Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Public Schools, Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee (MSAAC) Meeting, Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Date: Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Place: LCPS Administration Building / School Board Room, Ashburn, Virginia
Length: 1h 40m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1127679447?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.

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[00:00:13] Can you hear me now? Okay, good. How's everyone doing? Good, good. Well, I want to say welcome back to those of you who were here last time, and welcome to those who are here for the first time. I'm Tammy Jones, and I am serving as the chair for MSAC.

[00:00:32] I would like all the delegates in the room to please sit around the table. Make sure you are sitting at a table. And then our guests who are in the squared-off section with single seats, please remain in that space.

[00:00:48] Thank you. So I wanted to, again, thank you all for taking your time out this evening to be here and for your continued commitment to advancing equity, belonging, and student success across Loudoun County Public Schools.

[00:01:05] I'd also like to take a moment to acknowledge our security team that is out the doors. They're here to ensure that we are all safe and in a secure environment to meet and collaborate.

[00:01:21] And if you are asked for identification at any point, please remember this is a part of LCPS's standard safety procedures. And so we do ask that you cooperate. Let's extend a courtesy and understanding as they carry out their duties.

[00:01:39] And it's for everyone's protection and peace of mind. On your tables, or as you enter, in the back, you should have seen a form that had a QR code on it.

[00:01:55] And that is our way of taking attendance this evening. Instead of having you to write your name and information down, we ask that you scan the code. And the information will, there will be a form that will populate, and you'll be able to share your information, and it'll, the information will come directly to me.

[00:02:21] Now, while we are also asking eventually, so we're creating a folder, a delegate resource folder, which contains our meeting minutes, presentations, announcements, and a copy of MSAC laws, and while many of these documents will be found on the MSAC website, I wanted to make sure that they were easily accessible here tonight through a QR code that will be provided.

[00:02:54] Now, if you are having difficulty accessing that folder because I'm new at doing this and creating these documents, please let me know after the meeting so we can ensure that you're connected. All right?

[00:03:11] And again, please make sure that you scan that attendance form, fill it out, so that we can have accurate information. We want to make sure that we keep it, track it, and are able to record for engagement and reporting purposes.

[00:03:32] So in addition, MSAC continues to grow in visibility and influence, and to further our outreach we'll be partnering with various organizations both within and outside of lcps if you have any announcements events or resources to share i know many are emailing me asking me to share the information but feel free to go to our social media sites you can post directly there

[00:04:04] and especially if you're following I see a lot of announcements on on our page and so you are able to go there and post that information if I am not moving along swiftly enough we are also exploring new ways to enhance our outreach and strengthen our communication across our clusters and our schools recently we sent out a flyer through peach jar to solicit new board members and applications officially closed on October 8th. So we're in the process of currently reviewing those applications

[00:04:43] that we did receive. And while we do not yet have a full board, please know that we are working diligently to manage those inquiries that I spoke of and maintain communication, even if our response times are a little slower than you would like them to be. During our last discussion, many of you express interest in gaining more clarity on what it means to serve as a delegate and asking for tips, guidance, and tools to be most effective in your schools and communities. I am excited to share

[00:05:19] that tonight we're being honored with a session on delegate training by Dr. Tyler, and this session will equip you with practical strategies, clear expectations, and resources to help you serve with confidence and impact right so again i want to thank you for your continued partnership and dedication to this work and let's make tonight's session both engaging and empowering

[00:05:48] okay all right good evening so uh thank you for the introduction i am ryan toller director research assessment school improvement i will be joined by my colleagues from our deia office and they will introduce themselves. So as the chair mentioned, this is going to be a two-part activity.

[00:06:26] Before you engage in any activity as an advocate for change or an advocate for an outcome, we need to talk about the why and we need to talk about the characteristics of being an agent of change. So I'm going to warn you, about a year and a half ago, we conducted this activity and there were a few aspects of the activity that challenged folks. Now, maybe you're different, and maybe there's a different kind of developmental level, but I will say, jokingly, there are aspects of being an equity-oriented change agent that require maturity. So if you're kind of immature, it's okay. This

[00:07:06] would be an opportunity for growth. So we will talk about the characteristics of being a change agent then we will walk through a real world example of looking at standards of learning data but there's also other activities we may come to to talk about getting kids into advanced course pathways dealing with student behaviors and discipline uh and and other potential topics so my colleagues will introduce themselves as we engage in the process uh good afternoon good Good evening, everyone. Shahid Muhammad, Director of DEIA.

[00:07:42] Good evening, Dr. Ellis Williams, Assistant Superintendent for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility. Nice to see everyone. Thank you. So on this slide, you see the commitment to equity, the why. This, I think, is from, what, three and a half years ago? A little over three years ago. So it may have evolved, but what we would like for you to do is to read through this. Wherever you are in your journey, wherever you were when this was launched June 28, 2022, with a different superintendent. Read through this and just give you a chance to reflect on this as you read it.

[00:08:49] Feel free to raise your hand when you're done. And it continues. This was an update, which was

[00:09:03] several months later. So read through this continuation of the commitment.

[00:09:43] And as you finish, feel free to raise your hand. Read at your own pace. Wait a little bit longer for others to finish. Okay. Again, raise your hand when you're done. So we're going to go back to that. I'm going to cycle through the first page and the second page. And to remember, what are key concepts or key ideas for you? And share with someone next to you. So when we go back through it again,

[00:10:19] what are key concepts, key ideas for you? And I might ask Dr. Ellis Williams and Mr. Muhammad to chime in. So read through that. Key concepts or key ideas, turn to a shoulder partner. What stands

[00:10:30] out.

[00:11:02] Who would like to share? Key concept or key idea? Your own or from a thought partner? You can raise your hand. If you're at a table, feel free to grab one of the microphones and activate it. Key concept or key idea? Feel free to share. Raise your hand if you have something to share or just activate the microphone. I'll take care of the awkwardness. I like that it says our division-wide commitment to equity and opportunity. That means that it's supposed to

[00:11:38] be everywhere it's not any one place everywhere and it to me it even goes bigger than that because it's not just in the school building it could be everywhere the administration every part you know school buses everything so it's everywhere 80,000 plus students 13,000 full-time employees 160,000

[00:11:58] plus families guardians next page key concepts key ideas on this page that stand out someone else

[00:12:23] have something to share? What jumps off this page, stands out? I would say that we are as a learning community. A learning community. Every invested party in the community is learning. It's students, it's families, it's staff, it's people who live in the community who don't have children in the schools, it's business people, it's people who've been here for six months, 60 years. Any other

[00:13:03] thoughts? Anything from Dr. Ellis Williams? I was just going to add that I have really the sentiment about embracing the value of unique identities and backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and the needs of each student and employee. I think that really resonates because I think the diversity is what helps to define a culture or an organization, and I really that just resonates with me.

[00:13:37] So all the different perspectives, students, staff, All of that resonates. I'll add that equity is a foundational core value of LCPS. And that resonates with me as I'm sitting in a room with all of my co-architects of the new version and updated version of this commitment to equity that often stands out to me to know that that is a core foundational value for LCPS.

[00:14:08] And I would just add that when we talk about excellence in education, demonstrating the courage to address, and courage is a key buzzword for me, inequities and removing barriers.

[00:14:25] In order to have excellence in education, we must have the courage to address these inequities. So you said courage, and you said encourage, the idea of giving someone the feeling of being safe enough to show courage when they may not have had it, encouraging someone who may not do it on their own.

[00:14:44] So you're thinking, okay, Dr. Tyler, that's the why. We're ready to do the work. Well, first, we need to really consider what it takes to be an equity-oriented change agent. You should have at your tables handouts, chapter eight from a book on equity.

[00:15:05] And this particular chapter is becoming an equity-oriented change agent. I will grab the book real quick.

[00:15:22] Book looks like this. You have at your table handouts. It should look like this from a key chapter. I think it's about 13 pages. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to give you an opportunity to read through this. And there are worksheets there. And I'm going to give you a little advance warning.

[00:15:39] We went through this activity a year and a half ago. Everyone was engaged until they saw two of these particular items challenge them. Because the thought was, you mean I have to have this characteristic to be a change agent? That's required to do this work? So this book, written and recommended by the DIA office speaks to the importance of that. I won't tell you what two items they were. They may be different for you. What we're going to ask you to do is read through. It's about 13 pages. It's great if you have a shoulder partner, but read through each,

[00:16:15] having an equity attitude, avoiding demonizations, initiating courageous conversations, just kind of tapping on different ones, remains committed, but patient, maintains a coherent focus. This is important because you need to be equipped with certain characteristics to do this work effectively. That's the premise of this book. So what we're going to do now is we're going to start with about 30 minutes. Read through one characteristic at a time. Turn the shoulder partner or reflect on your own. So do a little self-assessment. If you read through it and you

[00:16:55] feel a little angst about this and saying, wow, to what extent is this an area of strength or an area of growth for me? And when you finish, we'll do a little check maybe in 20 minutes.

[00:17:11] This is critical because what this book is saying is that there will be aspects of this equity work that require these characteristics, and being able to consistently assess your readiness and your development is going to be critical for you being effective as an equity-oriented change agent.

[00:17:28] So you're going to read through piece by piece, have a conversation. You should have the ability with the note sheet to assess your status, strength, areas of growth, and take some notes. Any questions about the activity? Feel free to use the sticky notes, the highlighters, and mark up the documents, annotate how you feel. There's pens to help you get your thoughts together on those topics and characteristics. So while everyone else is reading, for our esteemed colleagues in the gallery there,

[00:18:06] remember those concepts. You can reassess. How far have I come in those areas to demonstrate persistence? So this gives you an opportunity to reflect on your growth in this process. So everyone is reading or reflecting.

[00:36:57] more resources, more communications. So you're going to get resources in other schools.

[00:37:05] What kind of work that needs to be done stirred up some things.

[00:38:22] Yes, let's get rid of that.

[00:39:00] Let's talk about specifically what actions that we're taking as a division as a department will come back. That's when it gets a little tricky and very silent.

[00:39:20] So I don't know if we have to do that. I will say the step was when Ms. Boland is back in the office or cabinet meeting again to actually revisit it live as far as what structures can we put in place?

[00:39:41] I'd be curious to see how that unfolds with you present as far as... We ready? So that was about 21 minutes. Now, I must say I did not see people squirming like I saw a year and a half ago, meaning, and to just let you know, we did this activity a year and a half ago, and some people had said, I have a problem avoiding demonizations if someone seems to be

[00:40:14] against the equity work in a way where I question. So part of this conversation is these folks are saying you have to address that in a way where even when you disagree, you're not demonizing that person as someone who is a lost cause, who you can't work with. Huh? I'm sorry. Lost cause,

[00:40:48] no pun. I'm sorry. I missed that. That was, um, so I guess let's start with having an equity attitude. Who wants to share whether that's a strength area for growth? If you have notes to share from that, just a revelation, we're family here. Um, who would like to share if you need to, approach one of the tables to activate a microphone who has something to share on having an equity attitude what did that spur in you as far as hey that's a strength or that's an

[00:41:24] error for growth or reflection for me or any reflections go ahead okay so for me when i was reading that i always reflect back on the fact that when you get engaged in advocate in advocacy for equity and inclusion it is for all and i think somebody mentioned it at that table and i tend to sometimes focus on the issues pertaining to my community at the expense of others and and

[00:41:59] and that and we find that a lot because in almost every community of disenfranchised community or or you know communities of color there's so much that is going on in each community that it's very hard to look outside and see that even though there's a lot of commonalities and there's a lot of intersectionalities of of grievances that are happening but it's also a very very big load for a lot of us advocates and so how do you be an advocate for equity for all with really understanding that the load is very big and the emotional load of carrying on your own the grievances of your

[00:42:38] own community but also of other communities as well is to really just have a vision of of the commonality and the goal for all that your goals for your own community or for your own family and Even as parent advocates, a lot of times we look at our own children, but looking at all of the other children across the county, across the state, across the country, across the world as our children,

[00:43:02] that is a vision that kind of carries on through a lot more of an equity attitude rather than just a vision focused of performative vision rather than a more global understanding of equity as a whole.

[00:43:22] So thank you for sharing that. So an MSAC delegate would need to have an equity attitude from multiple perspectives within school they're serving. Yes, theirs, but also others they represent. Thank you for that. Okay, let's go there. Avoiding demonizations. Whether that made you question the actual reading to say, wait a minute, this person appears to be against equity work. They made a public statement about it. I have to interact with them. Isn't it right or

[00:43:56] justified to demonize or to accurately assess their perspective. I would like to hear your thoughts. When you read it, did you immediately resonate with it? Did you struggle with it? I might even ask former leaders of MSAC to share their perspective. Who would like to share on this one? Yes, sir? You'll wait. I did see some squirming when I brought that up. I don't want to point people out. Do you need assistance from, you need someone to be vulnerable first to kind

[00:44:35] to get you started i'll go ahead go ahead i'll go ahead i will tell you i'm sure like most people there's somebody got somebody in their head like the first thing when you're reading it you're like i know who this is there's somebody in my head you were thinking of a particular person of a particular two different actually two people multiple people yes one for professionally and like in a uh as a colleague and in a way of being just negative all the time as opposed to being negative to the equity work so there's like two different sides as a teacher i saw it very differently. I had like a colleague who's, I never see anything positive at all. And it's hard to, to, to separate it sometimes when that's all they give you is negative and it's always negative.

[00:45:13] And it's like, and then when they, you know, you've got to be willing to call the, call them out and kind of help them and say, look, are you looking at this from this point of view? Like it cannot be, the world is not that bad. We've got to, we've got to make it, there's some positive stuff out there and you've got to be willing to grow. So your strategy was this person is negative either they have a persistent kind of negative attitude or they express a negative attitude about the work and your approach was to really reach out to them as far as what's possible

[00:45:46] with this work okay there's a light somewhere and so one of her approaches to it is that there's a possibility to connect with that person to find something to connect on to where you can take that negativity and maybe find something to kind of bring them out of this negative perspective Okay, others, thank you for sharing.

[00:46:19] Yes. Okay, so I agree with that completely. It's, even if somebody like really is kind of hostile to your intentions, you, well, I tend to assume that there's something that they're not, you know, just unpleasant about.

[00:46:42] I may not see it, but I think that just assuming their negative intent, like before you approach it, even like, even if you know that, 98% of the time like they're gonna be hostile or uncooperative or unpleasant or unkind you know um there could potentially be like the two percent and you may see it you may not but I tend to not focus on that and look for like the place where we can see eye to eye um I mean I'm sure

[00:47:18] that there's people in the world that I have not met personally that that would just not necessarily be possible but so far um i feel like i've i'm able to like find something or at least something that allows me to still smile at them and not be like i'm not even gonna bother with this person so so thank you for sharing that a couple of examples of people who have experienced negativity the idea of someone that you would think would not you would not have a productive

[00:47:51] working relationship, trying to even just interact, but even belief, hope that there's something you can connect on. Okay. I know we have some, some other items we need to discuss before we actually get into an example and application. Who wants to pick another area of the remaining six courageous conversations, persistence, committed, let's see, actually five. Who wants to commit, who wants to collect or or identify one of the other five areas to share something on pick an area and feel free

[00:48:27] to just activate a microphone something that you read committed but patient that way we don't have to go through each of them just who would like to share on any of the remaining five or the two we've discussed like to hear from two other folks before we start to wrap up yes one that is picking at me is persistence and where it starts out by saying that the inequities in our environments did not arise yesterday the difficulty with persistence is when you reach a point of demoralization

[00:49:03] when you're constantly pushing and pushing and advocating and you dedicate a big aspect of your life and your family life and your community life to advocating for a cause and you start seeing the glimmers of hope this book i'm assuming came out what 2009 great time um and then so a lot of the language, and if we remember back 2009, even 2015, there were times in which this language was so empowering because it seemed like that's the direction in which we were heading, is that if we are having courageous conversations, if we are respecting other

[00:49:41] people's person at the expense of respecting their opinion, then we can get somewhere. It gets demoralizing when you actually start seeing that the lack of accountability because of a lot of the respecting other people's opinion, ends up feeling like you take one step forward but two steps back.

[00:49:58] And so when it comes to the whole DIA infrastructure in the country, it does feel somewhat like we took a step forward and so performatively it felt that we were getting somewhere. But if we really measure where we are in terms of hate, in terms of racial slurs, in terms of xenophobia in all its forms it does feel like at the current moment we've taken two steps back and so this is where the persistence like how do you remain persistence when you're demoralized and for me it's just looking back at a lot of the role models who were there during the most

[00:50:34] difficult times in history and most difficult times of the peaks when when a lot of the hate in human history peaks in different places like how do they remain persistent and patient because that's it's very hard to maintain your own morals and values and principles navigating these kind of environments so persistence is a virtue that is needs to be continually emphasized for a lot of us thank you very much for sharing that yes and I would say that kind of goes right into the next

[00:51:12] one because that's what I struggle with is just remaining committed but patient because I'm like at one point will we not have to do this anymore like we've been doing this for so long we've been persistent we've stayed the course we're constantly advocating we're constantly doing the work and putting in the work and advocating for change and nothing's happening so that just leads right into the next one about remaining committed and just maintaining that patience like it's at what point do you just get fed up and people just have to remember just you still have to stay the course so thank you very

[00:51:50] much for those those two shared kind of sets of thoughts there but you see the activity uh the cycles of what our country goes through the climate shift sometimes everything that's happened since 2009 what's interesting is that these characteristics stay true to what's needed to do the work uh what are we talking about now uh 17 years go going on you know 16 years uh since the book was published was in 2009 and all of the momentum the perceived momentum and then the

[00:52:25] perception of a shift and kind of wondering where it's going but to do this work having those characteristics of persistent committed but patient having an assets attitude keeping the focus on if you're trying to close student achievement gaps, making sure there's high quality engaging instruction that draws kids into a classroom setting.

[00:52:49] So this is one of the reasons, one of the main reasons why this activity was shared, why Dr. Ellis Williams chose this book as kind of a founding resource for folks to do this work, why it's still relevant many years after it was published, even though the conditions around us have shifted, the characteristics of doing this work are still consistent and needed as far as the characteristics of being an equity oriented change agent. So what we're going to do now is take a deep breath here. So we've reflected, you've looked at areas for strength, areas for

[00:53:27] growth. There will be opportunities to follow up on how you as an MSAC delegate may actually work or collaborate with others. If you need to strengthen yourself in a particular area, need some encouragement, or if you can encourage others, we can come back to this. So this is the foundation. It doesn't end here. This is a nice mirror to use to kind of reflect. Any other thoughts before we move on to the actual activity? I just wanted to comment on the thoughts about

[00:54:01] remaining persistent, the theme of understanding that we know we see this time and time again. It feels like nothing's happening. And I know it's easy to lean into the nothing's happening because what I've had to learn over the years as being a woman that was always coined as being a minority when I know I'm a part of a global majority and that language is still utilized and semantics aside understanding the self-efficacy that it takes to be able to engage in this work authentically and I don't mean about you know we talk about authenticity in a sense of individualism but

[00:54:37] coming from a culture of collectivism coming from a culture of tribes and understanding inclusivity as the DNA of who I am. When coming into a space and often confronted in the job that I'm paid to do to advocate for all students, it was never different when I wasn't paid to do this work.

[00:54:57] So it has a lot to do with mindset, and it has a lot to do with that persistence was like tugging at me as we were talking about it. Being persistent despite. Being persistent in the face of obstacles that are intentional, that are systemic, But when I think about the historical nature of this work, and to the point that was referenced by one of our delegates, that no matter what, and we look to the persons that held the line when things became like we're seeing right now in society, as a child, when I would read about them, I used to say to myself, what would I do?

[00:55:32] What could I do if I were nine, if I were 19, if I were 90? What could I do? And lo and behold, be careful what you ask for, because this has always been the work. And here I am now where the title actually matched who I was as a person. So when I think about it, it's like not on that list is being fearless, fearless, because I do know that I stand on the backs of Giants.

[00:55:59] I do know that that persistence is something that has to be a part of what's happening. And I take tremendous pride in knowing that when we say all, our team says each and every. And despite who is in front of me as a constituent, I still have to thank each and every, despite the fact that I may feel as though my own tribe has never had the foot of America off of their neck, that I'm still each and every.

[00:56:28] So I say that and I lean into that as a point of inspiration because it may seem as if the glacier is so big, insurmountable. but when we do this incrementally it still is change change is change and so sometimes it does not happen at the pace in which we want to see it come to fruition we may spark or stoke fires that we may not live to see come to fruition as a lot of our ancestors have so as words of encouragement I ask you to lean into this and believe in yourself as it relates to being equity change

[00:57:03] equity oriented change agents notice we're not using a term delegate we're doing that on purpose It's not because that is not a cool title and you get to, you know, have conversations, but we're coining this in a way in which we want you to put your shoulders back and engage as an equity-oriented change agent.

[00:57:23] Thank you. Now, if that doesn't get you all excited and encouraged, so let's go to a real application of this. This, and we have a school board member in the room who's seen this data before, this is a presentation that we shared with the school board just last month, and there's many different data points in it. There's a lot of entry points for the MSAC work when we look at SOL test results, graduation data, when we look at growth that kids make during the school year, when we look at discipline data, when we look at getting kids into advanced course pathways, being college career

[00:58:03] ready. There's a lot of different entry points. We're just picking one for the activity. So when And the slide deck, I share it with Dr. Ellis Williams. I know she can share it with the chair and share it with all the delegates. So you'll be able to actually drill in to this activity yourself. We're just going to walk you through it.

[00:58:19] When you get the slide deck, there's an actual link that takes you to the full slide deck. It's intense. It's a lot of data in it. You have to kind of just work your way through it. We're going to pick one aspect of it. So the standards of learning are our annual assessments of proficiency for students.

[00:58:38] We've been administering them for, what, 30 years plus? At this point, almost 30 years. One of the things we look at when we report to our school board and different invested parties is that we look at overall pass rates. And you see on this chart, here on the right, help me out with my colors, Dr. Ellis Williams.

[00:58:57] This looks like red to me. I don't know if that's, okay. Our overall pass rates for reading are 82%, 90% for writing, 86% for history, 82% for math, 80% for science. Very high pass rates. Dr. Spencer said the goal is 100%. Knowing that I'm a guy who grew up in the South, so be careful. Here's a sports analogy. The idea of 100% in perfection, there was a coach who was an older football coach who became a league coach late in his career. He was in front

[00:59:35] of a team that had a losing record, and this team hadn't won consistently for 10 or 15 years. And he says to them, after being in his mid-50s, having spent his whole life building up to this point, we will strive for perfection, knowing nothing in life is ever perfect, but we will strive for it.

[00:59:56] And in striving for perfection, we will achieve excellence. I'm not the least bit interested in just being good. His name was Vince Lombardi, coach of the Green Bay Packers. He took a losing team to win five championships over the next decade, and he's a Hall of Fame coach.

[01:00:14] But the premise is that, no, it'll never be perfect. But the goal is 100% perfection. But when you look at this data, these are results from a high-achieving school division. If you compare Loudon to other school divisions, the pass rates are going to be like in the top 10 or 15 of 130 divisions.

[01:00:35] But then when you look at the pass rates for, in gold, English learners, it was a 36% pass rate for reading, 31% for writing, 53 for history, 49 for math, 33 for science. Gaps.

[01:00:52] This means that we did not get the majority of English learners to a level where they were ready for the next grade based upon this assessment. And as Dr. Ellis Williams will say, the difference between saying the kids didn't pass versus we didn't provide the supports that resulted in an outcome for them, meaning we're owning it.

[01:01:14] This is data we looked at with the school board. And I said, one of the school board members is here, and the school board's response to this is, these gaps are concerning. Because if we can do it for this group, can't we do it for all groups? And then we can strive for 100%, knowing nothing is ever going to be perfect.

[01:01:34] So this was just one of the actual data points we looked at. What I'm going to do now here is, when you get access to the actual slide deck, or on your devices now, if you search for Virginia school quality profiles in your browser, or you click on the actual link, you will hit a landing page that looks like this. All 1,780 or so schools in the Commonwealth,

[01:02:12] their data's here. And one of the things that I do in supporting Dr. Ellis Williams is that as a delegate or as a member of the community, there's data that's out there, amazing information that's available. We just have to kind of make sure we're pointing people in the right direction.

[01:02:28] So if you're on your device, you search for Virginia School Quality Profiles in your browser, you should find under one of the hits, there's like a hyperlink that will take you to this landing page. So think about the questions that we had in the slide deck that you have access to.

[01:02:48] What do we expect to find when we look at this data? And what differences do we find? And as a delegate, we'll go through some of the data for the whole county. But as you're working with your school, your schools on September 15th published a school improvement plan, and they analyze the data.

[01:03:06] And almost everyone is trying to find a way to close gaps for English learners or students with IEPs, students with disabilities. So as a delegate, one of the conversations you can have with your school is, how can I, as a supporter of parents, engage in the school improvement work, especially supporting an English learner who's learning the language and content, or a student with a disability to make sure that that individualized educational plan is being implemented at a high level.

[01:03:33] So again, Virginia School Quality Profile, I'm going to just click in this right here in this text box. If I click Loudon, if I click any school in the Commonwealth, I can find their data here.

[01:03:48] If you click Lovetsville, you can find their data here. I'm going to select Loudon County Public Schools, and it takes me to a page. It has background information here, a lot of data points. I'm going to go to assessments. And right here, I see three-year histories of reading performance data. If you scroll down, you see math, you see science, social science. And you see the data that I showed you in the slide deck that the school board saw. You see Loudoun in this deep blue,

[01:04:20] 80, 81, 82, compared to the Commonwealth in the low 70s. So Loudoun is performing better than the overall Commonwealth as far as pass rates. But what happens if you look at a particular student group, say English learners, and you see the results adjust, even though we're doing slightly better than the state, you see huge differences in outcomes. So one of the activities we'll talk about for you as a delegate is that you can go in the same link, find your school and analyze this

[01:04:56] data, look at outcomes. There's graduation data that's going to be loaded in there. And the conversation is your school has been analyzing this data. They already have action steps in place. So part of the conversations would be, I mean, what is a potential role for parents and how can I support parents in this reading initiative? Or if you're trying to extend the learning day with giving kids kind of targeted supports and you're doing interventions, what can I do to share that information with parents about the need for that? You know, interventions for students along with, and interventions as far as like academic interventions, along with instruction. So as

[01:05:33] you're looking at this I'm going to adjust it students with disabilities higher but still significant gaps from all students so turn their shoulder partner and the activity is if this were your school what questions would you have to follow up with the school and the school's response is going to be yeah we saw that data you know a few months we started data a couple of months ago we have these action steps in place and it may be that they're looking for maybe a potential role

[01:06:09] for someone who can be a parent leader to say, I really want parents engaged in this reading initiative where we're sending digital materials home to get kids to kind of read more engaging text. So look at this. What questions might you have if this were your school kind of looking at this data? Here's overall English learners, students with disabilities. So reflect on your own or with

[01:06:43] a shoulder partner. What questions might you have kind of observations, questions you might have looking at this data and your role as a delegate thinking about a conversation you might have with school only for the brick and mortar schools like the the report so the state the state would not

[01:07:20] have virtual out data but we provide that for the school okay so it wouldn't so if the child is in the virtual program that would be counted in the the brick and mortar school right the data unless they're enrolled in that in the virtual lounge for at least half the school year the state only identifies like brick-and-mortar schools typically and virtual schools we collect the data and provide it to the school another platform but the state really looks at brick-and-mortar typical setup yes we do make that available to

[01:07:56] the virtual principal as far as seeing how the students perform so if if we as a virtual parent wanted access to that data because you said the school this like you you're part of the team that collects the information so how would we

[01:08:10] get access to that information since this is public, I guess?

[01:10:49] So one of your colleagues noticed something and you'll notice it too on the page. You can tell gifted kids because they engage in an activity and say, what's this over here? So there's other data there where you're looking at school environment and you may find things like kids referred to gifted services and you may also

[01:11:26] find student behavior. And the idea of, and the person was asking about, yes, there are a number of events from the school year two years ago. They haven't updated with 24-25. But yes, we do monitor things like behaviors of safety concerns within the division. But that gets at that student behavioral data when we're looking at suspensions or other data. So there's many data points that are entry points for you to kind of look at how do we handle situations like that. And I guess the person was surprised that we have situations where there are serious student behaviors that may

[01:12:04] require discussion with law enforcement if a weapon is found on a student. And it may not get referred to law enforcement ultimately, but it has to be discussed. Was there a danger issue? So there's many other data points here. We're just looking at SOLs, but I just want to let you know there's plenty of data to discuss and dig into. And again, it's constantly being updated.

[01:12:24] But going back to assessments, as far as being an equity-oriented change agent and looking at, Now we're looking at math performance and the idea of persistence.

[01:12:41] We have been, as a division, I've been here, I arrived here in August of 2012. The achievement gaps we have have been an ongoing challenge to figure out how to close opportunity gaps for students for this division. And there's constant work being done trying to figure out how to do that, how to leverage assets of all students, how to expand the learning day, how to engage all students.

[01:13:08] But you see that it is an ongoing journey for us. When you look at math pass rates, overall, high. But when you look at English learners, it's lower. But this is all of us. This is our Yale department. These are principals. It's central office staff.

[01:13:24] It's families. It's students. So part of your work as being an equity-oriented change agent is persistence when it looks as though there's an increase here in the pass rate for English learners from 41 to 49. But it's not at the level for all students.

[01:13:44] The persistence of what can we continue to do, what are structural things we have to do. In transparency, one of the conversations we were having just last week at central office is what are structural things we have to do as a division to set up schools that have greater needs in their community with staffing that's different, with more resources, with an extended learning day that requires us to do things differently for certain schools that's not a school function that's a division function to figure that out and I would say you were well represented by your two leaders to say we need to do both we need to build up

[01:14:23] our principals and support principals you need to do structural things everyone has to weigh in on this we're having real conversations about things like there's structural things we have to fix if we have to make sure we're getting the staff in the buildings who are going to make the biggest difference, even if it's hard to do it, even if we're competing for other divisions to get folks to come here and stay, even if we've been banging our heads against 10 different solutions and we haven't found anything that's worked yet, let's persist and encourage each other to keep trying to do this when it feels like everything we've tried just hasn't made the dent in the

[01:14:57] problem that we want. So you have company as a delegate trying to figure out how to close these opportunity gaps. So it is 7-16, so what I would like to do at this point is I want to do a little check-in with the group. We've looked at SOL data, we've looked at math data, and we're, there's science data here, and we're sharing it so that you as a delegate can go into this link, look at outcomes, have conversations with your school. As I said, they each would have launched a school improvement plan mid-September. They're actively changing that because we're going to get data from

[01:15:37] the state as far as our accountability status. So there may be some tweaks to that, but there's opportunities to talk about what can I do as a delegate with dealing with families to help support this work. That's great. You have the professionals in the building, but what is their particular role for us? So I'm going to stop at this point and ask for, as Dr. Ellis Williams, Ms. Muhammad, any member of the team, any delegates here, and see if we want to go a little deeper in this, if we want to pivot to another topic.

[01:16:18] Okay, so is there some aspect of looking at student achievement we want to go deeper on, or you know what, I might go back to the slide deck. Let me see here. So this is a different metric.

[01:16:42] SOLs is end of the school year, you take an assessment, it's very intensive, it's about proficiency. Another metric looks at growth that a student makes from fall to the spring during the year. And it's called the measure of academic progress.

[01:16:58] Kids take it in the beginning, middle, and end of the school year, kind of more towards the spring. This is about growth. And it's designed to be a growth assessment. It's been around for almost 40 years. We've administered it for eight years. It is another assessment.

[01:17:14] One of the challenges we have to balance is that some teachers would say, this is good information. It also takes instructional time. So, I mean, there's a balance with this. But this assessment looks at growth, and it has a metric called conditional growth percentile. It's not an achievement metric.

[01:17:32] It's designed based upon the premise that, say, Mr. Muhammad is a sixth grader. Yes, we're calling him Mr. Muhammad as a sixth grader. He is a high-achieving student. But to know whether he's growing, we don't compare him to Ryan, who's at an average level of achievement.

[01:17:50] We compare him to high-achieving students. I think we have like a high achieving student in the back here that I saw present to one of our board committees here who resonates with this. So the idea is that if a student starts at the 67th percentile, says a sixth grader, growth looks at whether they grew at a level where they maintain pace with kids who have the same starting point, 67th percentile.

[01:18:16] And your conditional growth is 50 if you maintain a pace with those students where at the end of the year, your RIT score may have increased. you had 50th conditional growth percentile, typical, and you're still at that 67th achievement percentile. But if you make a lot of growth, say the 99th percentile, your achievement percentile grows as well, meaning you're actually a much higher achieving student. So growth really looks at, for MAP, comparing you to kids who have the same starting point to see if you grew at the same level as your peers with the same readiness. So this is all about the 50th conditional growth

[01:18:54] percentile is not a grade, it represents typical growth. Any clarifying questions on this concept before I go further? Yes. I just had a question about the MAP test. Like how is it, how do teachers or administrators use that in like the individual student's academic journey? So one of the things that's done, and that's an excellent question. So how is this shared with students? One of the things that can be done with this data is that you're able to see over multiple years how an individual student is progressing and the idea of a student seeing that if they went from the 40th

[01:19:32] percentile as a third grader and they're at their 70th percentile as a sixth grader they can see their progress over time and the idea is I am progressing my SOL may say that I'm passing the SOL but I'm also growing relative to my peers and the test also breaks down on certain academic concepts that you may be stronger in certain standards but another standard computation and estimation may be a continual area that your teacher needs to focus on, even if it's continuous across multiple years. So we're able to have students be able to look at their growth during a year or growth over multiple years, to look at their growth in certain academic concepts or

[01:20:12] standards. And it's a good way for a student to set personal growth goals to kind of stay engaged because some students, like a Mr. Muhammad as a high-achieving sixth grader, may get a pass advanced on the SOL, but his achievement percentile may drift from 90 to 85 to 80.

[01:20:31] The SOLs indicate that he's passing at a high level. MAP is saying we're losing ground. He's losing ground with us relative to his peers. We need to make sure he stays at a high level of readiness, that it's not easy to get on an SOL, which is more looking at proficiency.

[01:20:47] So hopefully that's helpful for how students can look at this data and set growth goals, look at their own journey, kind of see their own needs over time, and see progress over time. Thank you. And then for the map to, you know, the students see that progress in parents and teachers. Do they use that to help when it comes to like selecting classes or is it just a tool that people observe but it's not used to help? I guess if there's a deficit in the area and then you're looking at classes that the student may need to take next year, do they consider that against what's proposed for students?

[01:21:24] - So in most cases, no. And we used to utilize it as a consideration point for advanced placement for math. And it was something that was used to determine students at say a RIT score of 235 or so would be considered algebra one ready.

[01:21:43] But it wasn't the deciding factor. It was kind of a starting point to say, this student is accelerated enough where we at least need to have this conversation. And even if the student wasn't at that level, They get an idea of what the threshold would be, but it's not the deciding factor. So that's the only case that I remember historically we've done it.

[01:22:02] The state changed that several months ago. The state actually created criteria for determining when kids advance for math. Yes.

[01:22:20] Meaning how would we apply this to discipline data? So I just want to clarify, utilizing discipline data to determine whether there's a risk or to determine disproportionality, Not map data, we do look at suspension data for different groups and we compare, for example,

[01:22:59] we've known for years that our suspension rate overall is lower than the suspension rate for students with disabilities. So we look at disparities between discipline data. The idea, but not necessarily a connection between map and that data, if that helps with your question.

[01:23:18] Okay, I don't think I completely answered the question. Let me know if... We've not looked at correlations between performance on map and discipline, academics and discipline.

[01:23:42] What really correlates more of what we found with discipline is that when we look at data like attendance or we look at other factors, the idea of students who start to miss instructional days, not necessarily the idea of high achieving students having lower, say, issues with behavior, 'cause sometimes we've analyzed that and we've not always found a correlation there.

[01:24:10] The correlations of discipline tend to be a student engages in a particular action that is maybe a disruption of the classroom, and we have to put parameters in place to make sure it doesn't escalate into something that gets them removed from the building.

[01:24:26] So it's more trying to prevent an outcome as trying to identify a correlation. We're trying to find behaviors that a student may be disengaging and interacting and pulling them into the climate and culture before it results in a suspension or them missing instructional time, if that helps. So the things we try to correlate are more prevention-oriented is trying to explain why a particular group is succeeding versus another. It has to be more action-oriented, if that helps. Interesting question. So this is actual map growth data

[01:25:03] from fall to spring. And remember, 50 is considered typical based upon a peer group. It's not always desirable or best growth, and this is across the nation, meaning there's a norm group of 13 million kids from across the nation.

[01:25:20] This is pretty exact. So what we see here is that we have slightly higher than average reading conditional growth over the years. There was a period right after the pandemic where it dropped, but now it's back to what it almost used to be, which is 52nd conditional percentile.

[01:25:38] But what you see here is that it's not that for all student groups. So if Asian students, for example, at the 51st conditional growth percentile, but students with disabilities and English learners at the 48th, what that means is that there's been a slight, there's not typical growth for English learners, students with disabilities.

[01:25:58] So if one group is growing, but another group is dropping a bit, it's actually expanding potential achievement gaps. That's why we look at things like growth data during the year, because what we're trying to do is accelerate English learners, kids with IEPs, where they're growing at the 55th and 60th conditional percentile to close gaps. That's the data for reading. And here's the data for math.

[01:26:25] Math has been a little stronger bounce back from right after the pandemic, from the 42nd conditional percentile to 53. And math is one of the areas where virtually across the groups, they're very close to what is considered typical growth. But whenever one group grows a little faster than the other, the idea is that we could be having success with both groups, but we could see achievement gaps expanding as well. So as a MSAC delegate, one of the things you'll see in some of your school's school improvement plans is students in need of tier two and tier three

[01:27:00] supports, they're trying to accelerate. It's not typical growth. They're trying to grow them at the 55th conditional growth percentile. They're trying to accelerate kids. If 50th achievement percentile is here and you're here, they're trying to accelerate you. They're not trying to sustain you there. So, 7.30, doing a little check-in here. So, that's the second activity. So, the idea is that, and I would say this, many of the schools have been looking at map data over the years, and they're used to the idea of, we've got to accelerate kids in either tier two, tier three

[01:27:37] supports, and we have to engage them in the classroom. We have to provide great interventions, and if you get drawn into some of the conversations, a lot of it will be about, how can we do more? How can we do more? How can parents do more? How can kids do more? When we're trying to get you caught up and get you ahead of schedule as opposed to behind schedule, wherever we find you when you join a division. Okay, any other questions here? I feel like the container is almost full and you're smiling still. I feel like I've hit you with a lot of information. You're still, some of you are still

[01:28:16] recovering from trying to avoid demonizations of folks here. We've looked at SOL data. We've looked at map data look at growth data so I'm trying to read the room here it's 7 30 it's been a long day you're saying Dr. Tyler this is data you love it but now my my brain is starting to swim here so I want to check in here is this a stopping point to reflect on what we've learned to turn to a shoulder partner reflect and kind of wrap up or are we trying to push forward so at this point

[01:28:50] being an equity oriented change agent thinking about the SOL data that you've seen looking at achievement. Looking at the growth data, let's reflect on what you've learned, what this has made you think about your role as a delegate, what may be some next steps for you as a delegate.

[01:29:11] So trying to show the partner someone at your table, if you're by yourself, you can reflect.

[01:29:15] Give you a few minutes.

[01:30:04] Ask them that or share that with the group you want me to share. Okay,

[01:31:30] okay, okay, okay. Do you want to pose that to them? Okay, okay, okay. So how do you want, After I get a few more minutes, you want, you two want to share that? You want me to share it? Okay.

[01:32:45] So if you would take about 15 seconds to kind of wrap up your conversation.

[01:33:15] First off, we really want to thank Dr. Tyler for creating this presentation, facilitating this presentation this evening. Sometimes we joke and say, I want to be him when I grow up.

[01:33:34] It's not really a joke because of the wealth of knowledge that he has and his willingness to share it with others. But as we kind of close out before bringing Ms. Jones back up to kind of close out the meeting, one of the things that we think is very important as a takeaway from tonight is to really think about that characteristic of maintaining an assets attitude and thinking about or considering what might be one next step, one action as delegates that you would

[01:34:11] put into play over the next 20, 25 days, and big, small, whatever, in moving your advocacy and moving into your building your capacity as an equity-oriented change agent, think about that, consider it, put it in play, right?

[01:34:35] And hopefully that that would be something you could bring back to the next meeting to share and talk about with other delegates in terms of one thing that you might have learned that sparked an idea for you this evening that you would bring back to the next meeting to talk about what it is that you're working on or you would be in support of for your school. Because it's great to talk and learn and have all these different ideas, but an equity-oriented change agent is

[01:35:10] active about action, right? And so we don't, we'd be remiss if we didn't actually speak on that and think about that as a takeaway from tonight's presentation. So I want to just leave that with you as we get ready to close out. Any other things you would like to add to that? Dr. Ellis Williams?

[01:35:29] Sure. We do this dance all the time. Just as a reminder, when we enter the spaces, disposition matters. I'm sure that we all can relate at some point in time where disposition played a factor in whether or not something was successful or not successful. So when doing so, please be mindful to contextualize from a place of support, from a place of allyship, from a place of lending a helping hand. To go in and be accusatory and finger wagging and y'all need to do something about this would not best serve in the vein of disposition because the initial response would be

[01:36:09] for that person to retract or persons so that's the biggest piece when we talk about oh we want to go in and we want to help affect change sometimes disposition can be the distinction between whether or not you form the necessary alliances to get something done because at the end of the day it's not about you it's about our students so I implore you to utilize an exercise great judgment. I believe one of our delegates mentioned about going in and understanding that there's something, a light in everyone, right? And in my world, we say we utilize the book

[01:36:46] Polarity Leadership. I have to sit in spaces with leaders who do not see things the way in which I see them, but I have to find that common ground. And so I share that with you as a voice of inspiration to find that common ground. You may not hear everything you want to hear, but you want

[01:37:04] to find it and center it on the students each and every one chair jones all right let's give them

[01:37:37] a round of applause because that was wonderful right so i like that um the term equity oriented change agent right it is it's more personable than just saying a delegate right because it means so much. I would also implore you to, as you digest all this information that we were fed tonight, think about your why, right? Think about your why. Why do I want to be

[01:38:10] this change agent? Why am I here? I think it's so important that we evaluate why we do what we do um i i'm a firm believer that there is definitely a light at the end of every tunnel and if you're that light if you're that light somebody somewhere will see it if you just create one change then you're doing something you're doing something we know that we are living in

[01:38:41] challenging times right now um i was the same way i still am in in disbelief um wondering how did we get here but be you be the best you that you can be um ensure that you're doing what what is what we have all learned to be right and you will make a difference somebody's going to see that difference and together we're strong right together we can make that change that is needed within our world

[01:39:15] and so I thank you all for coming tonight I thank you for your participation um leave in peace and I want you when you come back yes think about what you have have contributed um and be willing to share those things that you have been able to do at your school within this community.

[01:39:40] I appreciate you all. Have a good night. Thank you.

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