for the real world, I often go to Dr. Ellis, Mr. Slevin, and my other colleagues before presenting a slide deck to get feedback to redo my work before presenting to you so if we're really presenting information to students and really have a growth mindset in mind yes it is difficult to change our practices it's very hard understanding that students learn in very different ways and

[01:01:00] we've got to be equitable to their needs you yourself said there was a kindergartner who's saying yes what a beautiful example of a growth mindset if we were to say well no the student cannot write it down. But he did sing a song where he showed mastery. So are we truly assessing what a student knows or are we assessing behavior? And that's very difficult for a teacher. I was a high school teacher and it was very difficult as an English teacher grading 150 essays and for somebody to say you need to reassess. But when we say reassess, if I notice that you only have a problem

[01:01:38] with the thesis statement, let's say, I can just reassess that part so I know that that student masters the whole thing. It doesn't mean that I have to give another same total quiz etc. Dr. Ellis also pointed out that it also takes part of the student for the student to be remediated and ask for remediation. That also involves student reflection which is so important because we're really teaching a real life value there and skill. If a student is reflecting through formative assessments before they're graded saying I got this part I got this part but I don't have this

[01:02:14] part yet then let's work on that before I assess you and then I could really get a true value of what assessment is what is difficult is and I spoke to a teacher who graduated the year I graduated high school which was 1986 and she said well when I was taught we were all lectured to we all sat there we used a bell curve some students got an A some students got a D but does that really assess what we know? Are we giving students a chance? The 50% floor was a hot topic last night.

[01:02:51] And I actually went recently to Montgomery County, Maryland, because their union, sadly enough, took away the 50% floor. And it has already impacted students who are failing, because students are not getting second chances. And from zero to 50, like that graphic showed from Greenville, is a lot to make up if I'm having a bad day, if I'm sick, if I'm emotionally not prepared for whatever reason to take that exam that day. It is very difficult to recover if we go 50 to 60, 60 to 70, 70 to 80, but then we have a 0 to 50. Students are going to fail. Now, is that

[01:03:30] different from the way we were taught? Absolutely. Does education need to continue changing and adapting to kids' needs? Absolutely. But teachers were taught how? And it's just very, very, very difficult to change our perspective to a growth mindset. So are we grading students because they're bad or because they had a bad day and didn't turn in the quiz or are we grading them for do you really know what's in the curriculum in the I'm sure you remember in the old days well my old days when I was in college and doing my graduate program no your old days was probably so when I

[01:04:07] I remember if I turned in a paper late it was 10 points off if I turned in a paper two days late it was 10 points off so I remember in graduate school I was sick as a dog and my professor was not taking that for an answer so I got a C on a paper but I knew that content inside out so was that a true measure of what I knew or were they measuring behavior so I just wanted to share a little bit of that with you the question was we have done a lot of training with teachers we have changed regulations um based on that feedback and I believe Ms. Gonzalez sales also

[01:04:41] included at that time the LEA president, Dave Polanzi. So I really thank the folks that started the process before me. And I saw the process from a principal's point of view and then came in as director. I just wanted to share that long-winded philosophy with you so you can get an idea of change is hard. We name it. We honor that. But we have to help teachers understand if we don't have the same students that we did and back then maybe we weren't equitable so any other questions well

[01:05:20] I really appreciate that and I'll toss it to my colleagues after this the the thing is we have to decide now if that's the perspective and we're just going to say this is what we've decided and we're going to stay in that vein and do more training or more work around people understanding that my perspective is that there is this has had a trickle-down effect to teacher morale there is so much in workload that has happened as a result of this policy and I don't think that that was the intention to begin with and I understand that but we are hearing from the community we are hearing you know dr. Ellis mentioned that they're hearing it too and I I think the time is now to go back to the drawing

[01:05:59] board with what we have where we came from and where we can get better and I would encourage us to do so so that we can open up those conversations around the 50% floor and open up the conversation around retakes and reassessment and what the consistency level is and so that's really the goal I think of the conversation today is to start contemplating are we really okay with where we're at with the grading policy or are we in a place where we want to start to move forward to really reevaluate and and begin the long road again of reflection and asking you know where where we can do better in different

[01:06:35] areas. So I will yield the floor to my colleagues, as I'm sure they have much to say. Thank you, Dr. Ellis. Great. This is a wonderful and very enlightening presentation. Gave a lot of information that I needed. It's interesting how you say, was it a measure of behavior or was it a measure of what I know? You know, I'm a college professor for Northern Virginia Community College, and one of the challenges that we have is motivation. You know, that's one of the challenges we have. So we give zero, you know, if they don't turn in an assignment. And it gets more independent. It gets more like, oh, if you didn't turn it in, then I'm not coming after you.

[01:07:15] And then, you know, we do see some students, and again, there is some sort of subjectiveness to it. And that is when we see some struggle, like for example, if they're doing other courses that we teach and the same student is in there, and we see that their performance is a little bit better in there, then it goes back and it says, well, maybe we need to reassess this. Maybe we have to, you know, kind of see where the struggles lie with the student. But one of the things that I find most challenging is that motivation. Like just I, when a student of mine gets a zero and I give them a zero, then we automatically tell them, you know what, maybe

[01:07:50] this program isn't for you mid-semester. That's how it is. But it gets, it's a really, it's a little bit of a shock. And granted, this isn't college. I understand that. But it gets more intense in a sense that, well, you know, you didn't get, you don't really get second chances in college and you're out you're out okay and that's going to prepare you for the real world I'm not saying I believe that I'm just saying there is a little bit of a difference between someone who gets as like the zero to 50 I understand but there's a difference between someone just not trying if you know what I mean and then someone kind of trying but you know just get that it gets the 50 or the zero but I just wanted to make that comment and thank you for sharing your

[01:08:28] experience also but one of the things that I think about in this conversation around grading and assessment is a portion of the policy around reassessment specifically the one of the lines is teachers and consultation with student support teams and parents will provide students who demonstrate a pattern of repeated reassessments with an appropriate intervention including limiting future opportunities for reassessment teachers and consultation with the student with student support teams and parents will provide students who demonstrate a pattern of repeated assessments with an

[01:09:06] appropriate intervention including limiting future opportunities for reassessment when this policy was developed to me that was a recognition that we are investing many resources into our schools we're looking at our ratios for school counselors we're looking at our ratios for student support teams we're looking at our ratios for teachers and we do have a obligation in k-12 education to work to ensure success of our students and so one of the questions I have around this policy and as I talk to teachers and principals is do schools feel empowered to make decisions about when it

[01:09:43] becomes an issue of repeated behaviors and so I just want to bring that up and there is a different in my point of view a different obligation in k-12 in terms of what we are trying to provide to schools to support students we we we we need to provide them that that appropriate education but at the same time like how do we help schools when we aren't able to pull parents in or not able to to find the right answer for that motivation that's that's I think something that we're going to wrestle with in this conversation with this

[01:10:18] policy and if I can add it because I didn't mention it and I'm middle school and I'm sure my high school counterpart Ms. Gonzalez-Sales can add I believe that at the high school level you are allowed to give a zero correct if the student makes no opportunity if the if the student let's say doesn't do anything or what is the opportunity for a zero I know at middle school we usually don't yeah so let's say a student just I'm not going to turn it in if the student does nothing to do a retake or reassessment the teacher

[01:10:55] doesn't automatically go after as a middle school though I have a different perspective if you're 12 I may have to go after you a little bit to see hey come on we're gonna work on this together yeah however if the student just writes their name down and says no I'm not gonna do it that's a different that's where parents and teachers should be talking about the behavior and intervene for that student I also wanted to share that exactly what you just said when you get together with your professors or you have the same student in every class at the middle school we have interdisciplinary teams so we have the four core teachers social studies math science and English who meet and

[01:11:34] they all share the same student so if my student is getting an A in my class but is failing Mr. Slevin's class, we have the opportunity to be discussing what's going on with the student and intervene. So intervention is really the key before a student really fails and bombs and stops wanting to come to school. But I agree with you. I think that there should be a progression between elementary, middle, and high to prepare them for college.

[01:12:00] Yeah. Mr. Martinez, there's a great point. That is part of our philosophy statement in the assessment policy that we have a developmentally appropriate approach so there's not there is recognition that middle school is different than high school and so it is about preparing students for what's coming so that the philosophy statement is a big portion of that policy and it's important um i've taught in five different colleges and

[01:12:35] universities and as an adjunct however um i think that as the child matures to high school then you do give more responsibility to the child, but you also give responsibility to adult learners who are also working and in college or university classes. So I think that if it were implemented

[01:13:06] fully, if I get it correctly, in 21-22, did I get that right, Dr. Ellis? It was fully implemented If the revisit is not until 26, then it was probably implemented in 21-22?

[01:13:32] In the 2020-21 school year. Okay, okay. I think that intervening at this point would not have given it enough time for the teachers to go through their change mindset.

[01:13:50] And we want the teachers to have a growth mindset in addition to the children. I think that one of the recommendations we could make at this point before we get to 2026 is to get a college class of teacher preparation to take this into their class and see where those new learners, new educators would take it versus intervening now in a school district that hasn't had enough time to have solid results.

[01:14:28] That's my view on it. I think that the teachers are always going to have an area of concern related to decisions that appear to be passed down to them.

[01:14:45] But I think that before we intervene on behalf of the teachers, that we allow the process to be examined versus intervening in the middle.

[01:15:02] And I think intervention at this point would just give more teachers concerns or areas of complaint. And I think that while the teacher's morale impact the student learning, I know that, that we need to figure out a way to increase teacher morale versus intervening in the process of grading.

[01:15:31] That's my take on it. Say anything? Do you want to? No, I want to give you the opportunity before I say something. Thank you. Thank you. Just to piggyback off what Dr. Dean says, it's that subjectiveness that I find a little questionable, or I just, I'm in deep thought of, and that's what I want to, like, kind of reflect on.

[01:15:59] And I know that's a challenge, and it's not going to happen overnight, but, yeah, just to piggyback off what Dr. Dean said. Thank you. I don't think this will come as a surprise, but I respectfully disagree. i i just do and i i think we have to be really careful right now with where our teachers are at and saying like well this is just the process and you know there's a five-year review so we're just going to have to let it play out i really do think the pandemic had a huge impact on the way this was intended um i i'm more than willing to look at the policy as written and with

[01:16:36] the intention and i as i read through it i see a lot of really good intention um i think the the disconnect happened when the training and the pandemic and a whole slew and we are different post pandemic we are our learners are different the gaps are different the behaviors are different there were some learned behaviors from students from sitting on a couch doing school optionally almost to you know being in a classroom and we've had a lot of big changes and from what I have heard just in my community and in my schools I feel an obligation as a school board member that we need to at least revisit and open this door so I know we

[01:17:13] may be at an impasse here in terms of just different philosophies but I I think I would challenge us to really consider and you know I think about what our LEA representative said too it's it's not just focus groups it's expanding that feedback so I don't know if more feedback would would move the needle for for you dr. Deans but I am I think we need at least some kind of next step in this that's my personal view just based off of what I know so I would ask for some maybe suggestions on on some next steps here and then maybe we could come

[01:17:49] to that thank you for that so I agree that I do think that more feedback is important I think that we will probably never get to a point where everyone agrees on this topic it is is deeply rooted in in philosophy and feelings I do think we should focus on the student outcomes I value teacher teacher feelings and input and I think we should all be doing it for the student outcomes I think in terms of next steps I agree that we need to have this

[01:18:27] conversation for sure and honor the feedback that we've heard and work toward getting feedback systematically even from the people that we haven't heard from I think that this will likely come up in the superintendent's post entry plan report as I mentioned he's already hearing this it's already obviously a theme of concern from staff members that we need to address so in terms of next steps I believe that a division-wide systemic way of gathering feedback is is what I would recommend and staff has already started thinking

[01:19:06] about that and we can if the committee agrees continue down that path and align that to what I anticipate being action steps coming out of the superintendent's entry plan in addition to that I wonder if we can gather how many principals have had that intervention piece where the kid comes in and signs his name and say you got to give me a retest. Do we have any data on that is the question. And if that happens or

[01:19:41] when that happens, then there should be that progression of activity up to the high school level where there should be more principal intervention with the parent to indicate that this kid just signed his name. This child made no effort. And in that case, even with the 50, that would have the child the opportunity to go to the next test for the next unit and try to make a 90.

[01:20:09] So I still think that when we look at the child, we are giving that child an opportunity that he or she may not have had otherwise. So I think that a part of the wider data gathering would involve asking the principals how many cases have they intervened with to say to the parent, your child ain't doing nothing, and go from there.

[01:20:40] So I feel very compelled to gather more data, but not to intervene in terms of making any changes at this point. I'd like to echo what Dr. Ellis said. I agree with you.

[01:20:55] And with Dr. Deans, just kind of piggybacking off what she said, if we could find data if it's possible, how do these students do once they're out of high school? I know we're going a little bit beyond, But if there's a way to track that behavior and to see their progress, provided that they go to college, hopefully, but if we can find that data, then we can see their progress on an independent level.

[01:21:17] How we would do that, that's a big challenge. But it would be great to kind of work with a college, I guess near in the area, to find out how we can follow up with that. But definitely. Thank you. So I think I'm hearing that we're open to soliciting some feedback and getting some more data.

[01:21:35] And that, I think, also in conjunction with the work that Dr. Spence is doing, I anticipate that those two things will be very valuable in us moving forward, or at least considering moving forward at that time. So what would you suggest for the committee? Is that another information item on maybe another meeting on how we would collect that data, or do we -- can we agree that that will be a next step without it being an action item?

[01:22:03] I think we can agree that it would be a next step without it being an action item and we are happy to bring this back regularly to provide updates on the process all right is there consensus with my colleagues that taking the next step to collect some more data around 50/30 grading and assessment from a student outcome perspective as well as a teacher implementation perspective would be a good next step yes all right so yeah thank you really appreciate that

[01:22:35] and if that discussion is closed do you have to go our meetings are turning out to be very long with us at the helm so what would you suggest we have we're passionate we have a lot to say but sure enough I wish I had an hour and a half every week to talk about instruction with you three me too so should we you want to begin the conversation on instruction we could be we could be we We could be very quick, and this is another item that we will be regularly bringing back so there's no major decisions being made today.

[01:23:14] It's really just getting the information out to the public that this process is happening. So we would appreciate if we could be real quick and go through it. Let's do it. I would like that. So I'm joined today by Ms. Jenny Miller, who will be doing the bulk of this presentation. Ms. Miller is currently filling in in the superintendent's office as our strategic planning supervisor, And her regular duties include the professional learning supervisor up in the Department of Teaching and Learning.

[01:23:39] So, today she's kind of wearing both hats because this will have such a big impact on both aspects of her responsibility. What is an instructional framework first and foremost? We are moving towards a shared vision for effective instruction.

[01:23:55] That is feedback that we have heard loud and clear that we have a lot of big ideas, a lot of good ideas, and we need to make them move to more coherence. We want an instructional framework that is learner-centered, applicable across all content areas and levels.

[01:24:10] So really, we're talking about big ideas here, like what do we truly believe about teaching and learning in our schools? And it is a foundational piece that will drive many of our future instructional decisions and assessment practices going into the future. The instructional framework will answer the following questions for us.

[01:24:28] This is our goal. What do we believe about learning? What disposition and skills are essential for our Latin County public school learners and what constitutes effective and meaningful teaching and learning in our classrooms. We see many benefits to having an instructional framework, a roadmap that will align multiple division initiatives and frameworks across the board.

[01:24:51] We're asking our teachers to do a lot. How can we help them with this? Establish consistency in teaching practices across classrooms, improve student outcomes ensuring students all receive highly effective instruction supports, provide common language and common approaches to teaching and learning and assessment, and contribute to increased transparency about what are we trying to accomplish when we're communicating to our families and our community.

[01:25:16] So with that, Ms. Miller is going to talk us through the process. Ms. All right. So on the next slide, you'll see a visual of just the multiple teams that are involved in this process so far. The kickoff for this began with a design team that consists of 35 members, which includes principals, assistant principals, teachers from across all grade levels and contents, and central office representatives.

[01:25:41] The design team has already met twice, January and February, and they are sharing input and feedback to inform the design of a final framework. The design team is not the decision-making entity in this. They are rather making recommendations to an advisory team, which will consist with Mr. Slevin, Dr. Ellis, and various members of cabinet.

[01:26:03] The goal of that design team is to take some recommendations forward by looking at other sample frameworks from various districts. And I'll show you a few of those in just a moment if you'd like to look yourself. And ultimately, this is an effort to engage multiple stakeholders as well. So one of my favorite things about the design team is that they are tasked after every meeting with reaching out to colleagues in their network and getting very specific feedback on the stage of design that we're in.

[01:26:27] So I'll share one aspect of that with you all today and give you an opportunity to engage in that same type of feedback. These are the components of an instructional framework that we have developed and we are working through the first three. Really with the design team we're thinking about our vision which we already have established in LCPS and the design team is moving into key components and indicators over the next two design meetings which will happen March 1st and March 15th as you'll see later in the presentation the descriptions and progressions which are those last two those will be completed as we enter phase two of the development of the framework and that is really the 2024-2025 school year this is a project

[01:27:07] page that Jeff Roundsley for teaching and learning has developed this is one of our most helpful resources and I encourage you all to visit this page and follow along with this page it's something that we'll be sharing with multiple committees and various stakeholder groups. That page serves as an anchor for all of the things that you're going to see today, the information that we're sharing, but it's also a way to track where the design team is in its progress.

[01:27:30] So you can actually see what have we accomplished in design team meeting one and two already as it's posted on the website. These are some of the instructional frameworks which are also part of the website project page that we are leaning into as samples. There are various districts across the nation that are doing this work.

[01:27:47] A few of them are semi-local in the Commonwealth, and several of them are from different states. And we had our design team go through a process of looking at what do we like about these? How does it connect to potentially what we're doing in LCPS? And by no means are any of these a copy and paste type of model.

[01:28:03] We know we want to develop something from the ground up here in LCPS. And it's nice to start with some samples of where could we be headed with a process like this. The next couple I'll go through rather quickly because this is really the overview of the next couple years of the process. And we're really just living in that building in the foundation zone from January to July of this year.

[01:28:21] So Mr. Slevin mentioned we can come back multiple times with updates within that time frame. And then as we move into the other stages, we'll have lots more to share. That January to July time frame is because July is ALT, which is our administrative leadership team meeting. And we plan to do some very deliberate work with our administrators in the summer around the framework.

[01:28:42] Ongoing communication. We've already started this and coming to this meeting and various other school board committee meetings is part of that. We're engaging stakeholders in lots of ways. We've already gathered tons of information and the design team has had a chance to review some of that at design meeting number two. And they will continue to do that in every design meeting as we gather data throughout the process.

[01:29:03] This is a very busy slide and this is one sample of what comes out of the design team work or any stakeholder group that we engage in a brainstorming process. You can see some of the big words that are rising to the top already. And if you look at some of those sample frameworks from other districts that have completed theirs, a lot of those words are very common.

[01:29:21] Our goal is to narrow that down to some simplified language that people can really connect to, that connects to our vision. And then we will, underneath, build out indicators and progressions to make this actionable in schools. This is an opportunity to gather feedback.

[01:29:37] It is a common survey that we've shared with various stakeholder groups and encourage all of you to contribute to this as well. We have a few guiding questions that we've used in all those brainstorming activities, and they're right here on the screen for you. So the survey asks you exactly that, and it gives you an opportunity to say which committee you are representing so that we can make sure we are engaging various stakeholder groups over the next couple of months, and we use this feedback and take it directly back to the design team so we can use it to inform our next steps.

[01:30:07] All right, I made it. That was fast. You did a great job. Thank you so much. Go ahead.

[01:31:04] Thank you so much. And I know we've actually had a chance to have more in-depth conversations about it, but I did want to lift one thing up just for our educators is we have a lot of initiatives in LCPS and a lot of things. And so step two of this process, the alignment of resources, is really an effort to show how all those different things are not one more thing, but they all tie into this best practices instructional framework.

[01:31:27] So I hope I'm saying that correctly. But this is a direct response to not trying to add one more thing to the plate, but to take the things that are on the plate and really highlight to teachers what they're doing well already and then take those next steps of growth. So I will really be looking forward to hearing more about it as we go, and I think we'll just continue to plan to have it as information as you guys work.

[01:31:50] Are there any other discussion or questions? We will, the last thing, real quick, is we're going to move to item number seven, which is new business. And I just didn't, Does anyone else have anything for new business?

[01:32:08] I have one quick thing, which I think we can move to information probably for our next committee meeting. So part of the rollout with the newsletter, with the instructional framework is, as I believe based off of the many emails that I've received, that there was a little bit of confusion that the instructional framework was referring to the elementary recommended minutes for instructional time, which rolled out last year.

[01:32:30] So a lot of people interpreted that as we're reviewing those minutes. but we actually are taking a lot of feedback from the elementary minutes schedule and we do want to respond to that feedback and this would be a great place for that. So I would ask that we maybe make that an information item for our next curriculum and instruction meeting.

[01:32:49] - So we have heard feedback on the elementary master schedule. There were some revisions last spring. We have met with teachers through LEA. We have attended the superintendent's teacher advisory committee to get feedback. Anytime I visit a school, this is something that comes up.

[01:33:05] And like many things, there's mixed feedback. There are teachers that really like the changes that we've made, and there are some teachers that are really upset by it, and it's really a big adjustment. So we could come back in March, and we could have some recommendations on some changes we can make.

[01:33:23] We do hear there needs to be flexibility more in the early grades when it comes to the time. There's a little bit of tension with our new social studies and science minutes, what kind of flexibility do schools have around that librarians and counselors have some questions about how it's implemented and then so I think we could come back in March and share that feedback and share some initial recommendations and get feedback from the committee that sound good colleagues yes wonderful all right with that I know we have other places to be so we will go ahead and close the meeting our next meeting is scheduled for March 7th 2024

[01:34:01] mark your calendars if there's no further business I will I don't think I have to take a motion to adjourn I think I was told that by okay so I will adjourn this meeting thank you

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