Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Performance Monitoring Committee Meeting, Tuesday, April 7, 2026

Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2026
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 21m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1180965265?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-11. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] All right. Good afternoon. My name is Amy Riccardi. I am the chair of this committee and I'm joined by Ms. Chandler and Ms. Chernoff and we appreciate everybody's presence here today. The purpose of our meeting is to work through our agenda items to include, well, we don't have public comment so we won't be doing that, but there's three information items this afternoon, program evaluation, vowels and map updates and data dashboard discussion.

[00:00:25] the first order of business for us will be item 2.01 public comment which we don't have so we'll move down here to 3.0 approval of our minutes have you all had a chance to take a look at those great are there any corrections or additions all right if there are no objections or corrections then i'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes from the march 3rd 2022 meeting 2026 meeting sorry i move to approve the draft minutes for the march 3rd 2026 meeting second great so it's been moved and seconded so all those in favor say aye

[00:01:02] aye the minutes are approved from the March 3rd 2026 meeting we'll move on to 4.01 Department of Academics program evaluations presented by Dr. Ryan Tyler director of research assessment and school improvement and Dr. Blake Glock supervisor of research and evaluation under the staff reference of of Dr. Ashley Ellis, Chief Academic Officer.

[00:01:33] I'll let you guys go. - Thank you, Chair Accardie. So we're here today to talk about program evaluation for, to talk, go over just a quick explanation of program evaluation, review the current year schedule, and then take a look at the proposed schedule for next year.

[00:01:51] And the way we conduct program evaluation is grounded in policy 3310, which was passed several years ago, really to build a culture of continuous improvement for programs to be thinking about it from a continuous improvement perspective. The approach we take is really a plan-do-study-act approach where ultimately you're implementing a program, you're looking at data associated with it, and you're tweaking it along the way and seeing if you're making the impact that you're looking to do.

[00:02:19] The point being, the big point being, is that it is cyclical. It's not something that is one and done and then over with, but it's something that is continued to go around. So the steps we have when we're conducting program evaluation, we develop a logic model, and what the logic model does is it helps define the program. It connects the needs, goals, resources, activities, and outcomes, and what it helps people understand is, is the program being implemented as it's designed? Is it being implemented with fidelity? The next phase of it is going to be the evaluation design itself, which actually measures the outcomes of the program, the desired outcomes, and

[00:02:58] Really, we take an approach where we're creating research questions, identifying data sources, assigning responsibilities, so it's really also a plan for how the program evaluation is going to occur. We then go through the data collection. We do that throughout the school year, and then we will develop reports based on what we found over the course of the summer and into the early fall.

[00:03:17] So if we take a look at the next slide, we can see the definition of a program itself, which is basically a set of planned systematic activities using managed resources. It's achieving a specific goal.

[00:03:33] I'm not going to read the whole thing to you, but ultimately it's a very defined concept that we are focusing on when we're doing a program evaluation of what the program actually is. So if we can go to the next slide. What you see here is just a quick summary of the 24-25.

[00:03:50] You'll see that they're all been reported out on. There's one report being finalized, but those reports are published on the research office website for people to look at. And those data have popped up in a variety of different committee meetings over the course of the year, so it's been really good to see those concepts take hold and help influence different decisions.

[00:04:11] When we look at this year, on the next slide, we look at the programs that we're doing this year, and they're all in a data collection phase with the exception of middle school, summer school. That one's like right on the edge of going into the data collection sign.

[00:04:26] We're just finishing up the evaluation design. We do five programs a year. This one shows up at six because summer school, when we looked at it with elementary and middle, the programs were just too different to try to put under a single one. So we broke them in two and worked with each of those programs separately.

[00:04:44] And the next slide shows that one of the things we also do is we also consult with programs. We will offer consultative services to any program that wants to develop an evaluation for themselves. And two of the ones that you see on here are going to be Academy of Global and Liquistic Studies and Health and Medical Sciences Academy.

[00:05:03] The other practice we've engaged in is that as programs are coming online, as they're being launched, we're meeting with the team to help develop the logic model and evaluation design because that's really the best practice is for the evaluation concepts to start at the beginning so people can start reviewing their data and make sure that their program is going as they helped it did.

[00:05:21] And you can see the other support that we're adding here. And that brings us to the final slide we have here, which is going to be what it is that we are going to do next year. The program evaluation schedule is designed, is developed by collaboration between school board and superintendent.

[00:05:38] And so cabinet has reviewed these concepts, and this is what they came with as far as the different programs, the educational diagnosticians, adaptive PE, the phase component of the English Learner Office, English Learner Professional Development, and the Family Community Engagement Office, Family Liaisons specifically. So ultimately, the question becomes, what is it that you would like to see evaluated? Do these programs resonate with you? Are there programs that you would like to see on the schedule instead? And that's really where the question comes in. So I'm going to pause

[00:06:16] now, see if there's any questions or any thoughts about the programs that are on the schedule right now. Great. Thank you so much. Any questions? Thank you, Chair Riccardi. My question, first of all, thank you. And I've been in the loop on this a little bit longer than my colleagues being on PMC. I remember, I just wanted to refresh our memory. There was a list of all the programs you sent them to us. It was posted, I think, in another agenda. I don't know if my colleagues would be interested in that, but when they asked us last year what programs, I said, well, I don't know what they all are. So we have that list. So that might be a good

[00:06:52] refresher for all of us if we can get that again and then my question is so in the past it was pretty program specific and now I'm seeing on slide eight some of these things can you with the logic model in place you have the research offices consulting here are these have you said two of these have requested and then the others are potential that you've identified what are the No, we've been actively engaged with all of these programs.

[00:07:23] With Afterschool Pilot, AGLS, ultimately one of the programs that have been coming online, so AGLS, HAMSci, Afterschool Pilot, we've reached out and offered. Would you like to start setting up an evaluation design? And typically the answer is yes, and we support them as they go through the process.

[00:07:41] Afterschool Pilot has a full evaluation design. DEIA has a full logic model. Health and HAMPSY has a logic model and evaluation design. AGLS, we only recently started with them, but we're about halfway, two-thirds of the way through the logic model process itself. So these folks have been very engaged in the process, and we've been setting up the design for them.

[00:08:01] The other thing I'll say is that in the spirit of the cyclical piece of it, the programs that have been through the program evaluations in the previous years, they've kept the work going. So they've continued to look at the data and keep the data coming in and to make sure that they are staying on top of it and looking at the recommendations that they came up with is based on the program evaluation.

[00:08:19] We have a series of materials that help a self-guided perspective on it. So it's more like a workbook where we give it out, and then we meet with them to talk them through what they've come up with. So it's less intensive as those that are on the schedule, but we do have that consultative model for pretty much anyone who would like a program evaluation.

[00:08:38] Okay. So I guess my question is, because in the past we had asked about some of the DEIA initiatives and different things that they were doing, but we were told, well, that's sort of like a department. So this logic model will help us then break down the pieces of the programs that they run within. Is that sort of how that will work?

[00:08:54] And that could go for any of them. Yeah, so ultimately that's a very holistic model in and of itself, looking at basically their goals. I don't remember the components of it off of the top of my head. But ultimately looking at the impact that they're having on, yeah, I don't want to speak off the top of my head on it.

[00:09:11] Yeah, no worries. But looking at the different activities that they do and the desired outcomes that they hoped for them to obtain and trying to identify that functional relationship between the things that they are doing and the outcomes that may be occurring. Yeah. I'm definitely curious now, too, that they're doing these equity walks and the schools are having these follow-ups.

[00:09:29] Like, I think that that would be really impactful to see how the schools are using the different resources and applying that to different things. As far, I think the next programs make perfect sense. I know this kind of ties into the FY27 investment outcome metrics, which we've talked about in this committee, too, is sort of evaluating are the things we are investing in working.

[00:09:50] So I was going to have English learner professional learning on there anyway, since we're basically growing that department by 300%. So I think we will definitely want to monitor and see, you know, how many people are getting that professional learning, what type, is it impacting students. So I'm happy to see that there's a heavy lean on that.

[00:10:08] Thank you. Thank you. Do you have any? All right. I'm really excited as well to see us looking at the program evaluations, especially in the English learner stuff. And I guess one of my questions is, I know that we're investing heavily in that this coming year, and that's great.

[00:10:26] Are we missing anything that we should be looking at this year outside of the ones that are on here? I mean, I guess I don't understand really the process, so I'd love to understand a little bit more about how you, and I would love to see a list if there's a master list of all these programs and what's in your purview to evaluate.

[00:10:45] But how are you deciding which ones, I get that it's a collaborative effort with the board, but how do we pick these? And then are there any that have been around a while that haven't been evaluated yet that need to kind of get pushed to the front of the list?

[00:11:02] So I can start and then ask Dr. Blakelock to fill in where I left out. So just a little bit about the process and how the list that Ms. Chernoff referenced was created. The policy is relatively new.

[00:11:18] Dr. B., are we in our second full year? Third year, okay. So we're in our third full year of actually having a policy to guide the work of program evaluation. And so there are programs that have been evaluated in the absence of a policy because we knew that program evaluation was important.

[00:11:38] And then there were, to your point, programs that had not been evaluated in a long time. Our priority in the first two years was to get those big programs that needed to be evaluated, such as summer school, evaluated first. And we went through a similar process this year.

[00:11:56] So I started with the academics leadership team, and we identified programs that we thought were important to review. We also have, I know that Dr. Tyler and Dr. Blake Luck have a collaboration with our auditor general.

[00:12:13] We want to make sure there's not duplicate efforts going on. So we talk a lot about the difference between an audit and a program evaluation to make sure we're not stepping on each other's toes. And so using that list of programs that we've identified, and you'll notice that most of them are in academics, right?

[00:12:31] We're talking about evaluating academic programs. Sometimes there's overlap, such as family and community engagement. And so we start with the academics team, then I took that prioritized list to my friends in cabinet, and we reviewed it, made sure we weren't missing anything from a more global perspective, and then we come to you.

[00:12:51] We will definitely get you, right after this meeting, the list of the programs that Ms. Chernoff referenced. I think that will be very helpful to you to see what has been evaluated in the past few years. So I hope that helps. And Dr. B, would you add anything to that? Or Dr. Tyler?

[00:13:10] I would definitely say the policy emphasizes the idea of the superintendent and cabinet working with school boards. So it's not the research office or RASI, influence, intercept, and priorities. So it's really geared around the idea of the superintendent and the school board have the pulse of the stakeholders and the community to figure out what is important in a budget that's been approved or topics of discussion.

[00:13:34] so it's really driven by the school board and the superintendent cabinet i wanted to speak to that too because last year we did go through it and one of the things as part of the grading policy work that we were doing in curriculum instruction it kept coming up from high school teachers about the over-reliance on credit recovery and so that initiated this conversation about program evaluation and it's on the list now because the committee agreed that that was something we should look at in tandem so that's kind of it is sort of it is definitely driven through the committee work and the things that are going on so if you're hearing about things that you think are you know once you see the list I think that that really helps because

[00:14:11] it kind of triggers like what you might want to look at so all right thank you for the presentation I've been digging in a little bit I have some questions related to the edge program report and also the gifted program report I was interested to see in the edge program that some teachers had expressed in the perhaps they weren't highly satisfied with the way the implementation of the program went and I was just curious if you had any direct feedback that you

[00:14:49] could share in terms of what that could have been in terms of examples and if that has been addressed in any way so not having those data right in front of me I mean I could pull them up but ultimately we serve as the technical experts as far as the program evaluation itself and looked at the subject matter our experts to be able to glean it we take a look at the recommendations that they come up with to determine that if they are actually aligned with the data if they're bending away from the data itself but you speak to the implementation piece which gets into that is it being implemented as designed

[00:15:27] and that's really about the extent of what I can say about that particular concept and what and what this particular situation offers is that as the reports are released the board can then request a follow-up where we can bring the experts here for engaged conversation around what they learn from the experience.

[00:15:47] And as Dr. B was saying, you have access to the results and you can request a follow-up to actually dig more deeply into the findings. So there's some context there. Okay.

[00:16:04] Well, that works. We can revisit that another time. I do appreciate that the reporting caught, especially some goals around gifted education and continuing to improve outcomes for students of color and EL learners.

[00:16:22] And that is definitely something that I would want to flag for getting more information on as we go forward. And Ms. Oh, sorry. Yeah, sure. I was just going to add, I think that's a perfect example. The questions you raised are questions that the team noticed.

[00:16:41] And I think based on the program evaluation, ongoing conversations with committee members is really why now there's an emphasis on really taking those recommendations and making changes to the gifted program.

[00:16:58] And so we can use that evaluation in conversations now as we plan ahead and also make sure we get on a regular cadence of evaluating to make sure that we're actually following up on the recommendations that come out of the program. evaluation process. Thank you for that clarification. I appreciate that. And to dovetail on that the um a big chunk of the work is setting up the evaluation design itself and so once it's set up it's basically and the tools are set up it's a rinse and repeat concept so they could take a look at it again at the end of next year and see if they've made some growth or if anything's changed across the board once the uh once the system is put into place.

[00:17:27] And so can you tell me a bit more about that process so when the board and the superintendent identify this list and you all have the that you're going to evaluate and you work with them to set up the the framework for that I know the outcomes are put on the website are there always presentations to a committee just sometimes not at all there are not there are not regular presentation it's not part of the defined process

[00:18:05] so for example the reports from 2425 we did not present every single report to the PMC we We did present a couple of reports upon request, and some of them are discussed in other venues, for example, curriculum instruction committee, special programs.

[00:18:31] So it really just depends on the nature of the program and the goals of the committee. So, for example, the CNI committee recently had a conversation around gifted education and their plans for addressing some of the feedback that they received in their evaluation and next steps for that.

[00:18:49] The BEAM program, as another example, is a program that's talked about in the Special Programs and Centers Committee, because it's considered a special program. So just a couple of examples. We are absolutely open to a more systematic presentation of reports.

[00:19:09] I think that comes down to time in committee to do that, and interest of board members in all of these programs. Does that help? It does, and yeah. And then as it normally does, it triggers a whole bunch of ideas about how we could do this, especially in tying into the dashboard conversation, which we're going to have.

[00:19:29] But I would say my first obvious one would be that on the dashboard for this stuff, I would like to see the programs that we're tracking in this process. We should find some way to roll up those results to understand whether or not they're on track, off track, and what worked really well and what do we need to keep an eye on.

[00:19:49] And that probably needs to show up in the school board dashboard each year. So for the 26, 27, no, these are the ones you're working on now. So these are the ones that should show up on the dashboard. Yeah, these ones.

[00:20:06] We should show up on our dashboard going forward. And then since it's also reporting kind of interrears, I think that we may need two sets. One is because if you're in the middle of doing a study, you're not going to have anything to really report on it. So really what we'd probably want is the ones that you're just now finishing up on the current dashboard and then kind of what's on deck for the next year just so we're aware of it.

[00:20:31] And I don't think we need a ton of, I mean, we can click through, we should be able to click through to the reports that you all already have on the website, but I think at a high level, you know, what was the goal that you're trying to get out with the program and then are we on track, off track or whatever. And the other thing I want to just add to this too or ask the question is, are there financial evaluations or are we looking at all at the investment in these programs and whether or not we're fully leveraging the investment, the financial investment in these programs as well and what that looks like? So from a financial perspective, that's where we would collaborate with the auditor general based on the results that we find. Okay, so you guys

[00:21:08] are just looking at the program efficiencies or effectiveness or whatever. Correct. Outcomes, impact. Is it doing what it's supposed to be doing? Is it being done correctly with consistency to make sure that it yields the outcomes that it's intended to out-yield. Okay, so I'm going to really encourage us to find that collaboration with the Auditor General and figure out the financial piece of this, too, and the evaluation, and figure out if we, and ironically enough, we have an audit committee tomorrow.

[00:21:36] So maybe we'll ask that question there, too. But it's great to get the program evaluations. It's really awesome when we can start cross-tabbing this with other pieces of data like finance. especially from a board perspective, because we need to be able to see that these programs are worth the investment or they have great impact and we're okay with the investment.

[00:21:56] We just need to be aware of being able to tie the money and the effectiveness of those programs together. So as Dr. Blakelock had mentioned, we meet monthly with the Auditor General, and the conversations we have are around when does it actually transition into an impact and cost-benefit and the idea of we just had a conversation around the effectiveness of a reading program, what happens when the difference is per student $5 versus $30 and the idea of when does that require a decision. So we're actively having those conversations and I think we're ready to support if you move in that direction. So he's fully aware of what's on our schedule,

[00:22:35] what our findings are on a monthly basis, and we're discovering or discussing when there could be a handoff to really look at things like cost-benefit analysis if it moves to that. Yeah, that's perfect. And I'm not suggesting, by the way, in any way that we cut a program, even if it's costing us a lot per student because sometimes we have to make those investments and it's worth it.

[00:22:53] So it's not an issue of cutting all of the high-cost programs. That's not what I'm even at all suggesting. I just think it's good awareness for the board to have to say, look, this is a really high dollar per student program or a low dollar per student program where we're getting these great results, and it's just a good decision point for us to have that awareness.

[00:23:11] And that's some of the work we've been doing with business and finance around the fiscal year 27 investment outcome metrics. We're basically teaching them How to approach this from a program evaluation perspective and helping them understand the difference between like an output of like how many kids sign up for a program or like the outcome are they coming to school more often try to help them understand like how to really measure the impact of the investment so that they can get that they can move forward with that practice.

[00:23:34] That's super tricky sometimes I can appreciate that but yeah that's great it's great stuff thank you guys for this any other questions on the topic we're good all right thank you all so much and we'll move on to 4.02 Department of Academics.

[00:23:52] vowels and map update okay I am going to turn it over to Catherine Neal our supervisor of elementary literacy for the bulk of this presentation all right good evening we are going to provide an update on our vowels growth data from what we know so far from our fall data to our winter data and we are going to

[00:24:28] provide an update on our map data and then talk about or within the other two things are later, yeah. Okay, so for VALS, kindergarten through third grade, and I will say that it's important to pay attention to the grade levels just because the way that VALS is administered is different based off of what grade level you're referring to. So for kindergarten through third grade, VALS stands for the Virginia Language and Literacy Screening System, and it is the state-required early literacy screening used to identify students who may be at risk for reading

[00:25:05] difficulties all students in grade in kindergarten through grade two and some students in grade three take the vows the assessment focuses primarily on foundational reading skills such as letter sounds phonological skills and word reading and these are skills that research tells us are critical for our students who are learning to read from the assessment students are identified as low moderate or high they have a band of risk and they're either at that low band of risk, moderate band of risk, or high band of risk. It's not a grade or a

[00:25:42] pass/fail test but it's a screening tool used to help guide instruction and to target that instruction. Any student who's identified as high risk is required to have a student reading intervention plan which ensures targeted instruction and monitoring. So the next few slides we're going to go over some of the data and this data shows that there's a shift of students that we are shifting students out of the high-risk category and into moderate and low-risk, which is indicating that our early literacy instruction and targeted interventions are having a positive impact.

[00:26:17] This movement also suggests that students are strengthening their foundational reading skills. So on the next slide, you can see the movement from our fall VALS assessment window to our mid-year or winter assessment window.

[00:26:34] This slide shows how students move between the risk categories. So you can see the colors at the bottom for high, moderate, and low risk. And what we want to see is movement out of that high risk and into moderate or low risk categories, which indicate that instruction and intervention are having that positive impact.

[00:26:52] The next slide defines what you'll see throughout this presentation, and it's not just with kindergarten through third grade, but through other grade levels are the Sankey charts. And so we did provide just a definition of what the Sankey charts are. There's lots of different terms for them.

[00:27:08] I mean, some people call them ribbon charts, you know, all kinds of things, but it really just kind of shows how we are moving students across the bands of risks. On the next slide, this is for, again, for kindergarten through third grade for all students, and you can see with this Sankey chart that the data shows an increase in students in that low and moderate risk band and a decrease in the high risk band, which is definitely the movement that we want to see.

[00:27:38] The trend is important because it tells us that early identification, paired with that targeted reading instruction, is helping students build those foundational skills that they need to be successful readers. On the next slide, we have grades 4 through 5.

[00:27:55] It's a little different than K through 3. In grades 4 and 5, the vowels is used, but it's just for a specific group of students. Students take the VALS if they did not pass the English SOL in the previous year or if they required a read-aloud accommodation for the SOL.

[00:28:14] At these grades, VALS helps us determine whether reading challenges are related to those foundational skill gaps rather than comprehension alone. And the assessment focuses on spelling, word recognition, and oral reading fluency, which are key indicators of fluent reading.

[00:28:29] So over the next few slides, we'll see some of those Sankey charts and some different bar graphs that describe the four and five data. And what we can summarize is that the data reveals a persistent foundational skill gap in spelling, word recognition, and reading fluency, which does help explain some ongoing reading challenges for our students.

[00:28:51] And these results allow our schools to really provide some more precise and skill-based intervention instruction. So this slide shows the performance in spelling and word recognition, and these skills tell us how accurately and efficiently students can read words, which directly affects their ability to access grade-level text.

[00:29:15] When we see gaps here, schools can provide that targeted instruction rather than a more general support that could, so we're really able to address and target that root cause. Looking across the data also helps us to identify those patterns and ensures that the instructional supports are aligned to our student needs, particularly for students who struggle despite receiving their core instruction.

[00:29:42] But we see that movement in the Sankey charts where students are making some positive gains there. On the next slide, this addresses our oral reading fluency. And so oral reading fluency measures how accurately and smoothly students read connected text.

[00:30:01] Fluency serves as a bridge between those foundational skills and comprehension, so we know when students are more fluent, then they are moving into being more automatic with their foundational skills, and they're able to comprehend at a more faster rate and a more efficient rate.

[00:30:20] If students are struggling with oral reading fluency, it can indicate that their understanding of what is read can be highly impacted. So what we're watching carefully is we're watching this trend with our Oral Reading Fluency 2 passage, because we noticed a slight increase in that red band, that bottom quartile.

[00:30:41] And what we know about the VALS assessment is that second Oral Reading Fluency passage is a nonfiction passage, typically. Students typically read nonfiction slower, and these passages are pretty dense.

[00:30:56] It's kind of like reading a textbook. a passage from a textbook. But that gives us good information. Definitely a data point that we want to watch and also think about how can we target our instruction to help support students when they're reading, you know, nonfiction text. So on the next slide, we can take these data points together and it really helps us to ensure that our intervention for our upper elementary students is diagnostic, it's targeted, and it supports, again, that precise instruction for students to reduce those long-term reading difficulties as students then move into middle school.

[00:31:41] So our secondary reading supervisor was unable to attend, so I'm the understudy. I do not have the background knowledge, but I will just summarize the results. So continuing the trend that Mrs. Neal has spoken to, we're looking at three different subtests. And what you will find as we go through the results for grades 6 through 8 on the next slide is that we're seeing some of the same trends with spelling and word reading that we are seeing increasing percentages of students who are in that approaching or adequate category, and we're seeing that dark blue category being reduced as far as the level of risk, if you will, and what you see on the next slide here.

[00:32:20] So one is a snapshot when you're looking at the stack bar charts, but to actually see the movement, as Ms. Neal was identifying there, we're seeing that positive movement out of that well below or that higher risk category.

[00:32:35] And then when we move to oral fluency, we actually see that that pattern that Catherine had mentioned is actually more exaggerated at the middle school level, meaning we actually saw an increase. The only area we saw an increase in the level of need in that lowest quartile for oral fluency too.

[00:32:52] And the next chart shows you again the same ribbon or Sankey charts. And for the first time, you see the only time is that we're not seeing that same level of movement for oral fluency, reading fluency too, whereas we're seeing in all the other skills.

[00:33:11] So I believe, and Catherine can add that context, this is the first year of administration for VALS 4 through 8, and understanding that the rigor was ramping up from fall to winter, not really expecting the results. I think being encouraged to actually see progress on the first time on an assessment like this, where the rigor is increasing and there's not familiarity with staff with this is positive and indicates that practices are really making an impact.

[00:33:42] So that is VALS. So we'll move to MAP before we stop for questions. So this is our ninth year of administration of MAP. I think it's our seventh or eighth year of full administration across the entire division. And again, this is a well-established measure of growth. There's been around for 40 plus years. It's used around the country and in different parts of the world.

[00:34:08] and it looks at growth in two different content areas, and there's a little background there. And the next slide shows you, so this is a chart representing just the last six administrations where we didn't include the pandemic year. And what you're looking for when you're looking at expected growth or typical growth is the 50th conditional growth percentile is what is typical, and it even adjusts for students who may be at different starting levels.

[00:34:34] What you see that's different for 25-26 is that every four or five years or so, the publisher actually re-norms the assessment. So they went from a 2020 norm group to a 2025 norm group. We also adjusted the instructional weeks.

[00:34:51] So what ended up as a result is that we're being compared to divisions that even though our instructional weeks are the same because we recognize more student holidays, we're actually having fewer instructional days. So it's a more demanding comparison now. Even with that, we're right at the 50th conditional growth percentile for math, And we're exceeding the typical expected growth for reading at 56 conditional percentile.

[00:35:17] So even with ramping up our instructional weeks and being compared to divisions where the instructional weeks are the same, but we celebrate more holidays. So we actually have less instructional time. We're seeing either expected growth for math or exceeding expected growth for reading.

[00:35:34] And that's what you see on that chart. You're also seeing for the first time since before the pandemic kind of approaching either meeting growth goals or exceeding them. And you see during the years right after the pandemic, we did see an impact as far as growth during that time frame.

[00:35:53] The next slide will actually show you a breakout by the different levels. High school is unique because the only students who take math in high school are students who are not accelerated in math. and we utilize it to ensure that we're sustaining them, and high school students do not take the MAP assessment and reading.

[00:36:12] And then the next slide will show you, for students in need of tier two, tier three supports, understanding that we have a decision tree process, that we use multiple data points, but just looking at MAP only, you see that we're accelerating students in need of tier two and tier three supports at the 56th and 58th conditional percentile for math, and 59 and 52 for reading, meaning we're catching up students that we need to catch up.

[00:36:39] And that is not a typical trait you see amongst a lot of divisions. So moving from that to what you've all been waiting for, the thank you charts, the ribbon charts again, there's an explanation of them.

[00:36:55] But you see, even at a division level, decreasing the students who are showing up in Tier 3 from fall to winter and increasing those students in Tier 1. you're seeing that for math and you're seeing it for reading so what you see from from both different sets of assessments one relatively new and customized around looking at reading and one has been established for several years in math we're seeing growth we're seeing movement across the board and almost every area and circumstance which suggests that the strategies identifying students and differentiation and interventions and really effective

[00:37:34] differentiated core instruction is having an impact. So at this point, we'll stop you seeing a lot of information. We're happy to share or hear any questions you may have about what we've shared. Thank you so much. This is really, really interesting stuff. I find this stuff really fascinating. So I know I, yeah, I was like, why don't you jump in first? Thank you, Chair Riccardi.

[00:37:58] So I would love to touch on some of the things, I would love to review some of the things that you've touched on. So when it comes to the oral fluency to downward trend, fourth through eighth grade, is that also tied to nonfiction? Or do you have a specific example that explains sort of why that is, you know, why the data is showing that that's occurring? So like Dr. Tyler said earlier, the four to eight vows assessment is still pretty new to us. And so it's hard to speak

[00:38:36] in resolutes or finite just because we're not sure if they're going to continue to follow this pattern. But from what we saw this year, the second oral reading fluency passage was a nonfiction passage. In talking with some teachers and reading specialists, I know from the fourth and fifth grade perspective, they said they were quite shocked at how difficult it seemed for students to read through that second oral reading fluency passage, which gives us good information, right?

[00:39:06] Like, it's, okay, so how are we going to help students navigate some of these more complex passages? So that's what we know so far. I think this is definitely one of those data points that we're going to watch carefully to see, number one, how does the Virginia Literacy Partnership Office, who kind of oversees and manages VALS, if they're going to make any changes to the assessment, and can we kind of count on an ORF number two passage to always be that nonfiction passage?

[00:39:34] And if that's the case, we can kind of track it over time to see if some of the supports that we've put in place for our students in navigating these passages, if it's making a difference and if it's targeting. So I think, you know, the question marks we have around ORF2, we definitely are kind of perked up at that, and we want to pay attention to it moving forward, for sure.

[00:39:55] I appreciate that. And when I think about what a student needs in order to get past grade eight and to go into higher learning and to be a fully functioning adult in the world, being able to understand, I mean, it's great for media literacy. It's important for being able to progress through a career. I mean, there are a hundred reasons why this is important.

[00:40:18] So it resonates with me that there's an awareness about it. I heard what you were saying about the rigor being ramped up, and it'll be interesting to see how that comes about. But I do appreciate that there has been recognition of that challenge, and I'll be excited to hear how we're continuing to face and overcome it.

[00:40:41] And then with the – well, we haven't talked – I'll wait until we talk about the demographics. Are we going to talk about that specifically?

[00:40:58] Yeah? No? Okay. So, I was interested in the per-school demographics. I noticed that Dominion wasn't included on the list and wanted, hoped you could share with my colleagues why. Sure.

[00:41:13] So, as Dr. Tyler mentioned, the high schools only administer the MAP assessment in mathematics and only to students in Algebra I. and so there are rare occasions when a high school will not administer the map assessment for a variety of reasons and so for example dominion high school is not on that list and they did not they were not left off accidentally they did not administer the map dr tyler if you want to say anything else about that and we can follow up as far as the details of it but we understand we're dealing with small numbers in in many of these cases so we can follow

[00:41:52] up and just verify that you know there weren't any mistakes or discrepancies well in sort of analyzing um you know what identifiable patterns there were especially around the 25 26 average winter map data by school um i did notice that some of the schools i mean i'm assuming scoring higher is a positive indicator right that so some of the schools that seem to perform especially at the elementary level, the highest are also some of our smallest communities. And so I wondered if

[00:42:28] you could speak to that from a data set perspective. I mean, is it valid to view that as positive? Is it an anomaly because it's a small data set? I just would appreciate hearing a little bit more about how we can read that. So in general, when the state reports out on SOLs, when they're getting into student groups of 10 or below, they will suppress that, meaning that the students are taking the assessment, but it's not used for accountability purposes. In this particular case, when we're looking at students that we're monitoring as a level of need, there may be exceptions to that suppressing rule because we want to

[00:43:05] ensure that students that we're not accelerating, that we're doing well and they're progressing towards, say, graduating. So in many of these cases, when we're monitoring students, we may not suppress the numbers if they get into small numbers but we also understand we're trying not to identify individual students so we will have some exceptions when there's like local accountability to ensure that we're accelerating students where we need to and miss chandler i i think you were also asking if there are wondering

[00:43:40] if there was a correlation between the size of the school and their growth score is that correct yes and i don't know that we can make that assumption so just just because for example a school is small doesn't necessarily mean that we would expect them to have a higher conditional growth percentile.

[00:43:57] But we're not necessarily suppressing any of the data, because one of the schools even has, we're not quite at 10 in the classroom, but they are very small class sizes.

[00:44:15] So I was just curious if there are any anomalies in the data or any things that... Got it. So does the question get to when you're dealing with really small numbers, can you see a lot of volatility as far as the outcomes?

[00:44:31] Yes, meaning if you're talking eight students and the idea of eight or nine or 15 or 20 students, the idea of if you're not successful with a small number of students, your actual growth score could fluctuate much more than if you're dealing with larger numbers. Yes, that is the case.

[00:44:46] There is volatility when you're dealing with smaller numbers. Okay. And then in noticing the schools that are larger, that are also having higher scores, Are you seeing any trends or observations that indicate why the scores are higher, and are we able to identify and perhaps redirect some of those methods to schools that could improve?

[00:45:10] Are you speaking specifically to high schools or just schools in general? Most of the scores that I'm looking at, the elementary school scores, mostly. So as far as the school improvement work, we do find patterns of success amongst certain schools where at the level offices, the principals will share amongst themselves, particularly when we're looking at groups that we're really trying to get equitable results, students with disabilities, English learners.

[00:45:38] So there are exchanges amongst principals looking at this published data to share best practices that are really fueling a lot of progress in that case, and definitely also amongst high schools in particular where each level office has forums where principals, as they're planning, will share some of their effective strategies.

[00:45:59] Is it ever mandated? I would say it's mandated through the school improvement process to look at all of your data, including your MAP scores, and the conversations around growth are mandated through that process.

[00:46:19] Okay. Well, thank you. I've taken a lot of time. All right. Thank you. I have a couple logistical questions, and if I'm wandering too much into the CNI territory, just flag me, Neil, okay? My question is, so last year when we were talking, I think actually it was two years ago that we started Val's in elementary? Last two falls ago? Yeah, I was just thinking about this. I think the fall of 2023 was when we did the pilot, and then we had 24. That's why.

[00:46:55] Yeah, and then this year. Because I was still in schools when we piloted it, and it was pretty rough in the one-to-one time have we i haven't heard much this year has there been a significant improvement in terms of reducing that time setting or like there were no time thresholds so yeah there are definitely time thresholds well i wouldn't say time thresholds it's um there are stop rules in place that's good so um teachers and and i think a couple things are at play um teachers are more familiar with the assessments they know what to expect and they know how to schedule it within their day so that it doesn't feel like it's taking up so much

[00:47:31] instructional time. I also think that it's those stop rules that are in place help to kind of manage the amount of time. And I think that VLP has made some adjustments to the assessment so that it doesn't take as long because it wasn't just LCPS that was saying that this assessment is taking a really long time. I think all of the pilot divisions were saying this is a much, the assessment is too lengthy. Okay, that's great to hear. Additionally, can you just review with me what goes on with third grade and then with VALS in terms of the timing and then also with fourth and fifth? Since

[00:48:09] we're coming into spring, I'm hearing that there's some fourth and fifth graders that aren't going to take it in the spring. Is that correct and can you clarify that? Yes, so that's a great question because we were kind of wondering throughout this year as well. It didn't come out until a little bit later from the VLP as far as what the testing windows would be for the fourth through eighth assessment. So there is only the fall assessment for VALS four to eight and the winter or mid-year assessment for four to eight. There is no spring assessment for the four to eight VALS.

[00:48:49] There's not even, one of our questions was might there be some materials provided in the event that We would want to do an assessment for an optional purpose, you know, but they're not providing any materials for that spring window. Okay, so that is weird to me, but it makes me wonder what we're going to do if kids don't pass this SOL in the fall.

[00:49:14] We're going to be looking at their VALS winter subgroup data, like subset data. Is that what we would defer to in terms of getting that, like, drill down for skills? That's a lot of time lost. in my opinion. Sorry. So, yes, and I think, I think there's more to come on this topic. I mean, Dr. Tyler and I were actually having a conversation around, like, locally, like, we have some questions around how we can make some connections between the efforts that we're putting into our student intervention plans, because remember, any student who is taking that four to eight vows has

[00:49:53] an intervention plan and is being progress monitored till the end of the year, even if they test out in winter? Yes, their plan is in place for the entire year. Okay, that's good. You can adjust the intervention, you can adjust the frequency of it, but they have to have that plan in place and you're continuing to progress monitor throughout the year. So we do have those data points by each individual student to ensure that they're continuing to make that progress.

[00:50:21] I think the other part of this is how we look at that VALS assessment data and then how does it translate to performance on our reading SOLs, right? It's not going to be a direct connection because we're assessing foundational skills versus, you know, complete mastery of reading material. But how can we look at both of those assessments and see some of the correlation between our efforts with our intervention to how we're then performing on the SOL? I think that's a conversation that we want to have to come. And certainly I was going to pull that out. We're seeing that with the map data we weren't seeing that and now we're seeing that growth is increasing

[00:51:00] and I even though it's more foundational skills through HMH and Lexia and all the different things that we're doing through science of reading we're seeing the overall reading scores with passages and things like which you should see that correlation if you learn how to read you should be able to to do that so that's great go ahead Dr. Todd you were going to say something well I was going to say to follow up on what Catherine was saying we will have the spring map which is administered this month in April, and we'll have the SOLs that are going to be administered in another month or so. So we have two more data points, so we'll be able to monitor their progress.

[00:51:31] So the specialized data we're getting from the reading assessment vials helps to ensure that they're getting those foundational reading skills to be able to perform well on that actual screen or of MAP that ultimately leads to success on the actual criteria and reference test of SOLs.

[00:51:48] So utilizing all those data points. Yeah, I just know that the reports have been really valuable in terms of digging deeper into those specifics. So not having that, having that gap feels funny to me, but I guess we'll see how it rolls out. And then on, did we set goals for VALS?

[00:52:06] I know like in the strategic plan previously, we had some, we were having goals for growth and having goals for reading and all of that. Do we set a goal for VALS in four through eight, or did we decide to wait a year and kind of see where we benchmark and then go from there?

[00:52:21] Where are we with setting a goal in terms of VALS, especially in middle? Looking at some of those numbers, I think we have some heavy lift. If I could just chime in real quick. My understanding is that we were going to wait until a few administration windows just to kind of see what makes sense as a target and as a benchmark before we set goals.

[00:52:47] That sounds good. Very interesting. I could probably talk about all this for hours. I miss this work so much. I hope we can dig into nonfiction for these kiddos. It continues to be a struggle, but it's really, really great progress. And the numbers from the schools, I mean, I'm not looking at the chart exactly from last year, but I was pretty worried about middle school, and they look great.

[00:53:07] And the Leesburg schools, particularly, that I do have benchmarked, are thriving, especially with reading. So this is exciting stuff. I think we're moving in the right direction. Thanks. I'm just going to add a couple things really quickly. i've been taking a look at states that have been seeing really great taking really great strides in reading improvement in particular and this is of course you know when i see a bunch of my schools in here way under 50 and some in the 30s i'm getting really concerned about kind of an ongoing trend especially in my district with some of the schools that are just still underperforming some

[00:53:45] are making really great progress and that's fantastic and i've and i'm definitely noting it here, but incremental growth when you're at 36 or 38 isn't enough. Really, we need to do something very different at some of these schools to get these kids up to grade level or some kind of proficiency. And one of the things I've noticed in looking at some of the states that have seen really great growth is they're stopping kids at third grade and not progressing them to fourth until they're reading at third grade level, and that's had a transformational impact on not just

[00:54:24] those individual students, but their families and younger siblings in learning how to read early, too, and this is primarily in English learner families and in Title I schools, and I don't know if that's something that we would ever consider or evaluate as a thing, but it's working other places in multiple states not just one and so I really would like and encourage us to start looking at some of that data that's coming out I think Louisiana I think it's Mississippi I believe it's Ohio and there's in fourth one I can't recall but I believe those are some of them

[00:55:03] I think we need to look at some things that are just going to really help make a transformational difference for these students and their families and getting kids to reading proficiently I mean it's really concerning looking at the eighth grade nonfiction reading stuff when you're getting ready to go into high school where there's a whole lot of nonfiction and you've got to get really focused on whatever your future plans are and in having students struggling with nonfiction reading so I just want to throw that out there as a just kind of a piece of information and I think the other thing I'd really like to do is on our dashboard and I know we're getting close to time

[00:55:39] so I do want to do a time check with you guys to see if we have maybe 10 extra minutes to go through the dashboard stuff you good okay um i would really like to start seeing um the schools that are have made really transformational change um on our dashboard so we know we've got these schools that are doing really really well and have made some really big jumps and i'd also like to see the schools that are under some threshold i don't know what the right number is if it's under 50 and put all of all of those in there but i think the school board needs to keep an awareness of the schools that are in there just so that we're aware from just a board perspective.

[00:56:19] So I'm going to just throw that out there as an information piece. I don't know if anybody's got any thoughts on that. Any other ideas, comments? We're good. Okay, let's move along. We're going to go to our last session, 4.03, Department of Academics, Data Dashboard Discussion.

[00:56:43] All right. I am joined by Erin Smith, our Chief Technology Officer, And I'm going to pull up the slides. I believe he's doing most of the talking, and I'll jump in as needed. And I guess given the time, my recommendation is that we present the information that we have, and then we could even consider dedicating our May meeting to a discussion around data dashboards, recognizing the importance of the topic and the interest that the committee has.

[00:57:14] But I will certainly leave that up to you, Chair Riccardi, and we can talk offline about that possibility. Excellent. Awesome. Well, thank you very much for having a conversation around data dashboarding tonight.

[00:57:34] It's something that I know we've been talking about a lot, and the teams are really excited to have some alignment and get some direction. So tonight we'll go over current data practices, our public data dashboard design, potential data elements, and then some resource needs and just some items to just have on your radar as we move forward.

[00:57:53] So on the next slide, just a highlight of our current data practices, we use Qlik as our data repository. It's about 150 verified sources of data. That includes SOL, maps, student information, some ERP data, not all. And we have about 50-plus additional data sources to be integrated.

[00:58:08] So we do have a backlog of data sources that the team is working through to build those integrations. We use a tool called Qlik Cloud. One of the items to keep in mind is there's a difference between a business intelligence tool, which is really what Qlik is designed to do, to do deep dive into data and do some correlations, and a data visualization data dashboarding tool.

[00:58:25] So we've kind of taken click and bent it a little bit or like a square peg in a round hole to kind of present some data. But there's probably different and better ways to present that data and clarify it and better present complex data sets and be able to tell that story visually.

[00:58:42] And then how are we doing, how are we ensuring source of truth data? Because it doesn't matter how good your dashboards look if the data is not accurate. So we've been on about a three-year journey with data governance to have consistent data practices across teams. It has been something that Dr. Ellis and I have been working with our senior staff and having data dialogues and really building some standard practices around how we use that.

[00:59:05] And then developing a data dictionary for consistent terminology. One of my favorite examples of that is if you ask someone, pull a list of all teachers, it's like, do you count librarians? Do you not count librarians? Do you count school counselors? Do you not count school counselors? How does this work? And so we kind of need some consistent terminology in how we use those things so we can have consistent correlations when we're looking at data.

[00:59:28] So the next slide, and you've probably seen this before, but this is how we kind of identify our data to tell a story. So really where we started and kind of where we're at now is we have arranged data. It's a little bit presented visually, but it's not really telling a story with our existing data dashboards.

[00:59:44] So we do a good job of sorting the data, of arranging the data, validating the data, and that we do present some visually. Our current dashboard basically, I'd say, is between arranged and presented visually. And where we want to get to is explained with a story that kind of takes those Lego blocks and turns them into something that people can instantly recognize versus it just being a piece of Lego, right?

[01:00:05] So what we are looking at with our public dashboard design is what are the questions we're trying to answer? What data sources are needed to then answer those questions? You know, here's some examples, measures, dimensions, how we want to visualize layouts and present complex data sets.

[01:00:22] So that's something the team is working towards now. And again, I think there might be some gaps in tools because they're complementary tools but not identical tool sets to do those two different things. And then timeline, prioritization, and ongoing support. This is not a full, there's limited resources to do this work, and we've really been focusing on business intelligence internal to provide teachers and principals with actionable data so they could take corrective steps, whatever they need to do.

[01:00:49] And so those same individuals will be those same ones that are kind of helping to build the public dashboard design and what that kind of looks like and ensuring that we have automated, coherent processes to make sure the data is accurate. So the purpose of the data dashboard is to provide the school board and the community with a synthesized strategic view of LCPS, a tool for staff and the school board to identify patterns, trends, and areas of strength and growth.

[01:01:16] Again, tell the story, but using specific data points, and then strategically separate from the LCPS strategic plan. We have a lot of metrics in our current plan that don't really align with telling a story, and so we want to make sure there's probably going to be coherence there and overlap, but we don't want to have to rebuild a data dashboard every five years as we have a new strategic plan.

[01:01:34] It needs to be something that we can kind of build off of iteratively and continue evolving forward. So here's a high-level, very, let me put my glasses on. It's kind of like a draft dashboard structure with some sample data elements, so you can kind of see they're grouped.

[01:01:53] Interesting enough, we're probably well further ahead in areas one and two as far as having that data, integrating that data, and what we can present. As you know, we're in the middle of a huge ERP project to build some financial data reporting and even capital data reporting.

[01:02:08] So some of those were not as robust in at this point, but we do envision being there in the future as we get some additional systems in place. But I think this was just an example of some data elements that could be presented for each of these. I don't know, Dr. Lattles, if you have anything you want to add on that slide. Nope, I'll just say that I appreciate Ms. Riccardi's thought, being a thought partner in this and presenting these categories for consideration.

[01:02:32] And I think they naturally flow, as Mr. Smith mentioned, they flow from what we do really have easy access to and could easily, I won't say easily, not easily, more easily than others, Really focus on getting into a sort of a phase one implementation of a dashboard, working to the more complex or complicated concepts like financial health and operations.

[01:03:02] And then I'll just keep going with this one. So pulling out really what could be possible in phase one, we talked with the RASI team and got feedback on items that could, again, more swiftly than other items be pulled into a public-facing dashboard.

[01:03:20] These are items that we already present publicly to Mr. Smith's comment earlier. We present them visually. We don't necessarily tell a really good story about them. And so the dashboard would help us shift from that visualization to that storytelling.

[01:03:36] And so the last slide here is really just understanding what we're kind of seeking is some prioritization of work to where we want to put resources and what is a – we want to deliver iteratively. so we don't want to wait until we have the entire dashboard built and then publish it.

[01:03:53] So there may be two or three items we can deliver quickly, four or five, so we can kind of build a phased approach. And then some resource allocation. So we have to re-engineer some processes with how we're doing data. We have about 200 nightly data feeds that are run by script, and so it doesn't take much for like three or four of those to fail.

[01:04:13] It could be a vendor issue. It could be an Internet blip at that moment. And so the worst-case scenario is those data feeds are inaccurate, And then you're presenting data visually that isn't telling an accurate story. So we need some process re-engineering there and probably a tool set or so to kind of help us there.

[01:04:29] And then some really resource allocations is going to be a big one. It's like how are we doing this work and what level of effort do we want to put into it? And how many data stories do we want to tell? Because that's just going to be a level of effort to deliver those things, right? So the team has really, like I said, been focusing on that internal business intelligence.

[01:04:46] I think we're ready to take the step and kind of do overlays on that. A lot of the data elements that Dr. Ellis presented are things that we already have business intelligence built for. So uplifting that into a data visualization platform will be easier. The ones we don't currently have built business intelligence for will take longer because we'll have to build from scratch all the way up versus taking something we already have and kind of re-envisioning it and then republishing it for the public.

[01:05:10] And I'll just add that I want to emphasize that staff recognizes that this is really important for Dr. Spence. I know it's one of his goals this year to have data publicly available to tell our story.

[01:05:26] We also recognize that it's a priority of many school board members, if not all of you. And we are excited about this work. We want to make sure that everyone involved knows that it will take time to get it right. But I think we have a really good framework now for what that could look like.

[01:05:45] And we're really excited to get feedback and thoughts from you all and really map out a plan moving forward. And just one other item to add there is one of the key components of this as well is really making sure that they're ADA compliant with a lot of our new regulations that we have in place.

[01:06:01] So the fanciest charts and graphs and overlays are not going to be as ADA compliant as very simplified data that can tell a story. So we're kind of combining two visualizations because our current platform, not really ADA compliant. And we want to make sure as we deliver this in the future that that is a key component that we're kind of thinking about.

[01:06:18] So we've received a lot of input about how cool things can look. And we're really trying to, like, really be reflective about how we can be as ADA and make sure that we are compliant with that. All right.

[01:06:34] Well, y'all, thank you so much for this. This is a really great initial start in getting things going. Do you guys have any thoughts or questions? I have some things, but I'm going to wait. Go ahead. Okay. I mean, this is great. I'm so excited about this. I can't wait. I think it's going to be amazing, and I'm actually really grateful that we're taking thoughtful time to put this forward.

[01:06:54] One thing I keep coming back to when I'm thinking about this is the purpose. And I know it's one of the superintendent's goals, but for me, I think telling the story is really important, but I think there's going to be a different purpose for different people. And so how we integrate that into a dashboard is going to be really important.

[01:07:12] Someone like me is probably going to spend hours digging through every subset of data that you're going to offer on this dashboard. Like, that's just how I'm wired, and that's what I want to make sure that I'm doing as a board member. But that's not everybody's cup of tea, and nor should it be. So my question to you is, is it possible, like tonight, we started out with map data for everybody.

[01:07:33] Then we drilled down into elementary, middle, and high. And then the next slide was about the tiers and how those students are moving. Is that something that we can think about in terms of our data? One thing I struggle with with the current strategic plan I've been critical of is I really love that we have all those metrics, but they're just so randomized and you can't really make sense of them.

[01:07:53] And there's no overarching vision for it that then drills down into what tells the story. And I know if we had something like you were talking about and that, you know, Dr. Ellis has shared through your work, is like that on-track, off-track, kind of red, yellow, green light, and then people could kind of drill down into the things that they're concerned about, or even board members, if they have upcoming committee meetings, that could alleviate a lot of the work on staff if we already have the data in the dashboard.

[01:08:20] So I'm just wondering, from both a public perspective and a board perspective, as we think about purpose, is it possible to have sort of a drill-down ability as needed? So, yes, possible, but I think what you're going to see is we're going to have to approach this in a phased, so we may not have that out of the gate day one, but it'll be on the plan of how we get there and what phase that we'll be in.

[01:08:44] So, and that comes down to the prioritization. Like, if it's really important to have one story that we want to deep dive into versus four or five stories all out at the same time, that'll be what we're kind of looking for feedback on. And then we can kind of use that to help us prioritize the work because that's really what we're looking for. We've actually been joking internally. We have about seven different data dashboard conversations going on, and we're trying to bring some alignment to them and be like, let's do something that kind of helps get us to where we need to go.

[01:09:09] And so that's what our internal teams have been working on. We just had a data dashboarding meeting with Rossi and DDI and everyone today to kind of continue that conversation and work towards this. So I do think it's possible, but it may not be like a day one out of the gate dashboard. But if that's something that's, you know, we also want to be how we're telling the story.

[01:09:27] There's a difference between chronic absenteeism and attendance, and so we're really making sure that we're being very direct or really understanding the story we're trying to tell, so we're using the correct data source, and doing those things appropriately is going to be a part of that conversation, too. Yeah, because I think one of the things when I came on the board that I struggled with is, I mean, overall, LCPS is doing great things, right?

[01:09:49] Our kids are achieving. Our graduation rates are on track. Overall, achievement data looks pretty good, but when you dig down into the MTSS and you start to look at the kids that need that you know 60% growth in tier three to move forward to close the gaps and you start telling those little sub chapters of the story I don't want those pieces to be left behind for us as focus areas now we've done a lot of that work and you even talked about it a little bit tonight with the smaller schools right like there's just some things with data that can be misleading and so I want to make sure I'm not saying the data is incorrect it's just the way

[01:10:24] it stacks on top of itself, I just want to make sure that we're being attentive to, yes, the overall story, but also what are the things that we really need to turn our focus to and make sure that those are there, and I think if we can drill down into those specifics, we can probably get there. We saw this with reading tonight, right? For a long time, kids were passing the reading SOL, but then we had vowels, and now we're seeing that these foundational skills are not there for our middle schoolers, so how do we make sure that that's not getting brushed over in the overall story, but that each story is being told is what I'm saying I'm not saying that's easy so I really appreciate the thought on that but that's sort of where my head's at is like what can the purpose be and how can we make

[01:11:02] that multi-use for many users I think what I'll do is I'll I'll explain you how I use it from a debt from a board and debt like a executive perspective I think this is where I was kind of building these this some this framework from and I think the original thing that I gave them was probably a deck of like 10 or 15 slides with a data layout kind of thing but you know I think at the end of the day I get really nervous when we use the phrase telling a story with data because I want the data to be the data and then we have to make the inferences from the data not trying

[01:11:37] to tell a story with it. I get really nervous when the storytelling is the goal instead of I want the data and let us make the right inferences that we need to make from it. It's really designed at the end of the day to be in my opinion a school board dashboard in particular is really designed for the nine of us to be able to look at it and say are we on track or off track with student achievement and well-being and how do we want to measure that and what's important to us is our policy decision making from the past having positive or negative repercussions for students you know in

[01:12:15] varying aspects of things moving forward so looking at longevity data looking at you know in this case program enrollment trends we've got a lot of new programs coming in and what's not only the enrollment trends, but then what's the dollar assignment to that, and is it the right investment?

[01:12:32] So we need to be looking at things at a much more strategic perspective, and then you have the ability then to drill down into the specifics as you need to. So I think from, at least for me, in a data viewpoint from a school board perspective, it really needs to be a much more strategic tool that we're using to help guide decision-making over the long term.

[01:12:59] Thank you. I want to say parts of what you're both saying really resonate with me. I find that it's very important to me that we look at the data objectively. I don't like the idea of labeling or qualifying.

[01:13:15] Telling a story part is something I feel a little uncomfortable with, too. I want to see the data objectively. I want, and I think it would be important, and I would appreciate being able to continue to have this conversation as we move forward, I would be concerned that the dashboard either is public or we don't have it because, I mean, it seems like a lot of effort for just board management.

[01:13:41] If we have all of this information in one place, I mean, we're not actually talking about not publishing the dashboard. It would be public-facing. Our understanding is it would be public-facing. So, I mean, that's definitely something I'm supportive of. I would want to make sure that we're allocating resources appropriately and sharing all the information.

[01:14:01] And I do appreciate that, as you said, this is something that we've been talking about for a few years now. I really appreciate the work that's gone into the effort to bring it forward to this point. And there is a lot of this information that's being published in lots of places, and it would be helpful to have it all in one place and to be able to dig in.

[01:14:24] There are some things like I'd love to understand on page 7 why the word health is used in some of the categories. I don't necessarily love a quick visual, so I would be a little hesitant about the red, yellow, green lights.

[01:14:43] I think there's a lot of information that requires context, and you need to understand the complexities, especially when you go into some of the schools that have complex populations, right? Like, I would hate for somebody to assume that a school wasn't, I mean, Sterling Middle is a great example, right?

[01:15:02] They're working so hard, and they've made such great strides, but their students aren't necessarily starting at the same place, and I wouldn't want to imply any sort of negative label that would perhaps prevent future motivation, right?

[01:15:19] So I think it's a very important conversation. I'm very excited to have it. I 100% have been using the current dashboard, which is not as fulsome in any way, shape, or form, but it's my favorite. I love to look at it all the time.

[01:15:36] So I'm really excited to take part in this conversation, and I hope that we have the ability to dig in. And I certainly don't have any problems with rolling it out bit by bit as we are building it, because I think the more information we have all the time, the better we are.

[01:15:53] So that's what I've got. Thanks. - Thank you, Chair Icardi. I just wanted to clarify. I was sort of thinking in lines of the strategic plan with the red, yellow, green as sort of like our overall, like these areas that we're hitting on our overall goals in terms of the county.

[01:16:08] But I hear what you're saying per school, for sure agree. And I just wanna offer a little bit alternate perspective on the storytelling. As an educator, I actually love the idea of a storytelling. So I'm wondering if that's sort of the connection. And the reason I do is because of what you just said, Ms. Chandler.

[01:16:25] It's about the fact that it's context, and it's not just individual data points that I think telling the story is not like we're fictionalizing the data, which I understand where that could feel like that. So maybe we need a little bit of a better way to talk about it, because when you give context and you understand all these connected pieces about this is a human business, like we're putting data points on little people who are people.

[01:16:52] And so there is a story element there. So that's maybe why I'm not as uncomfortable with it. But is there some other way we could describe it that wouldn't feel fictionalized? Go ahead. I think we both want to respond. So I would love an opportunity to respond to that concept.

[01:17:07] So by telling a story, we are in no way insinuating that we would feed the interpretation of the data to the user, right? I do think it's really important, though. And I really appreciate, Ms. Chandler, two things that you said in particular.

[01:17:24] One, the use of the word context, right? And by telling a story, what I mean by that, and Mr. Smith means by that, is that you're not looking at something wondering what you're looking at, right? So I know this team knows what a 56.1 conditional growth percentile is, right?

[01:17:47] I know what that means. the principal knows what that means the principal knows what to do with that information but the average viewer of a public facing facing dashboard and even your average brand new board member doesn't know what that means right and so by telling a story we mean not just put the numbers on there that's presenting it visually but actually providing that context so you can make your own informed decision I also appreciate Ms. Chandler just real real briefly your comments about words like health. I do think we need to tighten up some of the vocabulary that

[01:18:23] we would present on a website. We definitely don't want to inadvertently or otherwise use charged language that would make people come to a conclusion without even seeing the numbers. So I appreciate both of those comments. Did you want to add anything else? You said exactly what I was going to say.

[01:18:41] Yeah, and I guess the next step for, I guess my next, what's the next steps for us then? I mean, do we need to have like a work session around this? Oh, and then also how is comms going to be involved? I'm sure that that's down the line, but like educating parents on how to, yeah, that's fun. So Ms. Elgren's been listening in the whole time. Oh, there she is. Um, yeah, that's a big component. And yes, DCE will be critical to that. They've been a key team member. Like when we met earlier today, um, DCE is involved with that as well. Um, so we really, it comes down to like building a prioritization of the work so we can kind of build a phase one. I think the goal is

[01:19:17] to deliver something iteratively so you can have something to react to because I think that's when we'll get feedback is if we have something we can present to you and you're like, I like this, I don't like this, this makes sense, this doesn't make sense, that's what, that'll help us kind of like iteratively develop a dashboard solution that kind of meets the needs. That's exciting.

[01:19:34] Great, yeah, thank you. No, I was going to say dashboards are, when you really build them, are always iterative, so it's great. Yeah, it's definitely a great way to start and I like the idea of being able to have, get to a point where we're reacting to something else. Anything else on this one? I'm excited about this. So if we wanted to do a work session, I don't know how we go about doing that, but I'm sure you'll help us navigate that.

[01:19:55] I would be delighted to help you. So we could do it one of two ways. We could use our regularly scheduled May meeting. We had two topics, and Dr. Single has talked with the EL and special education teams, and we actually don't really have any new data from when we presented last in December, The only other topic on our draft agenda for that main meeting is data dashboards.

[01:20:21] So we could just designate that as a work session, make that the exclusive topic of the evening. Or if you wanted to keep that regular meeting for another conversation, we could work to try to find another meeting. That's totally up to you. I would love to, if we could do it for like an hour and a half, and then we'd have a good period of time to be able to really dig into it.

[01:20:45] and obviously invite the other school board members that want to come to provide some feedback at that point or do you want to just be us or I would love to hear what do you think about that got it okay yeah okay we'll start here with us then great yep that'll work great okay thank you so much thank you for this next is new business 5.0 do we have any new business okay seeing none our next meeting will be in May I can't believe we're already to May how is that

[01:21:21] possible. And I will just say thank you all so much for your participation and for coming out and we are adjourned.

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