Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Curriculum & Instruction Committee Meeting, Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Date: Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 14m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1015531351?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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[00:00:07] good afternoon everyone i'd like to call the october 2nd 2024 curriculum and instruction meeting to order my name is lauren schernoff and i'm the chair of this committee and i'm joined by my colleagues dr linda deans and dr samara rasheed we are glad that you are here normally we would move to public comment but we do not have anyone signed up for public comment today so with that we will move to item three the approval of the draft minutes for september 4th 2024.

[00:00:37] Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the minutes are approved. We will now move on to our information items. We have item 4. 1, elementary instructional schedule with specific focus on library and gifted services. And I would like to welcome our many presenters today. We have Caitlin Clark, the director of academic programs. We have Mr. Jeff Roundsley, the director of teaching and learning we have miss wendy king supervisor of gifted services and miss

[00:01:11] elissa moritz supervisor of library media services they all serve under mr slevin who is also here but i don't know if you're presenting or not are you he'll just take questions maybe sounds great all right so with that i will turn it over to your team thank you all right good afternoon thanks for the opportunity for us to talk about the elementary instructional schedule and really hone in on two of our teachers who are impacted by the instructional schedule, which is specifically

[00:01:46] librarians, and our gifted teachers, and some thoughts and ideas and considerations around how we might be able to support them under the instructional schedule. So on the screen, you'll see three things we want to talk about today. We're going to do a quick review of the elementary instructional schedule, talk a little bit about the impact that the schedule has on librarians and gifted services, and then some key considerations for each program as you engage in FY26 budget decisions.

[00:02:16] So a quick overview of the instructional schedule and on the next slide we'll see some of the ideas that drove the creation, really important ideas that drove the creation of this instructional schedule and things that we want to support on the next slide. So the first one was a lack of balanced instructional minutes across the four core areas.

[00:02:35] We saw especially science and social studies not getting the time that those important subjects deserve in our schedule. Guidance from the Department of Teaching and Learning did not always fit within the allotted minutes for the day. So it's not only just dictating or giving teachers some guidance on what those instructional minutes are, but also making sure that our content offices were being thoughtful in the lessons that they designed and to make sure that what they were creating for teachers was something that could be supported and implemented in the course of the instructional day.

[00:03:05] of common planning time across all grade levels this is that support for collaboration and CLTs at our elementary schools and making sure that we gave our teacher teams time to collaborate together and problem solve together and some school-based solutions to create common time created a lack of consistency so some schools were meeting with specials twice a week for 30 minutes some once a week for 50 minutes and all of that makes scheduling especially itinerants very difficult and maximizing the use of our staff members so as a reminder these are the instructional minutes in the elementary school day. We've seen this before, but there is a dedicated ELA and math

[00:03:41] block each day, and also time for science and social studies allotted. The last time we talked about the instructional schedule, we also shared that we made a decision to allow schools, if they chose to, to teach science and social studies on alternating days for a longer amount of time. That supported the implementation of some deeper learning initiatives and projects in those schools to make sure they had time to really explore topics, but those are the minutes that make up the instructional day and it's a very very tight time frame to make sure all of those things happen we've discussed that before around transition times and making sure teachers had that support

[00:04:15] to provide and support students in their classes and then we have what our specials look like so as you can see the instructional schedule aligns those 50 minute time blocks and music once a week for once once time per week for 50 minutes art once a week for 50 minutes PE twice a week for 50 minutes. And then we come to what creates some concerns in the instructional schedule. So first library is one time a week, one time every other week for 50 minutes. And the reason there is because part of our staffing models, we'll talk about that a little bit later, but there are just

[00:04:52] not as many librarians as there are music and art teachers to support weekly time in the library. And also to make up that alternating week. So when we have library one week on the following week, We fill that in with counseling, so a 50-minute lesson one time every other week, or search through gifted services, or for 30 minutes in kindergarten, 50 minutes in grades one through three one time every other week.

[00:05:17] So really, those classes are alternating with each other, library, counseling, or search. And the problem, as we're going to kind of outline for you today, is that there are some struggles that counseling and gifted services have being fit into the instructional schedule that we would like to try to alleviate.

[00:05:37] So we're going to talk about a few challenges for library and gifted services, and we're going to really kind of rely on the words that our librarians and gifted teachers have provided to us. So on the next slide is a let's talk from an LCPS librarian, and I'll just read this.

[00:05:54] With the beginning of the year on a Thursday and holidays, I still have not seen all of my classes for their regular 50-minute class. The library is more than just checking kids in and out. Librarians do so much more, and our time has already been cut in half. Staffing for libraries needs to be a priority next year.

[00:06:09] We as librarians and our programs have been devalued. We have so much to offer both the students and the teachers. And we're going to kind of unpack some of these statements in here, especially around what librarians do and how we can support them in some coming slides. As you can see here, this is teacher feedback from elementary gifted resource teacher.

[00:06:33] As you can see, the resource teachers have a wide variety of responsibilities within their schools. Their responsibilities have increased over the years as a result of the changes to the gifted program model and evaluation process. Gifted resource teachers conduct gifted evaluations, administer assessments, they teach search, edge, and fusion.

[00:06:56] They also support math and EL enrichment for grades 4 and 5, serve as resources for all staff, and conference with families. As a result, the elementary gifted schedule is a complex, multifaceted puzzle that does require flexibility to make all the pieces fit together.

[00:07:17] Flexibility is key to building a workable gifted schedule. when search is placed in the master schedule flexibility is limited and this can lead to a disruption of services in other areas so on the screen right now is a few outlines of the important work that happens in our libraries every week and the first one is around instructional time so these are some of the challenges that our librarians face with the every other week model in schools that did have that weekly library time of either 30 minutes or 50 minutes a week we have essentially cut the amount of time that students spend

[00:07:56] in the library in half and there are other things that we can do to support that librarians have been great at coming up with other ways to do it but that dedicated time for library has been reduced in most of our schools we also want to point out the important work that's happening that that quote from the librarian that we shared just a moment ago talked about the important things that happen in library besides checking in and checking out and so So skills like information literacy, digital literacy, research skills, ideas that cut across all of our different content areas and are not subject specific at all, are things that the librarian helps to support and enhance, and without that time in the library, there's

[00:08:34] not as much time to develop those really important skills that we know are applied in other classes as well. There's also a reduction in access to resources, and our librarians have been great in making sure that those libraries are open every week and accessible to students, but without a dedicated scheduled time in the the schedule for students to visit it can be a challenge for students to have access to some of the materials that are available there and we also want to point out every time we talk about libraries as well that that librarians have a multifaceted job and it's not just working with students every day but there is an entirely other administrative side to their work

[00:09:09] around managing the collection looking at the data to look at checkout and circulation options finding new books to order staying on top of where their student interest is and so unlike some other classroom specials that we may be talking about librarians do have both a teaching side to their job and an administrative side to their job to keep all of that collection moving and relevant and of interest to students so when search is placed in the master

[00:09:46] schedule the additional program components of the gifted program such as fusion DCI edge and all of those gifted evaluation responsibilities need to be scheduled kind of in that leftover time or that remaining time that's available those time slots and so it can really be problematic for example there may not be full blocks of time that the teachers need for fusion dci and edge so they may end up doing 20 minutes here and 30 minutes there and it's broken up so that makes it a little bit harder to really

[00:10:25] go deeper into the content gifted teachers may not have access to the fourth and fifth grade teachers excuse me the fourth and fifth grade students for fusion and dci when the students are actually available and then this also leads to gifted resources having these open blocks of time in their schedule so that's not very efficient for them gifted teachers also may not be able to fit in that really important collaboration time with classroom teachers or be able to attend clts due to those scheduling constraints so ultimately we want gifted teachers gifted resource

[00:11:03] teachers to be able to make the best use of their time and to have opportunities to co-plan and collaborate with classroom teachers to support the gifted evaluation process and also to support differentiation for our gifted learners and other high ability learners so revised staffing and flexibility and scheduling really can make that possible so a couple of considerations that we wanted to share with you as you make decisions around the FY 26 budget and

[00:11:40] and some information around libraries and gifted services. So on the next slide, we have some information around libraries and just some facts that we wanted to share with you. So first, library staffing, unlike some of our other specials, is set by the school size and not the number of classes.

[00:11:56] So you can see our current model on the screen is that schools receive a 0.5 librarian per school if it's under 300 students, 1.0 between 300 and 999 students, and then a 1.5 librarian if a school is over 1,000 students.

[00:12:14] That's a real contrast. Obviously, that middle number, 1.0, a school between 300 and 999, is a huge range. And unlike our art and music classes, those are staffed at 1 to 22 classrooms. So when you think about that 50 minutes every week that music and art has in the instructional schedule, that's because they're staffed at 1 to 22.

[00:12:38] the reason why library has to alternate every other week is because it's staffed by the size of the school. So we do want to point that out. If there is a goal to move library into a more frequent rotation on the schedule, we would need to staff that library in a different way.

[00:12:54] And one of the considerations we wanted to just share too is that unlike some of these other classes, I already mentioned there is a program management aspect to library. So there's administrative tasks. And there is also, I think, expectations that librarians are co-teaching with teachers in classrooms that they are available for for book clubs and other literacy activities during the day so it may not be as clean as that 1 to 22 that we have up there but there is room I think to create more opportunities for librarians to be able to interact with students on a regular

[00:13:26] basis so as we discussed the elementary gifted resource teachers role has really evolved and expanded over the past five years and to meet the increased demands of this role the current staffing standard developed for the previous model gifted model needs to be revised not only to consider school enrollment which this one currently does but also we need to take into consideration the number of gifted cluster classrooms that the gifted resource teacher would need

[00:14:01] to push in for instruction and also the gift and enrollment and the number of search classes of teaching so the gifted office is working with the budget office to revise or rewrite the staffing standard to reflect the needs of the current gifted model and that was all the information we had for our presentation and we're happy to take any questions you might have colleagues you

[00:14:30] have any questions yes so my question is you want consideration what is the consideration that you want what is your proposal in terms of increasing the number of librarians so we are still in the process of developing our budget proposals really the big concept is is this a pain point that needs to be addressed through the budget process that's why we're trying to bring

[00:15:06] attention to it in some aspects with things like this there may be a multi year fix we know that we can't do everything at once as much as we tried to be responsive last year for example to our instructional schedule there are still some feedback that we received going into this fiscal year that we need to make some changes so while we don't have an exact number the purpose of this presentation is that we're kind of narrowing our focus on to our gifted staffing standard in elementary school in our library and staffing standard in elementary school so I'm sorry I can't be more specific at this point but that's

[00:15:42] where we are in the development of the budget thank you if you could just re summarize I know we're focused in on library and gifted but if you could just talk a little bit about how this could impact the other specials like music if we were to right size for library for example I know you know we're we're still hearing because it's beginning of the year that the k2 model for 50 minutes a week for music is a lot um I laugh because it's just if you know kindergartners um if that that will have an impact won't it give schools a little bit more option you know we talked about that last year in terms of schools

[00:16:22] will have a little bit more flexibility in terms of if they want to keep that or if they could divide it up is that still on the table if we increase staffing so I'll ask Mr. Roundsley to talk a little bit more about that impact I would say that these two particular areas library and gifted are somewhat more complex in like like mr. Allen's who mentioned the programmatic aspect aspects of library make it different than music while music definitely teachers definitely add more to the school such as after-school programs as we've talked about the librarian definitely has different hats they wear throughout the day very similar to the gifted program

[00:16:58] And so part of this is, particularly for library, is understanding what the ask is and what the expectation is across all of our 60 elementary schools. This is a conversation that I have pretty consistently with elementary principals when I'm out at schools.

[00:17:14] And there are varying opinions, as I'm sure you all find in your school visits. So, but to be specific to music, I'll ask Mr. Roundsley if he has anything to add. So this proposal is not meant to change that same guidance of 50 minutes every week for all of our specials because that does really allow for really consistent quality planning time for our elementary teachers every day and a space for them to collaborate and work with each other.

[00:17:46] what we're really trying to alleviate here is counseling being a part of the master the instructional schedule because counselors we know have things that come up during the day issues they have to deal with when they're locked into the instructional schedule in this way they can't be as responsive to a student need that might arise or they have to see to a student need and that teacher doesn't get planning time for the day because they can't leave their classroom for that time so it's really hard for that group to be a part of the instructional schedule because of the very nature of their job each day and I think the same is true

[00:18:20] for gifted as Wendy pointed out in her presentation when she talked about all of the various programs and facets and the collaborative time and co-teaching that we are asking our gifted teachers to do with classroom teachers to have them locked into a schedule like this really inhibits the time when that can happen as well so that that thought around creating more regular spaces for library is really meant to help those two groups better function in in their roles within the school I appreciate that clarity because I think that I had misunderstood that before I think that I thought that it was gonna allow more toggling with

[00:18:57] some of the other options so I'm it's I'm glad to hear that that that's what it's gonna be my other question is about just in terms of the gifted program and I had a chance to sit down with several of the gifted teachers back in the spring and I brought it up at the school board meeting and I was really shocked honestly and I taught in elementary so to see and hear about all the different roles that they play and in terms of evaluating kids and the testing and all the different programs that they run and the push in lessons so I guess my question is some of them have asked if there is a change in staffing sort of a

[00:19:37] right sizing to the job if you will which is what I would call it and advocate strongly for is they're going to be what you would you envision that there would be flexibility of everyone's still doing all of those things or will it become maybe an option of a more divide-and-conquer where someone's doing the classroom lessons and someone's doing the pullout will that flexibility exist if we do have multiple people in buildings to support the workload yeah we certainly want to give them the flexibility to really divide up the work based on you know their passion areas you know someone's really strong

[00:20:13] about math that they have the opportunity to do the math enrichment portion or if someone really loves search they can take on that role and so that's how I've seen it work best if you do have two teachers at the school they sit down with the administration and they talk about how to how does this work best for our school so we do want them to have that flexibility I think they'll be very happy to hear that um and then i'm just going to put this out there i know it's not really what we're talking about but in terms of the new reading program with the minutes which you did talk about um i just want to you know they're still concerned that they're crunched especially in

[00:20:53] fourth and fifth grade i was with two teams in leesburg yesterday they're just like we don't know what to cut we don't we have to cut something every day because the 80 minutes or this you know it's not enough um and my fear and i think their fear is that when they cut something then fidelity is at risk and so they don't want that on their shoulders but they also are making choices the best they can they're trying cross content so if we could just continue to monitor that and be reflective of that with the new program i think it would be helpful i don't want to fall into old patterns where things get dropped like word study got dropped by a lot of people and now we have a

[00:21:31] generation of kids i can't spell for many reasons um but i want to make sure that we are getting ahead of that and that we're addressing that for teachers so that they don't feel like they're picking and choosing but maybe some guidance on what could be streamlined and cut i think we talked about this a little bit with um with ela when they were here but i i just want to re-emphasize that that is still an ongoing concern especially in fourth and fifth grade and that's something we're definitely hearing from principals and teachers um we i want to reiterate that we continue to be responsive to the feedback on HMH implementation and in many many ways it is a new it's a new implementation and so new things new

[00:22:10] things are hard and we know that we need to support them but as I'm sure you all are seeing in your school visits when I'm in classrooms I am seeing really great instruction and I'm seeing teachers leaning into the new materials the new approaches mr. roundly as he was sharing a couple some anecdotal feedback this morning from some teachers in terms of the impact of the program So there is a sense of positivity, but we do realize it's a lift for teachers.

[00:22:35] So continued feedback and dialogue about how we can do better at that is – we want to make sure people know we're open to that. All righty. Thank you all so much. Anything else? Thank you all so much for being here today. It's great to see you. And with that, we will transition here, our teams, and we are going – I guess we don't have to transition.

[00:22:56] We're going to talk about Policy 5130, Textbook Adoption, Item 4.2, with Mr. Slevin presenting. Thank you, Ms. Chernoff. So we do have a policy that is up for review. We're reviewing it due to the five-year cycle, and so you should have a copy of the policy in your packet. Many of these updates are simply updating language from code when reviewed by Division Council. So lines five through nine established more of the guidance, where the guidance is coming from

[00:23:36] textbook adoption section a guiding principles was updated to have some consistency in language starting in section line 42 we do probably need to add a heading for this section but that is a definition a little bit of clarity on what the purpose of textbooks are and we do have a regulation that will eventually be updated but is currently in use for our textbook adoption process we're currently in the process of adopting new middle school ela materials and we'll be adopting

[00:24:13] our math materials this year so that will be adopted that may be revised in the future but it's in place for the current adoptions happening and there's also updated references to legal codes and cross references to our regulation added to the policy so we are happy to take any questions or feedback on what we should be thinking about with this policy but But if there's no objection, staff would like to send this out to the community for public feedback and bring this back as a potential action item with any changes we may have made based on the feedback we receive.

[00:24:49] Thank you, Mr. Slevin. Colleagues, any questions or comments? I don't have any either. So we'll wait for feedback. And then is that good? We can send it out for feedback, and then we'll bring it back as action next time.

[00:25:06] Thank you. And now we will move. That was easy. Now we'll move to item 4.3, which is career pathways. And with us today presenting is Ms. Tina Howell, who's the Director of Professional Learning and School Support. Welcome. Floor is yours.

[00:25:32] Thank you. I'm super excited about this initiative that we have started this year. And as you all know, Goal 2.1 in the Strategic Plan is around exemplary staff and making sure that our staff is high-performing.

[00:25:49] In the post-entry plan, Goal 2.G is specific to making sure that staff has choice and access to high-quality professional learning, and this is really focused around that goal. So this is called Career Pathways, and really what it is is a pathway is a professional learning opportunity for teachers, and it expands teachers' knowledge and skill in a particular area.

[00:26:16] So for example, instructional practices or maybe working with adult learners. And so what's the goal of it is our goal with this is to develop innovative teacher career pathways that give teachers incentivized opportunities to engage in professional learning.

[00:26:39] And why we're doing this is we really do believe that this could be a teacher retention and also recruitment strategy. If teachers know that they can come to Loudoun County Public Schools and engage in professional learning and they are going to get monetary incentives for doing that.

[00:27:03] That could be a good incentive to recruit teachers to come to Loudoun County. In addition teachers are saying that they want professional learning that is relevant to them and and that is timely and that they feel is meaningful and that they can immediately apply in the classroom.

[00:27:21] And so we do think that that will increase teacher retention. We've heard we've been doing a lot of research and we've heard from other school systems that if sometimes if they leave they will go to another school system who doesn't have the incentive and so they actually lose it.

[00:27:37] So it could be an incentive to keep teachers here in Loudoun as well. It could increase teacher satisfaction because they're getting the growth and the learning that they are seeking. It increases that access and choice and professional learning. It really is based on what teachers are saying that they want and it also communicates what we value as a division.

[00:27:58] We are making sure that the pathways are aligned to our strategic plan and what we really value. So there are some things that pilot pathways must have and they must be high quality professional learning.

[00:28:17] And what that means is that it is relevant. It is sustainable and it is timely and meaningful to teachers. We also want teachers to know what the end goal is. A lot of times teachers will take professional learning and what I've heard is they go back to their classroom they're all excited and then they just don't have the time to implement it.

[00:28:42] So with Pathways we build that in so that they learn how to implement the professional learning. And so that really is the end goal is that they're going back improving their teaching practices which leads to an improvement in student achievement.

[00:28:59] There's also a performance based component which is really that they are going back and implementing. And that is is where we are going to see the results is by them using what they are learning. And then the other thing is when we build these pathways we want to make sure that there is coherence and consistency in the time required.

[00:29:21] So we don't want one pathway to take let's say 20 hours to complete and another pathway to take 50 hours to complete and then you get the same incentive for both. So we want to make sure that they are built the same. And then there is an incentive which even had we asked teachers what they want as an incentive and one teacher said a blanket would be nice.

[00:29:42] So they just want something as an incentive to take the professional learning. They could lead to a credential we call these micro credentials and that is just it's it's a way to say that you have some expertise in that area.

[00:29:58] And then teachers really want coaching sustained support. They say they don't have the time to do it. They they like I said they can be very excited about the professional learning but then they get back to their everyday jobs and they say we just don't have the time to do it or I'm going to try it I would love if I could get some feedback on how it's going.

[00:30:20] So that would be built into these or could be built into these pathways and then it could have budgetary. We think it will have budgetary implications for the monetary incentive but it could have other ones as well for example supplies it could we need supplies or if we know of an expert in a certain topic bringing that expert in to give professional learning for the teachers.

[00:30:48] All along the way we've made sure that it is aligned division priorities so you can see here that is aligned to the strategic plan to the entry plan and to the post entry plan so we have three teams working on this project we have a pretty small team called the project team mr. Slevin and I are on this team and then two other team members are on it and we're basically responsible for the day-to-day work and the management of this project we have a slightly larger advisory team made up of cross-departmental team members and they are really as as we're going along they're giving us feedback for example

[00:31:28] you'll see in a moment that we presented five possible options to them and they gave us feedback on what they think would be the two best options of pathways to choose so we're they're giving us insight and their perspective on on what they think we should do and then finally we have a pilot team we actually met for the first time today this morning and that's a little bit larger we also have cross-departmental team members but then we also have some school-based staff that are on that team as well and this is the team that is going to build out the pathways for us so what's some of the professional

[00:32:06] learning that we already have that could be in that pathway and then what is some professional learning that we need and they would help build that out so go ahead can you take a minute and introduce our colleagues that are on these teams. Sure. Hannah Prebeck is on the project team and then we are also very closely aligning with HRTD and so Tanisha Holland is here the director of talent development and then we're also closely aligned with budget and so Casey Jones is here. He they are both on the advisory

[00:32:43] team. That's it. Is anyone else? Okay. So this is a multi-year project. This is not something that can be done in just one year. We are hoping to build some pathways this year but we really spent some time over the summer planning and aligning and saying how can we get this even off the ground.

[00:33:07] Who do we need. And so we did that this summer and then we are continuing to set the foundation. So we are gathering and synthesizing input. We have been delving into a ton of research from different school divisions not just in Virginia like Henrico is one who has been doing this.

[00:33:27] It's actually where we first heard about it. And so we've been talking with Henrico. We've been doing some research but also across the country. There are different school divisions doing this. So we looked at one in North Carolina and we looked at one in Denver today and then we looked at another one.

[00:33:44] I think it was Minnesota and and so we're looking at to see what they're doing and how they're doing this. And they're all a little bit different so we're looking to see what might work for us here in Loudoun. As the year progresses we'll be working with the pilot team to design our pilot pathways.

[00:34:03] We feel like we have a lot already that could go into these pathways. We don't have to reinvent the wheel for everything. So what do we already have that we could use and then what do we need. So we have that pilot team who will be designing these pathways for us.

[00:34:19] And then we will implement and iterate. We don't think that we will implement anything this year. It will probably be next year. So today this year is really a year of designing. Next year we want to implement the two pathways that we're creating and then develop additional pathways.

[00:34:38] And then year three we'll continue developing and implementing additional pathways. So on September 12th we had a teacher advisory committee. That teacher advisory committee is made up of a teacher from every school and we created a survey and gave them a survey but we asked them to please take it back to their schools and share it with teachers.

[00:34:59] We had over 400 responses which we're really excited about. You can see that teachers are saying that career growth and advancement and professional learning is very important to them here. There are also some comments here that we pulled out from the survey and really what you would see here is that direct application and sustained experience is important to them hands-on experience is important to them.

[00:35:28] Having a personal relationship with the instructor is important to them. Incentives are important. Leadership and collaboration opportunities are important to them. Being having retention and satisfaction with their jobs is important and finally having time to implement the professional learning is important.

[00:35:51] At the end of every year we give a stakeholder survey and one of the questions we ask is which topics would you like to receive professional development on which ones would you like to receive professional development and these were the top five. So supporting positive student behavior special education English learners content area and then instructional planning.

[00:36:13] So what we did is we took all of the feedback that we have received we in addition to the surveys in addition to going and talking with the advisory group in addition to our advisory group within here. We also conducted focus groups last spring to see what teachers want with professional learning.

[00:36:35] And based on that we came up with some five initial pathway ideas and you can see those here. Based on the feedback that we have and even that the top five topics that you just saw we think we're going to do just two and what we're focusing on is the instructional framework and then supporting diverse learners.

[00:36:57] So our goals from this year are to continue to gather feedback like I said we've already done that in numerous ways including that teacher advisory group the career pathways advisory groups the pilot team today and then we'll continue to gather that feedback along the way.

[00:37:17] We want to continue researching the career pathway systems that are already in place and even reaching out and talking with people who are doing this across the country. And then we want to develop the pathways.

[00:37:33] And so I think we've identified the two topics but then what within those topics do we want. And then develop the high quality professional learning opportunities related to each pathway. And we want to have an assessment and accountability structure.

[00:37:49] So once again it's not just checking a box. I took this professional learning I'm done. it's what are you doing with it that you are using it that you are seeing an impact that it is affecting your classroom practices and then affecting student learning and then we want to design a replicable structure for new pathways in the future however we design these we want to keep designing them so saying you know maybe you have to take five courses or what whatever it is we want to make sure that we can continue designing it the same way and then we We have thought about our budget impact.

[00:38:27] There are a couple different ways that school systems have done this. Some have offered a stipend for each micro credential and what Henrico does is they have a new salary lane and so after the teachers have to get micro credentials and then they do what's called a signature event from January to November and they deliberately put it over two school years to make sure they're retaining the teachers and so once they finish that signature event which is I mean that's about a 11 month 11 month event that they have to go through.

[00:39:03] In addition to all the micro credentials then they go to another lane in the salary scale. And so this is really what we also really like about this is a lot of times teachers have no options to get additional salary besides a step increase or just through the budget process.

[00:39:23] The only way they can get really a jump in salary is if they take a leadership position. Well this is going to keep our greatest teachers we hope in the classroom while continuing to get better and then they can they can grow on the salary scale as well.

[00:39:39] And to questions. Thank you colleagues you have any questions or comments. You may. I was thinking of teacher assistants or teacher aides.

[00:40:01] Would they be able to earn something that would work? Many of them are taking courses to become certified. Would any of this help them? We haven't talked about that yet. We know HRTD has some incentives right now for tuition reimbursement for that exact population in order to get their teaching certification.

[00:40:27] So we haven't talked about that for the CREEP career pathways. Would Department of Ed receive this training toward teacher recertification?

[00:40:46] Yeah, all of this professional learning could be used for teacher recertification. I would add, Dr. Deans, part of the concept behind this work is developing a new way of thinking about our approach to professional learning, packaged in a way that teachers really see themselves in the pathway and they're pursuing not only their own goals professionally, but also goals aligned to the division.

[00:41:14] And so while this is a narrow slice of where we're headed, a side goal of this is that it's repeatable outside the Department of Teaching and Learning, Student Services could have pathways, HR could have pathways, and so just a different way of organizing, communicating where professional learning can lead our teachers.

[00:41:34] And so this is just the beginning of that conversation. Thank you. You had mentioned Enrico and how it was started in Enrico. Do they report any challenges faced so that we can anticipate any type of challenges as such?

[00:41:51] Well, I asked them, I said, well, who creates all of these? And they said, we do. And so that's a challenge, is creating all of it, because it's a lot to create a pathway. And then I said, well, who monitors all of this? And they said, well, we do. And so they just have this little department that does it.

[00:42:08] And so that's a challenge, is the creation and management. It just takes a lot of time and effort to do that. They also, they got their funding from their board of supervisors. They went to their board of supervisors, and I think it was $3 million that the board of supervisors gave them for this initiative.

[00:42:30] That would say funding can also be a challenge. Well, obviously, I don't think you'll be surprised to hear that I think this is a really innovative and the right direction to go for our educators. I sometimes worry that teachers feel the only way up is out of the classroom.

[00:42:50] And, I mean, I did it too. I went on to be an instructional facilitator, and then I went back. So I think it's really, really great. I love some of the ideas coming out of HRTD in terms of bonuses and, like, one-time things to, like, keep teachers coming back for more.

[00:43:07] But for this, I think it really is more of a longevity of retention. So I really, I like that this is like a very tangible direction that we can say will help keep our teachers here. Because I don't think it's only about recruitment. I think we're doing a better job on the recruitment end.

[00:43:25] I think it's keeping people here. I love that it's driven by what they want. I think you said two words that really stuck out to me. One is choice, which gives teachers ownership, which is what they're always looking for. And the other is coaching, which is, I think, you know, a lot of people don't think that teachers want that, but they do want accountability, and it is a lot to juggle.

[00:43:45] So I love this. I'm excited to see where it's going to go. I was happy to hear the two that you mentioned. Those were my top two. So for what it's worth, I think this is really exciting. Would you envision cohorts then that would stick together, and would those increase based on, you know, the programs increasing, or would it sort of be a set?

[00:44:04] I guess maybe you're not there yet in the design, but how would that work in terms of a cohort? So cohorts could be one piece of it. So, for example, with the instructional framework, we have a cohort right now, the profile to practice cohort.

[00:44:20] That could be one component of it. So in order to, like, finish that pathway, you have to engage in that cohort. But then they may choose some other ways to finish that pathway where it might not be all with the same people.

[00:44:37] Okay, that's cool. yeah I don't have any real questions I'm excited to see it unfold and and to follow the design process and let us know what you need all right with that we will move to our last information item we are going to have an update on dual enrollment advanced placement and the international baccalaureate program and to present that today is mr. Slevin the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning and back at the mic is Miss Katie Clark the director of academic

[00:45:14] programs and we are also inviting mr. Grant Schaefer supervisor of academic programs to the mix welcome floor is yours I'll turn it over to miss Clark but we do appreciate the opportunity to provide the committee and the public an overview of three of our advanced academic programs we are very happy to be offering IB within Loudoun County that was a longtime goal but IB courses and dual enrollment courses and AP courses sometimes run up against each other in our high schools and so thoughtful implementation is important

[00:45:49] and that's why we have a team kind of leading the charge so this Clark and mr. Schaefer will give you an overview of each of the programs and in some of the opportunities for growth that we see thank you mr. Slevin excited to be here today to provide you an overview of these three exceptional academic programs that our students have available to them in high school. As Mr. Slevin said, we're going to talk about advanced placement, international baccalaureate, and dual enrollment. These programs are integral to our strategic plan and goals which

[00:46:27] focus on empowering students, fostering rigorous teaching and learning, and celebrating individualized successes. The first program that we'll just give a quick overview on is the Advanced Placement Program, often referred to as AP.

[00:46:42] It is a cooperative educational endeavor with the College Board. It allows high school students to take college-level courses, providing opportunities for advanced learning. Students enrolled in AP courses are expected to engage in extensive reading, writing assignments, and critical thinking activity. Our next program is the Dual Enrollment Program, and it is an enrichment opportunity for eligible high school students allowing them to take courses that earn both high school and college credits at the same time. The program offers two main course

[00:47:19] options, DE courses at high schools which are free of cost and concurrent enrollment in regular NOVA courses at the NOVA campus which requires regular NOVA tuition. Our agreements with NOVA and Richard Bland College offered tuition-free enrollment for students but we do have some additional courses that are LCPS funded through Shenandoah University, James Madison University, and George Mason University. The next program is our International Baccalaureate program and it is renowned for its challenging curriculum and international

[00:47:56] perspective. It is a rigorous pre-university program designed to build well-rounded students through the IB learner profile. The program structure includes assessments in six subject areas and the completion of college-level courses and examinations. Additionally, the IB program emphasizes community service, individual research, and an inquiry into the nature of knowledge through its theory of knowledge course.

[00:48:23] So here is a chart comparing all three programs. As you can see, we currently have 31 DE courses, 29 AP course offerings, and 23 IB. And just want to note there, those IB courses will be expanding as this was just our first year offering IB.

[00:48:44] As far as diplomas and recognition, all three are eligible for the Early College Scholar, and I'll just give an overview of that. The Early College Scholars Program allows eligible public high school students to earn a minimum of 15 transferable college credits while fulfilling the requirements for an advanced studies diploma.

[00:49:04] A more productive senior and high school and significant savings on college tuition cost is the result of that. By completing a college degree in just seven semesters instead of the traditional eight, students can save an average of $5,000 in expenses. To qualify for that, they must maintain a B average or better in their high school courses, they must be pursuing an advanced studies diploma, and they must successfully complete college-level coursework such as AP, International Baccalaureate, Cambridge, or dual enrollment to earn at least 15 transferable college credits.

[00:49:38] The next column there, or actually to stick there, you'll see for AP, they can do the AP capstone diploma. They can also earn the seminar and research certificate. And then for IB, in addition to the early college scholar that they're eligible for, they also, if they do the full thing, they can get the full IB diploma on top of their advanced diploma.

[00:50:03] For examinations, there are no examinations for DE. AP requires a passing score on an examination to obtain college credit. And lastly, same thing, IB does have exams as part of the program. In order to earn that full diploma, they must take those exams.

[00:50:23] And in order to get college credit as well, they must take and pass those exams. So you can see all three do have college credit available to them. So now I'll turn it over to Mr. Schaefer, our supervisor of academic programs, who oversees all three of these advanced opportunities.

[00:50:43] And he will provide an update on dual enrollment and dual enrollment updates and expansion and AP College Board updates as well. All right. Hi, committee. Nice to meet you. So talking a little bit more in depth on our college partners, you can see here that Northern Virginia Community College is our largest provider of dual enrollment courses.

[00:51:09] We have James Madison, Shenandoah University, Georgia Mason, and Richard Blaine College of William & Mary. To give you a couple notes on a few of those statistics, you can see that the total student amount is higher than the students enrolled in just one course.

[00:51:26] So again, we have students taking multiple dual enrollment courses. We also want to point out that the 36,000 credits earned by students enrolled in all DE partnerships is quite an impressive number there.

[00:51:43] Most classes run about three credits per semester but the lab sciences you are able to earn more credits in those courses. I also want to point out two interesting great features of our science office that has been working with James Madison University for 20 years on geospatial science and so we're the only school division in the United States to offer that as a dual enrollment course.

[00:52:15] We also have independent science research through George Mason University, and those courses are unique in that they involve a seminar and symposium at the end of the year where students get a chance to show their work and their product that they've been working on, whether it be maps or scientific experiments, to actual faculty from those schools and get feedback.

[00:52:38] Also, I just want to add a really unique partnership with Shenandoah for the teacher cadet program, so that's important. talking a little bit more about some expansion efforts so one of the most rewarding parts of this role is to really try to keep up with our students and our families who want and you know want and expect more rigor from courses so what I've been doing with that is since March I've been compiling feedback from teachers counseling directors content supervisors and principals about

[00:53:15] courses they would like to see offered as dual enrollment this list has been proposed to Northern Virginia Community College with a response time and level support that's needed for these courses. We met with them last week and so for us in academic programs to then get answers back from them and decide where we want to go with those courses. Two examples of questions that our office has asked our DE partners are can you offer college credit bearing courses as part of our special programs in the future for example health and medical sciences can we add that, is that possible? Another important question that we've asked is, can we combine

[00:53:54] our dual enrollment and international baccalaureate classes into one? This would, again, maximize college credit for students, but would also maximize our valuable resource as our teachers, who require both credentialing and training to teach both of these courses, DE and IB.

[00:54:13] Our office has also worked with our great research team in LCPS to compile data on which courses are offered where in Loudoun County and where credentialed teachers are teaching. Northern Virginia Community College has also been helpful in data collection in that we've been able to determine which schools essentially are offering enough community college courses that students would basically be graduating with an advanced diploma from LCPS.

[00:54:45] but essentially almost having enough credits to have one year of community college under their belt as well. So that's a significant data point, and many of our schools are very close to that number, which is a great achievement. Also, another route for meeting demand from students and families is, like I said, having the teachers to be able to teach the classes.

[00:55:11] And what we're doing with that is working with English. And I'll be working with the math office in the spring to offer cohorts for pathways to teach dual enrollment classes. So other potential subject areas are also being explored for this as well.

[00:55:28] And the next is diving in a little bit more into advanced placement. So you can see here through this, through the quadrants here, I'll walk you through these briefly.

[00:55:44] Advanced placement offers advantages to both students and teachers, and we've been partnering with the College Board and AP classes for many years. I was able to attend the AP annual meeting of the 59 largest school divisions in the United States with our counseling representative, Tracy Wood, from high school counseling.

[00:56:06] And one part of the meeting was to really look at some of the courses that they've offered over the years as pilot courses that now have become more mainstream, and to talk about how those are going. LCPS has been involved in those. Most notably, we talked about African-American history and two computer science AP courses that are taking place in Loudoun.

[00:56:30] Another advantage of AP is essentially not requiring as many prerequisites as in dual enrollment courses. So we have many students, and that's why we're able to offer so many classes and have so many students taking AP classes and taking those exams as well.

[00:56:50] Again, some of the prerequisites for your higher level math and science are involved in those. Another aspect of the meeting, which I think LCPS deserves some kudos for, is essentially AP exam is moving to almost all digital format, and they needed divisions to pilot that.

[00:57:11] And like you well know, we're great with our digital programming and tech support here. And so a huge shout out to our Office of Assessment Services and our high school testing coordinators who were able to pilot that and make that happen.

[00:57:27] Last year, we were one of the few divisions in the country that was able to do that successfully. Also, lastly, another advantage of AP is the support that they give to teachers regarding structure, planning, training, and PD. This is all built into a digital format called AP Classroom, which is extremely accessible and easy to use.

[00:57:49] And then lastly, I do want to share a little bit more in the next slide about our success of our students and teachers. So again, another fun part of the role is bragging on our teachers and students. So last year we had 11,180 students sit for over 25,000 exams.

[00:58:12] Yes, and again, it speaks to the coordinator, the high school testing coordinators and assessment office to pull that off. These exams, like you probably know already, that are scored on one to five basis. Typically, the college credit, you get a three or above, but some colleges are more selective in one or four or five for college credit.

[00:58:35] Our students, per usual, did great. So we had the highest subgroup of students to, out of all of them, scored a four. So that was over 5,000 students scored a four. A little over 4,700 scored a three. and close to 3 000 students scored a five on their ap exam i really want to highlight the five-year scoring summary because as you all know and when you when you in your meetings and when you're talking about data anytime we talk about five years that means pre-covid right so it's important to

[00:59:10] know that we've had a 4.7 increase in students earning a three or higher on their exams from previous year so essentially we are back and higher than pre-COVID which speaks to a lot to our our students and teachers and lastly I want to brag on four LCPS high schools in particular they demonstrated an eight percent or higher increase in students earning a three or higher from last school year those schools are Freedom, Loudoun County, Potomac Falls and Parkview so that

[00:59:44] That ends this part, but we'd be glad to take any questions. Thank you so much. Colleagues, questions, comments? I was very interested in the AP African American History course.

[01:00:07] With us being so diverse, is there any planning or intent to have other cultural AP courses? Yes, good question. We're thinking along the same lines.

[01:00:25] At the AP meeting, we sat by state, so our other two large divisions were Prince William and Fairfax, and we all came to that same conclusion and asked our representative for the state if she could advocate for Latin American studies or maybe a Chicano studies class.

[01:00:44] Okay. So you'll keep us posted on where they go with that. Yeah, I hope to have some good news to share about that. Dr. Rasheed? Thank you so much. I have a couple of questions, and I fear they may be dumb.

[01:01:01] I don't know. One is, can all three of these programs coexist at one high school? That's the dumb question. Can they? That's not a dumb question. I'm like, are there kids doing all these different tracks at all these different high schools?

[01:01:18] Or is it sort of like one high school is designated for that program only? Obviously, the more, or maybe not obviously, but the more complex offerings we try to offer in our schools, the harder it is to schedule, the harder it is to find qualified staff. But we are currently offering all of these options, for example, at Heritage and Loudon Valley.

[01:01:39] We do have schools that emphasize some of them more than others. Like that's part of the role that Mr. Schaefer has in terms of tracking where we have a high number of DE opportunities, for example. I've heard principals, high school principals say, like, that's a key decision maker when I'm hiring staff, that they're able to teach these DE courses.

[01:02:02] what we have heard from working with other school systems particularly with the ib implementation is ib and ap causes some difficulty in terms of scheduling it's hard to do both really well what we have said publicly to our community and also as we're working with our principals is we're not rushing to get rid of ap at our ib schools but at some point we have heard that ib schools tend to evolve to be really focused on IB so I don't know if Ms.

[01:02:37] Clark you could add a little bit more context to that I think you did an excellent job with that exactly what Mr. Slevin said oftentimes IB schools the research and the schools that we've connected with they will if they're offering an IB and it's a comparable AP they'll normally just offer that IB option but sometimes AP still does live if there's not an IB comparable course so as he mentioned we do still have all three at both Valley and Heritage at the moment okay just to be really clear there's not a plan to stop that like we

[01:03:12] we we know our we know our community wants choices and access and that's all we talk about and our special programs committee and CNI and so we're aware of the choice and access really we're we just are aware that the deeper we go into IB the more successful these schools become with IB and it integrates their culture we may have a conversation down the road around how do we meet the AP needs of those families we have AP options virtually and so there are a lot of other components but we do anticipate after a number of years continuing to have conversations about AP and IB in the same in the same building

[01:03:50] okay and then does every high school have at least one of these options yes yes I'm seeing heads nodding okay that's good news I guess I'm still just a little bit confused and this could just be because I haven't been through it yet but how do we how do we best funnel these kids into these programs is that a conversation I would assume that starts at the middle school level I know what the language is there we're getting letters that say you know now your kids language counts towards their high school GPA but at what point are parents communicated with these different options or does that come from a teacher recommendation that they go into

[01:04:28] these paths or I guess the decision-making process if you could outline a little bit of that that would be amazing so do you want to take that one I was just going to mention with the new course planner I think that's going to really help our families and students as they're planning out over time these options are going to show that they're available at their school so for example at Loudoun Valley our Blue Ridge students entering are going to see all of those IB options and parents and students are going to see that a lot earlier as they're starting in seventh grade planning out so that's one way we're going to start having those conversations with the

[01:05:03] students and families earlier I don't know if that helps go ahead Dr. Deans so if one school does not offer something that a child and his parent wants and that child chooses to take that at a different high school can that child then participate in activities at his home school so we do have we do have those arrangements regionally and that's one

[01:05:41] of those things that we're going to have to continue to invest in and think about how we offer where we strategically offer courses as you you may recall during the presentation around course planner from mr. Roundsley Roundsley we talked about each school having a base number of courses but we're not likely going to see a situation where every school is able to offer the exact same course load but we do think the majority of those courses should be pretty consistent so what we try to do if we can't offer it regionally we think strategically about how we can support the school eventually offering those

[01:06:20] courses Mr. Schaefer alluded to some of the cohorts we're developing around DE we want a baseline availability when it comes to DE courses we also work through our virtual Aladdin program and virtual Virginia to make sure those are accessible I recognize that's not always the first option of some of our families but at least they do have access to that course and so part of it is just tracking where the demand is and then trying to meet that need that's similar to some of the conversations we've had in this committee around world languages and so we you know we will be bringing some ideas around seeding some of these

[01:06:54] programs for things like ASL Arabic to make sure those needs are met so we do our best to be responsive but I can't say that student will have access to any course that they want but we we try to get as close to that as we can I don't know if that answers your question it does but I guess I also was thinking along what is it the sports no the sports VHSL would interfere in their eligibility at their home school for if a student was to say go to Potomac

[01:07:33] Falls and they go to Dominion to take a DE Latin course they likely would be bused there for the course and then go back there their home school would still be Potomac Falls in that example yeah that's correct I was just gonna say for our IB out-of-zone students they become full-time students if they're entering that program and then they become eligible at heritage or valley no longer eligible at their home school but that's for the whole entire they're there a day B day everything is at that school but for an individual they would stay at

[01:08:08] their home school thank you I actually look forward to the data so once IB I think rolls out after like I think after its first year I think this is the first time it's rolling out so once we get the data I think it'd be great to see a comparison in terms of AP and an IB and seeing the I guess some sort of rates like course completion rates and and what the success rate is of it thank you thank you so much I had the opportunity last week to visit heritage and pop into

[01:08:47] some IB classes and the kids are really excited and I wanted to stay for the English Lit class it was that engaging I was like oh my gosh I'm learning so much the kids were very honest about the workload and the transition they're not you know sugarcoating that at all but they seem eager and really excited to take on the challenges I love that kids can have an IB full diploma but also that some kids just want to access certain things I know I would not be taking IB chemistry so I just was really impressed with the overall rollout some of the transition from AP to IB we had those conversations with some teachers and many of them expressed that having AP experience was really

[01:09:27] benefiting them as IB teachers now so I know they can be interconnected and I look forward to kind of as well evaluating what the enrollment is and what the challenges are and seeing how we can evolve the different programs but super excited that we have a district that supports so many different pathways for our kiddos so thank you so much for your work i believe we will move on now to item number five and i think we have at least one item for new business so dr deans would you like to take the mic just a question um i have

[01:10:01] some family members involved in it and yada yada is there any place in the curriculum that will address teen trafficking experiences or to, you know, teach kids not to fall into the trap of teen trafficking? So we do have, I could get more detailed information and a summary of this from our health and PE and FLE office, but there has been work updating standards when it comes to

[01:10:36] human trafficking within our health and PE courses, as well as specific updates to family life education standards. So I am happy to bring that back as a full information item if you'd like, or if you simply would like an update from that office, I can work on that and get that to you as soon as possible. So I defer to the committee for their preference. I'd just like an update. I have several people who are, and you can direct me to the office that I should go to, and I would be glad to do that, but I just would like to know where we are here versus North Carolina

[01:11:15] and Atlanta where I have people who are working on that topic I can just add that we added lessons regarding human trafficking prior to the 1920 school year and we use a curriculum called just ask and we can we can get that to you so you can take a look at it okay thank you so I will share that we'll share an update with you and I'll also share with the whole committee and then we can decide there's any additional steps that you want to take yeah that may be a topic of interest anyway I know with the Narcan conversation there's a

[01:11:53] lot of talk about you know how training will fall if there will be curriculum implications so that may fit into a bigger conversation just about that curriculum in general so let's explore that in the future anything else for new business tonight with that I will call this meeting adjourned thank you so much

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