Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Performance Monitoring Committee Meeting, Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Date: Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 3m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1020020978?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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[00:00:10] - All right, good evening, everyone. Thank you for being here. I'd like to call to order this very first, I didn't finish yet. This very first meeting, October 15th, 2024, meeting of the Performance Monitoring Committee, clap, of our newly formed Performance Monitoring Committee.

[00:00:34] My name is Arben Estrefi and I'm the chair of this committee and I'm joined by Chair Mansfield and Mrs. Chernoff. I just wanna ask if we have public comment in this first meeting, okay. So seeing that there's no public comment, we'll move on. I know that we don't have any minutes because this is our first meeting.

[00:00:52] So before we get into the meat of our discussion this evening, I wanted to leave some space for item five, discussion items, 5.01, purpose of the Performance Monitoring Committee. I wanted to leave some space for myself and other members of this committee to really, if you wanted to kind of talk through maybe your thoughts around the purpose of this committee, what your kind of aspirations are, and maybe why you may have supported this committee, and what you feel might be the work of the committee.

[00:01:27] So just leaving some space, I'll kind of start off. For me, I think we started having these discussions in our first retreat when we were in office, where we were sworn in. We had our retreat, then we had our second retreat, And for me, I had been thinking a lot about what it means to, what effective student outcomes governance really means and how we can really focus on, you know, being effective when it comes to student outcomes governance.

[00:01:57] And where are we spending our time as a board, right? What takes up most of our time? And what are the things that we talk about? Are we talking about teaching and learning? Is it about our kids and preparing them for their futures? Are we looking at the data and seeing if we are moving the needle and how much of our time is dedicated to that?

[00:02:15] What are we prioritizing when it comes to moving the needle? And what are the metrics and the data that we're looking at? And so I felt that there needs to be a dedicated space for us as a board to have an intentional focus on student outcomes beyond what we already talk about in the different mechanisms that we have, but specifically metrics and data.

[00:02:35] and we need a space to mine for the gaps in both opportunity and achievement. And so to me, this committee is an effort to spend more of our time and energy as a board and in our governance, as well as in this division, talking about, evaluating, and setting priorities around student achievement and division-wide performance metrics to help us bring a new level of focus, attention, and transparency, and I believe that this committee creates the dedicated space for that work to happen.

[00:03:05] So just some thoughts for me on the work of this committee. Board members, any other comments? Yes, Chair Mansfield. - Thank you, Chair Streffi. So my whole journey into this began because my son is dyslexic and it was always hard to understand why he did well on maybe a PALS assessment, but then he didn't do well on SOLs later or he was found eligible for having dyslexia.

[00:03:45] And so my hope is that we are catching those kids early with this particular performance monitoring committee. And those kids that fall through the cracks, and we're just not quite sure why.

[00:04:02] And this, I'm hoping, will give us more understanding as to the why and how to help them early with more instruction, better instruction. So that's my hope with this committee is to look at the subgroups, look at the EL students, look at the kids who come through the cracks and follow.

[00:04:23] Okay. Thank you, Chair Mansfield. Yes, Ms. Chernoff. Thank you, Chair Streffi, and I want to thank you for this idea. I feel really excited about this work, and I want to thank Chair Mansfield for appointing me, although I was relentless in making it known that I wanted to be a part of it, which was part of my strategy, but I am very, very grateful to be here.

[00:04:47] I have to say it's almost been a year that I've been outside of working as a teacher in our schools, and entering into this year, year 18, would have been year 18 for me as a teacher, and I have missed so many parts of that work, and this is really like entering today, I was just thinking like, this is the closest I felt to being back in that educator space in the sense that our teachers are masters at looking at data because LCPS is in fact the district that taught me how to look at data.

[00:05:21] This is the district where I fell in love with looking at data, surrounding myself with professionals and colleagues that knew the kids, knew where they were going, knew what they needed and then strategically supported them with resources and with strategy and just support and I think that this in my mind I kind of want to just like take that and apply it to the district and maybe that's not going to be exactly how it works out but I feel like the it's the motives are there should be the same and the goals should be the same that when we go into these data dives

[00:05:58] and we look at this data we can then project it out and say where do the resources need to go Or what strategically do we just need to move around to get the right things in the right space? And for me, it's all about a lens of growth. You know, let's just be honest about where we are. Let's make sure that we are addressing where we can go.

[00:06:17] We are a great county with lots of resources. And so I really want to make sure that we as school board members are taking that responsibility seriously, making great decisions based on the data at the division level. And I am just really, really excited to apply this work and also to have the space.

[00:06:35] So I thank you both. And I thank you, Dr. Spence, for putting it in your post-entry plan. And I think this is a really exciting day for the division. Thank you, staff, as well. Thank you very much, Ms. Chernoff. So with all of that being said, we'll move on to our information items.

[00:06:55] I also want to leave some space as we get into those information items for Dr. Spence and Dr. Ellis and the team, if you want to add anything to the discussion related to the purpose of the Performance Monitoring Committee, or we can just jump right into 4.01, Priorities of the Performance Monitoring Committee, and I'll pass it over to you all.

[00:07:17] Thank you, Mr. Straffi. I think, like you all, we are excited about a dedicated space to really engage more deeply in these conversations than is often afforded during the fairly full and constrained agenda the regular board meetings so your your vision and leadership around this all of you in your individual conversations about student data and your desire to have this conversation I think is really important and and I will speak for staff and say that we actually have been very excited about we've been waiting

[00:07:52] for this meeting to happen because as you know we we this is the the sort of conversation that we love to engage in here's what's going on and here's what we're thinking about it and here's where uh we're paying attention but what might we be missing and and what other as you mentioned ms shurnoff what other resources might we need to be thinking about in terms of either moving things around strategically or or things that we haven't thought about that we need to have discussion with the full board about so we really appreciate this opportunity and the uh the next two parts of the agenda we want to dive in with you on um really kind of

[00:08:30] digging into a first glance at what are the metrics that really do matter so going back to conversations we've had in retreat about the board's metrics that matter and then kind of aligning those with what staff thinks and then trying to come up with some agreement a little bit of agreement around okay like these are the things we should be digging into right now and of course that won't be static that's that's just something that we think as an initial conversation will allow us to better prepare for these meetings as we move forward.

[00:09:01] And then of course, Dr. Ellis is prepared with her team to do a dive into what our current data looks like. Understanding that that's a 60 slide presentation and we have a hard stop of an hour.

[00:09:16] So we're gonna run through that fairly quickly and probably leave ourselves homework around what questions do we still have? Do we wanna dig further into in subsequent meetings? So with that, I will turn it over to Dr. Ellis. Thank you, Dr. Spence, and it's 48 slides.

[00:09:33] So thank you very much. Yeah, just for you. I did want to introduce Dr. Ryan Tyler, our Director of Research, Assessment, and School Improvement, and Dr. Anna Singel, our Supervisor of Strategic Planning. You will probably be seeing a lot of both of them in this committee, and then we will also bring in other content experts as needed, depending on the data that we're looking at.

[00:09:59] So as Dr. Spence said, we will start this evening talking about the metrics, reviewing the metrics that you all as a full board looked at last spring. We'll review the current metrics, the staff recommended changes to those metrics, and then what you all prioritized as a team.

[00:10:18] And then our hope is that we will begin to prioritize and consolidate some of those, And that will really start to shape some of the items that you all will look at in this committee. So I wanted to start with an analogy that Dr. Singhal shared with me that really just struck me as really powerful in this discussion.

[00:10:38] So I'll ask you to put yourself in the seat of a cockpit of an airplane. And think about, as a pilot, all of these dials that you're looking at, all of these metrics, each of these little screens is measuring something.

[00:10:55] and the pilot is constantly monitoring those, right? However, it's not really safe for them to be spending all of their time looking at all of these dials and all of these numbers. They have picked out a few that are essential, right, that they look at all the time, that they make sure are in the green, right at the number they're supposed to be, not dipping below a certain number, but they can't possibly scan all of these dials at all times and also fly the plane.

[00:11:25] So rather than dispersing their attention, they really focus their attention. And that's for survival, to keep the plane flying. And so drawing parallels to our strategic plan, not necessarily survival, that's probably a little harsh, but truly continuously monitoring all of the data that we have access to at the same level really isn't practical, right?

[00:11:47] So thinking about what our priorities are, what we really need to be looking at at all times versus what we know is being measured by the amazing team here in LCPS, whether or not it's presented publicly in a presentation, that's kind of the conversation that we want to have today.

[00:12:04] And I just thought that metaphor, that analogy really helped me to think about prioritizing the metrics. So that being said, keeping that in mind, we do have our four, the four goals of the strategic plan that you're quite familiar with, just wanted to make sure those are at the forefront of the discussion.

[00:12:21] And then this slide is thinking about all of the work that Dr. Spence and team has done in the past year, forming the post-entry plan that's really driving the work that we're doing right now. The post-entry plan was not created in a vacuum.

[00:12:38] It is the product of months and months of conversations, stakeholder engagement, reviewing of data sources, reviewing of existing initiatives and plans, and, of course, the strategic plan. And that really, all of those inputs have helped create the post-entry plan. And so in addition to that analogy of flying the plane, I would also encourage you to think about the strategic plan in its existence when you all started on the board and then this post-entry plan that was created after months and months of data collection. And how do we marry those two

[00:13:17] things together with the metrics that we're going to talk about? So the guiding questions for our conversation, for your conversation this evening, are how might we prioritize the metrics given that we monitor and work and work to improve additional measures, right? So what are those main dials that we're looking at versus what is measured behind the scenes? And then how might we ensure alignment between the recommended metrics and the post-entry plan? And to do that, Dr.

[00:13:47] Single put together a document for us that you do have a copy of in front of you and you also have in board docs and this document is a list of metrics by aligned action in the strategic plan so you'll see it's organized by goal and then aligned action and then for each aligned action you have each of the current metrics and by current metric I mean what was in the original approved strategic plan and those are all marked in the first column to the right of the metrics

[00:14:22] listed. And then prior to the board retreat in June, staff as a team looked through those metrics after months of conversations and prioritized what we thought were priorities based on our work. That's the second column next to the metrics. So there's a check mark there. And then the third column is what the board prioritized in your retreat in June. So there's a check mark in those boxes that were prioritized by the board. And you'll see some additional metrics at the bottom of each aligned action.

[00:14:55] So for example, course completion rates was not a metric in the current plan, nor was it staff recommended, but it was something that the board thought was important. So we added it as a metric and put a checkbox there. And then the color coding in the final column, the board column, is corresponding to the number of dots or votes that that metric received from individual board members during the retreat.

[00:15:25] So hopefully you get a quick snapshot of things that are important across different groups and were existent in the strategic plan. So I'll give you one more example. So for example, the maintaining a 97% graduation rate was in the strategic plan and then staff had prioritized it.

[00:15:46] It did not get a vote for the board. And then decrease in percentage of chronic absenteeism, you can see was in the strategic plan. Staff did mark it as a priority, and the board, there was one vote for the board to make it a priority. So with that in front of you, and Mr. Streffy, I will take your lead here in terms of time needed to review the metrics.

[00:16:10] I know you have had this information for a couple days, not a long time, so we can spend some time individually reflecting, or you can certainly jump right in. But we would ask for your feedback on any patterns and trends that you notice, what questions you have. And then eventually we'd like for you all to highlight metrics that we need to prioritize. Thank you, Dr. Ellis. So maybe we, I don't know that we'll need very much time, but we'll give members of the committee a minute or two just to kind

[00:16:45] of refresh and gather thoughts and then offer some feedback. That sounds great.

[00:17:06] I was wondering, so is VALS a growth measure or is it also, I mean, I know it says at risk or not at risk, But would you call that a growth measure as well?

[00:17:24] Does it have that capability? Because I can't remember. I was going to look at it up real quick. So based upon the intent of the board members who recommended it, it's early on in its administration, but it gives us the ability to not only measure readiness at three different points, but also progress.

[00:17:40] But it's so early on in administration, we don't have the ability to measure it with precision yet. So it could serve as both, kind of dependent upon the needs of the requester. So I know that we also have vowels for pre-K3 and pre-K4.

[00:17:59] Is that even contemplated in this, or are we just considering K through, I guess, probably three until we get more vowels? Right now, it's just K through three. Okay. Well, I know that they have to do it through, I mean, VPI has to do pre-K3 and pre-K4, but I guess we call it step, and I think that our Head Start has to use it as well.

[00:18:28] does ESCE also use that I don't know the answer to that but I will find out because what I would like to see is a continue you know a continuation of because I know from my work from what I did with dyslexia is that you can you can find kids who are at risk for reading disabilities super early three three years old three four years old and so I want to be able to find them and give them that instruction early as early as we can to make those pathways and I know

[00:19:08] that's a different way of what we have been thinking about metrics but I think it's important so that's just something that I'm thinking of sounds like we're ready for the discussion that's wonderful so we'll open it up further any other discussion regarding the metrics yes sure enough thank you chair I thank you for these metrics if I have a clarifying question is there for the

[00:19:46] current was that a collaboration so I know the strategic plan was sort of born out of the previous school board was would that check mark represent sort of like a collaboration between the board and staff at the time or was it really more board driven I would say it was a collaboration the staff presented metrics and then the board provided feedback the board did ultimately add multiple metrics and those metrics are included in the current column okay that's helpful one of the things that i noticed as i was looking through and this is something i kind of noticed before i was on the board and now

[00:20:22] being on the board i think there is a general shift and i'm speaking in very broad strokes here i think there's a general shift from like the high overall all lcps major marker numbers that we look for that get reported out by our PIO to all the families like graduation rates and how many kids are participating in different programs what our you know overall survey did like overall things high level data responses versus now I'm seeing since and I don't mean to speak for you Dr. Spence but correct me if I'm wrong but I feel that there is a shift with this

[00:20:59] board and in our schools and through your work to a more looking underneath kind of approach where we're really starting to look at what are the building blocks towards those overall umbrella numbers versus just let's just report out hey we're doing okay here in lcps um and we're you know doing better than the state in most categories which is great but i think now through the listening sessions and the things that i'm hearing it is more about tightening the lens and i see that shift even in the arrows over from the current that's why i asked because i see that that current I'm thinking that more of like the old board now you see the staff and the board's

[00:21:38] arrows like shifting over towards those like much more digging deeper numbers and so I am encouraged to see that that is the approach I want to take that I think that the board would benefit from learning more about what are all the building blocks of the data that we have but that was definitely something that I noticed just to add to that right I agree there I also sense the same energy of really trying to figure out where we can push the boundaries when it comes to really identifying gaps and opportunities. One of the things I had mentioned to you, Dr. Spence, a while

[00:22:14] back was we don't just want to see where we have gaps. There are areas or pockets of amazing work that could be happening at one school or a specific community that we might want to replicate in other areas of the division. And so when I look at the data, I would like to see those opportunities as well I am looking I have one comment related to and I think the best way to express this point is to look at aligned action 1.2 expand opportunities for multiple access pathways to success and here you have a bunch of items related

[00:22:50] to you know participation in very specific opportunities whether that's advanced opportunities or participation of students with disabilities in school based transition experiences, what I am really looking at, and I think this was mentioned in the opening remarks, I think Chairman Mansfield touched on it as well, is looking at issues when it comes to access and opportunity and potential barriers in participation, because we offer so many amazing opportunities and we are constantly innovating, we have pilot programs,

[00:23:29] we have special programs, And we wanna make sure that students from, whether that's a subgroup, whether that is, regardless of the circumstances, that those opportunities are accessible to all students.

[00:23:46] And we look at accessibility and opportunity in those programs from various perspectives, right? And we see where we might be having issues. So that's something important for me. Another thing that I've brought up as well in discussions is this idea.

[00:24:06] And one of the things that I am really happy about in our previous budget is this focus on flexible staffing and differentiated positions and really looking at our staffing ratios and figuring out what, you know, allowing schools to determine what they need so that they can fill the gaps based on the needs of each individual school community, which vary.

[00:24:30] And so I think that the magic recipe and I think I've had these conversations with Dr. Spence as well, that I have this theory that the magic recipe is in providing, doubling down on those flexible positions while having a robust school improvement process where we're providing support and schools are really trying to identify the opportunities within each school community.

[00:24:55] And so based on that thinking, that's kind of where my head is at when it comes to looking at metrics What are the things that each school has identified as gaps, and then what's the data that we need to look at across the division to really understand, you know, once we've identified those things, once schools are able to fill those positions, and they have what they need to solve for those issues, then did we make progress?

[00:25:26] Any other comments or discussion? Yes, Ms. Cherno. Do you want us to pull out, like, specific ones that we narrowed in on, or is it just more of the general conversation about themes?

[00:25:44] We would love for you, if you're ready to transition, we would love for you to transition to that, absolutely. And so as you're narrowing down the list of metrics, if you could also be thinking about if there are metrics reported elsewhere, do they need to be reported here?

[00:26:01] How would we want to move forward with those? Are there metrics that you don't think need to be included? And then any priorities that you have. Thank you. Chair Struffy, I have a question about the college and career readiness indicator.

[00:26:19] Could that be put into, like, our multiple accessible pathways to success? Is that something that, I mean, we're looking at the percentage of students enrolled in advanced opportunities. That would be something career.

[00:26:36] And also, it's possibly CTE and maybe school-based transition experiences for students with disabilities. And then the number, increase the number of students who graduate with post-secondary credit or certified credentials. I mean, I'm thinking career and college readiness indicator.

[00:26:54] I don't know. You guys will have to tell me if that's necessary if we're doing that other. No, I think the distinction is that the career and college readiness indicator was part of the accountability model. So that comes down from the state. that's an indicator that they calculate.

[00:27:11] But some of the things that you talked about under 1.2 are actually calculated as a part of that. So it's like access to rigorous coursework, whether or not students have a workforce experience, earn a career certification or credentials. So those are all calculated into that indicator, but it's actually part of the state accreditation model, which is why I think it was here.

[00:27:31] Interestingly, that's shifting a little bit and we're not entirely sure yet what the readiness indicators are going to be under the new model. So it's actually likely we'll have to make some adjustments there in terms of what we're looking at anyway. But for me, it would be a question then of are the other indicators, in particular for me, and it's interesting staff isn't marked on there, but like who's graduating with post-secondary credit and certified credentials, that's a really good indicator whether or not kids are pursuing things that they're passionate about and aren't being prepared.

[00:28:03] And so that's under 1.2 at the very top of the second page. And I would also say that that also is certified credentials. Are we giving enough kids access to those things? That's, I think, the question Mr. Straffi was talking about.

[00:28:19] So it's great to look at measuring how many kids get into those things, but then it's who gets into them and why, right, and how. And do we need to relook at what we're providing at the high school level for each at each high school so that we're making sure?

[00:28:38] I think so. And honestly, and this is where I think the fun part of this committee will come in is we look at that data and we start to kind of dissect it and we say, okay, like here's and who has it and why is, well, what are we going to do about that? And so in this instance, I would say come to the Workforce Summit on Friday because that is an opportunity and I know you'll be otherwise engaged.

[00:28:59] But, you know, that as an example of how the division might respond to trying to create broader opportunities for students to be engaged in workforce experiences and identify the credentials they might need to be successful so i think that'll be a fun part of this uh committee conversations um thank you i love that i love that we're going to look at access it was sort of hard for me not to have numbers here because when we did this exercise and i did my homework

[00:29:35] for the retreat i was really looking at where i saw some gaps and some things that were struggling but also to your point too mr streffi i was thinking about it's not only, it's also, it's so hard in a division this size, because you need to spin all the plates, and then you need to really focus on the dials, so to speak, that you got to keep the flame flying, plane flying, it's late, but you also want to, like, change your focus, but also still fly, and so I think that that's the piece that's really tricky, so I'm looking forward to looking at all of that. I kind of broke my categories down. This is not going to

[00:30:14] be a surprise to anyone. I looked at sort of students, teachers, and parents. That's kind of been the lens. I know it's kind of broken out like this anyway, and I did do some cross-referencing just looking at different categories, but I definitely am going to be wanting to look at reporting group data. I'm re-teaching myself from subgroup data to reporting group. You're welcome, Dr. Spence. That is always going to be what my heart beats for, and everything gets better if they get better right I mean that that is we know that that's going to trickle up so the plane will

[00:30:50] keep flying well and even better even if all of our students are learning so that's always going to be where I'm going to put my weight in this committee and especially in terms of you know I would love for the public to to understand a little bit more about what we do with our multi-tiered systems of support because it is such an integral part of meeting individual needs and providing targeted instruction and I think those are things that educators know how to do an educator speak but it is not necessarily something that the public really understands the depth of work that goes into that and again to the point that you were making about flexible staffing I think that it lives there that's where you can see who needs what and then also growth and I think

[00:31:30] chair Mansfield and I are aligned a lot especially in terms of our reading hearts and looking at the growth and making sure kids are making a year's worth growth and kids that are behind are making more than a year's worth growth, which I know is in your next presentation, so we can talk about that there. I also pulled out the racial slurs metric. It's important to me that we start monitoring this. I had gone back and talked to, actually my aide went to the meeting when they reported some of those numbers, and those numbers continue to go up, and we get a lot of those

[00:32:04] reports and so I think that the why question is really important in that conversation and so we want to make our schools a safe place we want them to be a place where all kids can learn that is a metric that you know was particularly alarming to me when I looked at some of the numbers I'll say the same about discipline referrals I think that could be another great conversation about not only just reducing discipline referrals I don't want to lower the bar in terms of what we say is not good behavior but making sure that we are targeting those behaviors so that kids are actually you know doing better in school and so looking at results there.

[00:32:42] For teachers it's going to be recruitment and retention, filling our positions and decreasing the number of people leaving LCPS for other schools or divisions or the profession. And then for my parent ones continuing to engage in parent view and we have some exciting things coming um with engaging parents with that um and again for access are we getting the right feedback from the right stakeholders it's not just about the feedback that we get but who are we getting it from and can we increase the participation there um and continuing to gauge whether the public trusts us or not and that's a difficult conversation that we are having and i

[00:33:18] think that that's an important one to remember all of the above for me but i will also just kind of put a an extra kind of stamp on the school climate discussion right i'm i'm looking at some of the metrics and i see i agree with mishirnoff right um racial service and hate speech and all the indicators that we have for school climate but i'm looking for a little bit more because i think that's one of the things that um we have to be proactive about because it can creep up on us and um that includes mental health um and just kind of looking for maybe a little bit more in

[00:33:55] terms of metrics related to school climate and um that's just just a thought that i have or you know if if we can somehow dial in a little bit more into school climate uh generally speaking and just think about all the indicators of school climate can i jump in real quick on that one absolutely i'm making a connection to what you just said mr astreffy with the um item in the post-entry plan related to students sense of belonging in schools and we've already started to do some research on that and how we can better measure that and then once we know how to better

[00:34:33] measure it how can we support schools to foster or increase that sense of belonging so appreciate that comment yeah to piggyback off of that i know in talking to some of our schools that have really good responses on those belonging surveys sometimes the then academic data doesn't match and so looking at that too like well why so kids feel like they belong but there's still gaps so i think there's a lot of scenarios around those different kind of things that would be very very interesting

[00:35:03] but I 100% agree with you. I will add Chair Mansfield's remembering her thought. Ms. Chernoff mentioned staff retention satisfaction. If we can dial into and I know we do this already but looking at the specialized positions that we are having a harder time filling and then looking at

[00:35:37] satisfaction related to those specialized positions where we're seeing attrition and specifically just putting an extra emphasis on our Title I schools and seeing, you know, what we can do to help out in some of those recruitment efforts and if there's data that we can kind of come up with to, you know, to really think about some of those conclusions that we make.

[00:36:03] So I'm wondering about the percentage of parent and staff agreement on trusting the information they receive from lcps what how can you operationalize that i mean what are some so thinking about the level of trust between different invested parties and the division everything from we communicate decisions that we're about to make that could impact multiple stakeholders uh that we share information to kind of explain the direction that we're going the idea

[00:36:38] of attaching trust in the decisions we're making to certain actions and we can also measure trust exactly uh in uh the idea of a net promoter score to what what is the ratio we've seen between people actively promoting how great a place this is to be relative to those who are kind of on the fence and maybe those who are having struggles there so there's different ways we can connect trust to certain behaviors that correlate with trust in different ways we can measure trust regarding the faith people have in the decisions the division may be making that the division knows the needs of my particular student.

[00:37:16] So different ways to measure it and connect it with certain strategies. Does that get at your question of thinking about trust? I'm also wondering about how about board trust, people interested in trust in the board at all.

[00:37:32] So you're saying kind of unpacking from the division down to the actual governing board and kind of singling out the nine members of the board and maybe a version of that, how the board makes decisions, to what extent do folks feel that the board it is is focusing on the things that should be priority something more specific to the board I mean because at this point we want there was some trust that was broken for a while right in the previous years past and we're working to try and make that better so how can we

[00:38:02] operationalize that to make to see kind of how we're doing as well um and what we can do because a lot of things happen from the top down so if you're talking about satisfaction that's that was the way I was thinking. I'll have to ponder it a little bit more. So I'll ask one more quick question and then I we all three of us have taken notes and so I think we have a good idea of where to start

[00:38:42] but are there any of the metrics listed that you think we do not need to include in the final list of metrics? Do any stand out as either not no longer relevant or are included elsewhere? Well the PALS is no longer needed because that's not a thing anymore so there's that one there's that one got rid of one but I am wondering about the if if you have college and career readiness indicator and you're measuring it and other things agreed I don't know do you need it overall as well

[00:39:17] as well as the other data I don't know probably not because as Dr. Spence mentioned earlier we will still need to report it to the state as part of the accountability framework so in the new system CCCRI is being referred to as the three E's so it's still gonna look at employment and enrollment so and that's data that will be compiled by the state that we report out to them through our our student information system so we will have an automated way to get feedback on the extent to which we're

[00:39:57] getting students in the pathways that'll be built until the accountability system i had a thought um i don't dislike having so many i don't like that we don't have a priority and i think we're moving in that direction i think that that's good um i'm wondering if just for like continuity sake because we still are i think in the toddler stages of this strategic plan if we keep most of them and then sort of but ask us again at the end of the school year and sort of see where we are as a board because I feel like we're getting our legs under us where

[00:40:35] we're really understanding how all this works how we can make change and I think that we're we're pretty motivated now to do those changes and so I but I want we've already been collecting data on the base level things and we have sort of a trajectory and I don't want to lose that necessarily because if one of those things were to go way down or up I think maybe our conversation would change I know that's a lot of work on the division but I think from a community standpoint at least there's transparency of like we're still low level monitoring these things just in case but as we develop our priorities I feel like we could probably answer that question much more

[00:41:13] more clearly in a year or even six months I totally agree I think we're already putting the focus on where we see the most important metrics and I think that we're we're on the right track when it comes to this document and seeing the crosswalk because already we're removing some of the metrics that just say increase this or maintain this or I think ensure this.

[00:41:43] And I think that you'll see some of the other ones where you have check marks across the board or check marks at least on the latter two, they're much more thought out.

[00:41:59] And so I know that's a general statement, but yeah, I agree. I think focusing in on where, at least focusing on the most important items, I think will get us to a better place. Are you saying that it would be, so whatever has the most check marks, are you saying let's just keep everything?

[00:42:16] And because to your point, ensure all schools have principal led student focus groups. Okay. Right. I don't know, is that something that you're talking about, like to get rid of that one or just to keep it? I'd say anytime we're just checking a box, I think my intuition, at least at this point, is when we're checking a box to say, well, ensure that we have student groups.

[00:42:41] Well, that's something that the team will ensure by default, but we don't need to know that necessarily at the board level that we've ensured it, right? unless something goes wrong, but there's something about the wording of some of these metrics that make them really measurable, targeted, and significant at the board level that we're looking at. I don't know if that helps at all. Okay. My thinking was kind of in the vein of,

[00:43:17] I think we have two solid years of metric data. Is that correct, where we've really tracked the data on all of these metrics when you pull it up online. We've had two different jumps. And I'm sort of thinking, like, since its inception, maybe keep those three years as kind of a marker.

[00:43:35] And then, like, just low-level, easy, like, check-the-box kinds of things. But for us, our priorities, I think we've kind of named our priorities. You probably have a pretty good sense of where we're at. Just focus on those in our committee. And then in a year, revisit the conversation of, are we even going to keep going with all of these metrics? Which I think the answer is going to be no if i was to guess i mean i think if we're hitting the mark and our percentages you know two or three years in a row we don't need to keep on you doing it i mean targeting and looking at that metric yeah um if you're looking at the gas and it's always gassed up but oh the oil is leaking do you really need to look at the gas because you need to really

[00:44:14] focus on the oil one one just point i want to add before we move on is um i really like the way at The full board level, we forecast out some of this stuff.

[00:44:30] Because I know that time frame throughout the year and the availability of data for certain things is different. So forecasting out some of these discussions and then using a draft forecast to socialize at the committee level to say, hey, well, how can we move things around and use the committee members and allow them to be able to weigh in on what we choose to pick in certain periods of time.

[00:44:56] So I have one more thing. So when we're talking about increasing percentage for things like EDGE or summer math discovery, those kinds of things, I'm wondering what are we connecting it to? We're just saying, like, are we connecting it to any other data, or are we just saying we're increasing the percentage?

[00:45:14] I mean, great. So we have, you know, these kids who are in EDGE, right, and we're hoping to build that talent. Are we really building that talent? That's kind of what I want to know. No, I think you guys are all actually saying the same thing in that vein. think you're I think the idea is I mean you're exactly right like why measure that what is the outcome that's anticipated as a result of ensuring that you have student focus groups or that more kids are in edge there should be something you know on the other side of that in other words more students report having a voice and a say in their school or a feeling of a sense of belonging

[00:45:51] because they are student advisory groups in every building or because of the edge program more students have access to gifted services you know like more students who participate there are connected to gifted services like as an outcome which would be a logical outcome of edge so I think that's right and so it's identifying the so what at the end of those measures and then focusing more on those is what I'm hearing you all say so I think one thing that might be

[00:46:29] helpful for us anyway is we do have this student data presentation no no no Well, I don't think our intention was to get all the way through it today. I mean, knowing that we had an hour, I think our intention was to sort of cruise through some of the slides at a high level to say, here's the kinds of data we've typically reported on.

[00:46:48] So which of these would remain appealing and then which of these maybe are less important and or maybe they just need to be talked about in here first. So we kind of figure out the so what of that data. And we'd like a little bit of feedback around that.

[00:47:03] And I guess from the staff's perspective, going back to something you talked about a moment ago Mr. Streffy regards to forecasting it's probably an opportunity for a little homework on the part of the committee to look both at the that data which I still think we should go if you're a minute we'll go through a little bit of it at a high level you know going back to these these metrics and then the data we typically report on and then a future conversation being coming back together and saying okay we let's really dig into okay what do we what do we really

[00:47:37] want to talk about in here, and what are the most important pieces to talk about publicly. And then we can, from there, forecast out. And we can come back with the cadence, really, of the availability of the data so that we can forecast that. That makes a lot of sense.

[00:47:55] Thank you, Dr. Spence. So then we'll move on to the next information item. Do you have what you need? That was a good question, Mrs. Chernoff. Like, do you guys have what you need for this one? Yes, I think so. So, I mean, I think like Ms. Chernoff said, I think we have an idea of where your priorities are as a committee.

[00:48:14] I think we can do some work to forecast out some topics based on those priorities, bring that back to you all and move forward. I think that makes sense. Okay. So, then we'll move on to the next discussion, 4.02, 2023-2024 student achievement data.

[00:48:29] Okay. So, I will very briefly orient you to the presentation and the other attachments. in board docs. And then like Dr. Spence mentioned, we would love your feedback on, this is a presentation that we give annually to the full board. The format that we used for this evening is the same format that we've used for several years now. And so we would appreciate feedback on formatting, where we go deep, where we just provide data without much explanation.

[00:49:05] If we are using the reporting groups appropriately, things like that. So as I go through and as you look at the slides, those are the types of questions we hope you would consider. So you have the presentation and then also you have a PDF of the SOL pass rates by school and the map conditional growth percentiles by school.

[00:49:27] And in the presentation, we typically share six areas of data starting with SOL achievement. Then we use MAP growth, graduation rates, SAT scores, accreditation status, which is at the division level, and then chronic absenteeism.

[00:49:51] And throughout, we've woven strengths and opportunities for improvement. We've also provided information regarding what is publicly available on both our LCPS website and on the school quality profiles at BDOE.

[00:50:09] And the strengths and areas of opportunity, we keep at a very high level. really we focus on the data. That is something that we would love to have deeper conversations here in this committee. But for the full board and public presentation, they really are kept at a pretty high level, as you'll see on slide six and seven. So for SOL achievement, for the past several years, Dr. Tyler has put this historical slide in, noting the gap in the COVID years.

[00:50:40] And we think it's important to continue to tell this story as we work toward pre-pandemic levels and above for achievement. So that's the purpose of slide nine. And then for the SOL summary, you'll see slides for comparing LCPS to the state, LCPS to neighboring divisions, and also reporting groups.

[00:51:07] I'm going to skip through to map conditional growth. Dr. Tyler always provides an explanation of the MAP assessment.

[00:51:23] It's really confusing to people, that concept of growth versus mastery. So these slides will probably look familiar to you if you've watched a few of these presentations. And then we present data regarding the growth in reading and the growth in math.

[00:51:44] We have a couple of different views here. So we have the bar charts and then the tables. And I will skip to graduation. This is pretty straightforward.

[00:52:03] We provide the LCPS rate compared to the state rate in different reporting groups. And then LCPS the previous year to the current year. For SAT scores, this one's also pretty straightforward.

[00:52:22] LCPS compared to the total number of test takers and trends over time. Accreditation, this obviously will change entirely next year.

[00:52:41] But this year, we are reporting on the old system. So here's an explanation of all the indicators that are used to determine accreditation. And then accountability status for the year, for the 24-25 school year is based on the 23-24 data.

[00:52:57] So all of our schools are accredited with two schools accredited with conditions. And again, all of this will change next year. We have some ideas, some bullets listing how we provide support for schools.

[00:53:15] with accreditation. And then finally, chronic absenteeism. This is a huge celebration for us this year as we've gone from 66 schools that were identified as levels two or three down to six schools. That's a big celebration. So again, this presentation typically takes about 40 minutes of us talking and then the board asking questions. And we are absolutely open to feedback. And so

[00:53:51] twofold. How might this be presented to the full board and where would this committee like to go deeper? Was that all? That's it. Just joking. Joking, joking. All right. With five minutes left, so we'll open it up for comments or discussion board members. So I know that we have map, We have it broken down, you know, Asian, black, Hispanic, tumor, racist, all the rest of it.

[00:54:27] We do not have that for SOLs. And I was wondering if that would be, I know it's going to add your slides, but if there was going to be, maybe you could add it as an appendix somewhere and we don't have to have it in the slides, but I think that would be some good information.

[00:54:43] Also, so what's up with science? Why is that so difficult right now for everybody? and I think part of the other thing is that you're we're going to have to tell people that history in high school is not necessarily SOLs we're also doing performance measures right isn't that correct and for writing as well I think so I think that we might need to to make sure that people know

[00:55:14] that that's my thoughts um I did the homework already so I will share the few things that are important to me um and this is kind of going back to what I said earlier about the data being like needing to see where we are with the data because i noticed like chronic absenteeism got three checks by current staff and board but like we're crushing it so let's like monitor that but i don't know that that needs to be a priority this year we think we should keep doing the great things we're doing so that's where kind of some of that conversation where the rubber met the road

[00:55:50] for me i think the historical trends are still super relevant i want to continue to see pre-covid to post COVID data um I think it's important I wish it wasn't the conversation piece still but I do think it is until we meet and exceed those marks and I think we're getting close and doing that in some places but I think that that is really an important conversation and also a conversation about are those bars at the same place or were they lowered in some places because I do think that there were some some shifts there 2019 for math they were lowered and in 2020

[00:56:26] for reading. Perfect. So yeah, I think even going back to what the standards once were is where we should want to be. So thank you for that. I also really love, I think slides 9 through 14 are great. I would love to see economically disadvantaged also reported. I think those are usually the big three, the EL, the SPED, and I do not see economically disadvantaged included in this presentation so i think that that would be important um slide 13 is about oh boy now i got a toggle um again just those achievement gaps so that's gonna that's the subgroup data and then as

[00:57:05] far as map goes i think we're all interested in growth but i'm especially interested in didn't we once as a district say we wanted 60 to be the goal because we wanted kids not only making a years growth but we wanted some buffer so i would like i know that the marker is 50 but i would like to acknowledge that at one time we talked did we talk about that or am i dreaming that it's still built into our strategic plan 60th conditional percentile for students in need of tier three supports to accelerate them right and 55th conditional percentile for students in need of tier two supports okay so it's still built into the strategic plan yeah so maybe some of that

[00:57:43] those percentages of how many kids are in tier three um in the different tiers at schools i know we had a couple of slides about that but really looking at and making sure that we are hitting that above 50 for those kiddos to close those gaps um and then just as an aside i love that we're talking about strengths and opportunities for improvement i think that should be constantly part of our that should lead the way in the closing of our conversations with whatever with them whatever we tackle thank you um really the the only thing that i would add at this point

[00:58:16] to all the discussion that was everything that was mentioned already is that I almost want to contextualize some of the the insights that we get out of this this data by bringing just using this committee as a forum to potentially bring in a school community that has really made strides and see you know has has take you know again leverage the school improvement process have leverage certain resources that we may have budgeted for um and then seen success out of it

[00:58:53] and just bringing it back and just um just keeping it focused on the school community and just giving us some more context behind some of those wins or um so and i think um just i think i understood but just for clarification the idea would be not not in a kind of full board student achievement presentation but as we dig in here into some of the data trying to identify the bright spots and then inviting those folks to come in and share a little bit about the work that they're doing to see if that resonates and would drive some resource discussions elsewhere exactly got

[00:59:28] it yes one more thing i wanted to make sure we talk a lot about reporting groups i want to make sure a group that we report on are on grade level and above grade level kiddos and what we're doing for them as well i think we i can fall into the trap often of just looking at the kids that are behind but we have a lot of successful students and what are we doing for them in terms of pushing them not just in terms of college readiness or you know dual enrollment or ib but actually like in the trenches for our elementary and middle kids what are we doing to really make sure that their needs are being met as well because post-covid i think that that has lost a little bit of focus

[01:00:07] as well sorry thank you i know we're at time is there one room for one more bullet point in terms of insight so i i think there is one thing that yeah i have chair mansfield here next to me so that's why I'm looking to the right a little bit so from you know one of the things that I I would venture to say all of us as board members really think about is in the classroom and I think Michernoff touched on it reminded me of this in the classroom you have students who may be below grade level and really teachers trying to do all they can to differentiate the learning for those

[01:00:46] learners and then you have students who need to be challenged more within that same classroom and you know if we can somehow look at that piece and figure out what else can we do as a school division to empower the teacher to empower the school community to be able to serve both types of students better in that one classroom whether it's giving more time to a teacher whether it you know what what is it that we can do inside that classroom and so if data can help inform us better around that one critical discussion point I think that I would love to see that kind of fleshed out

[01:01:21] thank you so all really helpful feedback and I think we have I heard I heard several things I heard some additions and tweaks that we will plan to make for the presentation that I believe is slated for November 12th for the full board so we'll incorporate your feedback into that presentation and then I've also heard some topics that have risen to the top in terms of priorities for all as a committee and again going back to the the previous information item we can incorporate that feedback into that previous discussion and include those in

[01:02:01] a in a roadmap for this committee does that sound fair absolutely thank you with that is there any new business seeing we have a lot of business seeing no new business we will now adjourn this October 15th meeting of the new performance monitoring committee. Thank you very much.

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