Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Public Schools, Curriculum & Instruction Committee Meeting, Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Date: Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Place: LCPS Administration Building / School Board Room, Ashburn, Virginia
Length: 47m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1090683365?rel=0

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 2026-10-13. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[00:00:00] Good afternoon. My name is Lauren Chernoff and I am the chair of this curriculum and instruction committee and I am calling the June 4th meeting to order. I'm joined by my colleagues Dr. Deans and Dr. Rasheed and today we do not have any public comments so we will move straight into our agenda which our first item is item 3.01 the approval of draft minutes from May 7th. Are there any additions or edits to the minutes I'll entertain a motion motion to approve the minutes

[00:00:32] I second all those in favor aye none opposed that will pass and we will move on now to our action items we have one action item tonight 4.01 which is policy 5070 field trips before we before I make a motion I will turn it over to staff with any updates I think Mr. Ferry is here to speak to any changes that were made between last meeting in this meeting thank you so we did address one of the concerns that you shared with us lining

[00:01:08] making sure everyone understood while they're attending field trips all school board policies and regulations are applied so if you were looking on page two of the red line you would see where it says a all school board policies and regulations including those outlined in this students rights and responsibilities handbook are applicable during school sponsored field trips upon return school appropriate student discipline action may be initiated based on any violations observed during the field trip any other questions colleagues did you have any

[00:01:47] further questions I do not either and I thank you so much for working with us on that language to get that ready and I also thank you for the updates that are going to be forthcoming in the regulation that we have also talked about so I appreciate that work as well and with that I will make a motion that policy 5070 field trips be me oh never mind go ahead okay go ahead there was one comment um indicating that there was concern that teachers would not have an appeal uh if a field trip was denied by the building

[00:02:26] principal and not that this would be always true but it it reads recommend appeals process for teachers when a principal does not approve a trip. OCPS has principals who retaliate against teachers that do not bend to their will. And one way is by not giving approval for field trips. There's nothing teachers can do to appeal. Something should be included for teacher appeals.

[00:02:56] What do you think about that possibility? Mr. Ferry, did you want to chime in on that? I think we touched on that briefly in our first meeting, or when we first got the feedback. We did. summarize so in summary I'm the instructional leader of the school is your building principal and they have to validate the merit of these field trips now they may reach out to it to receive additional support from either instructional supervisors here in the admin building or directors level directors but they're there in my opinion right now the there's not an

[00:03:34] appeal process because the principal is the one making those final decisions on and if a field trip should be you is it vital is it useful does it serve a purpose towards the instruction obviously that they're the reason the very reason they're taking the field trip is to support the instructional learning in the classroom so I still believe that should be a final decision made by a building principal I just wanted to say it out loud because I read

[00:04:06] it and thought that it should be a part of record that we did address it. I would also say in terms of just thinking about if it felt like it was a retaliatory measure that that would be something that would be handled in a separate line of communication with a separate department as an educator correct? Correct they could file a grievance work with HRTD if they choose to feel like there's retaliatory actions by their building leader. Before I make a motion is there any other discussion no you're good I'm glad you did with that I will make a motion that

[00:04:45] we will move policy 57 field trips to the full board do I have a second second all those in favor aye none opposed so that policy will now move to the full board thank you so much for being here all right now we will move on to our information items and if it feels like I'm moving quickly that is on purpose we have the SEAC Awards tonight at 6:30 which several of us are attending at Loudoun County High School so I'm not meaning to rush you please take your time but if it seems like we're moving quickly that is why so we do have a hard stop at 6:00 so the first presentation tonight is item number 5.01 which is

[00:05:25] our division literacy plan and I believe we have miss Catherine Neal here to present and possibly someone else so if that is true I'll ask you to introduce yourself as well I don't have it in board doc thank you we're happy to present our revisions to division literacy plan dr. Picard is not able to be with us tonight so I'm gonna share some of the secondary changes that are included in this document and then we're also very happy to have Margaret Osbury here to speak to some of the changes that impact our special population specifically special education students receiving special education services so I'm gonna let Catherine start by maybe talking about

[00:06:03] any revisions or just an overview of our division literacy plan and then we'll talk about some secondary changes. Good evening. So our division literacy plan was started last year as one of the requirements for the Virginia Literacy Act. It's gone through for kindergarten through fifth grade. It's gone through a couple revisions with the VDOE. And now by June 30th, we need to submit our new updated plan to include grades six through eight and so that's what you

[00:06:42] see here in front of you you'll notice that many of the changes are in regards to grades six through eight all of the k to five information that you see in here it has remained consistent from the last time so i'll just highlight a few of the secondary changes and again this is in the document that's LinkedIn board docs anything in red is a new change and I think one of the things that I want to highlight is that these are not these are changes for our plan these aren't changes for our practices for the most part this is really just writing down things that have been in place for many

[00:07:21] years that have been supportive of students in secondary English language arts so you'll notice we've added in here in terms of communicating with stakeholder groups regular meetings with our middle school office to inform them This mirrors what Catherine and her team have done in support of elementary English reading and writing.

[00:07:41] And if you look on page three of the document, support for our middle school reading specialists that meet quarterly. Again, this is really a mirror of our elementary office and the support that they've received.

[00:07:57] As they've implemented the Virginia Literacy Act, it's really supporting them in the same way. The big changes you'll find are on page five. of the document and again this is in the same way that elementary is captured we have our secondary resources so the board recently adopted Savas My Perspectives as our core secondary ELA text the supplemental materials that are listed there a Newsela no red ink developmental spelling Lexia power-up those are all supports that our teachers are already

[00:08:31] familiar with there is nothing new here and so we'll continue to provide support and training I think especially around Lexia power-up which is new but to continue to refine how we use that and make sure we're using that in appropriate and supportive ways for students but these are not new programs with the exception of Sabbaths and I don't know if Margaret you want to add anything to the the column that says special populations including ELL gifted or students with disabilities sure so currently Language Live is in place right now across our school division. 2.0 was what was approved by the VDOE, so we will upgrade to 2.0 this summer with

[00:09:10] Language Live. We've also listed SPIRE, Visualizing and Verbalizing, and Read Live, which are all in place right now and approved by the VDOE for grades K-5. Those interventions are also in place currently for students in grades 6 through 12 with students with disabilities. After a lot of conversation in ourselves as an office and with our local SEAC, we had some concerns about using interventions that were approved by the vdoe but would result in requiring our students with disabilities to change intervention from grade five to six and right now we have a lot of great evidence showing that our students are making great progress with those interventions currently

[00:09:48] in middle and high school but also in elementary and we just had a pretty significant concern both in our office and in our community around shifting interventions for those specific students so you'll see here there's an asterisk connects to some of those because those programs were not currently reviewed or approved by the vdoe for grades six through eight fire is under review and might come out on the october cycle four list we don't know yet i don't know about the other ones whether or not they will be on the october list so that is why they are listed there in that way because we do feel very strongly that students need to continue to have access to those particular interventions in

[00:10:25] middle school for continuity of education for those individuals on page six two more things to highlight in section three we do have the requirement around video modules again this year but this will only pertain to new teachers remember last year was a very heavy lift of all of our teachers having to go through this and our teachers have completed that and so we will be focusing on supporting those teachers who are new to lcps and have to complete that we think that we can do that within the time we have

[00:11:03] during our countywide professional learning days and things of that nature but we do have teachers who will have to go through those modules again this year and then the last point I wanted to highlight as changes is on page eight and oh sorry two things but on page eight our training overview especially around Savas My Perspectives our new cortex for middle school we will have opportunities for teachers to start learning Savas in June those are optional sessions so there is a required training that teachers will have to complete in August or they may choose to complete

[00:11:39] in June at the end of the school year or they'll have to do it when they come back during the countywide days in August with the SAVAS team and then as I mentioned ongoing support for those supplemental and intervention materials that are already in use but we're continuing to refine how we use them and then one final point on page nine as you know we continue to be monitoring guidance around bowels testing in six through eight we do have some additional information around that which has helped to clarify a little bit but again we will be using all of these tools to monitor student progress and assess their growth towards their

[00:12:18] goals under the virginia literacy act and we are happy to answer any questions that you might have thank you mr roundsley um colleagues do you have any questions or comments um i just wanted to thank you for your work on this i know that middle school is going to be experiencing uh I feel like we overuse the word heavy lift, I'm kind of tired of that always being the narrative, but it is, so I thank you for that. I also feel very grateful that we've sort of unpacked all of each of these individual components throughout the year in curriculum and instruction, so to see it all compiled is not a surprise, and so that is exciting. I did want to ask,

[00:12:58] now that we're a year deep into new elementary curriculum, is there, I heard you say that there's an October cycle for the six through eight intervention resources is there any ongoing review for elementary and is there any update on you fly being an intervention great question yes that same cycle that Margaret was referring to in October there will also be updates to the elementary supplemental and intervention lists from what we've been told is that you fly has been reviewed and so it will we will get a definitive answer in October about how

[00:13:38] we might be able to extend our usage of you fly right now it's just at the supplemental for certain grade levels okay that's great news and then in terms of these cycles that happen is there ever a threat of things being taken off of the list like I mean but we've already adopted a curriculum we're adopting these things like are there is there a chance that they'll say well never mind and then that comes off the list and we have to find something new that's a really good question and I can definitely take that structure the four blocks isn't working in order to fit in

[00:14:17] things like advisory and MTSS and schools want some flexibility on how they can make that work thank you on phase one of this project and the reason we can go back off the graphic the reason we showed that graphic was because our principals kept asking for guidance on what was allowed and what not allowed with scheduling we agreed as a group after getting teacher feedback where students are different and need that one-on-one any different approaches those are adaptive principals can do what they need to do and there's certain structures that are unique to the

[00:14:55] middle where that's just the way of middle school is versus a junior high where you're just lectured to so we agreed on the loose and tight that is now gone forward in working with teaching and learning and their project team phase one which is the 26-27 school year we're just analyzing the benefits but also looking at the barriers to how we use resource block resource black for example has been around for a long long time eighth graders sit for 90 minutes in a resource block and i think that we all agree that maybe at

[00:15:28] one point in history that was necessary but all students are different and many of our principals are creating labs etc where teachers are pulling students out of resource to ensure uh it's it's valuable time we have only six hours with them so we need to make it as valuable as we can we're also going to establish options and guidelines for principal autonomy as beth said within their schedule to address pathway options and choices for interventions we know the word intervention is thrown around a lot and and we've talked with teaching and learning um intervention doesn't mean that i'm going to teach and whoever doesn't get

[00:16:06] it goes to intervention it means that that's unique to that child or that group of students so after phase one thinking long term and this is where the true partnership with teaching and learning is going to be vital we're going to be looking at other options and establishing what that may be giving guidelines to principals and that could be just with electives that's why we listed them but not limited to those subjects and we are looking

[00:16:43] at potentially like how do we do electives differently and then the third bullet is of course this could have impacts on budget and staffing so we would be looking at that very purposefully and then involving other departments like ddi and what we all believe is that students need more access to more pathways not just art strings etc we're not recognizing the talent that we have in front of us and that's what together with teaching learning we're trying to see how can we keep the core beliefs

[00:17:19] that we have on that anchoring graphic at the same time aligning with the framework the instructional framework and the superintendent's vision to ensure that our students still have access with principal autonomy at the middle school and that's all we have thank you so much colleagues questions comments thank you again I mean this is really great I think after on the heels of having our schools that have had alternative schedules this year presenting and I did get a sneak peek at some of their preliminary data it's

[00:17:55] pretty amazing so now that we're starting to see that this is data driven to be flexible and meet the needs of your students I'm very excited I we've been on many visits together and every single one they ask this question so I I think that giving the short-term phase and the long-term phase is really great.

[00:18:13] And if we need to put those budget things in, that is definitely helpful for us to know. And I agree with you, and I think my colleagues do too. The Pathways conversation has definitely arrived. So I'm anxious to see how that can morph into the middle school level with Course Planner and all the different bells and whistles that we offer here at LCPS.

[00:18:32] So thank you for your work. And it looks like we'll have to plan some more visits to see how this is working out. You do keep me busy, but we enjoy you at the middle schools. The principals really love the feedback that you provide them, so thank you for that. Well, it's been fun to run it through this committee, and I'll look forward to the updates along the way.

[00:18:50] So thank you for your work. Thank you. All righty, we will move on. We're moving right along, guys. Item 5.04, firing arts fees. And I believe Mr. Brownsley is presenting tonight as Mr. Pearson had an unexpected thing that took him away.

[00:19:07] So I appreciate you stepping in, Mr. Brownsley, and the floor is yours. I'm happy to be here, and I'm very happy to have some real experts on this joining me. Over here we have Julie Galvin, our art specialist, Elaine Sanford, a performing arts specialist, and Mark Rogers as well, representing music, theater, and art.

[00:19:26] And so they have been instrumental in helping us collect some good data to provide you with today and can help inform some of the work that is happening in our schools. This really does align with our strategic plan around enabling core academic excellence. the key here is for all students we know how important the arts are how much it means to students and we want to make sure that the structures we have in place support every student being able to access these courses and to make sure that our teachers have the materials and the resources that they need to run fully funded world-class programs that that we have here in lcps so we're going to talk about three types of funding and the way that we fund our

[00:20:02] fine arts programs the first one is direct school allotments the second one is the support that that comes from the Fine Arts Office now. And the third part is kind of the part that we wanna share with you and that is new, but doing some work into looking at the fees that are collected at our schools, which courses teachers are charging fees for, why they're doing that, and some recommendations around how we might be able to improve our data collection around some of those practices.

[00:20:27] So the first type is direct school allotments, and you've seen this chart on the next slide before. Michael shared with this, Mr. Pearson shared this with you in a previous presentation, but this is the current allotment table for the arts and what comes to all of our fine arts programs through our current budgeting practices.

[00:20:45] So at the elementary level, schools receive $1 per student for music and then $8.62 per student in art. At the middle school level, it's $7,375 for music programs, $600 for performing arts or exploratory dramatics, and then $14.56 per student, and then the high school level $9,600 for music, $3,300 for the performing arts, and then you can see there's a split between the art electives of 21-28 and photography 27-93.

[00:21:24] Below that is the recommendation for how that money for the music programs is split between our various programs. So of the, for example, $7,375 in the middle school, we recommend that $2,000 be allocated to band, and you can see the other numbers there, same for the $9,600 at the high school level.

[00:21:45] So that is kind of the base funding that our programs receive, and on the next slide, our fine arts office does a tremendous amount to supplement that and make sure that our schools have what they need. When I was a middle school principal, before I even knew of the great work that happens in this office, I always said, I don't know how Michael Pearson does it.

[00:22:07] But anything that is needed, instruments, furniture, he found a way to do it. And his support is greatly appreciated by our principals. And, again, that speaks to his team being so well aware of our school's needs and making sure that we're making people aware of that.

[00:22:23] So here are some things that are not necessarily included as a line item in a budget, but through Mr. Pearson's office, we make sure that we support schools in doing. So all maintenance, maintenance and repairs of equipment, that would include things like kilns or school-owned instruments when they break or have any sort of issue are all covered by his office, materials, program supplies.

[00:22:43] Furniture is a huge one, making sure that the furniture in these programs is updated and kept in good working order, instruments, digital subscriptions, supporting professional learning for teachers, covering student fees for things like The Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors, Cappy's, District 16 events, all of those are fully covered by the Fine Arts Office.

[00:23:05] And uniforms. So band uniforms is one item that is on a refreshment cycle. So every 11 years, schools receive a new set of band uniforms, both for their performing concert band and for marching band.

[00:23:20] So the area we wanted to really dig into, oh, sorry, and this is not just the Fine Arts Office, but we do support other offices in making sure that our fine arts are fully staffed. So support services are great partners to our team in making sure that all inspections are done, that the stage curtains, lighting, electrical systems are in good working order.

[00:23:42] None of that would fall to the school. And the same thing for DDI, making sure all the audio visual equipment, the black box areas, that everything remains in good working order and is updated as needed. So this is the part that we really wanna spend some time on that we spent a lot of time collecting information from schools so on the next slide it's kind of a timeline of what we did at the beginning of this year we shared a presentation on the current fine arts supports and needs through this committee and in March and April of this year we sent a survey to all elementary middle and secondary fine arts teachers across all programs and

[00:24:19] tried to do some work to define out the kinds of fees that are required for participation in courses, to gather some information around how much they charge and what they're charging for to give us a greater insight. And here we are today to share our recommendations around establishing some allowable and consistent course fees for some of the most common items that we establish so that we can gather some data on exactly what is needed for these programs to fully function and be fully funded. So you'll see here, this slide represents high school. And so there's

[00:24:53] 17 high schools so what's listed here on the slide is any course where at least six schools charge any type of fee so we went with about that number is arbitrary but it's about a third of our schools if a school felt like they needed to charge a fee for a particular class so you can see for advanced mixed chorus 13 of our schools charge some kind of fee for student participation in that course and then in art photography was a consistent course studio art one and two and theater a specialized course called drama projects where schools put on a

[00:25:30] production that does require some extensive costuming and other production aspects there is a fee at six schools established with that the next slide is middle school so for middle school because Watson Mountain is a little bit of a different they don't have seventh and eighth grade we went with five schools instead of six schools you can see that chorus six seven and eight we had five schools that charge a fee and then we have art eight five schools charging a fee for that course as well we then dug into why are we charging fees and the vast majority of those fees the vast majority are

[00:26:05] associated with a t-shirt or a uniform and that is really part of the course you know to have some sort of consistent dress or or uniform when performing which is a component of our music courses but by far that's the most consistent fee that we see charged is to give students those materials the other Another two in music are instrument supplies and accessories, and so that would be for the teacher to have kind of an emergency supply, some extra drumsticks if a student forgets theirs at home, or reeds if a reed breaks during class, but things that allow students to continue moving forward and participating in class.

[00:26:45] And then print music is another one where we see some number of schools listing that as a reason why they're charging fees. two are highlighted in red because we would we will clarify to schools that we don't believe those are things that we should be charging students for that we do have other mechanisms to supply and support that and that does not need to be passed on to students but it is something that schools listed as a reason why they are feeling the need to charge fees for a course on the second row you can see these are art and theater and so for art again the vast majority of the fees come from the purchase of a sketchbook which is again

[00:27:21] an essential part of that course where students are doing their work and creating their work and then at the high school film and paper so this is a photography course where just that money that we saw at the end of the year for the allotment maybe it has not kept up with some of the costs of those supplies and the need to equip that that classroom and the last one is production supplies and materials this would refer again to that theater class that has a heavy production component to it and students may need to have some level of costumes or set design or supplies things like that that go above and beyond

[00:27:56] what can be covered through the current a lot so these are our recommendations moving forward the first one is returning back to regulation 4020 which does spell out allowable fees one of them being consumable materials but again this is a point of clarification to our schools that fees should represent the actual cost of the item and that we would propose to establish some consistent fees for some of these most commonly charged items in schools to communicate to our teachers a fee for sketchbooks and photography supplies so that we don't see differences between our schools and to kind of establish a

[00:28:35] consistent fee that schools are are charging for these items right now same for the t-shirt and uniforms or production supplies that would be really helpful for us to gather some data around just how much funding schools are or what schools are funding and how much funding they're requiring through these fees we also want to clarify some practices and i mentioned this already around what fees should be charged for to make sure schools know that we do have ways to support things like emergency supplies and print music that those things are not part of our fees and to also clarify how schools are collecting this so it's kind of difficult to get a view of that data when

[00:29:14] sometimes that money is coming through a supply list and sometimes it's being charged as a fee we can pull the information of how much a school is using for sketchbooks if it's charged through the school cash app or it's paid through that if it's on a supply list it's really hard for us to have visibility and support how we can make sure schools have what they need for those supplies so we want to make that consistent in how we do it and how much we charge for those items to give us better insight and visibility into the current practices that are out there and then on our last slide there's some next steps for us so we want to distribute a memo that really clarifies this

[00:29:52] that schools know the type of funding they receive the kinds of things that are covered through the fine arts office and some greater guidance around what are allowable fees and what those fees could reasonably be moving forward we also know there's a lot of interest in our extracurricular fine arts programs and that's an area where we need to dig in some more and that can that's further work for us to do especially around making sure that I don't know if you've been to a marching band show recently but the expectation around sets and lighting and equipment have really drastically changed and we want to make sure that

[00:30:29] what we're providing to schools have kept pace with what these programs now require and need so that's going to require some work for us to gather that and make sure that we are we are making sure that schools have what's needed and then finally to explore some budget initiatives to support this and make sure that there are no barriers to student participation in these programs and that we are equipping schools with the required materials that they need to deliver the kind of instruction that we want for all of our students and so with that we can take any questions that you might have thank you so much mr. Brownsley

[00:31:06] colleagues you have any questions or comments dr. Rasheed thanks chair again I'm a huge huge fan of fine arts my kids are really passionate about this I you I look forward to continuing to support it, and I look forward to it evolving even further.

[00:31:23] Again, excited. Thanks so much. Dr. Deans? I think I support the kids being involved, the uniforms. And, of course, this is not fine arts, but, you know, even the sport uniforms, you know, you have to be consistent.

[00:31:47] So somewhere we need to get everybody the same thing that they need rather than, And as you said, emergency supplies. Emergency replacements of that t-shirt when somebody puts Clorox on it. So some consistency. I don't know how to get there. I agree that your next steps are.

[00:32:14] Yeah, and we really look at this as kind of a phase one to get to what you're talking about and make sure that our schools have it spelled out for them, exactly what supports they have. And the more that we can clarify and get consistent around that, the more we have insight into how we better support these programs and make sure there's no barriers to student involvement and participation in these things that we know are really meaningful and impactful for them in our schools.

[00:32:40] I appreciate the conversation. And, you know, I'll admit, like, originally when we were, when we go through the budget, We, a lot of times fees are something that's listed to consider. And this year we put in the CTE fees to be covered, which is amazing to give access.

[00:32:58] And I kind of was thinking along the extracurricular line, but through our conversations, realizing that there are also course fees, I think that this is a really great place for us to start because it can maybe be consistent. I do, are there mechanisms in place for kids that can't buy the chorus shirt and they, can you speak to that?

[00:33:16] I know that there are, but can you speak to that so that right now people don't think there are a bunch of barriers? Because I think we do that for kids. Yeah, absolutely. Schools do an amazing job of working with family liaisons and other partners to make sure that every child has the opportunity to participate. I guess I would say to that what we want to make sure is that that requires maybe a parent reaching out or letting someone know.

[00:33:38] There are probably, there could be invisible barriers that we're not seeing. And so we would want to make sure that those don't exist and that every child has the opportunity to participate without having to have that conversation or without having to seek that help and know how to seek the help.

[00:33:58] We want to be proactive on that and make sure we've opened those doors for everyone. To add, to give appropriate credit to the board for including funding for differentiated support of students. So this is not left on the schools to figure out what is very intentional in including budget money and the operating budget to support ethnicity. Yeah, I think that was a good step in sort of making sure that those loose ends are tied up for kids that want to, you know, participate and have access, and particularly in middle school where we require them to be in the arts, you know, we certainly wouldn't want to require it and then not be able to cover the fees. I have sort of a quality

[00:34:36] control question. If we move, and forgive me, my friends over here, I'm not an artsy person in terms of painting and drawing but I know that there my daughter is and so I know that there are more high quality sketchbooks there are more high quality materials that you can use as you advance through the arts so my question is how do we make sure that yes we're consistent and yes we're equitable across and we're making sure that kids have what they need and if we're all purchasing the supplies for them or whatever if we're giving them the fee how do we ensure that the quality that these

[00:35:11] educators are expecting to have in their courses will remain because I'm guessing right now it's not a one-stop shop for every photography class I doubt every teacher is asking for the exact same things or maybe certain things that different teachers like to have so is there a thought process or plan in terms of making sure that they can still have the high quality materials that they want because often when you go to a bulk approach you can lose some of that I think I would say It's really critical that we have some teacher voice in this too, that this is not us.

[00:35:44] This was a first attempt to gather some data, which is probably a much deeper dive we could take with our teachers in these programs to make sure that we are giving them the things that they really need. And there might be a difference between a sixth grade sketchbook and a student who is really committed in AP art.

[00:36:03] We may have some of those distinctions, but so we really do need to kind of work kind class through class and thinking through what's really essential there but I don't think that would be a decision that would be made in isolation that's a decision we need to make together with our teachers who are who are doing this and can speak more to quality of the materials and the type of materials that are really necessary thank you all right I look forward to updates on this I I hope that we can get to a place where we can alleviate some of this for our families I think that that would be a step in the definite right direction so thank you so much

[00:36:41] thank you to the colleagues that are here appreciate all that you do all right we have one more information item tonight and that is our item 5.05 which is the regulation 50-30 for our assessment and grading common guidelines and I believe Dr. Ellis is our presenter tonight the floor is yours yes I thank you um chair I'm sorry oh that's it um I am joined by Dr. Blakelock he is going to share a little bit about the revisions that we have done to

[00:37:17] regulation 5030.1 there are multiple regulations attached to policy 5030 so we are talking specifically about the one related to assessment and grading and after that I'll talk a little bit about the work that he and dr. single have been leading with our assessment and grading workgroup I do apologize there should be a third attachment in Board Docs. You may see it. I do not. They're working on getting it posted.

[00:37:45] It's essentially an overview of the handbook. We were hoping to have a final version of the handbook. We are working on making some last tweaks to it and then working with the communications office on making it presentable to the public. So we do have an overview of the headings and that should be in Board Docs momentarily. I think they're still working on it. So I'll turn it over to Dr.

[00:38:10] be to start. Thank you, Dr. Ellis. So in looking at the regulations and making the edits for the updated version of policy 50-30, there was some rearrangement for the flow to put it in more of a logical order, which is something that matches in the policy itself. And then looking at it as far as updating the specific content in it, changing some 80s to 70s, making the adjustments that were in the policy to make it consistent. We had a work group that worked on the handbook as well. They had a chance to review the regulations as well and we got a lot of great feedback from them as far as what should be added to it, what should be clarified in it, and what should be

[00:38:50] done with it. We added that special population section up front really because we got a lot of feedback about students with disabilities, English learners, and we felt it was really important to put that front and center before you got into anything else just so that is in the back of the mind. We added some detail to the reasonable effort concept, what is, what is not, as far as reasonable effort is concerned. We took the roles and responsibilities sections that were in the previous version of the policy, and we incorporated them throughout. I think they show up the most in the homework section of the regulations, but we just sprinkled them in where they best fit.

[00:39:29] And we really, like I said, we had multiple opportunities for the workgroup to give feedback. There was an example of some feedback they gave was line 42. There was a word timely. They really wanted to unpack that a little bit more. So you'll see like a section below that in line 144, 145 that actually kind of spells out the purpose of actually giving timely feedback around having the student, giving the student time to learn what he needs to learn or she needs to learn prior to that summit of assessment.

[00:39:59] So in terms of going into more detail and providing more support and resources for teachers implementing the policy, we had an amazing group of educators meet three times in the past couple of months.

[00:40:15] The work group included middle and high school principals, deans, assistant principals, teachers, instructional coaches, and instructional facilitators, as well as representatives from the Department of Digital Innovation, who are our gradebook, our electronic gradebook experts.

[00:40:34] Like I said, the group met three times and also had detailed homework assignments between each meeting to do things offline. So the handbook contains multiple sections, including an overview of the policy and regulation, the philosophy of assessment and grading, more detailed definitions that are easily accessible, so teachers have sort of a one-stop shop. It has a section for roles and responsibilities, information regarding the grading scale, and then details around grading

[00:41:10] assignments and assessments, including different types of assignments that teachers might use, categories that teachers will use in the gradebook, and what types of assignments can be used in each category. I will say that the DDI, that our DDI representatives have been extremely helpful in thinking through how teachers will actually use the electronic gradebook. That is probably the issue that came up the most quickly and frequently in these focus groups. They knew that they had to work within the parameters of the policy and the regulation, and they had some ideas about how they

[00:41:46] could, how we could make their lives easier and less clerical, particularly for, you know, someone like me as a former English teacher. The math behind the scenes in the grading was not my favorite thing to do so so they were they were excited about the possibilities there there are several there's guidance around how final grades are being calculated and again how that will look in the Phoenix gradebook there's an expanded section around academic integrity including information about student expectations and disciplinary guidelines and then as we have been

[00:42:24] In building out this handbook, we have identified needs for different appendices, so we will have a side-by-side comparison of the major changes in the new policy versus the old policy. This is all based on feedback and requests from the group.

[00:42:41] A flowchart for CLTs to use when determining what type of support students can be provided and reassessment guidelines, so we heard loud and clear that a checklist or flowchart would be really helpful.

[00:42:56] We had some great examples from schools on things like their own school-based late work policy. So we are including examples of a late work policy, again, that schools or CLTs could tweak that's in alignment with the policy.

[00:43:15] And likewise, we also had a couple schools share examples of their own academic integrity procedures. what happens when a student has cheated on an assignment or used AI inappropriately, things like that. So we're providing examples for that as well. Just a couple more notes about what is upcoming. So we are putting the final touches on the handbook. We have gotten a ton of feedback. Dr. Singel and Dr. Blakelock have spent time with all middle school principals, all high school principals, all middle school counseling leads, all high school directors of

[00:43:53] school counseling instructional coaches the office of special in the office of special education so they've definitely taken the show on the road and gotten a ton of feedback based on those different roles schools will be provided a ton of resources that I hope will be useful in implementing the revised policy so again dr. single and dr. Blake lock have set up office hours for any staff member to participate. They've had pretty consistent participation in those, even given the crazy time of year. So we're doing those now through the end of the school year, and then we'll pick

[00:44:32] them back up in August. So office hours, just for example, one principal brought his entire leadership team, and they were just able to sit down with Dr. Single and Dr. Blake Locke and process the policy with experts. We will finalize a PDF version of the handbook for staff. So if the kind that needs the paper you can print it and have it in front of you we are where are you going we are also we're also creating a public facing website for families and students that

[00:45:07] will be translated into multiple languages we are again at the request of of the stakeholder group we're developing a poster with a link to the website they can use in their back to school night materials etc. Dr. Single and Dr. Blakelock have opened a Let's Talk platform so if teachers or administrators have questions about implementation that can come to one central location and we can respond with one consistent response instead of emailing the level offices or emailing teaching and learning it'll be funneled into one location. We're developing a frequently

[00:45:47] ask questions, document, and turnaround presentations that principals will be able to use with their CLTs in August. We've gotten some feedback from all those groups I mentioned on that presentation to make sure it has what they needed. And I think I've touched on everything. What did I miss? Okay, that's it. So we're really excited, and I just, huge, huge thanks to Dr. Blakelock and Dr. Single for their work in bringing these stakeholders together. I think it's going to be that much stronger because of all the feedback thank you so much for your work colleagues you have any

[00:46:26] questions or comments it's in board docs now I saw it and we had it printed you had it for us so my question is I'm getting some emails about feedback and some things and from parents and even students and teachers alike would you like the process for that to be to send that on to you all and so that you can consolidate that how should we or should we just send them to you Dr. Ellis would you like us to continue that process what would be the most efficient way if it's going to get funneled into the same pool.

[00:46:54] How would you like us to participate in that? Is the Let's Talk live yet? It is live, but I believe that was intended for internal purposes. So for staff inquiries, you can send them all to me, basically, is a short answer.

[00:47:12] And then you'll funnel it? And I'll funnel staff inquiries through the Let's Talk process. Okay. But should we encourage staff to use that resource, correct? That would be great. Okay. Yes. Awesome. Thank you guys so much. This is exciting stuff. looking forward to seeing the handbook and this is just really great so thank you for engaging and all the work that you've done for a really long time on this policy so um is there any with that we'll move on to new business is there any new business i didn't think so so with that we are adjourned

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com