Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Public Schools, Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee (MSAAC) Meeting, Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Place: LCPS Administration Building / School Board Room, Ashburn, Virginia
Length: 1h 56m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1138706655?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 2026-10-12. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:07] Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order. And before we move to approve tonight's agenda, I'd like to note one adjustment that in order to meet quorum requirements, we will defer the approval of September and October's meeting minutes to our January meeting. And with that change, may I have a motion to approve the agenda as amended?

[00:00:36] I make a motion to approve the agenda as amended. Okay, do I have a second? All right, all in favor, anyone opposed?

[00:00:56] All right, thank you. The amended agenda is approved. And as we begin, I want to recognize that today is Equal Opportunity Day, a meaningful reminder of why this committee exists.

[00:01:14] Our work is rooted in ensuring fair access, removing barriers, and creating spaces where every student is seen, supported, and able to thrive.

[00:01:30] This day speaks directly to our mission. I'm also proud to welcome our new executive team members. Each of them joins us with a passion for equity and a commitment to impact.

[00:01:50] Now, only one of them is here tonight. The other one had to travel abroad, but we are grateful to have them step into leadership, and we look forward to the work that will be accomplished with them.

[00:02:06] Tonight's agenda reflects both continuity and progress. As always, I ask that we stay engaged, focused, and solution-driven. We are not simply gathering, but we are advancing forward with intention.

[00:02:29] Again, I want to say thank you for being here and for your unwavering dedication. And with that, I'd like to introduce our newest team member, Jasmine Tyler. That. Oh, do you want me to go up there? Okay. Uh, good afternoon, good evening, actually. Uh, I'm really excited to be here.

[00:03:04] Thank you so much for all the work that you all have been doing. Um, I was just, uh, telling new friends that I've been, uh, trying to get in one of those seats for a long time, but it's hard, you know, when you have great people representing your, um, cluster schools. So I'm Jasmine Tyler. I am a professor at Georgetown University. I teach in the McCourt School of Public Policy and for the Prisons and Justice Initiative.

[00:03:20] I have a 7th grader at RiverMuch for having me here, and thank you so much for being here. Give me one second. I'm going to get our... I've gotten a lot of emails since I got that apparently.

[00:03:55] Let me just look right here.

[00:04:12] I can't find a chance because we know that your schools are also doing that and didn't want to overlap. We will be continuing to provide information about this until we meet again and have more fulsome conversation about the community care initiative our career night for 2026 is underway in planning we are going to come back to you also on the date for that so be on the lookout and be thinking about ways to engage around our career night it's really I'm an opportunity to support students and

[00:04:47] thinking about resume building job searches workforce development all those kinds of opportunities our equity will be on May 2nd this year so please note that in your calendars we'll be providing more information including where that's going to be held we are still finalizing between two places on that so looking forward to spending some time in the spring also supporting our students and learning and growing together.

[00:05:23] We want you to be able to stay engaged with our updates, so please definitely sign up for the MSAC newsletter. We have our communications chair in place, so you will be getting information regularly.

[00:05:39] We also invite you to provide flyers and other information related to events and activities at your schools so that we can promote those as well so that's an invitation for you all to also share reverse uh back to us so that we can also amplify the work that you all are doing believe that's all we had for our events so i'm going to turn it back over to chair jones thank you thank you so much appreciate it thank you um so i'd like to ask um our delegates if you would please move to these front tables up here.

[00:06:18] Any of the delegates that might be at the further table, if you wouldn't mind moving to these tables up here. We'd appreciate it.

[00:06:36] So tonight we have three, actually, presentations. One will definitely be engaging, which is the reason why we are asking you to move to the tables. But our first presentation will be from the CTE and followed by one from our mathematics programs and then also we will hear from our immediate past chair and she will guide us through some information on what it means to be a delegate.

[00:07:10] Some of you have gone through this orientation before but others have not so we know we have some new folks in the room and so we want you to again feel free to engage provide us with some of your ideas share some of the the wins that you have had over the past month we're looking forward to this being a very productive

[00:07:34] evening with that I'd like to call up our folks from CTE we just did oh thank

[00:08:22] you, thank you. Some of this really does support some movement, so I will do my best. But good evening and thank you for having us here tonight. We are from the division of CTAE, which stands for Career, Technical, and Adult Education. Nick and I are from CTE, which is just, that's okay, I'll stand. Yes, I will. It's a good discipline.

[00:08:51] Are from CTE, which is Career Technical and, or CTE, Career and Technical Education. And we're going to chat with you guys a little bit tonight about some of our supports. But also, we're going to engage in a little RIASEC learning and some participation there.

[00:09:08] So, we're going to get started with a quick activator. And this is probably one of my most favorite games. I'm going to ask you to think about a common object, something that you use every day on a daily basis.

[00:09:26] And if you are feeling comfortable, to boldly shout that item out loud. And Nick and I are going to do our best at making a connection from that item that you see as just a normal everyday object to career and technical education.

[00:09:45] So I'll give you a second to think of an object, something you use every day. Yes, a pen. Fabulous. A pen. It's a tool that we use, right? I would make a connection to CTE through education, through drafting, drawing, architecture, something where I am sketching out notes, engineering even.

[00:10:14] So that could be one connection of a regular everyday tool to career in tech ed. How about another one? Yes. A wooden spoon. I love that. We all have them, right? Various sizes are our favorite kitchen tools.

[00:10:31] Directly related to culinary arts in our family and consumer sciences umbrella. How about one more? Cell phone. Ooh, a cell phone. We use them for everything. The first thing that comes to mind for me when I use my, well, cell phone or smartphone?

[00:10:51] Like what you're carrying? Okay, so smartphone. I want to be specific. Carrying, for me, comes to mind photography, taking pictures. And then where do we put those pictures? We typically put them out on social media. So we think about social media and we think about marketing and the way that we are branding either ourselves or our company.

[00:11:10] So that is how I would tie back our smartphones to CTE. So thank you for playing that game. Thank you for kind of getting us thinking about CTE and where we're going to be in our conversation tonight. So we want to talk about career and technical education and workforce development.

[00:11:32] And we really think about career development. It's very tied to sort of the heart of CTE. And what does that mean? And so you'll see here that center image, that picture of the HVAC technician. You may have seen one in the buildings of your own hallways or library, you know, or places where people might advertise for jobs.

[00:11:55] and we used to do this a lot. We would just hang this flyer and say, oh my gosh, these HVAC technicians are making X number of dollars every year and how fabulous. But career development is so much more than that. When we are engaging in conversations with students about what they want to be, what they want to do when they grow up, we're really looking at tying it back to their interests and their values and their skills. And that's where Ryasek is going to come into the conversation tonight. Our director, Dr. Grubbs, tells a really great story about an engineering

[00:12:32] student who is in like a Shark Tank event and was in a room of professional engineers. And he had just won this event. And these professional engineers were like, tell us, where are you going to school? Where are you going to get your engineering degree? And this young man said, I'm not going to be an engineer. I'm going to be a lawyer. And their jaws just dropped. And they were like, well, why are you taking this engineering class? Why did you enter into this Shark Tank event? Like, why, what is, why? And this young man said, well, I know that I'm going

[00:13:08] to have to think critically. I'm going to have to speak in front of other people. I'm going to have to make connections from real world to my future self, this profession that I want to seek. And by taking this engineering class, by putting myself in this Shark Tank event space, I'm pushing myself to do those things. So it's a really neat opportunity to kind of flip the script on the conversation about career development and the career ladder. You know, we get the intro job, and then we get promoted to the next job, and then the next job. And career development isn't

[00:13:43] that way anymore. It is so much more a jungle gym, more of a, I want to start here, I'm going to try this. I might be able to take this business class and decide I like it or I don't like it, which might push me into marketing, which might bring me to culinary. So it's so much more fluid than it was ever before. So that's what we are excited to be doing in our work every day. I did put a handout, a copy of this at the two front rows of tables here. If you're sitting in the back and would like a copy. I know we've got some extras. We can make sure you get them because you can't read this

[00:14:22] slide, but this is my favorite slide that you cannot read that I love to share because it is the National Framework for Career and Technical Education, and at the center of this wheel is career-ready preparedness, career readiness, and that is the heart of CTE, of Career and Technical education. And when you look at like the first ring outside of that center career ready practice, those are some really big cluster groupings. And when we look at them and we see things like

[00:14:57] cultivating resources or creating and experiencing, we're like, okay, like I kind of know what that is. I've heard those words before, maybe not together. But if you go one more ring out, You actually start to see our career clusters that are really common in everyday conversation.

[00:15:20] Things like financial services, things like energy and natural resources, education. Those are the career clusters that most people are familiar with, right? And when you go farther out into the outer ring, you will see things like, and I might need a magnifying glass here to see my own. You might see something like engineering. Okay well what does that mean here in Loudoun County Public Schools? Well we have a number of engineering courses that support this pathway. So each of these sort of cogs in the

[00:15:59] wheel directly comes back to CTE. You'll notice this cross-cutting clusters the sort of the upper right quadrant of a circle. If you are a math person I know I did not use any of those words the right way. But those are career clusters that touch all of CTE, right? Those are the marketing, that's the entrepreneurship, that's the digital technology. We see those things in every part of this framework. And on the back, you can actually see a bigger breakdown of each of these career clusters and the courses, or excuse me, not courses, but the professions that we're familiar

[00:16:39] with. Which brings me to my formal introduction now that I've said all these things to you already this evening. My name is Jennifer Alpers. I am one of one supervisor for career and technical education. These are the areas in this framework that I specialize in and so when you look at this for example caring for communities and you see education here in Loudoun County Public Schools this is our intro to teacher cadet and our teacher cadet classes. This is early childhood education classes. If you are looking at that purple column, at the very bottom, that red box

[00:17:18] is marketing and sales. Those are all of our marketing classes. Marketing, strategic marketing, travel, tourism, and destination marketing. We're bringing social media marketing. So these are some of the classes that I specialize in. Thanks, Jen. Good evening, everyone. I'm Nick Grazita. I'm the other CTE supervisor in Loudoun County Public Schools. And Jen did such a fantastic job going through the career clusters wheel and all the different ways that we categorize the programs

[00:17:51] that we support. These, the ones you see up here with the red boxes and some of the categories like caring for communities and connecting and supporting success. Those are the programs that I currently support in career and technical education. So really excited to be speaking with you all tonight and talking to you all about what we're doing with career and technical education at Loudoun County Public Schools. Just real brief, and again, another slide that you

[00:18:25] probably need binoculars for. We will share this presentation out. Hopefully it'll trickle out to you all, but this is what the career and technical, career technical and adult education org chart looks like. You can see, well you can sort of see, where Jen and I exist on that chart under Dr. Grubbs and you can see that we do have members of our team that are focused on work-based learning. So that's one of the big initiatives that Dr. Spence has this year in his strategic plan is how do we

[00:19:03] get kids to their imagined futures. And I didn't say that as eloquently as Dr. Spence does, but he's focused on how do we prepare our students for college and career, not or, as some of us experienced when we were in school, but and. We need to be able to develop our students so that they're well-rounded and prepared for what comes after high school. So we have work-based learning resource teachers. We have computer science content specialists. We have CTE

[00:19:38] specialists and content specialists that are working on expanding our current CTE plan. We can talk a little bit more about that another time. Hopefully we'll invite ourselves back out. But tonight we really want to focus on RIASAC and why.

[00:19:57] There's Dr. Spence's pitch right there, helping kids see the pathway to their imagined future. If only I'd seen that a minute ago. No, I'm just kidding. But why do we want to have our teachers invest in career conversations in everyday instruction? Because we, I know we've never heard this at the dinner table. If you're a teacher in Loudoun County Public Schools, you've never heard any of your students go, why are we learning this? We want to provide our teachers

[00:20:32] with avenues of framework, which is what Riasek is, so that they can engage in conversations with students about career interests that they might have based on their strengths as people. And so teachers have that unique superpower. As you can see, they're trusted adults from their students.

[00:20:53] They serve as a role model. They make connections to the relevance of the skills and content being taught in the classroom. So instead of them going, we're learning geometry and here are proofs, which I definitely did not excel at, but here's the reason why we teach those proofs. We can connect it to your strengths through RIASEC, and this is what's going to help you be prepared for the next step in the journey of your life. So why begin with interest, which is what RIASEC does.

[00:21:25] Research, I love it when people say research, but we actually have like the APA citation right there for you. Research has shown that interest fit predicts employment outcomes, such as job success, income, and job performance. If we meet the students where they're at, show them where their strengths are, meet their personalized learning needs in that manner, they're going to be much more successful. So we're going to show a quick video, just a quick introduction to Ryasek.

[00:22:00] i don't think it's is it ongoing on the speaker i didn't do it oh goodness sorry no one does now

[00:22:26] numbers while others thrive on stage start that over hey there ever wonder what makes some people love crunching numbers while others thrive on stage or dream about exploring outer space it's all about our interests and how they align with our future careers riot sex stands for realistic investigated artistic social enterprising and conventional six easy words that can be used together to describe your preferences for activities and

[00:23:04] work that you might enjoy when your parents and teachers understand your interests they can then hook us up with more activities to support those interests and help us develop our skill set whether it's in class or hanging out after school before we dive into the riasek model remember to keep a lookout for themes that you feel you relate to all right take it away

[00:23:23] all right so with a quick introduction we're going to get into each of the letters The first letter is R for realistic. Come back to this in just a second.

[00:23:56] People who identify with the realistic theme see themselves as practical, mechanical, and active. They enjoy hands-on activities which may include working with animals, tools, or machines. In their spare time, they may enjoy activities including mechanics, gardening, hunting or fishing, carpentry, making jewelry, playing sports, driving vehicles, skydiving, or landscaping.

[00:24:20] You can often find people that align with the realistic theme in outdoor settings, in national parks, athletic facilities, farms or greenhouses, or in the military. Some of the greatest skills they possess include building and repairing, using tools and equipment, concrete problem solving, growing plants, and anything involving manual dexterity, public safety, and engineering and technology.

[00:24:47] They tend to value things you can see, touch, and use in their life, and often want their work to be hands-on, physical, and fairly active. While that video was playing, did you, just by a show of hands, did you hear anything that you really connected with?

[00:25:09] Maybe you're somebody who really likes to be outside, maybe you like to use your hands, you like to do things or build things. If you heard anything in that video, if you saw anything being sketched out there that you connect with that you were like oh yeah like I like to do those things and you're comfortable would you just raise your hand say like I connected with some things in that video so the next one is

[00:25:44] investigative and by the way my my nine-year-old son and I went through Ryasek last night he was very devastated to learn that he wasn't realistic last night but that's okay I showed him that this is just right now like these things will change over time but he did he was very happy to be artistic as we'll see in a little bit but this is investigative so as the video plays listen for some of those things that you might be interested in and just think about those people who identify

[00:26:21] with the investigative theme see themselves as curious scientific and intellectual they enjoy gathering information and analyzing and solving complex problems particularly in the realm of math and science in their spare time they may enjoy crosswords playing strategy games researching learning, attending lectures, conducting experiments, discussing books, or even birdwatching.

[00:26:48] You can often find people that align with the investigative theme in laboratories, museums, universities, classrooms, medical facilities, libraries, bookstores, or at computers. Some of the greatest skills they possess correspond to complex problem-solving, analyzing data, data, the natural and physical sciences, thinking abstractly, philosophy, statistics, and researching.

[00:27:15] They tend to value science and research in their life and seek environments that allow them to feel intellectually stimulated. I love this one. This is definitely me. I really like investigative, how we're considering our students, the ones that like to quote-unquote hide in the library.

[00:27:42] That is their safe place. They like to go into the lab. They like to play with chemistry. the different chemicals, figure out what makes all the different colors take place. If you wouldn't mind, if any of these things resonated with you, would you mind raising your hand? I love it. Thank you.

[00:28:11] You could put documentaries in there for sure. And you might see them here as well with A for art. People who identify with the artistic theme see themselves as expressive, original, and independent. They enjoy creative activities such as art, drama, crafts, dance, music, and writing.

[00:28:33] In their spare time, they may enjoy photography, cooking, hosting events, dancing, making movies, painting or drawing, graphic design, decorating, crafts, learning languages, or traveling. You can find people that align with the artistic theme in museums, concerts, art galleries, theaters, music and art festivals, television studios, newspaper offices, restaurants, or in publishing companies. Some of the greatest skills they possess correspond to architecture, musical ability, foreign languages, culture, creativity, communication, media, or design.

[00:29:12] They may have strong artistic abilities and value the creative arts in their life and tend to seek out environments that are less structured, conventional, or predictable. We've had the opportunity to have this conversation with a couple of groups, some of our high school principals in particular, and we learned through this Ryasek conversation that one of our high school principals was actually a ballroom dancer at one time in her life.

[00:29:42] And it wasn't really until we had this conversation and started talking about people who were making connections to these interests that she was like, oh, yeah, I used to, I was a ballroom dancer. I thought I was going to do that professionally. And it was a really interesting kind of, you wouldn't have known that about her if we weren't having these explicit conversations about your interests and how they led you to where you are.

[00:30:05] So if you are looking at this and you are seeing the art and you are creative, if you express yourself maybe through music and you're feeling a connection to A, would you raise your hand? We have more eyes than we did for Artistics, but I see you guys here.

[00:30:25] All right, the next is S for Social. People who identify with a social theme tend to see themselves as helpful, friendly, and trustworthy. They enjoy helping people through supportive and nurturing roles in nursing, teaching, social work, or counseling.

[00:30:45] In their spare time, they may enjoy reading about self-improvement, volunteering, being a mentor, teaching, advocating for social justice, caring for children, entertaining, talking with friends, or listening to and giving advice to friends.

[00:31:02] You can find people that align with the social theme in settings such as health care, classrooms, places of worship, nursing homes, human resources, community centers, college and universities, or counseling centers. Some of the greatest skills they possess correspond to listening, psychology, counseling, spirituality, human development, first aid, social sciences, teaching and training, or building relationships.

[00:31:30] They are effective in communicating with others and empathizing, while often seeking out environments that allow them to directly help people and solve social problems. Okay, now how many people saw themselves here in social?

[00:31:49] I thought so. I thought so. Normally, I mean, we hear that word social, we're thinking about social and interests, and I think a lot of us, at least for me, when I first started learning about this, I went to, you know, the people who are outgoing, the people who really fill their cup by engaging in conversation and being around people and being social.

[00:32:09] But really what this is looking at, it's the helpers, right? It's the people who empathize, the people who are able and want to help. It's our nurses. It's our teachers. You know, it's in places of worship, the classrooms. It's all of those places.

[00:32:25] And there are so many of us in this room right now that are social. We are the helpers. so this is fun to see that. I saw some of you guys like, oh, that's me.

[00:32:41] - All right, the next letter is E and it's for enterprising. So again, while the video is playing, think about, does this sound like me? - People who identify with the enterprising theme see themselves as energetic, ambitious, and sociable.

[00:32:59] They like to lead and persuade people, sell things, and take responsibility. In their spare time, they may have enjoyed debating ideas, volunteered for a political campaign, done mock trial, joined the e-board of a club, thought about starting their own business, made speeches, or been a server at a restaurant.

[00:33:19] They also may be interested in following or investing in the stock market, or developing advertisements and promotions. You can often find people that align with the enterprising theme in government and politics, law firms, small businesses, marketing and public relations firms, broadcast media, newspaper offices, or in management.

[00:33:41] Some of the greatest skills they possess correspond to public speaking, negotiation, supervising, sales and marketing, management, leadership, or strategizing. They are effective in group leadership and persuasion and tend to seek out environments with opportunities for advancement or risk-taking.

[00:34:09] - So when we look at enterprising, I think about those students in the classroom who are constantly debating, constantly pushing, because they're ambitious. They want to make themselves, they want to learn. They want to push themselves. They want to see how can this information make me better.

[00:34:29] I love those kids. They're always the ones that raise their hand. They ask those questions. They're eager to answer those questions. How many here believe that you're enterprising? Awesome, okay.

[00:34:56] Well, sure. Well, it's so interesting that you asked that question because our trainers, Ed and Steve, who came in to work with us, they actually, one of their examples was they presented to a bunch of high school students one day and later on went out to dinner.

[00:35:27] Well, one of the students was their server. And so that student, and I hope I exemplify this correctly, but that student kept coming back to their table and asking them questions. Like, you know, this is where I'm focused, this is where my interests lie, And they just kept going back and forth and asking, okay, well, you know, what were your letters in Ryasek?

[00:35:53] And they weren't really matching up with the student. Like, he was clearly enterprising. And so they kept trying to show him, like, you have this talent. But to answer your question, I'm not sure that really answered your question, but restaurant service, I could see someone, you know, who's gregarious, social, enterprising.

[00:36:16] They're learning the ropes. They're learning about people. while at work, you know, they're engaged. So they're really like, you know, got their ear to

[00:36:26] the ground. That's how I see it. Fair enough? Yes. Sure. Yeah.

[00:37:18] And if I could add on, like you're trying to get a tip, trying to get them to buy dessert. So fantastic.

[00:37:44] All right. Are we ready for the last one? Cool. This is like my Sesame Street moment where I'm like, the last letter is the letter C. So this, excuse me, stands for conventional. People who identify with a conventional theme, see themselves as practical, orderly, and good at following a set plan.

[00:38:10] They often like to work in areas that take advantage of their preference for structure and systems, which can include working with numbers, data, or machines. In their spare time, they may enjoy charting family histories, building models, playing computer or card games, organizing collections, building websites, keeping track of finances, exercising, or programming software.

[00:38:35] You can often find people that align with the conventional theme in large corporations, financial and accounting institutions, network administration and technical support centers, or archives and libraries. Some of the greatest knowledge and skill areas they possess are organization, mathematics, accounting, statistics, computer programming, economics, charting trends, and finding patterns.

[00:39:00] They are effective with working with written records and numbers and tend to seek out environments that are structured, predictable, and call on their attention to detail and organization. How many of you saw yourselves in this video?

[00:39:19] I see some more hands here. Now, I may not be a fabulous mathematician, but I love a good plan. And you can see that in our students, in our classrooms, those students who look for the agenda. They want to know what's happening, what's coming next, what do I need to be prepared for?

[00:39:38] So these are the six letters of RIASEC, and as we took you through them and we were asking you to reflect on each letter, we had a goal in mind, which was for you to think about your top three letters. As you were watching those videos, looking at those posters afterwards, most people will have three or four letters that they're like, oh, I am really this, I'm realistic, I'm investigative, I am enterprising.

[00:40:09] Does anybody feel comfortable sharing what their top three letters were just in this brief presentation this evening? I will go, oh go ahead, I would say I'll go first, but you go first, thank you. Social, artistic, and realistic, that's fabulous.

[00:40:35] So knowing your interests and seeing what some of those professional careers might be, does anything line up for you? Has anything lined up in that way? Go, thank you, and thank you for being here and for sharing that with us.

[00:40:54] So I know that we are, we're getting close on, on our time. So I do want to keep, um, to keep the ball moving here. Um, and yeah, great. We'll share some strategy.

[00:41:09] Yeah. So we're doing two things big picture right now. So we're connecting with CTE teachers, and we're also connecting so that they understand the framework. And we're also having a plethora of fifth grade students attend our AWS Think Big Space at J.L. Simpson Middle School. If you're interested in coming by, we'd love to have you come by. We have fifth grade students in there nearly every day of the week at this point. And part of the activities that they engage in right off the bat are career exploration and engaging in Ryasec. So first they learn Ryasec

[00:41:49] and then using virtual reality devices like MediQuest and ZSpace laptops, they engage in career exploration curriculum so that they can connect their Ryasec letters to any career interests that they possibly have. Jen and I are working with CTE teachers so they understand the framework and can engage in small strategies throughout daily instruction so that they can engage students in career exploration discussion and keep that conversation going. Not just a one and done, not just a what do you think you want to be when you grow up? Firefighter? Check. Sounds

[00:42:26] great. Let's engage in a regular conversation and see where your interests currently lie based on what you've been learning in school, your life experiences. We call that the dialogic part. One of the other things that Dr. Grubbs has been working on with Ed and Steve, our trainers, is that they've been mapping out RIASAC to our CTE courses.

[00:42:50] So you can see a few of them listed up there, like accounting connects with enterprising and conventional. Makes sense. Advanced computer information systems, that connects with investigative, enterprising, and conventional. So our students are learning about hardware and software in that particular class.

[00:43:09] So it makes sense based on what we've heard with the letters and those presentation where those all line up so that we can show this map to our teachers, to our students, and show where their interests line up with our career and technical education courses.

[00:43:25] So we're going to wrap up with a few thoughts that you might want to share. We'll open it up and because we're tech savvy gurus, of course, we do have a Slido that we do invite you to join either with the QR code or just by going to slido.com. All your posts are anonymous, but if you join the number 1551706, you can post any of your takeaways from this presentation or a question that we can bring back and respond to you if we don't have enough time

[00:44:04] to answer them. So at this time, we'll open up to any questions, waiting for the active poll to start. There it is. Love it. There's a participant typing away. Yes.

[00:44:26] So all of our CTE teachers last April were introduced to the RIASEC framework, and we've been pushing our department chairs and our salts to continue to use that framework in the CTE classes. Yes.

[00:44:54] Absolutely. And I think that's the point of this, is to just engage in that conversation. And going back to where we started with our kids and their imagined future, right? And like our superintendent, how do we get our students to see it? And this is a great starting point. It's not, here's the flyer, you can make

[00:45:29] this much money. It's, oh, you are social, you're a helper, you empathize with people, and you're really curious. Did you know you could put these together and you might explore something like x y or z absolutely yes so the question was how do you uh fifth grade students or classes get chosen

[00:46:04] or or attend simpson middle school where the aws think big spaces is that good summary uh so last uh summer we sent um actually our assistant superintendent of teaching and learning sent a survey out to principals elementary school principals and they signed up based on their interested in having their students attend the AWS Think Big Space for an entire day. We go through all of the fifth grade classes at elementary schools that are chosen so it's not just one fifth grade classes it's all of them so for instance Cool Spring is in there this week and I think they were in there

[00:46:43] last week so there's four or five classes we go through all those classes over multiple days so it was through principal interest and then what was your second question i'm sorry plans to expand uh yes we're currently looking at um we we consider this year quite a success our data is is definitely showing that um our students are definitely engaged the teachers are able to pull some of those lessons back to their home schools um so

[00:47:13] we are currently looking at what next year looks like yes are there cte teachers in every school there are cte teachers in every middle school and high school yes yeah one more yeah you get the last Because this is MSAC, I do want to ask just something related.

[00:47:39] How are your staff and teachers equipped to be kind of culturally responsive when students talk about cultural challenges, about family expectations pertaining to culture or background or even socioeconomic challenges that they might face in achieving some of these, you know, the realistic, or not realistic, but the goals that they have, the dreams that they have versus the reality of what opportunities and what opportunities.

[00:48:07] obstacles might come in their way because of the reality of the environment we live in sometimes. So what does, as we alluded to at the end, this is an ongoing dialogue. So our teachers learn from their students and just as much as our students learn from our teachers. And so by having that ongoing dialogue, they're able to have our students critically think, contribute, Engage in the five C's, our profile of a graduate, so that that conversation can lead to strategies.

[00:48:44] So we are working with multiple offices in teaching and learning and across Loudoun County public schools to upskill our teachers. This was just the initial step in that, because we do want our students to be successful. So we're in an ongoing conversation ourselves to upskill our teachers. So because we do know that you guys have a number of presentations tonight, and we do want to be respectful of their time too this is up if you want to get one more so maybe a shot of the QR code or join to post your questions or

[00:49:21] wonderings and we will make sure to respond and give those replies to you

[00:49:26] directly thank you all right thank you so much

[00:50:02] Nick and Jen we would love to talk with you more about coming back for our career night all right so we'll talk more with you thank you so much all right thank you all right we're gonna move on to our next presenter all right if you want to go ahead and take it away all right if you need to connect over

[00:50:24] here good evening everybody it's great to see you guys today my name is Juliet Kenny I am the k-12 math supervisor and I'm here with hi I'm Jeff Ronsley I'm the director of teaching and learning k-12 for Loudoun County Public Schools

[00:51:03] great to be here with all of you. We're here today to talk to you a little bit about the advanced math course process and selection, some of the policies that we have coming up, as well as explaining to you a little bit about the course selection process for math so that there's just more clarity and understanding. So the agenda that we have for today, we're going to start off talking a little bit about the acceleration process that we currently have, then we're going to go into the course selection process, and then we're going to open it up for any questions and feedback that you might have. There are a few specific areas that we are seeking

[00:51:40] feedback in, so as we go throughout this presentation, we're really looking to see, you know, what are your thinking, what is your experience with, and your thoughts about our different math course pathways that we offer, the way in which we communicate this information, how can that be made more effective, what are the, what are your thoughts about some of the advanced learning opportunities that we currently have and ones that maybe we should consider and then also what are ways in which we can better support your children so keep those things in mind as we go through our presentation all right so we're going to dive in mr rounds is going to start by kicking

[00:52:19] us off and talking to you a little bit about acceleration in mathematics so some of this conversation is generated by a new state law that was passed last year called house bill 2686 House Bill 2686 requires a process for acceleration in mathematics for certain students, scoring in the upper quartile, the top 25% of the SOL.

[00:52:42] And one of the things that the law requires us to do is to pass a policy as a school division for how we handle acceleration in mathematics, which in LCPS is now called policy 5140. So this governs middle school mathematics. It was approved in an information item.

[00:53:01] not approved it went out for feedback to our communities after the November 5th curriculum instruction meeting so it is currently out for feedback right now through November 21st it's very closely modeled on the Virginia school board associations of model policy that many other school divisions are passing and adopting as their as their policy for this but Loudon has a very long history of acceleration in mathematics Juliet is going to go over a lot of that and so a lot of This information is not new for Loudon, but what we do want to use this time for is to pause and think about how we communicate this information, how we share this information

[00:53:37] with our families and our students, and to make sure that we get this correct and in the most transparent and accessible way possible. I will share that it is currently posted, so on the LCPS website where all the policies are, there is a link there, which is the same link here, and I believe you guys will have access to these slides after this, where you can go in and click on it and review it.

[00:53:59] We'll go over it with you today, but if you have any feedback on it, you're welcome to post public comment and feedback through that form, too. So here's what the policy requires us to do, and the first one is automatic enrollment for students who score in the upper quartile of a grade-level end-of-year SOL math assessment if the course is available.

[00:54:18] So some of you, if you have a student in middle school, may have experienced this last year. You might have gotten an email from the school saying this happened in June 30th. So early in July, gotten an email that said that your child qualified for acceleration in mathematics. That comes from this new state law.

[00:54:35] The second part of it is parental opt-out. So parents have the right to not accept that acceleration and to not have their child accelerated if they choose not to do so. The third one is multiple pathways. So acceleration in mathematics isn't just based on one particular test, like the SOL, that school divisions are charged with working with parents on a multitude of different measures that may show that a student should be accelerated in mathematics.

[00:55:02] And that can include things like student interest, grades, teacher recommendations, lots of other factors, a portfolio, standardized testing. So it's not just that SOL test that does trigger an automatic acceleration, but school divisions should look at multiple sources of data to decide whether or not a student should be accelerated.

[00:55:22] And then annual notification, so that annually we inform parents about this law. And then these next three are really important. So the importance of middle school math, the impact on high school math sequences, and available math courses. Juliet is going to go over all of that in a lot of detail. But Juliet and I both spend a lot of time working in middle schools in our time here in LCPS, And the placement of students in middle school math is so critical to the different pathways available to them.

[00:55:48] And that's why we really need your feedback and we need time to think about and make sure that we get this process correct and that we do put students in the place where they are going to be most successful as they begin their journey through middle school. So what Mr. Roundsley said is that from that policy, students who score in the top 25% statewide on the SOL would have that automatic acceleration.

[00:56:13] So this table is from this past spring. This shows the scores, the SOL scores, for those top 25% in the state. And so what this means is that a student who is currently in seventh grade math, so that middle row there, if in the spring they scored a 440 on their SOL, then they should be automatically placed into pre-algebra.

[00:56:38] So a student in seventh grade math would typically, the grade level course would be math seven. But if they fall within this top 25%, they're automatically into pre-algebra. Now again, parents and families do have that ability to opt out if they feel that that is not the appropriate placement or if they feel that their child might not be ready for it, that option is still there, but that's what that chart indicates.

[00:57:03] It is important to note that these scores will change slightly year after year because it's the top 25% every year when the SOL scores are released. So they might change a little bit.

[00:57:18] We do have a pretty comprehensive math course selection process already. And so the current existing process does consider, like Mr. Roundsley said, a lot of different data points, teacher recommendations, family input, student goals.

[00:57:35] And there are a lot of opportunities for acceleration within that progression. So a student who might start in a grade level progression does have opportunities to accelerate throughout. It's not just one single track. There are multiple different ways in which a student might take Algebra I in middle school as well.

[00:57:55] So there are a lot of opportunities for students to access that course, which does allow for being able to apply for some of the different magnet schools and things like Academies of Loudoun and TJ. I'll go into that in a little bit more depth. just to share with you that's what our current existing processes already have in place when you get the slide deck the link there is the current from this past year math course selection information document that's posted on our website it's already on our website if you wanted to look at it it's also the document that gets emailed out and communicated to families every year this

[00:58:32] is just interesting data to share with you this shows the percentage of LCPS middle school students who are in accelerated math courses and so if you look at this graph that blue section the 55.8% that represents our current LCPS middle school students who are already enrolled in an accelerated math course prior to the house bill even happening so before we got that house bill we already had 55.8% of our students in accelerated math courses that orange section, that 3.7%, those are the students, or that's a percentage of LCPS middle school students

[00:59:12] who were added to an accelerated course due to the house bill. So because their score fell within that top 25%, the students that weren't already in an accelerated course, it accounted for about 3.7% of our students. And so what that really shows is that about 93% of our students were We're already in an accelerated class from our existing processes.

[00:59:37] That said, it's always important, especially as we receive and look at this policy, to go through our practices again and see, are there pieces that are missing? How can we be more clear and more transparent about this process? How can we increase parent understanding about what the math courses are and why we have different recommendations and what the different pathways are?

[01:00:00] So that's what I'm going to go into now is sharing with you about that math course selection process. So it might feel a little weird that we're here in November and we're talking about course selections for the following school year, but really this process starts pretty early on.

[01:00:16] January is really when that collaborative recommendation process begins. A lot of schools might be hosting their rising sixth grader events, typically in that January February time frame. And so we're starting that conversation now. In June and July, that's when those SOL scores get released and we'll figure out or we'll find out what that top 25% is in the state and that automatic acceleration will happen. And then throughout the month of July and August is when families have that ability to do that opt-out if they choose to do so. And to support

[01:00:54] schools with scheduling because it is a large process, we want to have this conversation as early as possible so that parents and families really understand what it is that their child is taking or being automatically accelerated into. So this document, you guys, there's a QR code here if you wanted to access it. And you also have, there's a bit.ly for those of you who have a computer or if you want to take a look more deeply at home about this. This is our draft course selection document for this coming school year.

[01:01:28] So the current one on our website is from the past year, but we have made some updates and some adjustments, and we really want to get your feedback on it. I think that as we go through, I'm going to explain to you a little bit of what's in this document. But as you guys take a look at it, I'd love to hear from you.

[01:01:47] Like, what is clear in this document? What are areas that might need more clarification? and what might be some additional considerations for our office, things that we don't currently have or offer but we might want to consider offering. Here at MSAC, I'm really thinking about the families and what might help make this communication more clear for families and in understanding what these math courses are and the progression.

[01:02:14] Okay, I saw a bunch of you taking pictures, so 'cause I think most phones are done, I'm gonna go to the next slide, okay. So some of the updates that we have made in this document from the past year, is adding in that house bill annual notification to parents.

[01:02:30] So that piece of making sure that parents are notified of this process. We did add in the teacher recommendation indicators here for all families to see. So in the past, teachers have had kind of like a checklist of different items and data points to consider that they might look at when they're trying to make their recommendations.

[01:02:52] that has been now added to this parent document so that you can see these are some things that we may wanna consider when making recommendations or when choosing what math course our child might take. So it really truly is a collaborative process and not something that one person is making a decision for.

[01:03:11] We also added in some clarity about the content in middle school courses. I realize that not everybody knows this math course selection like I do, and so if I ask my husband who's not an educator, What do I mean when I say Math 7? He doesn't know what that means.

[01:03:27] Or if I say pre-algebra, he doesn't know what that means. So we try to add in a little bit more about what that course actually means and what might be some of the main content that those courses have so that parents have just a little idea of what we mean when we say Math 7, pre-algebra, and some of those other courses.

[01:03:49] One of the first things you'll see on the first page there, or maybe it's on the second page, but it's just a reminder that really, there's an emphasis on looking at multiple data points. It is not a, just because you got this score in an SOL, does that mean that this course is really the right course for you?

[01:04:05] There's a lot of other things that you may wanna consider. Yes, SOL scores is one data point we can look at. We also have pre-algebra readiness assessments that I'll talk about in a minute. We have MAP and other standardized assessment data. We have teacher observations and recommendations, we also have family input and recommendations and then also students what are their interests and their goals and aspirations we want to consider what is it that students are looking for we also look at classroom grades and thinking about their students mathematical understanding where are they in their reasoning and their thinking all of those different pieces help make an informed decision

[01:04:44] of what course a student might want to take as they go throughout middle school and high school So one of the things I mentioned is that we have now added those teacher recommendation indicators to this document. And so what you'll see on that page in the document is different student assessment data that you may want to consider, student observational data that you may want to consider, and also student aspirational data that you might want to consider.

[01:05:13] What might be some of the long-term goals? So all of those indicators are in this document so that hopefully it's clear why there are recommendations made. And as you go in with your child to select a course in their school links process, you have more of an idea and understanding of what it is that you're selecting. Okay, so what I'm going to outline for you now are the different math course pathways. I'm going to go one at a time of all the different possible pathways a student might have. So this right here is your

[01:05:47] grade-level mathematics courses. This is one possible pathway. What I'll show you you is that there are a lot of flexible pathways in middle school where there's a lot of movement people can skip some courses and you know go slow or go faster there's different options and opportunities for that but what's shown here is what the grade level courses are so in sixth grade the grade level course would be math six and seventh grade the grade level course would be math seven in eighth grade the grade level course would be pre algebra or math eight and then so on and so forth you'll notice there in grade 12 it

[01:06:25] looks like a lot of different courses because as they get to high school, there's a lot more options to choose from. It doesn't always just follow. It's not just there's a math six and a math seven and a pre-algebra. They have options like probability and statistics or data science. There's different options available at that point. This next line is an example of a pathway a student might take that is an accelerated math pathway. So what that means is a student in sixth grade might take math seven instead. So they're one grade level advanced. Then in eighth grade, they would then take pre-algebra. Then in, or sorry, in seventh

[01:07:05] grade, they take pre-algebra. And then in eighth grade, they take algebra one and then keep going and so on and so forth from there. So this is just, again, one possible progression of an advanced course pathway. Now, most students are going to, as they go into middle school, choose from math six or math seven. We do recognize that there are some students who show readiness for further acceleration. And so we do have a pathway for students who may take pre-algebra in sixth grade.

[01:07:38] This is an additional acceleration. So this is more than a grade of acceleration. There, once it gets to this level, there is a district process that we follow. I'll share with you a little bit about that pre-algebra readiness assessment that we have. But a student who is in this additionally accelerated pathway would take pre-algebra in sixth grade, they would take algebra one in seventh grade, then they would access geometry at the eighth grade level and then go on from there.

[01:08:08] A student who follows this path is able to take AP Calculus in high school and get to multi-variable calculus by the time they finish high school. And that's essentially like Calc 3. Now, while not a typical path, we do recognize that there are students who may be ready for even further acceleration.

[01:08:28] So there is a single subject acceleration pathway. Again, at this level, it does go through a district process. Students who are in that single subject acceleration gets referred to the gifted office, and it follows a process that the gifted office goes through.

[01:08:46] A student who might follow this pathway would take Algebra I in sixth grade. They would then take Geometry in seventh grade, algebra two trig in eighth grade and they would keep going. Something you might notice, there's a blank box in grade 12 and that's because there's no further calculus based course after multivariable calculus that we have in this county. There are courses they can take. Students can take AP statistics, they can go the data science route, they can take AP computer science, but there's no calculus-based root that goes beyond multivariable. So that is always something to consider when

[01:09:25] we have students who take Algebra I at the sixth grade level. So one of the things I shared, these pathways that I just outlined for you, those are just one possible pathway, right? There are a lot of flexible pathways within the middle school math courses. And so I'm going to break down what each these arrows sort of mean. So here's an example. If there's a student who is, whose goal is to take Algebra 1 in eighth grade or by eighth grade, this is a student, if you want to apply for the Academies

[01:10:00] of Loudoun, Academies of Engineering and Technology, or Academy of Science, if you want to apply for TJ, there is a requirement that the student takes Algebra 1 by eighth grade. So if that is an aspiration of the student, then the pathway that we really recommend they follow is this one right here, where they take Math 7 in 6th grade, then they take pre-algebra in 7th grade, then they take Algebra 1 after that.

[01:10:26] And the reason for that is that pre-algebra really gives you those foundational skills for Algebra 1. It's called pre-algebra because it really preps you for Algebra 1. And so we don't want students to skip pre-algebra if possible. This would be the recommended pathway so that they really do have the foundational knowledge they need to find success in Algebra 1. Now that said, here's another pathway. Let's say, you know, sixth grade, that's a big year. There's a lot of change for students. I worked, like Mr. Roundsley said, I worked in the middle school for many years and sixth grade is a huge transition. And so perhaps

[01:11:04] Math 6 feels more appropriate for my child because there's so many other things I know that are going on. And so if your child takes Math 6, that doesn't mean they're not going to be able to take Algebra 1 by eighth grade. There's other ways they can get there. They could take math six in sixth grade.

[01:11:21] They could then take pre-algebra in seventh grade and then algebra one in eighth grade. They can skip that math seven. So if they're really finding success in math six in sixth grade, they can make that jump from math six to pre-algebra. So that is an option. And then here's yet another option.

[01:11:39] They can go sixth grade math six, seventh grade math seven, and then they can skip pre-algebra to then take Algebra 1. So there's a lot of different ways that a student can get there. Personally, I think it's important for students to take that pre-algebra course, which is why we kind of have those other ones outlined, as that's probably more ideal.

[01:11:59] And we also know that it takes time for students to sometimes fully develop understanding of math, and it just might happen at different times for students. Yes, you have a question? Yes. Oh, yeah.

[01:12:18] So TJ is Thomas Jefferson High School. it's in fairfax but it is a magnet school we have the academies of loud in here and there are some students who go to tj or apply to tj i don't know if there's anything more about tj that's as much as i know i know it's a magnet school yeah it's a magnet school in fairfax county that loudon students and other surrounding jurisdictions too can go through a competitive application process and they could attend there as for their high school for a comprehensive high school so the the Academies of Loudon are here in Loudon. Students remain at their home high school and

[01:12:58] then go one day to the Academies of Loudon. If a student was to go to TJ, that would be their high school. They would take a bus there every day to Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria.

[01:13:17] Yeah, so Math 7 versus Pre-Algebra. So Pre-Algebra is going to give you a lot of the, actually, can I, I'm going to X out of this and show you a document. This is the document that you guys had the QR code for. And so if I explain it, this is probably going to be the best way to explain the difference. Let me see if I can make it bigger. You guys see that sort of? Oh yeah, it's big behind me. Okay, so math 7 really builds on, you can see prior knowledge, it's a lot of fractions, decimals, and integers, which is building on what they learned in math 6. There's a lot of

[01:13:55] proportional reasoning. That's a big part of math 7. There's a lot of rational numbers. It does have few new concepts like square roots and then when they get to pre-algebra it does build upon that proportional reasoning I feel like this is probably the most important thing when you get to some of these courses of really understanding proportions it introduces some new things like the real number system radicals so here they're doing square roots and here it gets a little bit more complex with radicals so it starts building some of these skills that they

[01:14:30] really that it just really strengthens their understanding then of algebra. It's not impossible like you saw in that pathway. You can still go the route of skipping it and we also really believe this is a crucial course to being able to really find success in that algebra one class. But that was a great question and I'm glad you asked that because that was exactly why we added that on this document because we figured there would be parents who don't know the difference of that because why would you if that's not something that you do every day, right? So hopefully that will help

[01:15:04] having that in there. Okay, so then here's kind of another one. So remember that additional accelerated path for students who take that pre-algebra. If someone is interested in taking geometry by eighth grade, then they will need to take that pre-algebra track. That is really the only way for them to do that. And then I think this is the last one. Well, actually, here's an alternate way they can do it. I guess they can get to geometry if they take math 7, then again, skip that pre-algebra, take algebra 1, and then take geometry. So those are the two ways then they

[01:15:41] can get to geometry. Okay, before I get to this, I'm going to pause because there was a lot of information just thrown at you and shared. So take some time to think and maybe just kind of check in with the people at your table. What are some of your thinking or what are some feedback that you're thinking about or what questions do you have before I move on to the next section?

[01:16:12] Oh, great question. So there are some opportunities for summer courses. I think that when you are taking these math courses, the full year is going to definitely give you the best understanding of the course.

[01:16:27] If you were going to take any course over the summer, though, geometry would be the one to do. Like, I would not take-- I don't even know that you can. I wouldn't take Algebra 1 over the summer. That would not be good, because Algebra 1 is really the basis for everything. So if you were going to take a course in the summer, Geometry would definitely be the one, but you will, I mean, at the end of the day, you'll get a better understanding if you have a full year of the course. What other questions are coming up

[01:16:53] for you guys? Yeah.

[01:17:11] That would only be in fifth grade right now. Yeah. Yeah. So in sixth grade, the class that you would take is math six. However, I mean, you do bring up a great point.

[01:17:35] There's a lot of ways in which we are trying to support teachers with that. So through our curriculum resources and providing supports for teachers to be able to support students. So students who might come into their class with some significant deficits, we have in our curriculum unit guides a student-centered section where we really try to identify what might be some skills that students are struggling with and what can we do to help address those skills.

[01:18:03] We also do have an intervention program through our MTSS modules and things like that. And so we do have middle schools have a student who might be identified in need of tier two or tier three intervention will be receiving intervention services where they'll get some more of that.

[01:18:21] Like if there are a couple grade levels behind in their content where they'll get that content. Yeah, sure. Yes.

[01:18:43] Yes. I don't know if you wanted to speak more on that. I mean, because they do have a standard diploma and an advanced diploma option. Based on which diploma you're going for, there are different requirements of how many math courses you have to take and pass and pass the SOL four.

[01:19:03] Is there like specifics that you would add to that? There are specifics. So for like a advanced studies diploma, you would have to pass algebra one, geometry, and then two classes, algebra two or beyond. So four classes of math.

[01:19:20] That's a little bit different for a standard diploma, but just in the way that Math 6 is the first course that you can take in middle school, Algebra 1 is the lowest course that a student could start in ninth grade with, correct? Yeah. And, but there are lots of different progressions that help a student get all of the credits that they need in order to graduate, and a lot of supports and interventions along the way, different ways that we can structure those courses to help students find success and graduate.

[01:19:49] Okay. So the last little things to share with you here is just about that additional acceleration process. So we do have that pre-algebra readiness assessment that I mentioned earlier, and that's administered to fifth grade students at their home school in the January-February time frame.

[01:20:08] That's communicated out to all of the elementary schools so they know that they can start administering this assessment. This assessment covers Math 6 and Math 7 standards. And so if a student is going to be taking pre-algebra in sixth grade, that means they're going from fifth grade, math five, to essentially math eight.

[01:20:31] So they're skipping math six and math seven. So if a student is going to do this, it's for families to understand what's happening is you're skipping math six and math seven, two full grades of math. And so that's what's on this pre-algebra readiness assessment.

[01:20:47] When the division makes a recommendation for a student to take pre-algebra in sixth grade again multiple data points are considered because we recognize that perhaps they had a bad day when they took this test. That one test should not make that make or break that decision and so we look at other assessment indicators like SOLs and map scores and just kind of looking at consistent trends over time to help guide that recommendation. So there's a lot of different pieces that are put into that but that pre-algebra readiness assessment is an additional assessment data point that is used and then again for that single subject acceleration

[01:21:25] that gets referred to the gifted office and they have a process that they follow to make that recommendation currently this is how we communicate this information out so we have that course selection document which the one that you guys have that draft it's not translated yet and it will be we typically translated into the top five languages we just want to get all of your feedback and feedback from different community groups before we solidify and finalize that document to get it translated we do post it on our LCPS math website so it's there for parents and families to access and it is also

[01:22:04] emailed to all rising sixth through twelfth grade families every year through the counseling office that email usually comes in January and that is one part of the whole recommendation and course selection process in this document we also link videos where they where we explain just like I explained to you what those different pathways are we kind of go through and explain that document so those are the different ways that we currently communicate this information and the form that I'm going to share with you after this for feedback we'd love to hear from you is that working is it not what could make

[01:22:40] that communication better and more clear for parents and families. So really, that's kind of the end of our presentation. I'm going to open it up now for any additional questions and feedback, so one and then two.

[01:22:57] Based on your request for feedback, have you seen statistical information that suggests that certain demographics are not getting this information or not being represented in the accelerated program? So I don't have hard data to share right now.

[01:23:13] And at the same time, I also know there's always people who come to us saying they didn't know. They didn't know about X, Y, or Z. I think that's something that I always think about when looking at documents like this that do go out to the public.

[01:23:30] I think about, I think about my grandmother who didn't speak any English and would she be able to understand this, even if it were translated into Korean. And so that's what I really am wondering. Like, if you were to receive this document, would you even understand what it says?

[01:23:47] Like, is it something that is readable and understandable? Because I think that for my grandma, if she were to see this document in Korean, I don't know. Would she understand it? Because is it still in a language that she doesn't quite understand? And so that's, I don't necessarily have that hard data right now.

[01:24:05] I could pull that data, I'm sure. But I think that the reason I'm asking for this feedback on this is because I'm thinking about her. I'm thinking about people who I think the lady said, like, you know, comes new to this country. How do they understand this? And how do they make an informed decision for their child?

[01:24:22] Think ahead. One, two, three. Could you use the microphone? Could you use the microphone so we can hear? Do all of the students in fifth grade take the pre-algebra readiness assessment?

[01:24:40] So that is a really great question. So in years past, and this is an area, again, so I would love your feedback on this. In years past, it's been an opt-in process where families or schools communicate that out to families and parents can opt in.

[01:24:55] There's like a form that gets sent out to see if their child wants to take, or they want their child to take that assessment. We realize and recognize that that might not catch everybody who wants to take it. And so that is an area that we are really open to feedback from you all.

[01:25:11] We've been posing the same question to principals and schools and teachers and counselors to see what is a way that we can make that process more equitable so that we don't have people who say, "Oh, I didn't even know that this was even an option." Because I know as a parent, I get a lot of emails and I get a lot of permission clicks and I might miss that.

[01:25:30] And so how can we make that process more fair? So in this feedback form, if you have some ideas or suggestions or considerations, we would definitely love to hear that then, yep. - And I just wanted to boost the idea that making sure that the accelerated math program is accessible to all demographics in our county, we should be able to make sure that it is equitable across all demographics in our county.

[01:26:00] Absolutely. And the math department should probably, like, I think we can absolutely pull that data and just make sure that all the pie charts match. Yep. Thank you. Somebody over there.

[01:26:23] Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:26:39] Great question. So one of the things that historically we've been trying to balance was over testing and then also students who, because the assessment is all math six and seven standards, let's say there's a student like that lady was saying, like, let's say there's a student who is really just struggling in math five, that taking that test can be pretty defeating.

[01:27:04] If they're taking it, they have no idea what's on that page because it's all 6th and 7th grade math. And that can be hard for a child, too. And so it's trying to balance that with also giving everyone an equal opportunity to take it.

[01:27:22] Yeah. Oh, and you. Sorry. One, two. Just, like, I went to college and so did my dad. And so I know that that test is really important. But maybe somebody whose parents didn't might not know. I just want to say that. Yeah.

[01:27:37] Yeah. Yeah, sorry, you had your hand up. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the presentation and the information. I am looking forward to getting these slides. But I guess for the communities that we serve here as M-TAC delegates in the room, there was a chart that had metrics. It was like 93% of LCPS were already in accelerated math.

[01:27:57] Do you have that information for other demographic groups? I'm interested in ethnicities as well as gender. Sure. Because I think when you come, I know part of what your outreach is going to be to different community groups, pending who that group is, they're going to be interested in that information.

[01:28:14] And I think that'll help us amplify and promote these options to the communities that we serve and we work with. Absolutely. So taking this data and breaking it down and kind of disaggregating it based on some of the different demographics. We can definitely do that. And I think she said one more question and there was somebody's hand up and was in the back.

[01:28:33] Oh, that was it. Just kidding. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Just to unplug this. - We thank you all so much.

[01:28:51] That was very informative. So what we wanna do next is, and we'll be sure to send out the slide deck to all of you. So we wanna make sure that we don't miss any of you. So on your tables, there are QR codes where you can make sure that you sign in as a delegate.

[01:29:14] But in the back of the room, There are attendance sheets for the rest of you that are here. So if you would like that information to be emailed to you, please make sure that you fill out the attendance roster in the back and provide us with your email address, and we'll make sure you get that information.

[01:29:35] And so now we have some time left for Aaron to come up and provide us with some information. And these are just refreshers to those of us who have served as delegates in the past, and it might just be new for you who are new to the role of delegate.

[01:29:55] So I'm going to ask Erin. Come on.

[01:30:24] Okay. So I know it's been a long evening, and I have a whole basket of chocolate. So if you work with me and you ride with me to get through this, please come get some chocolate. Chocolate makes everything better. So for those of you that don't know, my name is Erin Kunkel.

[01:30:40] I am the immediate past chair of MSAC. So I have a question and then we're diving right in. Can I get a show of hands of the number of people in the room that are returning MSAC delegates? Hi, y'all. Okay, now can I get a show of hands of the number of people who are new delegates to MSAC?

[01:30:57] First time, welcome, we are so happy you're here. Now, can I get any of our student delegates or student equity ambassadors? Over there, hi, thank you. Okay, so as always, we are so excited to welcome you to the MSAC team.

[01:31:19] We know you're eager to begin your role, so tonight we're going to discuss the answers to the most common questions that you all have either had in your head or you've been asking for however long. I'm going to try to cover it all briefly and give you as much detail, but stick with me to the end because there's going to be a way that you can come back and we can get together and we can go more in-depth.

[01:31:42] So, this is our mission statement. You see it, you hear it, you know it. I just want to highlight that last sentence as always that MSAC is also dedicated to building a school system that is culturally and socially competent and positioned to provide fair and equitable learning experiences for all students.

[01:32:00] When you go into your schools as a delegate and when you go in to spaces, when you attend events and everything, please keep that in mind as that although our purview is for the minority and marginalized students in our communities, the work we do really does benefit all students in LCPS. We're not just saying we're opening the doors for some and shutting it in the faces of others. We're opening it for all students so all students can live their dreams and achieve whatever greatness is in store for them. So briefly, MSAC was created through the fierce advocacy of families and community members who believed every child deserves equitable access, representation,

[01:32:39] and opportunity. Their courage and their collaborations and their determination created MSAC. Our continuing advocacy keeps it in motion. So why are we here? We're here to connect families, students, and schools from awareness to action. We know. We know that we see things and we experience things. In a show of hands, how many people came to MSAC because something happened at their school with their child or they witnessed something happening and it didn't sit right with them?

[01:33:10] How many people came to MSAC for that reason? Okay. How many people came to MSAC because they wanted to make our school division better. Okay, so our mission is simply that, that every student is seen, every voice is heard in every school, and even this division is continuing to move forward.

[01:33:33] So what does it mean to be an MSAC delegate? I'm going to keep it simple and I'm going to keep it real. Show up. You got to come to the meetings, you got to show up to your PTO meetings, and you have to let us know. Communicate with us if you cannot make it. Send a quick email and say, hi, I'm not going to make it tonight, I'll read into everything and I'll listen to the meetings and everything like that, but you can't be a delegate and be active if you sign up and then you never come but once in that year and then you don't know what's going on or what's happening.

[01:34:06] Showing up to the meetings and just engaging in these conversations and hearing these presentations is the most important thing you can do. The next thing you can do is share your updates. Share updates, minutes, resources, and calls to action. Even if you're in your PTO, and we'll get to that in a few minutes, if you're in your PTO and you have an update, share the update, and I'm going to give you a cheat code for what you do if your meeting happens to come before you come to an MSAC meeting, or it's pretty quiet on the MSAC end.

[01:34:38] And be visible in your school. This can be hard. I know it can be hard, because how many introverts? Who's an introvert? Gotcha. Who is an extrovert? Okay. Now, I want to know if you are my people.

[01:34:55] Who is an introverted extrovert? You only do it because you have to. And that is so hard to go into a space where you worry about how you're going to be received, how your message is going to be received, and everything like that. But show up to your school and let them know that you're here to help.

[01:35:13] You can open so many doors. You can break through so many barriers and biases by just showing up. I spent time in my school, my kids' elementary school, when they would have events and they would be handing out popsicles. Do you need scissors? Do you need a popsicle cutter? And I would just stand there and cut popsicles.

[01:35:30] And then people would come up and talk to me and say, what do you do again? And then I would just tell them, cutting popsicles, this is what I do. Do you want to know more? Would you like a popsicle? And it was the way they got to know me. It would be like, do you need me to set up these flyers? Do you need me to clean up this table? What can I do? Oh, you need a parent to bring candy.

[01:35:47] Showing up and letting them know I am here to help. sends the message that when I then need to talk to you about this serious issue, you know I mean business. I'm not just here to pick a fight and start something. So just show up and be there to

[01:36:01] help. So what can your first steps be? How many of you have met your equity team? Hold on. We've

[01:36:59] got hugs, we've got candy canes, and we've got Grinches. So now, if you've met your equity team, that is the first step. Your equity team is your principal, your PTO, and your equity leads. Tack onto that if your school has student equity ambassadors and MSAC student delegates, then you're part of that team.

[01:37:20] Get to know them. Have a conversation with them. Now, here's the hard part. If you're going into your school and you're having that first meeting with your principal, your equity lead, and your PTO president, and you don't know what to do, start here.

[01:37:37] Ask them what are their intentions and expectations for you as an MSAC delegate. Hear them out. hear what they have to say, hear what they're looking for in this role. But in your mind, have your intentions as well. Tell them what you're here to do. Tell them what you're hoping to accomplish, how you feel you can help the school. And then set one goal. My first meeting with my principal at the elementary school started with the simplest conversation. And people are like, you've got to be kidding me. He said, how are you? And I was like, nobody has asked me that in like two weeks.

[01:38:15] This is post-COVID, everything's coming back open, kids are in masks, my kids are stressed out about being back in school, everything's crowded, and he was the first person to ask me in weeks, how are you doing? And I returned the question, and we spent an hour discussing what does that mean in our school, and suddenly we had the idea.

[01:38:34] Let's bring back community connections. Let's bring back engaging in conversations where we let them know we're not just here, separate from you and our business is your kids, but we're here to help and we're here to be a part of your life in this small way.

[01:38:51] And that conversation led to more conversations, led to more people getting in on the conversations and eventually led to an event where we found out things that our school wanted us to know. We heard from parents, family members, we even heard from teachers telling us things that they didn't know because nobody had thought to ask them the question.

[01:39:13] How many of you are on your PTO agenda? Yay! If you are not on your PTO agenda, I'm going to be really honest with you. Get on the agenda and keep your slot. Do not give it up. If they put you at the very bottom of that sheet of paper where I was, like right before the principal, keep your spot.

[01:39:36] Do not give it up. If you don't have anything to share from the meeting because we hadn't met that month or we meet two weeks later after your PTO meeting, Then go through the peach jar. I would literally sit there and scroll through the peach jar, through the PTO meeting, like, what is happening?

[01:39:54] What is going on? Looking for something that I could show them and share with my PTO that related to equity, but also was like, here you go. This benefits all our kids. This is a great idea. Or I was sharing things that I might have heard because I went to a school board meeting.

[01:40:11] Or if our LEAF person said, we're reviewing the policies, I would say, "Oh, thank you so much for sharing that policy. I just want to let you know what MSAC is doing in our feedback for the policy." I would just pull it up and I would share it because even if it's not what you might think is important, it is important because they're hearing from the MSAC delegate and they're getting it from a different perspective.

[01:40:35] And I was at the equity committee meeting a couple weeks ago and two things stood out to me and they stuck with me as I was preparing this presentation. The first was Dr. Ellis Williams reminded everybody in the room that DEIA is the golden thread throughout our division.

[01:40:53] Like it ties us together. It's what, it's like the bond that sticks us together, that brings us together. And then Mr. Estreffy, school board member said, it is the role of these advisory committees like MSAC, LEAF, and SEAC to let everybody know what the blind spots are.

[01:41:10] I thought of, I was watching Disney movies, Jiminy Cricket. We sit on the shoulders and we're kind of just tapping, saying, hey, are you thinking of everybody? Excuse me, does this impact everybody? How is this program going to help all of our students or all of our students being thought of?

[01:41:26] That's our role, is just to say, don't forget about us. We're over here, or these students need representation. These students need to know about it. These families aren't getting that message. That's your role on that PTO agenda, to remind them. And yes, I could be obnoxious, it's me.

[01:41:45] I could be really, really bright and happy, and I'd be like, look, this is so exciting. And I was like, if I'm excited about it, you're gonna get excited about it. And eventually, I would have people saying, we didn't see you last week, what was going on? Like, what's happening, what's going on? And I would be like, putting out those updates.

[01:42:00] That's what that spot is for. Get your spot, don't give it up, stay on there. There's always something to report, always something to share. Lastly, how many of you guys fill out Or read the policies and email our policy lead back when he sends out the policies.

[01:42:22] Tell the truth. Thank you. Yay. I have chocolate for you. Thank you. Okay. Will you do me a favor? Will you try? Even if he sends 15, one, just one policy, and I'm going to say this, your feedback matters.

[01:42:38] I know it sounds like it doesn't. I know. We are not lawyers. Some of us do not have the bandwidth. Some of us do not have the brain strength at the end of the night to sit down and read through a policy, but you looking at a policy, there could be one word that reads like it's inflicting harm, or it's freezing out students, or it's changing something, and it's leaving gaps, and you seeing that one word and providing that feedback, does it make a difference all the time?

[01:43:06] No, but at least they hear it, and they see it, and they see our feedback, and everyone that's an MSAC delegate that contributes their feedback can make a big impact and we can make small changes. And it's one way that we can continue to grow and to be better and to effectively serve our division and our families that we represent. So please try to do your policy feedback. Next up, the MSAC way. Here are the fine print. I'm going to go fast. We are nonpartisan and apolitical we welcome every voice and advocate for all we're a safe and inclusive space and again

[01:43:46] here everyone is welcome and encouraged to enjoy to join the conversation we're all grown folks i'm not going to tell you what to post on it i'm not going to tell you what to say just be mindful of your social media if you feel like going off the deep end and you feel like you got some to say and it is a fire tweet and you are spitting bars on threads or x or in your instagram maybe consider putting it in your group chat with your people who know you love you and you're not going to be like girl you could not put that on there your friends don't say that

[01:44:23] i'm just saying be mindful of what you post we represent more than just ourselves i know this lesson well. You can just not, it's hard, but you just have to be mindful. That's all I'm going to say. Lastly, we're asking you to reach out. If you need help, if you need encouragement, if you have a question, if you have feedback, your executive board is here to help. You are not alone. Now I'm looking at the clock and I know we have time running out and we were going to do some round tables and I really wanted you guys to do the round tables, but I'm going to make a compromise because we're short on time.

[01:45:02] These are our table topic discussions that we were going to do. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to wrap it up and I'm going to go straight to the end. And so I would like you all to know that on December 10th, in just a few weeks, I'm going to be hosting a fireside chat.

[01:45:18] I'm going to send out the virtual Google Meet link for anybody to come and you can join me in this fireside chat. We have real talk. We take real questions. We don't pull punches. This is our safe space and our place to ask questions, get answered, and we will go through some of these questions.

[01:45:34] I do encourage you, if you have questions about the policy process, to go see our wonderful policy lead, Rod. He is over there. If, Rod, you would raise your hand. He's got, we've got a whole stack, a whole flyer for you guys that has a presentation that we presented last year about our policy feedback process, so maybe it can demystify some of that.

[01:45:57] As you're leaving tonight, we have some flyers. Grab a few, take them to your school, put them out. Ask if you can put them in your front office, share them at your PTO meetings. We can always get more printed out. If you need more first steps on your table, there's a front and back one pager.

[01:46:20] Please use that, please read that. If you have questions and you want to know anything, I am here to help. I'm more than happy to do it. I will be hosting more than one fireside chat, so if you can't come in December, look out for the invitation to come in January. but if you just need one-on-one discussions, talk, anything like that, please let me know.

[01:46:39] If I owe you chocolate at the end of the evening, just please come and get chocolate out of my basket. Again, we have Grinches, hugs, and candy cane kisses, and so I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad you're working with us. I'm so glad to get to know you. It's been a pleasure to know as many people as I have. You can do this. It is not hard. Make it your own. What works at your school does not work at my school does not work at everybody else's school find your spot find what feels comfortable for you and go for it you can make a change and you can make a difference in

[01:47:11] your life and your students lives yes sir um we are probably aiming for 6 30. i'm going to put it all out in the invitation but with that i'm going to turn it back over to our wonderful chair have a good evening thank you for your time see you later thank you so much um don't you just love her energy love love love yeah and so I do want to remind you to be mindful of all that you was

[01:47:47] presented to you tonight it was a lot of great information we will definitely get those slide decks out to you so please be sure to us make sure that you register your name on our attendance sheets, whether it's in the back of the room or using the QR codes on your tables, because we want to make sure we don't miss you.

[01:48:10] I've had some email messages to bounce back, and I want to be sure that everyone is receiving the correct information when we do send it out. Again, we have our communications chair over here. And so she is working on reviving the newsletter.

[01:48:34] She should have sent something out to you. Many of you may have received her first draft. We're going to make sure that we get that information out to you on a consistent basis. Anything that you may have missed, it will contain links.

[01:48:51] It will contain dates to important events that you need to know. reminders again that we have come up with a date for our equity which is May 2nd and then we're also looking at hosting our career event in the month of March of next year so more to come but we do want your input any feedback that you might have concerning what you think would be a positive

[01:49:25] impact something that those for especially for those of you who have been here in previous years and have attended these type of events if you think that we've probably missed something that you would like to see share that information as Aaron mentioned we love hearing from you we love hearing your thoughts and so while it was great information that we received tonight we really did want to have that um these tabletop discussions and so fireside chats I do encourage you to make

[01:49:59] sure that you attend them um are there any questions from anyone right now yes go ahead sorry I have two things that I wanted to address um because there was a curriculum for social studies review that was sent out for the parents I believe over the summer or early in the year and many parents did apply for that but all of the ones that I know did not get it so I wanted to know if there was any MSAC delegate that did get on these reviews for the social studies curriculum. And if not, if we could ask for MSAC delegates to be on these, or at least

[01:50:38] equity leads, because it's very important. And along the same lines, Jamestown is being taught again, of course, as it always is in fourth grade. And there are some problematic, to say the least, resources that are being used referring to slavery as forced work program and other sorts of things.

[01:51:00] So I just wanted to address those and see what we can do about that. Okay, go ahead. Hi, I have a praise report for LCPS, MSAC, this group, and the school that I represent is Kenneth Colbert.

[01:51:22] Well, it was a racial slur event last month on the same day we had this meeting. And before I can go through all the policy, because I printed it out, to go through all the policies, I met with the principal the next day after our meeting on November 18th and talked with the principal and the counselor.

[01:51:42] And lo and behold, Mr. Muhammad had attended a meeting that same day, and they were able to roll out a communication to all parents about racial slurs and that kindness lives in our community. And I just want to give kudos to Mr. Muhammad and this group and this team and all the information that we receive.

[01:52:05] It can be implemented with time and communication and collaboration with your school. And that's what I wanted to share with everyone. Thank you for sharing. And thank you, Mr. Muhammad. Yes. Thank you. Anything else?

[01:52:22] Go ahead. I think I probably say this every year, but as much as I greatly value a lot of the presentations that we get, It seems like we always run out of this time, the time we really need as delegates to talk to each other and to address and kind of cross-examine what's happening around our county and looking at different areas.

[01:52:46] So if we can dedicate a little more time for engagement within the delegates between each other and addressing what is happening and how we can proactively also be part of that engagement within the division as a whole, because I do feel like this is my fifth year and it just feels like the presentations can become redundant sometime at the expense of some of the work we can do.

[01:53:15] So if we can just dedicate a little more time for engagement for us. Yes, received. And I would also ask that before we send out an agenda, if you could send questions into us or topics that you'd like for us to delve into during our discussion, that would be very helpful.

[01:53:38] So received. Thank you. Yes, Ms. Nico. Would it be possible to establish a delegate WhatsApp group where we can share information very rapidly? Yes. So I'm new this year, and I'm not sure if this is under our purview, but I know there was a joint school board and board of supervisors meeting on Monday night,

[01:54:15] and they were talking about the agreement between the Loudoun County Sheriff's Department and the school board, And there was certain language that was coming out of the agreement. And I'm wondering if, as MSAC delegates, like, what our role and position in sharing that information with our schools to make sure parents are informed about the changes that are happening or if they're happening and just about, like, opportunities to show up and speak out on behalf of our tiny people.

[01:54:49] Yes, I would encourage you to definitely share that information. I do believe Erin attended that meeting, and she did represent as a parent as well as MSAC. Go ahead. Oh, just right fast.

[01:55:05] I will tell you that I did offer a public comment, and that when they were asking questions of both the division and the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, MSAC was well represented. They asked specifically about the language that we provided and our feedback. We do have that feedback that we provided to the MOU.

[01:55:24] And so they were aware, you know. But we did, and we were also very much aligned with SEAC's feedback as well. So we, both I was there, and the SEAC chair, Shanaz, was there. So we kind of tag-teamed.

[01:55:41] She went first, and somebody up went next, and then I was last. So they knew that we had questions and we had concerns. So they're not blind. They have our comments. And I was grateful to our school board members that asked specifics about our comments, and even some of the Board of Supervisors did so.

[01:55:57] So they know what our thoughts are and they know we have concerns. All right. Well, if there are no other questions, again, I want to thank all of you for attending tonight. Look forward to more information coming out, more information where we will present you with questions but also receive questions from you and you'll have an opportunity to, you know, more input into what our agenda looks like and those topics that we really want to discuss.

[01:56:34] With that, I am going to close out this meeting, so thank you all so much.

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