Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Curriculum & Instruction Committee Meeting, Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Date: Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 23m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1006436267?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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[00:00:49] - Good afternoon, almost evening. I'd like to call this September 4th, 2024, Curriculum and Instruction meeting to order. My name is Lauren Chernoff, and I am the chair of this committee, and I am joined by my colleagues, Dr. Deans and Dr. Rasheed, and we are glad that you are here today.

[00:01:06] We will go ahead and start with public input. So we have one public speaker today. We value public input, and because there's only one speaker, you will have three minutes. So Sandy Sullivan, come on up. rude awakening huh thank you thank you good evening i'm sandy sullivan i'm a broad run resident and

[00:01:44] i am currently teaching third grade at liberty elementary and i'm tired very very tired first i want to thank miss shirnoff i was after her and the committee for a very long time to get this meeting set at a time where educators could be here to listen and be part of the discussion so I'm very happy that has come to fruition the second topic I want to talk about is HMH I have some positive things and some concerning things to say and since it's just starting I you know I don't know where all of that's going to go but in a nutshell it is overwhelming managing all the

[00:02:21] parts when one tries to plan a lesson you have so many tabs open to get through a lesson or plan a lesson, that it is really hard to keep track. So there's a lot of resources available. It is just hard to manage it all. And I went to every session I was able to in the pre-P days after that. And I have an excellent team and we've split up doing content and that kind of thing. But it's just a lot to manage. And since it's brand new, it's going to be hard anyway. So please take the feedback you

[00:02:57] hear from people and see what you can do to help with supports there's lots of asks for I wish there was a slide deck for module one or those kind of things and maybe some of those things are available and not everybody knows but there's a lot of work being done it seems like extra work when things might have been able to have been prepped or better known and again it sounds like a very good premise and a great way to teach literacy it's just a big change with a heavy lift with very little time to get up and running and the other thing I just want to say

[00:03:34] is I am personally grateful and I know LEA is grateful that this committee is going to be reviewing the grading and assessment policy and I appreciate that Lauren worked hard to make sure that was on the committee when I was president I really wanted to push for if possible a a position on the grading policy and that's not possible we're not going to get traction of a majority potentially But so that really puts it on combine on all of you to make sure you're listening and making decisions that make the most sense and Asking the questions of the people who need to implement it. Thank you. Thank you

[00:04:13] All right We are now going to move on to our other agenda items. We need to approve the minutes from our August 7th meeting So I will ask for is there anything that needs to be changed to the minutes? I will ask for a motion to approve the minutes motion to approve the minutes okay all those in favor aye aye any opposed okay great all right the minutes for the August 7th meeting are approved now we will move on to our information items again thank you to our fine arts team for delaying a month and coming again and we're sorry that we had to bump you a meeting so really appreciate

[00:04:52] your presence here and we are going to cover support for the fine arts and with that I will pass it over to Mr. Pearson who is our fine arts supervisor. Thank you and I want to recognize my team is here talking about support. They're great support to me in serving all of our teachers and students across all of our schools. So if you recall back in May we I did a short presentation on fine arts and we highlighted some accomplishments of the program how the program is organized and we did identify some some areas that we want to concentrate on future support so today we're really taking that that one nugget from that presentation and folks you

[00:05:31] don't so going into the first slide here again I want to just highlight some of the supports that we do provide what types of things do we do for schools and there are some general things obviously the instructional allotments and we're going to speak about those in a few minutes we provide software digital resources for students and staff and that's certainly expanded since we returned from COVID in a good way. I'm very proud of that. That was a good outcome from that. Other highlights, we do still provide part-time funds for elementary school piano accompanist. That process works for that. It's a gig type of thing, one-on-one-off, so stipend doesn't really fit well with that.

[00:06:09] We do use stipends at the secondary level. Lots of specialized equipment in art. I've listed some of them, and I do want to mention again that for our theater, our performing arts program, They also have specialized equipment, but most of that's in the auditorium in the black box and is supported by either support services, depending on, for example, they do the annual theater curtain, auditorium curtain inspections for fire safety, fire ratings, and the electrical things, but then the DDI division services are audiovisual and lights.

[00:06:46] So I do want to look at some of our investments we've made in the past few years. We're very pleased with the support, very proud of this, grateful for the support we've got from the school board. Amongst those things, we've nibbled away at student fees by funding dry cleaning for uniforms.

[00:07:03] That actually includes costume, some concert attire and theater costumes. This is the second year providing method books for our sixth grade, sixth grade instrumentalists. And in expanding the number of digital resource tools, we now provide 18,000 seats of sight reading factory for our secondary music students.

[00:07:25] It's a great program if you know anything about music, teaching that literacy skill in music. And we've expanded, I think our budget for software was somewhere around 40,000 before COVID. Right now, expanded use is because more teachers are using these tools.

[00:07:42] They see value in them was around 173,000 this year for those tools. we prior to having an established specialist in the performing arts there wasn't really a stipend it was housed in another division or another office for theater but they did allocate 400 so we've bumped that up to 3300 we still have some needs which we'll highlight with that so and then of course there were the new stipends that were implemented I think three years ago with the school board support and input from the community so in the next slide three categories we'll look at in just the next few minutes. Instructional allotments, competition

[00:08:21] support, that's really competition travel, and then stipends. So looking at instructional allotments, we pulled these from the budget, appropriated budget table, so they're public information. I want to highlight one thing as we look at these current amounts. I'm confident that almost all of these amounts have not changed since at least the year 2004, and talking to some of our staff, it may go back to at least 2000. So according to the Bureau of Labor

[00:08:51] Statistics, the consumer price index since 2004, we'll go back 20 years, is 65%. So if we were to get just to where we were in the year 2004, each of these numbers really could be adjusted 65% to get to that starting point at that time. So I do want to highlight that we use a per pupil allotment.

[00:09:15] it seems to work well it fits for all of the art programs K through 12 and for elementary music we did look at changing we use a program allotment for middle and high school for music and performing arts and we've looked at that and we still feel that that model still works best with a few adjustments and I do again want to highlight that when we talk about music there are actually four programs under that and band split into two that's why you see that other other table. Imagine a situation where five households had shared one checking account, right? We send

[00:09:52] money out to that street, but then it gets assigned to those specific addresses or programs. At this point, what I hear from folks, some of our challenges are, especially at the second level, not enough, the cost of music is increased. And if you have a larger program, the more ensembles you have, the more music you need to purchase. And there's just strains at many levels in the music program. Another thing I would say is that I would want to look at differentiating these amounts a little bit more because each program has different needs and just putting the same shoe on every program is I think we can do a little bit better than that and improve on the

[00:10:31] current model. We've also heard that and looked at data that supports the anecdotal feedback that there's specific pressure on the high school art enrollment allowances or allotments. I think part of that we've discussed that is due to the types of materials that the high school students use and more advanced projects that they're doing so that's kind of a summation for that and for travel I want to talk about that we do support the VMEA transportation all county events

[00:11:05] all district events transporting students to Richmond or Norfolk for all all state band orchestra etc and there's one level there's one area that we're still really not supporting because we haven't increased a budget enough to do that and that is for our competition travel for theater and marching band the biggest portion that is for marching band but I have looked at reports and invoices from schools that range from four to sixteen thousand dollars for a season and in some cases schools cover some of that cost in some cases there's a school is not covering in that cost instead of look to boosters and student fees I feel like we could take some

[00:11:45] pressure off of schools and students by looking at funding it was certain parameters some competition travel and the VMEA marching assessment we do each fall and the next and final category is stipend so we did have asked for a review of stipends and that is ongoing right now with HR I'm very pleased with that we've communicated some areas that really need close attention based on feedback from our staff and discussions I've had so I have shared those with HR and I'm pleased to say that that's ongoing I don't know exactly what the

[00:12:23] step is right now but that would be for that division to speak to from the elementary level when we talk about stipends there's one area that I've heard from frequently over the years and it while it varies from school to school but there's a need to really respect the time with the teachers that are asked to do multiple evening performances and come out on Saturday with students they're not just there they're there with their students supervising students responsible for them during that time so we see a need for support for but from school to school it's very different what the expectations

[00:12:58] of our teachers outside the school day so I kind of kept this more broad we're recommending a general activity stipend that could be split amongst a couple people depending on what the needs are maybe it just goes to to the music teacher maybe the music and art teacher are working together and a split between the two of them on that and I will say when we when we think about stipends we it's we're talking about in this case perhaps one per one per school that's split but we do have schools that have more teachers and that would need to be looked at as well but we've run preliminary numbers on that and how that would pan out I know that there are I think 12 schools

[00:13:37] that have at least three point two music and art teachers and so we wouldn't want to make allocation of schools in the same way we would for one that just has a part of each of those positions so with that that's a highlight of the three areas of need that we're hoping that you will give some attention and happy to answer any questions you have thank you so much mr. Pearson colleagues you have questions I have questions I first of all I really appreciate this

[00:14:13] this was sort of this has kind of been on my list and I'm the one that's really been pushing for us to look at this as you know we've talked to the last meeting I just I think that the fact that we're saying out loud that something hasn't been changed in 20 years in Loudoun County Public Schools is just like crazy to me and my jaw feels like it's on the floor every time I hear that and that there would be a 65 percent increase if we had you know if we really match that discrepancy now feels like a massive number so I think any strides that we can take to sort of bring equity there is really important and I'm glad that you're giving

[00:14:47] suggestions and highlighting that my first question is about do we know when HRTD will have these projected numbers do we have any timeline on that I know that I had asked for them to be done by our budget work session so I'm assuming they'll be done by then so in terms of next steps we're in the middle of our budget development process internally with staff there are a number of steps that are taken between staff proposals to the budget office and to the superintendent's office in the formation of the superintendent's estimate of needs we do know that it's there's interest amongst the board to make some

[00:15:24] enhancements into the our fine arts programs so my understanding is these are going to inform discussion points with the board and while we I do want to make sure we're clear with the while the HR review is looking at stipends holistically we're really focusing on proposing a new stipend for elementary schools and we'll have a general cost estimate for that as far as the bigger stipend review that's not something that I would tie necessarily that's just ongoing in the background but we are asking for a new stipend as we develop potential proposals for FY 26 perfect that's the one that's the one I'm

[00:16:03] looking at so that's great so I'm looking forward to that when you guys talk about a principal's decision to implement like just a general stipend I really agree with you that I think a lot of our schools there's a lot of discrepancies and there's a lot of people that have after-school clubs that are arts related and that PTAs pay for or that schools I think even fund at some level so how will we I guess are we gonna be able to problem solve that out what kind of guidelines can we put in place so that principals kind of know it's not just willy-nilly but that there's a prioritization of need and specifically with our with the concerts and the things that require extra

[00:16:43] practices I know that was a big thing for middle and high is there were requirements on their job that they literally weren't being paid for and so that's kind of the piece I really want to make sure gets prioritized and is that part of the plan I guess would be the question well I would speak first of all to our elementary scheduling guidance that we have and it has some some guidance in there speaks to expectations about programs to try to hone that in we always respect the autonomy of schools and have working within certain parameters and like I said there's a range as I talked to teachers I've talked to some teachers who say we don't do any after-school programs everything's during the day and then I talked to other people who

[00:17:22] willingly and or not so willingly are doing four or five grade level programs a year so within that we provided guidance based on our knowledge of the profession now our expectation is in the normal circumstances is that a music teacher would probably do two grade level programs a year something with let's say a first grade and a fifth grade and that's been something I've observed in my professional experience but in terms of parameters that that's when people ask us what we expect from from the program itself that that's what we've spoken to the club I feel like there's another category here of the

[00:18:00] after-school clubs and activities outside the curricular area that is another discussion I think it broader than this and and I think there's some other structures and support to have to be considered I would just add that when we are developing the proposal for the stipend we need to be very clear about the hours we're envisioning and so that would be communicated when this if this type is approved and we're rolling it out that would be communicated to the teachers into the principals in terms of setting expectations I think what mr.

[00:18:29] Pearson is alluding to is schools have not had this stipend and so some have have resorted to working with their PTAs as someone mentioned and I've I've been actually talking to elementary principals as I've been visiting schools and this might actually cause a little bit of a problem in terms of there there may be higher compensation in some schools and so the general feedback from principals has been well there's more that we can do there's other places we can invest so they like the flexibility of whether or not maybe they want to do a school art show and they really want to build up more interest in the in the visual arts and so they may assign their stipend to an art teacher versus a

[00:19:08] chorus teacher or a band teacher so I think the flexibility where it could be applied is key to the rollout to give principal's choices and really school communities choices about where they want to go yeah I 100% agree with having the choice I just want to make sure that it is definitely defined as arts because I know that like you know there's other schools that are really struggling in science so they want to have a science club and like you could see where that competitive nature to get that stipend could play in especially with some of our lower income schools I mean I worked in a title one school and you know a lot of that work we just did for volunteer because we knew the kids needed it and so there are other means of

[00:19:48] getting things so I just want to make sure that when we roll that out if we it gets in the budget which I hope it will we can have those in place that's all the questions that I have I yeah go ahead I'm just curious for my for my own curiosity what FCPS or Prince William is doing for those activities that are done like like how you mentioned on the weekends like what do they do for their teachers if you happen to know well they they do have stipend structures if that's what you're asking about and i think pretty certain that hrtd looks locally on everything they do

[00:20:25] looking at our surrounding neighbors and where they're at in different parts of that okay thank you all right thank you mr pearson i look forward to um having more discussions as we get ready for budget season thank you so much have a nice evening all right with that we will transition to our next agenda item which is the Department of Academics policy 50/30 assessment and grading and we're gonna look specifically at the feedback and dr. Ellis are you

[00:21:01] presenting today I am presenting along with dr. Dave Blake block our supervisor of research wonderful welcome so we wanted to start with just a reminder of what we discussed at our last meeting we went over the timeline for the review process and then we also have some information about the thought exchanges that were conducted last spring so if you go to slide three so this is the timeline that we shared last time and we appreciate your feedback and support of

[00:21:39] this timeline it's it's pretty aggressive we're going to gather a lot of information in October and November and I think we have a pretty solid plan for doing that so after this meeting we will begin gathering those focus groups getting their input and feedback and again our goal is to have some draft policy revisions ready for you by December next slide so this afternoon we wanted to spend the bulk of our time sharing the findings and the recommendations that teachers shared with us your institute and students

[00:22:16] shared with us during those thought exchanges and the few focus group conversations we were able to have so not surprising the overall findings are that teachers are experiencing challenges with implementing policy 50/30 specifically they are frustrated with and experience challenges around the floor of 50 retakes and the roles of formative and summative assessments they also had some recommendations for review and possible revision of policy 50/30 and those recommendations are going to be really helpful for us when we conduct

[00:22:53] those focus groups the next slide is just a reminder of the connection between instruction and assessment and I've you know I talk a lot about the the curriculum instruction and assessment triangle but really there's this very important link between instruction and assessment and it's a process right and it's an ongoing cycle that teachers and students are involved in and teachers plan and deliver instruction students engage in learning our administered assessments and teachers use that as feedback to to monitor and address and

[00:23:32] address student needs so the following several slides and dr. Blake lock I'll let you jump in if you want the following several slides summarize the report that is also a separate attachment in board docs so you have that in more detail but we've broken it out in terms of challenges and recommendations and then teachers versus students.

[00:23:59] So some of the challenges to implementation that teachers mentioned that rose to the top, so these are themes. These are not individual comments, but these are themes that Dr. Blakelock and his team drew out of the thought exchanges, was motivation of students, lack of incentive to study for summatives, and students were pretty honest about it.

[00:24:25] They don't always study for summatives because they know they can retake it. Teachers spoke about the impact on college readiness. They had comments about the floor of 50 and retake, setting unrealistic expectations for effort in college. Now, that was not across the board.

[00:24:42] Others did recognize that there are times in real life where we get redos all the time, and it's a good thing. And then the burden on teachers was a pretty prominent theme. Retakes require additional time for teachers to develop new assessments and coordinate with the student for testing.

[00:25:02] I do think some of that is inconsistent from school to school, and that's something that we definitely hope to get out of the focus groups is to dig a little bit deeper into these challenges. In terms of challenges for implementation from the student perspective, the students that participated found that formatives have limited value to them.

[00:25:25] Some said homework was beneficial, others said it seems like busy work, not really consistent across schools or content areas. And then students recognize that teachers, even within their school, are sometimes inconsistent with their implementation of the policy.

[00:25:44] And that tracks with the teacher feedback that it is very cumbersome to implement. The policy implementation, so in terms of solutions, there were themes around student behavior so suggest some suggestions were and again these are themes that were were mentioned more than once so requiring effort on assignments before allowing the floor 50 so students would need to demonstrate some sort of effort for learning before before considering a floor 50 I do want to add that there is

[00:26:23] a caveat in the policy that if there are repeated incidents of the students not doing that that there's a student support conversation that goes on and and there are cases where the 450 is not implemented but again it's all about how it's being implemented in the classroom that's really important here work time work requirements for retakes so teachers felt that students needed to first of all have demonstrated effort on the formative assessments that come before the the summit of assessments and other assignments before a retake and

[00:27:00] and that to me signals that there needs to be some demonstration of relearning remediation before retake is given there were comments about limiting the amount of time for extension of assignment deadlines I will say that I think that's something else that is inconsistent school to school I've heard anecdotally some schools or even departments have very specific deadlines and others do not and so that's an area we would want to dig into and then there were interesting themes around attendance requirements to pass a course

[00:27:37] in terms of some policy solutions there were suggestions to not implement the floor of 50 and retakes in honors and college level courses to incorporate formatives into the grade in some to some extent so right now they're excluded entirely and so perhaps looking at ways to incorporate them limiting the number and time of retakes which again i believe is implied in the policy and so that may be an area that perhaps doesn't need

[00:28:13] overhauling but clear clarity exactly clear clarity is redundant sorry um and limiting the floor by by the type of summative um so that's something we would also want to dig into i would want to learn a little bit more about teachers perspective on this but perhaps it's only a 450 on major summatives was one suggestion and the potentially revising that floor of 50 and redefining the highest grade for retake to 70 that that came up the concept of redefining and

[00:28:47] revising came up quite a bit in the feedback and then in terms of potential solutions for students students requested that they be permitted to earn more than or higher than an 80 for a retake so you can see we got we got a lot of feedback that is that's going to be really helpful for our conversation moving forward I did want to turn it over to dr. Blake lock to mention anything that I missed from the report and then talk about how we will conduct the focus groups to make sure we hear from everyone we need to hear hear from

[00:29:26] in this process thank you dr. Ellis I think the key piece that dr. Ellis hit upon his student effort in this which was very prevalent throughout there were teachers who really recognized that the benefit of having the floor of 50 for kids who are struggling and needed that extra help and we're going to get at the right time the first time but there was also a number of students who are also essentially essentially gaming it to try to you know be able to beat the system a little bit and that's really where their concerns were and that's where

[00:29:58] their concerns were nope sorry one more back thank you so as I mentioned are the next phase in this process is to conduct focus groups and dr. Blake luck has a plan for orchestrating the focus groups and then also an alternative way of of providing feedback that we wanted to make sure to share so I'll turn it back over to him thank you dr. Ellis as was already said really using the focus groups to unpack and do get become a little bit more exploratory in what we've seen in the thought exchange and some of the results that we saw on the

[00:30:36] board some of the implications for implementation of these pieces really just to dive deeper and to get a greater understanding and those focus groups will be done in a semi structured format where we will come in with you know maybe four big questions over the length of time and then as concepts come up dive down them kind of drill down on them to get a better understanding and get a really deep understanding from a conversational approach of the focus group itself so really what we're looking to do is kick off the process in the not-too-distant future with we're going to send out a

[00:31:13] signup form to you know all potential participants be it families be it staff members for them to sign up and we'll have this one this dates and times going to be on that and they'll be able to select when they're available and then based on what comes in we will actually conduct a random sample of folks from that group that signed up for each of the different sessions and we will you know notify people that they're there we want to make sure that we're getting feedback from everybody as part of this so we will also be sending out a let's talk form that will you know have some please provide feedback on policy 50/30

[00:31:49] and we'll incorporate that data into the data analysis for the focus groups themselves so we do are giving another channel to be able to gather feedback about what we've learned about policy 50/30 at this point and in the signup form we'll be looking for things like translation services required child care required those sorts of things to really try to make sure that it is convenient and accessible to families and staff members and then we'll be you know find take what we find and write it up and probably about two weeks later have a report ready to start circulating internally to kind of see you know yeah

[00:32:26] just to circulate and review and then just for the benefit of the public one quick note these focus groups and the let's talk form are completely separate from the public policy review process that will take place once you all see a draft all right thank you so much colleagues questions comments yes dr.

[00:32:53] Rasheed. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Out of my own opinion, I do notice consistency is key, and it's really important among the teachers when we're dealing with grading and assessments. And I know that once we kind of deviate from that, then it gets hard for all the teachers to kind of stick with it because, you know, every situation is kind of different. So when it comes to the floor of 50, and forgive me if you've already mentioned this, I just wanted to know uh when it was established and why it was established from the beginning if anybody

[00:33:26] could just let me know about that like when did this come about so it came about when the policy was approved prior to covid in 2019 i believe and i will i can refer you back to the presentation we gave several months ago about the overview of the process but that was embedded in the new policy when it was implemented in in in 2019 and just at a very high level the the rationale was really went back to that philosophy of giving students a chance to

[00:34:04] recover so proponents of a floor of 50 really see that as a barrier for students who who struggle and so one one zero on an assessment whether you know for for whatever reason could be completely detrimental to the students experience in the class. And I had another question about the Let's Talk forums. When we're publishing them, I know in the past when we have created focus groups in the past, there was some concern among the public about, you know, I didn't know about it or, you know, I didn't see it. So those were

[00:34:41] kind of the comments that we received in general. So I was just wondering how will this be, I guess, publicized to the public aside from, I think in the last slide you had mentioned, it'll be on let's talk. Is there any way it could really be out there so all the parents and all the families know about it?

[00:34:59] So not having specific strategies yet, we will be meeting with the communications office later this week to discuss exactly that, creating a marketing campaign for it to build awareness around it. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. Dr. Deans?

[00:35:17] Another thought is related to the span of time given for feedback. Is there a standard length of time from our communications department or from any department? Because, for an example, some of the policies that we are giving feedback on will give you five days and another one will give you 20 days.

[00:35:43] so what is what is the difference in the span of time that pants will be given to give a feedback thank you for that question ultimately what we were planning to do is to launch the we'll launch the signup form we're going to leave that open for two weeks we will send out several reminders to those who have not participated who've not you know signed up or just said they're not interested in doing it to make sure that floats the top of the inbox a few time so we'll leave that open for two weeks the current draft timetable right now for the focus groups themselves is going to go over about a 10 11 day

[00:36:19] period of time and the idea is to keep the let's talk form open in the parallel timeline with the focus groups being administered okay and might we also consider when we put out the inquiries that we not do it on a holiday or around a holiday and those kinds of things I'm just listening to what parents say when when when I'm out absolutely I was I was working on the draft timeline earlier

[00:36:55] today and I had the division calendar up on one screen just to make sure just that that we are keeping it aligned and not putting it out on a day when people may be less likely to look for communications from the school division would it be far-fetched to to have a different policy for those advanced students versus students in general there is already a line in the current policy about I don't want to misquote it and I can read it if you give me a second but I don't think it's far-fetched to have a separate section in

[00:37:31] the policy to address advanced coursework dance yeah I agree I think that they should be held at a higher standard okay thanks being of standard thank you dr. deans for bringing that up what are your thoughts on special education students as it relates to floor 50 and and all of this if you if you can just let me know your your thoughts on that so I was going to respond about the advanced students and while

[00:38:07] it would make sense to consider what course a student is taking the level we also need to remember that this policy needs to be student centered and a lot of the opportunities I think for improvement in terms of guidance is how teachers or teams of teachers can respond to to how a student has shown up in the classroom and give them flexibility to make decisions that are student-centered, whether they're an advanced student, making sure they're matching the level of rigor that's expected to them, or they need an accommodation, or they need additional time, or some kind of adjustment to how curriculum is being given.

[00:38:45] In my view, we need to be thoughtful of that when we're moving forward with this policy, not to forget that we're talking about teachers working with individual students and being responsive to their needs. So obviously with a student with an IEP, there's going to be really defined needs that we need to accommodate but how do we empower teachers to make those decisions thinking about the needs of that student and I'll just add that the current policy has a statement that assessment and grading activities will ensure that IEP and 504 accommodations are followed in relation to assessment and grading and then there is also a

[00:39:21] line back to dr. Dean's question that assessment and grading will ensure dual enrollment courses in high schools meet their unique grading and withdrawal policies as specified by the college or university thank you so much for your work on this I'm really excited to get started I was very encouraged to see like actual suggestions in the detailed report I knew our teachers would deliver but this is I taught elementary it's not really my wheelhouse but it is my wheelhouse now to carry this and so I think that this is really important work

[00:39:56] that we're gonna do and I'm I know that you're gonna have lots of different types of teachers from lots of different types of grade levels and different families and students and administrators so I'll look forward to that just in terms of the Let's Talk platform it would be really great if we could get access to that to a school board members we put out our newsletters we have social media you know those are things that we can solicit for so I would ask that you share that with us as well and I agree that it should go I think you were kind of saying like it should go the length of the focus groups right I mean that seems to make sense I'm sure you're thinking about already and then I just really want to know if

[00:40:35] we can listen in on those focus groups because I think it's important if you're going to be developing the policy and then bringing it back to us that we hear those things I know there'll be a summary one of the nice things about the joint committee for collective bargaining was that it was you know public I don't think these meetings will necessarily be public but it would be nice if we could have a seat at the table in terms of just listening so that we can hear what people are saying if that's possible. So I will tell you that Dr. Blakelock has told me that I am uninvited because that means that probably means you're uninvited because we really do want a safe

[00:41:09] space for teachers to speak their truth and and and share it all in a in a neutral setting so we may convince him otherwise but I've tried. As hard as it is to say that it is as Dr. Ellis said you want to create that safe space where people can really be you know put out what they're feeling and not have a worry about somebody else knowing it and hearing it.

[00:41:31] I'll establish rapport with the participants early on, but that we will have two note takers in the room capturing data that way, one to capture illustrative quotes and one to capture overall notes. So we'll be collecting data that way so that we can make sure that we get pretty much get all of it as what's said and be able to synthesize that into the different themes.

[00:41:51] And then maybe some of those brave focus group members could come and present that to us once it's time. um it's just important to me I mean it always surprised me as an educator that the people that ultimately make the decisions like don't really have interface time with teachers so I don't know if there would be a willingness for people to come and present to us I think that that it's important it's important for us to hear from them and not play a game of telephone I this is their their livelihood this is what they're living with and we're going to be the ones that ultimately sign off and vote for it so I disagree a little bit but I do want to honor teacher safe

[00:42:28] space always first but um maybe we can work in some some loopholes there i'm stubborn just one last thing if the data could be shared teachers separate from students separate from parents so that we can know which grouping all right that's all i had on this um go forth and i'm excited to hear how it goes and i know teachers are already sending names so i think people are anxious to get started. All right with that we will move on to our last information item which

[00:43:06] is a literacy update and I will turn it over to Miss Catherine Neal the supervisor for elementary reading and writing and it's Dr. Wright are you Dr. Picard for secondary and Mr. Slevin will you also be presenting or Mr. Roundsley. This is going to be Catherine and Dr. Picard sharing some updates on the implementation of the VLA and we'll go back to some of the work around HMH in the introduction today so I'm going to turn it over to Miss Neal and

[00:43:43] Dr. Picard thank you so much all right good afternoon as you can see here we're going to provide you an overview for elementary and for secondary so you can see some of those bullet points there of all the things that we have been working on recently and so for elementary our focus really for the last several months has been in preparation and for the implementation of HMH into reading in the spring of 2024 we provided introductory professional

[00:44:22] learning sessions for all of our classroom teachers L teachers and special education teachers professional learning has continued to be a priority of our office as we have launched this school year throughout the month of August we provided learning for administrators around the updates and changes to the Virginia Literacy Act and during the countywide PD day that was on August 15th our office provided learning opportunities for all teachers around what the literacy block might look like this year additionally we offered sessions provided by HMH around prioritizing planning and pacing

[00:45:01] instruction or on using assessment to and drive instruction between the dates of August 16th and August 19th all of our elementary schools participated in a three-hour professional development session that was planned and facilitated by our ELA instructional facilitator team and our leadership team members this session focused on supporting teachers with unpacking the new 2024 english sols and identifying where and how the new sols are embedded within into reading in june our office hosted a curriculum development workshop the

[00:45:41] purpose of the workshop was to ensure that our teachers are prepared for this school year and have the necessary resources to provide instruction over 45 teachers from all over lcps including classroom teachers l teachers special education teachers and reading specialists in conjunction with our instructional facilitator team came together to support this work their initial focus was to unpack the 2024 english sols to ensure a concrete understanding of what our students should know and be able to do with literacy and then the curriculum team then began the task of mapping

[00:46:17] every lesson within into reading to every sol additionally we work to provide teachers with a year-long scope and sequence as well as quarterly breakdowns of which skills are being taught in which quarter on the next slide you'll see an overview of the changes to our english standards of learning in 2017 you can see that there are four main strands with the 2024 standards the reading and writing strands have been broken out into more specific categories reading sols now consist of foundations for reading, developing skilled readers and

[00:46:57] building reading stamina, reading and vocabulary, reading literary text, and reading informational text. For the writing SOLs, the strands now consist of foundations for writing, writing, and language usage. Communication and research strands remain the same. Throughout the summer months, the VDOE has made some changes to the Virginia Literacy Act requirements, mainly the requirements regarding approved professional learning options.

[00:47:29] The VLA states that all teachers in kindergarten through eighth grade need to complete approved professional learning on the science of reading and evidence-based literacy instruction. To meet this requirement, the VDOE has designed a Canvas course that is being run through the Virginia Literacy Partnership Office.

[00:47:46] If teachers have previously completed an approved professional learning option, they are only required to participate in the capstone course. Approved professional learning options from the VDOE include Orton-Gillingham comprehensive or comprehensive plus training, as well as letters volume one and volume two.

[00:48:05] This is a change in guidance. Originally, the VDOE had only required letters volume one. Enrollment in the VDOE Canvas course occurs through the elementary and secondary ELA offices. There is an open enrollment period at the beginning of each month for any teacher who needs to be enrolled in the course.

[00:48:26] So our rosters have been submitted for August with most of our teachers. And then we are currently updating our September roster that will be submitted this week. Our division literacy plan was submitted in early July of this year for approval from the VDOE.

[00:48:42] We received the plan back in August and are excited to share that this has met the VDOE requirements and has been approved as is. Some suggestions were provided as feedback to update our supplemental and intervention materials within the plan. And across the state, all divisions may make plan edits through December 6, 2024.

[00:49:02] LCPS plans to take the VDOE suggestions and update the plan. I'd like to share a little more about supplemental and intervention materials this year. Back in 2021, the TNTP report suggested that there be a clear path between intervention, assessments, back to core instruction.

[00:49:24] This creates cohesion for the students as they are learning new skills. And it also provides critical feedback to the teachers, providing core and intervention instruction as to how the student is performing with new and previously taught literacy skills.

[00:49:39] Knowing that oftentimes the interventionist who is working with each student on interventions is different than the student's classroom teacher, our team felt it was critical to select materials that intentionally build that through line among these instructional settings.

[00:49:55] To support this highway of connections, we have selected Lexia Core 5 as our primary intervention. This evidence-based intervention has been approved by the VDOE and has received positive feedback from divisions across the state as they have used the program with All in Virginia.

[00:50:12] Lexia Core 5 has a dedicated alignment into reading, supports the work our division has done with implementing evidence-based instructional practices through letters, professional learning, and has created alignments to our SOLs. While Core 5 does have a digital component, we want to emphasize that we are prioritizing in-person interventions for students in need of tier three instruction.

[00:50:37] During their dedicated intervention time, students will engage in in-person lessons with a reading specialist or other interventionists who have been trained in the program. Students will then have an opportunity to work on the self-paced digital component during independent work time in their classroom setting.

[00:50:54] The team and I feel confident that having a program with direct lessons from a reading specialist along with high-quality digital components will support students as they master new literacy skills. In addition to Core 5, our literacy tutors, formerly known as PALS tutors, will be implementing focus phonics.

[00:51:14] This program is approved by the VDOE and provides our tutors with pre-planned lessons that are evidence-based and include high-quality text to support our youngest learners with phonemic and phonological awareness, as well as phonics concepts.

[00:51:31] The team and I are strongly recommending that interventions be provided by reading specialists or our literacy tutors. Classroom teachers need time and space to focus on strengthening core instruction with inter-reading. We are also hesitant to put additional training on our classroom teachers, knowing the significant requirements for the BDOE.

[00:51:50] However, we understand that this may not be feasible for each school and will work with schools on a case-by-case basis to ensure teachers have all the necessary training that they need. We are feeling excited and hopeful for the growth of our students, the growth that they will make, and look forward to sharing more with the school board in the coming year.

[00:52:13] So the secondary updates are very much in alignment with elementary, and we'll start with the curriculum revisions. This summer, we too had two very robust committees aligning the standards of learning with existing curriculum. There were 40 people at the middle school level and about 35 at the high school level engaged in this very robust work.

[00:52:38] We did include, just as Catherine mentioned, ELs, students with disabilities, teachers of students with disabilities, instructional facilitators, English teachers, pretty much a very, very broad gamut. We currently have an incredibly robust and resource-rich curriculum at the middle school level, and it is now aligned to the new standards, and it fills some of the gaps.

[00:53:02] I'll give you a very quick example. We did not teach plays, that was not part of the core curriculum, well now it is. So there were revisions along those lines, but essentially they aligned the really powerful curriculum with the new standards.

[00:53:19] The VDOE is, however, engaged in a review of new textbooks. Unlike elementary, they are not looking at the programs of study through the lens of the science of reading. So I want to just be really clear about that.

[00:53:35] We of course know the science of reading and are engaged in a great deal of professional learning, which I will share with you, and so that is certainly in our minds, but the list that is going to be published will meet the VDOE requirement of addressing the standards of learning.

[00:53:50] The standards of learning, as Catherine shared with you before, are very much based on the science of reading. As a matter of fact, all of those increased specificity, they align with Scarborough's rope of reading a model of how kids acquire literacy so we feel very confident when video we does publish this list which we're anticipating mid year we will engage in a textbook adoption process we're hoping to get through that in the spring bring a recommendation to the school board and then begin the process of rewriting curriculum for our staff I will just

[00:54:29] anecdotally tell you that I have instructional facilitators that have been going to schools just to say, "Hello, we're from the Office of Secondary English and Reading. We want to support you. We want you to know who we are." And many, many people are commenting on how rich the resources and how user-friendly they are.

[00:54:48] So that's been a real gift. The next slide is about intervention. Last year we were fortunate. We purchased Lexia Power-Up, which is the continuation of Core 5. Core 5 has been approved by the VDOE.

[00:55:03] Lexia has not, but we're very confident that that will be approved. What I want you to know here is that our 18 middle schools have all been provided with what is called a site license. We had such a wonderful respect for the product and what it did for students.

[00:55:21] It really targets their areas of need and then provides them a tutorial. So unlike some online programs where it's a practice situation more than a teaching situation, actually teaches in three different areas and I assume that that is also the way it is with core so that's really critical at the middle and high school level because you only have one reading teacher per building so they've not been trained to think about phonological awareness they've not been trained to think about how you syllabicate words so Lexia has been a powerful tool even though we've only used it for three or four months last year so this year we

[00:56:00] We have site licenses, that means every child has access. It also comes with five what I would call professional opportunities. The first one is a success planning meeting with an expert from the company. My office attends as many of these meetings as possible.

[00:56:17] They're customized, they're a small group setting. They also get two data meetings where their data, their usage, their performance, they get to talk to an expert at Lexia about how things are going and what adjustments they might make.

[00:56:33] And then there are an additional two professional learning situations, both virtual. We also invested in high school. Obviously, we did not buy it for every single student in high school. That would not be a smart move. Smart move, yeah. But what we did do is we bought hundreds of accounts that run through the reading specialist. Now, the reading specialist obviously works with the literacy team and the principal and the students with disability teacher and the EL teacher. It's open to all. But they are looking, of course, at the universal screening to see who would

[00:57:08] benefit most from the program. And lastly, the program is not just a computer program as Catherine suggested. It really has three components. One is that there is this individual diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses. So then there's a tutorial element you're getting from the computer. But then the teacher has to look at the data. That's the second part. There's a very robust data set. And then thirdly, a teacher has to teach. They notice that Catherine is doing very well, and now she's hit a bump. She needs direct instruction from a human. So I wanted to share

[00:57:44] that with you. And then lastly, the Virginia Literacy Act. We continue to get robust updates from the state we've worked really diligently both offices to set up a situation where our teachers have the time and space to participate in the training to process the information and most importantly to transfer the information so I personally want to thank the school board for providing the additional days we have put out suggested timelines we've put out suggested protocols to discuss what you are learning I learned today or

[00:58:23] yesterday from a VLP representative that they are also going to produce guide questions there are nine modules so there'll be nine sets of guides that we can also promote with our teachers it is a heavy lift and we know that learning requires space and time these are the middle school these are the large buckets for the middle school you will notice that they change the content teachers we were initially told six modules we had very can um candid conversations with the uh

[00:58:55] the not the school board the um vlp but that is now three teachers and i'm sorry three uh modules and then lastly if final um we we know that high school is not included in the legislation but this is a really wonderful opportunity to take advantage of the four days you've granted teachers to focus on literacy. We know that we don't have, not all kids come to us in kindergarten and matriculate through the 12th grade. We have lots of kids that come in at the 9th grade. We have lots of kids that come in in the 11th grade. And literacy, of course, is a, well, a civil right,

[00:59:33] a skill that you really want kids to have. So while it isn't applicable, we have worked with the leadership here, and we plan to facilitate half-day trainings on literacy that are broad based, we're talking about content acquisition through high leverage literacy strategies.

[00:59:55] So in layman's terms, that's reading, writing, speaking, and listening. How do we engage kids every single day in reading, writing, speaking, and listening in a variety of content areas, including fine arts. So at this time, under Jeff's leadership, we're going to be pulling together the content students with disabilities offices EL and we'll be designing those we'll be working with reading teachers those reading specialists will work with a team at their school and then they will have site-based training and that will be followed by planning and then beautifully we've also worked with the

[01:00:32] high school office and they are going to ensure that principals are looking for these kinds of practices in the classroom and with that I'll close for questions thank you so much to both of you I guess we'll just open it up for questions at any level so dr. Dean's do you have anything I think I heard you say that the teachers are very receptive to all of the new training what has been the general response from teachers about the train all the training for the

[01:01:11] reading I would suggest that they're concerned that it's a very heavy load but they feel supported that there is space and time to review and to process. So speaking for middle school, for example, we took the three countywide days and the four days that you allotted, the school board allotted, and we showed them.

[01:01:33] You can do two modules here, one module here, two modules here. It is actually doable, and that is unfortunately rare sometimes, right? So I think, I believe, and I have heard, that teachers feel really supported. They know that they're going to have the time and space, and they have the expertise in the division to address questions.

[01:01:54] That was my... That was the goal. Yes, yes. It took us a mess to get... I have a couple of questions about HMH, as Ms. Sullivan pointed out.

[01:02:10] I'm hearing two things from teachers as it's rolling out. First of all, I want to thank you for all the work that you're doing and your team is doing. They're near and dear to my heart, both of you. And I know that they are working around the clock sort of on demand at schools, if you will, and they're in high demand. And so I think that's awesome and that they're doing, you know, individual, they're meeting individual needs of schools.

[01:02:30] And I think that that's a high leverage tool that they have at their fingertips rather than just being assigned to schools, which I know was a transition that was kind of, you know, different. But it's really working out that they're able to really be phoned up and say, we need this. And so I think that that's incredible.

[01:02:47] And the PD about the structured literacy block, I don't know what all that entailed, but I personally got emails thanking LCPS for putting that forward. Just the nuts and bolts of how this could actually fit in the day. I think that those are always the struggles, right?

[01:03:03] We hear, I have a thousand tabs open. I have my book on my lap. I'm trying to manage the cards and the text and do all the different things. and I think people really you have to get comfortable with it but you also need to know where things can fit and where you can pull back and push in and so one of the things that I'm hearing about is that it is just an overload of resources so can you speak to how that's sort of being addressed and how can we help teachers feel more in control of those resources or is there a way to prioritize different resources I again I haven't spent a lot of time looking at it so I'm not as familiar but I know that that is that is one concern that is

[01:03:43] rising to the top so there are a lot of resources in HMH there's a lot of resources in the platform and navigating the platform is it's new and it's different a nice thing about the HMH platform is that we you know there's a team of people that are constantly making updates to it they're constantly looking at different pieces of the program and adjusting it to make sure that there is clear alignment that there's clear that there's a variety of

[01:04:20] resources for teachers to pull from to be able to meet those standards and to meet the objectives that also creates just this overwhelming resource of or almost like a database of resources that they can choose from and so a lot of our team is being asked to do principals have been reaching out to us is to come out and to work with teams of teachers on how best to prioritize and plan for instruction how to almost streamline what they have access to like what is the what is the the the foundation that we want to set for planning and like how

[01:04:57] can our reading and writing and phonics blocks our whole literacy block look and how we can pull the resources necessary and then really kind of look at it from these are the things that are going to help us in our literacy block these are kind of like the must-dos and then here are some of the extra things that we can pull in as needed depending on how our students are responding to instruction so that's a challenge that we are currently navigating and that we're helping you know teachers with and schools with do they get some kind of notification if something has been updated I know it was a struggle for a

[01:05:36] long time with MTSS like the you know the drop down or what was it the flow chart would change and we wouldn't know and then it's like no you're using the wrong one to put kids in the wrong group so is that like I mean it is great that they're keeping it in live time but also I know there's frustration like I can't download it or if I download it and then it changes I don't know so can you do you know that's probably maybe an HMH question but yeah and we have asked the company about that there is a place on the platform where they do provide announcements and updates and so a lot of it is in there it's just you have to know to go look for it you know we got caught up in you know there are these

[01:06:16] really nice anchor charts that are available in HMH and so we had back in the spring one of the asks from teachers was can we download those or you know can we as the ELA office download those anchor charts and have them available for like the copy center to make poster size you know that type of thing so we did that and then over the summer they've updated the anchor charts so now they're not matching so that's kind of the the barrier that we're running into by downloading all of these and having them available is that then they they start to not match or they change yeah that segues into my next question which

[01:06:52] I know you know it's coming slide decks is like the hot button issue of the hour that's by far the most emails I get is about these slide decks I know that I'm just gonna call it out I know there's a Facebook group of a lot of teachers that are calling out specific people and there's a lot of things going on I'm not in that group I'm glad I'm not in the group but I know there is some misinformation kind of flying around and I'm I know during the pandemic we got very used to using slide decks and Google slides and you know not that that takes away from teaching the kids in front of you I have my own personal

[01:07:27] views about it I would prefer that we get back to just being with the kids but I do know that there is an ease with these slide decks so if you could just kind of clarify what's going on where we are as a division if we are saying you know this is sort of what we endorse in terms of best practices in terms of these slide decks that are imaginary or not. So HMH does have slide decks available not for everything. And so part of our kindergarten through second grade adoption,

[01:08:02] we adopted structured literacy. And that's a component of HMH where you really do as an instructor of that 30 minute phonics block, you have to use the slide decks. Exactly. It's exactly, I don't want to say exactly like UFLY, but it's very similar to UFLY. Yes. And so those slide decks are very helpful they are interactive and they help to really keep the teacher on pace which in a 30-minute lesson when they're covering all those different topics it's really important that they do stay to pace other parts in the other grade in the like the reading and writing workshop and then in grades 3 4

[01:08:41] and 5 HMH is working on pulling together slide decks for teachers to use third grade has some foundational skill slide decks that are already on the platform and then there are also reading and vocabulary slide decks that are starting to be populated so those are some of those updates in talking with HMH last week I asked to see if they could provide us with a schedule of like what we can expect from the platform if they have these projects that are ongoing that are going to be updated if they could kind of give us a heads up as to what what we can can expect so that we're not creating things on our you know

[01:09:20] on the side that it's just going to be repetitive so that's part of what we're hoping to get from the company is kind of an outline because I think if we can communicate to teachers and share like this is what we can expect from the platform and what we can learn to use that would be great the other piece to it is that I'm also hearing from teachers is that during the end their instruction they they're finding that they are needing to really find ways to engage students more during the read especially during reading workshop and writing workshop and they want to lean in to some practices that they've used in the past to help engage those the students in their classroom and we really

[01:09:59] want teachers to feel comfortable in doing that not feeling like they have to rely on a slide deck or they have to rely on the word-for-word teacher language that's in the manual but that they can really they know their students best and so how can they make those instructional decisions to best meet those needs but also provide an engaging experience for students and so that might mean deviating away from you know a slide presentation and doing some other instructional literacy you know science of reading kind of activities that really help to solidify the learning so just to kind of summarize

[01:10:36] you guys are pressing into HMH's production of materials and that's separate that's not going to come from LCPS and in the meantime they should use the resources at their disposal to teach the kids in front of them is that that's correct what I'm picking up that's correct and if I could add we also in part of the curriculum development team that worked this summer we work to really try to pull together some of the resources there is an option on HMH platform it's called an editable I have to say that very slowly lesson

[01:11:10] plan but teachers can kind of use that lesson plan to create or to look at their literacy block for the day and so we've worked with the team of teachers to really look at what that could look like and so I think sometimes slide decks help guide the keep teachers on pace throughout that literacy block because we know there's a certain amount of time and they got it you know and it's it's a short amount of time thinking about all that they have to do for that that literacy block and I and I think if we can lean into some of those editable

[01:11:43] weekly plans that really help them just pull the things that they need for their literacy block instruction that that might help kind of prioritize what they and that will also help with the plethora of resources that are out there too I appreciate that I think that's a good place to land my next questions are about Lexia core 5 so besides the resources and the online platform and the slide decks and all those things from teachers from the reading specialist side it's my understanding that the first Lexia core five training was heavily on the digital which

[01:12:18] I think maybe threw them off a little bit I'm wondering if it threw them off in terms of well what are we supposed to do and I've heard you say and reiterate that we are pressing into the face to face especially in elementary with our little guys for tier three and that would happen during that power up time correct and then the digital platform could be used in the core in my understanding like in the overflow independent work time is that correct yes that's correct okay that they we really want to prioritize that face-to-face instruction with our reading specialists who are highly

[01:12:57] qualified and have the knowledge I think another layer to that is we're also working with reading specialists to that that I think there's an a feeling that they can't deviate from Core 5 and maybe use some of those instructional routines that they've used in the past. Yes. For example, using some of their Orton-Gillingham approaches. Many of our reading specialists, if not all of them, have been trained in Orton-Gillingham and that approach to instruction has been approved by the VDOE. That's where a lot of this there was confusion because people think say to me OG didn't get approved and I'm like well OG isn't a program, it's a methodology. Right, and so that methodology, that

[01:13:36] approach is approved and so I encourage our reading specialists to bring those okay components into their instruction where it fits and they will know where it fits because they'll know their students right so I think that it's just I think the initial training did probably throw them off part of that is that there is a platform to core 5 a digital piece that they'll that really helps them kind of narrow down to what are the specific skills and how they can really group students efficiently to make sure that they're that that face-to-face time is the most efficient use of instructional time and so trying to

[01:14:14] provide that background then did make it seem like this is all going to be digital and that yeah it's definitely something all of our we meet with our reading specialists monthly and all of our monthly meetings are going to be about providing some more support and grounding them with core five and helping to support them through that instruction and I do really love that there is sort of a clear definition between the programs in core and an intervention because now teachers can focus on core and they're not feeling like I have to do all these other supplemental things my last question just in terms of the technology piece and I'm not trying to beat a dead horse but we've talked a lot

[01:14:52] about technology it's coming up you know I'm reading the anxious generation we're all talking about technology and so it feels counterintuitive to me to put a little guy or girl on a computer when we sort of feel like that's what's caused this in the first place and I appreciate and believe you that we're gonna prioritize face to face but my concern is like this happened sort of with imagined learning and I'm not trying to throw imagined learning under the bus but that monitoring of time is who is responsible for monitoring that who is responsible for looking at that data set when those kids are on independent time?

[01:15:29] Are they just clicking through? Are they really getting the value? I mean, there's a lot of questions there. And in terms of fidelity, my understanding from looking at their website is it can recommend from 20 minutes to 80 minutes based off the skill that you're working on and how much work you need. 80 minutes for a primary learner is a lot of time on the computer.

[01:15:48] And I know the reading specialist very well, and I know they're rule followers, and they want to make sure they're checking those boxes. My question really is, are we giving them the grace to say, if you don't get to all of that and you don't check all the boxes on the digital platform, but I'm teaching you face-to-face, are we going to be able to give that grace when we measure fidelity?

[01:16:10] Because my fear is that we'll look at these digital numbers and say, well, Jose didn't get that, and Clara didn't meet her minutes, but if they're getting face-to-face time instead, to me, that's much more valuable. Will we be looking at that as a fidelity piece?

[01:16:26] Do we know that yet? We've had a number of conversations with our success manager with Core 5 about that very thing. And yes, the answer is yes. There are pieces of the program where you'll be able to see how well the digital component is supporting the child.

[01:16:46] For example, we know that if sometimes children just click and they're not really paying attention or they don't want to be in front of that screen. They're not really doing, and so there are pieces of that program that tell you how well the digital component is helping to support the child, and whether even in the classroom during their independent time, is it even worth putting them on the program to do that digital piece of it.

[01:17:14] I think with some of the progress monitoring that's part of Core 5, we'll be able to, will also measure the face-to-face or the impact the face-to-face learning is happening is having and so if for a child it's just that face-to-face piece especially in our younger grades that progress monitoring will still show us that it's making that impact yeah I appreciate it I know I'm in the weeds here a little bit but we are getting concerns about it and and I know it's their heart right I mean if their heart is to teach and they've been given all this training and knowledge and they're the highest leverage person in the

[01:17:53] building to be instructing these students who have these gaps so I just want to make sure that they have permission to do that and that that is communicated because I do think that there is a fear of if I don't get to all the digital minutes someone's gonna come say we didn't do the program and that's just not true but it may not be as easily measured because those minutes didn't get ticked off so just passing that along but that's all for me it's really short um do you guys have anything else i really appreciate it overall super positive feedback the team is you know out and about and doing all the things and meeting all the needs

[01:18:31] so i really appreciate it and i think people are excited and it's definitely off and running so all right is there any f with that we'll move to new business is there any new business tonight all right since there's no new business i will say that this meeting is adjourned thank you all for coming

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