Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Public Schools, Performance Monitoring Committee Meeting, Tuesday, October 6, 2026

Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2026
Place: LCPS Administration Building / School Board Room, Ashburn, Virginia
Length: 1h 13m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1233519974?rel=0

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-13. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:20] good evening my name is amy ricardi and i'm calling to order the performance monitoring committee meeting today october 6 2026 and i have miss chernoff and miss chandler with me as well let's see we are going to start this evening with public comment actually yes public comment so we have one speaker tonight miss bernay i would just i would not even bother with a timer just do your thing and we're good thank you i think it would be this committee dr tyler you

[00:00:57] might remember um maybe two or three years ago um miss griffiths was also chair of the committee and we were working on attrition and retention data and we had requested it i was pushing for um like basically and we got it we got it you you did it it was a like every single school and it went back till covet i think it went back like several years and i was just wondering if that still exists if this is the committee for that i would love to i think that's something that's extremely important and we should be looking at the trends to see um how schools are doing

[00:01:37] and it took into account i remember like new principals um new schools opening uh stuff like that like rezoning and and all of that stuff but i don't know i don't know i don't know whatever happened to that but i know we did it once and i remember miss griffiths was like i believe she was chair of that committee or something yeah i was gonna guess it was hrtd committee before that would have looked at staffing and all things oh okay but we don't have the committee anymore so this is a good place to start that's okay that's right because i remember miss boland was here too

[00:02:12] yeah that was it tell me what do you what are you looking you just want the information is that what you're looking for? Yes I think I mean it's invaluable as you know from the union standpoint but also y'all everybody we all want you know the staff to be happy and retention is I think the number one indicator if they stay there it's not because they're scared or unhappy it's because they like where they are. Chair Riccardi I did just want to mention that staff information staff

[00:02:47] data is on our pmc roadmap for december for as a topic or we're not talking about the dashboard you're talking about as a topic for yes ma'am as a topic for discussion for this committee yes thanks yeah there you go it's actually a topic too that i think has been really interesting we've been talking about a little bit informally as well so i think that'll be a good good conversation thank you okay we need to approve our minutes from our september 1st 2026 meeting have you all had a

[00:03:20] chance to review them do I have a motion yes chair Riccardi I move that we approve the September 1st 2026 performance monitoring committee meeting minutes second all those in favor aye there you go yes sorry about that so those are approved thank you so we're going to move on to four point

[00:03:53] I'm sorry yes 4.01 department of academics program evaluation and I will leave that to Dr. Ellis? I'm actually going to turn it right over to Dr. Blakelock, I believe. Thank you, Dr. Ellis.

[00:04:09] I'm here tonight to just give a brief overview of where we are with the program evaluation schedule for last year and this year. Just a quick reminder that we do a continuous improvement cycle, the Plan, Do, Study, Act. It's very similar to the CDC program evaluation model, which is used by the federal government.

[00:04:27] It's just got fewer steps to it, but we're really looking to try to build capacity for continuous improvement inside of our programs we have four aggregate milestone steps ultimately we are developing a logic model which is how we define and understand the program creating an evaluation design and schedule which is how we will approach the actual evaluation itself collecting data and reporting findings so right now we are more or less in the bookends of that particular process which i'll give and go into more detail on the next slide so for the 25 26 school year

[00:05:04] those programs we have two of them that have reports drafted already the credit recovery elementary and middle summer school occurred over the summer so we are still kind of getting the data together and getting it analyzed there were some fall assessments that those data were also that we also needed as well so we're pulling all of those together but we do have their two reports drafted the restorative practices is probably gonna be the first one to publish and we will certainly let you know when that has actually been posted in terms of the 26-27 schedule right now we have a lot of evaluation design going on we did

[00:05:42] report a rapid study draft report for educational diagnosticians that's being reviewed right now but ultimately we end up in a position where we have reporting and creating evaluation designs at the same exact time so we have a little bit of crunch with the priority being on standing up the evaluations for the um for the current school year so that we don't lose data collection opportunity outside of that i will see if there's any questions but that's just my brief update of where we are the program evaluations great thank you so much are there any questions i just had

[00:06:19] a quick question for you um and i think you kind of answered it so i was looking at slides four and five and you said restorative practices is going to be the next one that's going to be released do we know timeline-wise kind of where are like are we talking first quarter so restorative practices I would anticipate end of the month we're actually having a review of it with the program sponsor and the program staff next week and then we'll need a little bit more time after that but that should be coming up at the end of the month with DLI being probably about two weeks behind it okay so it'll

[00:06:56] be like mid mid-November yes ma'am and then how about any of the other ones data analysis right now I don't I don't have any context for like how long these take right the goal is to have them out as soon as we possibly can I imagine we'll have them all published by the end of November but again the real focus has been on the ones that are happening this year just so that we can start collecting data on them and before we get too deep into the school year but by the end of November we should have all of them completed the 2025 26 correct be

[00:07:26] done by the end of November okay fantastic and then and then for the 26 27 is the goal kind of do them in the count in the count in that calendar year or during the academic year so we start off we actually really start off July 1 we start creating logic models and evaluation designs with the idea being that the data collection will occur during the school year itself there are some programs that actually have some existing data collection practices which we really lean into very quickly first just so that we can perpetuate that

[00:08:03] adaptive physical education is one where they've got an observation form that even though we don't have the evaluation fully designed we've helped them tool that and they actually have it out and are collecting data on it and that will that certainly be built into the evaluation design itself okay so it's kind of like a july to november of the next year kind of correct i'm not holding you to any of that that's just roughly i'm just trying to get an idea roughly of what it looks like yes um so like when we as soon as we have what the schedule is going to be that's when we start working with the programs to do it um to kind of start getting them set up and then you know july 1 is really where we really kick off and try to get aggressive, not aggressive, but try to move quickly to try to get them stood up

[00:08:43] by like mid-October or so. And we're pretty close on the ones that are up there. We have research questions on all of them. It's just a matter of finalizing them in the data collection tools. Yeah, I have a lot of, obviously, I have a lot of interest in all these EL1s. So I'm super curious about that.

[00:08:59] So it'll be great. Thank you guys so much. Thank you so much for that. Appreciate it. You're welcome. All right, and so now we'll move on to 4.02, our English learners maximizing the impact of our resources. And I will turn it over. Who's going to share some?

[00:09:14] I just wanted to make one comment and introduce Ms. Rosario and Dr. Jefferson. So before I turn it over to Ms. Rosario, our Director of English Learner Programs, and Dr. Jefferson, the amazing principal of Parkview High School, I did just want to, I did just want to, it's true, the whole team's amazing.

[00:09:37] I did want to thank the committee and the school board for their keen interest in supporting our English learners, particularly in the commitments you made in the previous budget. And so one of the reasons we're excited to present this information to you is that you were very generous in allocating funds and positions to support English learners.

[00:10:03] and this incredible team has taken those resources and really maximized their impact and so we have a lot of information a lot of data to share with you and then really we want to connect it to the stories of what's happening in the schools and so thank you for your support and and I hope you see the the effort that has gone into really maximizing the resources that we've been provided And with that, I will turn it over to Ms. Rosario and Dr. Jefferson.

[00:10:34] Good evening, and I want to echo Dr. Ellis' sentiments, and really thank you for bringing forward a question that is both incredibly important, and I'm going to admit my favorite topic to talk about. So to respond to the driving question, I want to organize our conversation around three key questions.

[00:10:55] Who are the English learners we serve, how are they performing, and how are we currently aligning our resources to support their needs? So let's dive in. Who are we serving? Our EL population remains significant and continues to represent a substantial instructional responsibility across Loudoun County Public Schools.

[00:11:18] But the number of ELs alone don't tell us what resources students need. Within this population, we have students who are new to U.S. schools, who are new to We have students with interrupted education, we have long-term English learners, and students who are also receiving special education services.

[00:11:35] And while enrollment may be decreasing, the diversity of needs is increasing. And that variation is extremely important because a one-size-fits-all approach is neither efficient or effective. And for many of our newest students and families, our first opportunity to really understand those needs begins at the Welcome Center.

[00:11:57] Our Welcome Center provides, really, the services that they provide is the front door of our instructional support system and our first opportunity to understand each student, their language proficiency, educational history, their experiences, and potential needs.

[00:12:14] And through this process, we're able to provide receiving schools with really important information to help them understand their new family and the student who is entering their classroom. Beginning July 1, our Welcome Center expanded its role by providing registration services for all schools.

[00:12:34] This data provides an early snapshot of that work. The number of registrations completed, family resource conversations held, and students for whom determination of EL eligibility were made since that expansion. And while this data represents students entering our system, they're only one part of our students we serve.

[00:12:54] We have thousands of English learners already in our classrooms whose language development and academic needs continue to evolve. So while understanding students well at entry is essential, we must continue to know our students, monitor their progress and adjust our support as their needs change.

[00:13:14] And that brings us to our next question. How are our English learners performing? At the division level, this is our SOL pass rate for ELs. There are two things I want us to notice in these results. First, where we see progress, we want to understand what instructional conditions are contributing to that improvement so that we could replicate them.

[00:13:36] Second, where performance remains below our expectations, we need to be equally clear about what needs to change. And this data performance truly is critical in our school improvement conversations. While SOL results tell us how students are performing academically, the WIDA access assessment measures English language growth and proficiency.

[00:14:02] This provides a critical lens on whether students are developing language needs to access increasingly complex academic content. This slide gives us a three-year view of that progress. For each year, the gray bullets represent VDOE's expected progress target.

[00:14:21] The blue represents the state's performance, and orange represents our performance. What I want to draw your attention to is the trajectory. Over each of the past years, LCPS has outperformed the state, and that margin has continued to grow.

[00:14:37] Most recently, in 2026, 59.6% of our English learners met the access progress measure compared to the VDOE's expected target of 58%. That sustained progress is encouraging, and as we look more closely at that progress, we see some important differences across our school levels.

[00:15:02] When we disaggregate our progress data by school level, we begin to see a more nuanced picture. Our elementary students demonstrate the strongest progress with impressive growth in our most recent year. At the middle and high school levels, we also see improvement, but at different rates, and those differences matter.

[00:15:21] They remind us that the needs of our English learners and instructional supports required can look very different across elementary, middle, and high school. Now, progress and proficiency answer two different questions. Progress tells us whether students are moving forward in their English language development.

[00:15:41] Proficiency tells us whether they're reaching the level needed to successfully exit EL status. Both measures matter. We want students to demonstrate strong annual growth, but ultimately we want the growth to result in students reaching proficiency.

[00:15:57] This year, the percentage of students reaching proficiency increased from 14.82% to 17.17%. That means more students successfully met the same proficiency as their English-speaking peers and are exiting EL status.

[00:16:17] Now here's a closer look at the proficiency level rates by school level. We see improvement across all three levels. However, we want to ensure that we continue this trajectory of continuous improvement. And this is where we begin by moving from reviewing data to acting on that data.

[00:16:37] Now, division-level results give us a broad picture, but the essence of our work is looking more closely at this data across schools to understand where additional attention is needed. We do that collaboratively with our school improvement office and across content offices, examining multiple indicators and engaging with school teams through existing school improvement meetings and PDSA cycles.

[00:17:03] Those collaborative conversations help us to identify the need, determine the appropriate response, monitor implementation, and make adjustments based on what that data is telling us. Our goal is not to distribute resources equally across schools, but to deploy them equitably based on demonstrated need.

[00:17:22] For some schools, universal supports may be sufficient. Others may require targeted professional learning or coaching with a smaller number of schools who may benefit for a more intensive partnership. By working through our existing school improvement structures, we can be more intentional with the capacity and resources we already have and ensure the EELS supports are connected to the broader instructional priorities of the school and our division.

[00:17:51] So our next question is, what is the right support? Our support system begins with a foundation that should be present for every English learner. This includes an asset-based mindset, high expectations, access to rigorous instruction, and a sense of belonging.

[00:18:11] From there, supports become increasingly targeted based on the school and student need. This approach reflects the journey we began following our external program review five years ago, moving from strengthening a common vision to building instructional capacity and now targeted, increasingly differentiated support.

[00:18:31] And central to the system is educator capacity because regardless of role, the adults who serve our English learners need knowledge and skills to respond effectively to their instructional needs. Now, we are fortunate to have a dedicated EL professional learning office that works collaboratively across the division to ensure educators have that knowledge and skills to support ELs.

[00:18:56] But we also recognize that our educators come to this work with a wide range of roles, experiences, knowledge, and expertise. Our tiered professional learning plan, which we shared with you as a resource, responds to that variation.

[00:19:12] On the left are our foundational learning experience. We have EL foundations, English language development standards, and quality teaching for English learners, which builds essential knowledge and instructional capacity. From there, professional learning becomes increasingly specialized.

[00:19:30] It's based on educator and student need from supporting duly identified students, co-teaching models, to autism support, and other targeted areas. The intent is to provide the right learning at the right level based on the needs of the educators and the students they serve. This year alone, I am proud to share, we are offering 93 professional learning sessions over the span of 152 days. But providing professional learning is not our measure of success. What matters is whether that learning translates into changing

[00:20:06] educator practice and ultimately stronger experiences and outcomes for our students. So that's why our support extends beyond division-wide professional learning. Based on need, we move from building division-wide capacity to targeted school support and job-embedded coaching.

[00:20:23] Through coaching, collaboration, observations and feedback, we can reinforce the learning closer to the classroom and identify where additional support is needed. So as we think about maximizing our investments in professional learning, reaching more educators is important, but equally important is understanding whether that change is changing classroom practices as a result, and whether those changes are improving student outcomes.

[00:20:51] Quality teaching for English learners, better known as QTEL, is one example of how we are putting that idea into practice. We're moving from professional learning to sustainable instructional capacity. QTEL represents one of our most significant investments following the program review.

[00:21:10] It is a research-based approach designed to provide English learners access to rigorous, Intellectually engaging instruction while simultaneously developing academic language. Over the past five years, we have intentionally built educator capacity through QTEL cohorts that included EL teachers, general education teachers, and other educators who are positioned to influence instruction.

[00:21:38] To date, we have reached 1,105 educators across 91 schools. And this past summer, we added a division-level QTEL leadership institute for principals, assistant principals, and district leaders, which we do plan to continue.

[00:21:55] But the investment was never intended to end with training. Participants receive initial and follow-up observations to support implementation and reinforce QTEL practices in the classroom. That allows us to see how that learning is translating into instruction and where additional coaching or support may be needed.

[00:22:16] our next step is scale and sustainability we knew we could not rely solely on west ed to deliver professional learning across a division of our size so we intentionally invested in building internal capacity six of our lcps el team members have now completed the intensive qtel apprenticeship and are equipped to deliver the professional learning within our division allowing us to to expand access while reducing reliance on external partners.

[00:22:48] I do want to take this opportunity to reiterate what Dr. Ellis shared and I want to thank you the board for your continued investment in our EL instructional infrastructure. The additional EL instructional facilitators and professional learning content specialists significantly strengthen our ability to bring this work directly into schools.

[00:23:09] Not only to provide school-based professional learning but through coaching, collaboration, and that job-embedded support. And together, these investments allow us to move from training individuals to building sustainable capacity within our schools. So what does this look like when it comes together at a school?

[00:23:28] Parkview is particularly important to this conversation because they serve one of our largest English learner-populated high schools and illustrate the type of differentiated partnership that I've described today. And that work began with the data and an honest assessment of their student needs.

[00:23:47] And Dr. Jefferson is here to share more about our partnership and its impact. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for inviting me. I do want to say thank you to both Dr. Ellis and Sharice for thinking of Parkview always and just having us on their mind. I get to do something tonight that I love doing, which is talk about my kids and what they're doing on a daily basis.

[00:24:08] Sharice talked about partnership. And the older you get, the more you have to take notes. as you remember what you want to say. But Cherise talked about partnership, and she's telling the truth. This partnership literally did start, I'm going into my six-year at Parkview, so it started five years ago with the review about where we were going to go, and it created some very courageous conversations and some very tough spots that we were in as a school community.

[00:24:35] A lot of it started with us digging in and marrying ourselves to a CLT process where teachers are meeting with each other, not just with Dr. Jefferson or with administrators, but where teachers are literally meeting one or another to plan what their instruction is going to look like.

[00:24:53] Because I was an English teacher, and the one thing I did not want was someone coming and telling me, oh, well, this is the best way to do it, and they've never taught the content that I've taught. And so one thing that we embrace strongly at Parkview is the idea that teachers need to be talking to one another, just like we want kids to talk to one another about what's going on in all of the classrooms.

[00:25:14] And so the first thing I want to do before we go any further, I want to say thank you to my teachers. They are not here. I told our science department here I didn't need you here for this tonight. We're just going to talk a little bit about what we do in science and how we got to where we are. But I was an English teacher. I wasn't a science teacher.

[00:25:30] So going into some of the science classrooms and some of the science CLTs, I'm like, okay, I guess that's what the kids should be doing. And our teachers have found a way to communicate and collaborate with each other to increase what our kids are able to produce on a daily basis.

[00:25:48] And so you're about to see a video, and I asked for your indulgence. And we talked a lot at the school about which video to show you guys. We said, oh, we're going to show them some of the QTEL planning that we do at our school. And then my EL department chair said, no, Dr. J., we're just going to show them the kids.

[00:26:09] And we looked at the video, and you're about to look inside of an environmental science class. But it might blow your mind that they're not talking a lot about environmental science in the portion that you're going to see. And I want to frame it with the fact that we want our kids, especially our English learners, to talk to each other.

[00:26:28] And that's why we wanted you to see this. This actually happened this week because we changed out what we were going to show you guys today. because we really want to highlight the communication and collaboration that the kids are doing. And one of the things that we're focusing on at our school this year is removing teacher talk and allowing the kids to talk to each other, because that builds not only their stamina with thinking, but their stamina with language, and they get more out of it with each other.

[00:26:55] So I beg your indulgence for this seven-minute video. But it's going to lay the foundation for you to see what we're doing and where we're going. So a lot of the students that you're going to see, they're 10th graders, they're English learners, they're level 1s up to, I believe, level 4s in this class.

[00:27:48] And what are your partners doing and what's the learning process?

[00:30:44] So what you had the opportunity right there to see, as I said, was one of our EL environmental classes.

[00:34:54] And as I said, it wasn't a whole bunch of scientific terminology used, but what they were doing was laying the foundation for the rest of the class where the kids were actually talking one to another. And she also made some great connections to what they were doing in the history class.

[00:35:11] And so at Parkview, our partnership with the L office has been about the building of capacity of our teachers. We have been especially valued at the alignment with the instructional framework. And so the instructional framework asks us to center everything we do around our kids and the design of how their learning experiences are on a daily basis and engage them in rigorous, authentic learning activities inside of the classroom.

[00:35:42] And so as you walk through Parkview and you walk through especially our science classes, that I'm going to talk about shortly, you'll see a lot of the QTEL moment lessons. And so our work with QTEL began in English, I want to say, yeah, five years ago.

[00:35:58] And this training gave our teachers the opportunity to examine what rigorous student-centered instruction looks like. It meant that we had to look at questions, and we dealt a lot with questioning that year. Who was doing the thinking in the classroom? More importantly, who was doing the talking?

[00:36:16] Are students engaged in rigorous coursework? Are we scaffolding while students are still having the opportunity to engage with high expectations? And so, as I said, our goal is always to get kids talking inside of the classrooms. And so, the one thing I do want to add about QTEL, as some of you know, Parkview is going through the IB process right now.

[00:36:37] And this weekend, one of our history teachers and one of our chemistry teachers, they did their IB training. And one of the things they came back and shared on Monday, so Dr. J, a lot of what they're teaching us through our IB training is QTEL, because it's a link together.

[00:36:56] It's a link together. And so we had a really good discussion about that and how we can help bridge the two together. And so as we begin to see the value of the work in English five years ago, we realized that these practices should be expanded into some of our other content areas.

[00:37:12] This led us to our work in science, where we needed a lot of help. And it's still a growth area for us. And so our focus was designing instruction that made rigor of science possible for our English learners. And three years ago, four years ago now, Jason, our science pass rate was 25% for our English learners.

[00:37:37] This year, we looked, and my AP was texting me while this video was going on. This year, we look, and for the state and for LCPS, 34% of English learners pass a science SOL. However, 46% of Parkview English learners pass a science SOL this year.

[00:37:56] And while there's still room for growth in science, and we live with that every day, that progress, not perfection, we are doing our best to make progress with the resources that have been gifted and given to us. And we've seen similar experiences in math.

[00:38:13] So Parkview's math performance rate in 2023 was 71%, 75% in 2024-25, and 79% in 2025-26. Closing the achievement gap for students led to Parkview High School being identified as one of only 66 schools in the nation as a national elementary and secondary act of single school last year, as you all are familiar.

[00:38:39] These trends matter because our work is not simply about improving performance in one subject. It's about strengthening instruction so that students, particularly English learners, have greater access to rigorous content across the school. So for Parkview, maximizing resources means taking the professional learning and support available to us and turning it into actual classroom practices.

[00:39:03] We would never attribute student growth to one training or one strategy. And I want to be clear, while we love QTEL, we know it's not a magic bullet, if you will. But we can say that as we've become more intentional about the ways in which we build teacher capacity through this partnership, the trajectory of our student outcomes have expanded and they've gone in the right direction.

[00:39:24] So our work now is to continue talking about what we are doing and taking what we have learned, expanding it across other content areas, and ensuring that our English learners can enter into each classroom and have those rigorous, engaging experiences.

[00:39:41] And that's the impact that the partnership has had. I want to highlight something else about our school, and in particular about our science department. We have had the same science department for the past three, almost four years. So that goes to the retention piece that was mentioned earlier.

[00:39:59] And that doesn't mean that we haven't had to have some real tough conversation and reflect on our work as educators. But for me, what it's meant, and I want to highlight Katie. She's not here right now, but she's our coach. Is it coached the title that we use? Yeah, our EL instructional facilitator.

[00:40:19] Working heavily, not just with my EL department chair, my EL AP, but also with the Algebra I EL teachers, the Environmental EL teachers, the Biology EL teachers. And so she's always there, and she's always that smile one, And she's also a sounding board for me when I don't know what's the best strategy to use to support the kids.

[00:40:42] And it's good having that person in the building. She tries to be there at least one day a week. She's usually there two to three. So shout out to her for the work that she's doing with our teachers and always available. So in a nutshell, this is where we are.

[00:40:59] Those are our outcomes. We love our partnership. And we want to continue. and we have some high expectations for data for this year. - Thank you, Dr. Jefferson. That was so eloquently stated 'cause our partnership has been strong and it's just so rewarding to see the student outcomes as a result of that.

[00:41:20] And really what you just heard is from Dr. Jefferson illustrates what can happen when school leadership, data, professional learning, coaching, essential office support are intentionally aligned around student need. And our challenge now is to continue building capacity across the division which we're doing but we want to make sure we stay and remain strategic about where in additional investments are needed and as we look forward to fy28 our potential initiatives are grounded in that same approach that we've described we're not

[00:41:57] looking to simply add resources really we're looking to target our investments i want to strengthen our ability to respond to that demonstrated need and some of these priorities that you see listed on the next slide will show you how we want to prioritize sustaining the instructional capacity we've built particularly the school-based staff closest to the classrooms we are looking at exploring and ensuring that our staffing standards are aligned to that demonstrated need we're exploring our lead stipends looking for potential opportunities for

[00:42:32] differentiation based on the population of l's in the schools versus having one stipend for all we're also evaluating school-based leadership staffing and their scheduling at the schools to offer them opportunities for planning time and to deliver the support needed from our office to their clts and these are i'm thinking specifically about our salt contacts and leads those are the leads that are identified in each school can't forget my beautiful preschool expansion that's always top of mind and we certainly want to continue to expand that within our initiatives

[00:43:08] and we're also bringing forward our some considerations for our el family engagement really thinking about that office is completely funded by title iii and i would love to expand looking at having that those efforts through local funding so i began with the question how can we we begin with that driving question how can we maximize the impact of our resources to ensure improved outcomes for else and for us the answer becomes increasingly clear we need to know our students we need to use the data to identify that need we need to target our resources accordingly build

[00:43:45] capacity closest to the classroom and continues continuously measure whether those investments are making a difference so while we still have a lot of areas improvement we have made some significant progress particularly in the past three years or five years i should say that i'm very proud of and we are grateful to you all the board for your investments in our work with that said i'll answer any questions you may have excellent thank you all so much for this so i'm going to know you're going to have a ton i'm going to start

[00:44:18] over here I'm sorry over here and work my way around sure we have met you thank you so much for being here and thank you for the presentation you know I in sort of reflecting on our journey together I am just so heartened to have the opportunity to see the data and the meaningful work that you're doing for our students and I did really I mean I'll be honest I struggled for a little bit understanding right in the video why would we start with history when we're in

[00:44:57] environmental science class but you really can relate to the fact that a lot of those concepts are very specific and not relatable and so in modeling you're looking for something that you have all of those context points to bring them in and then to build on and so it took me a minute but I got there. And I loved seeing it wrap up at the end with how that comes together. But it is incredibly meaningful. And I think as a school board member who's tasked with making sure

[00:45:33] that we utilize our resources appropriately, it is very meaningful to know that we've been able to leverage additional supports here. And I also really have to say it resonates with me quite a lot that we know that this type of teaching works not just for our English language learners but it's really high quality instruction that relates to everyone so more than a congratulations on your progress thank you for your hard work and I guess if there's anything in that you've learned on this

[00:46:07] journey that you would share with other schools what would it be that's a loaded question because so um yeah i know i'm an english teacher so we talk a lot so i'll try to be very very to the point um if you looked if you looked in that class and i was not the videographer i want to say that so they weren't acting good because i was in there um so so yeah we have a great team um what i will say if you look at the video there are two teachers in the room and we've made those strategic choices

[00:46:42] in our school with our staffing to say in these classes we want two teachers so lamon was in the front doing um as the actual content teacher and miss siren is the l teacher that's in there so one of the things that we've done and i say this to my colleagues all the time we've built our master schedule around the content teacher and the english learner teacher being able to plan together. And that makes a big difference. We didn't always have that. That's been a growth area for us. Because you would have some people off third period, some people

[00:47:18] off first period. But we realized, looking at our data, that the only way for the instruction to improve would be for them to be able to plan together, talk to one another, and develop that relationship. So if I could give any advice to any of my colleagues, it would be what we talk about all the times that our teachers need to plan together and make that a priority. Thank you. Thank you. I have one question and then just a couple of comments and I'll keep it tight because everyone knows how I feel about all this. In terms of slide

[00:47:57] 10, when we're looking at WIDA, are we seeing a comparison? Are we able to project out? Is there a correlation, I guess, between what we're seeing with the WIDA access in progress and the SOLs?

[00:48:13] 'cause I see the math is going up year after year. I know WIDA is more language-based. So how does that translate? - So we have looked back at data and have found, well, I will just start by saying that the access assessment is a rigorous one.

[00:48:35] It is aligned to the student's grade level within the grade level cluster in language that they, academic language, they should be familiar with and exposed to. And we have seen some trends on students who are not only making progress, particularly those making proficiency in exiting, along with their grade-level peers, are successful in SOLs as well.

[00:48:59] Absolutely, we have seen some of that progress. And then just to piggyback on that, to clarify, when they exit then, their scores are calculated through the general SOL population, correct? Or are they still tagged as English language learners, even if they exit?

[00:49:17] So we are responsible for monitoring our students once they exit EL status. So while they are no longer eligible for EL services per se, they are eligible for continued accommodations as needed and agreed upon with their families, and we include them as far as with the EL subgroup, the monitored students as well.

[00:49:40] Okay. That makes sense. Can you add to that, Dr. Tyler, with the SPSF? I would say monitored L's are not included like in pass rates or SPSF results. It's only students who are receiving services. Okay. But we're able to monitor their progress after they've exited, but it's not part of the accountability system.

[00:49:58] Okay. I mean, that's helpful. I do know WIDA to be pretty intense. I mean, I saw it delivered when I was in elementary school at Guilford, and it's more comprehensive than a SOL. So it's an interesting trend to see the progress there, and then we're still working towards that translating to an SOL test created from an outside entity.

[00:50:22] I mean, it's not my favorite, but it is what we have. I will just say it's been almost a year since I came to visit, which means time to come back. But last year, and I'm not just saying this, but being at Parkview and seeing, I was in that environmental science class with Ms. Siren, and seeing some of the structures that they were laying down to get kids to talk and then how they were then extending that learning to the content later, I would imagine this activity with the vocabulary will eventually be about environmental science.

[00:50:56] they'll be throwing vocabulary up on the wall they're using that as an entry point to build that complexity and I think that that's amazing and exciting but every person that we talked to I mean that I think last year we were more dialed in on the math we went to go see some math instruction and there were some real awkward silences and the teachers were like nope don't go talk to them now like stay in your corner loved seeing that they open it's the staff buy-in really. I mean, every staff member we talked to when we went to visit the English department, the science department, math, you had this buy-in that, and it was our kids. These are our kids.

[00:51:36] And, you know, we had this student rep a couple of weeks ago talking about it being her family. And I just, I think the culture that you're building about everybody rallying around everyone else's success is truly powerful. And I think it really started in this sort of partnership with EL, at least that's what i see um and that day i remember thinking like i remember talking to you and saying what do we need to make this happen elsewhere and those resources became very clear as the budget unfolded and so while it's easy to thank us i think we should be thanking you

[00:52:12] for the work that you're doing in the trenches and the commitment that we have from you all i know we saw the same kind of doubling of scores is insane that is insane and in a great way and we saw the same thing at freedom and we started to see these isolated pockets and we realized at least in talking to the department and I realized that if we could maximize the staffing here to go out and do that work and to have those partnerships how important that really is and I know sometimes we get a lot of flack for being top heavy here in LCPS at the admin building. And I just want to

[00:52:49] take a minute to address that sometimes while that may feel like we're top heavy and maybe it's a salary gap or whatever, we actually were very, very thin in the EL office. And so in order to do this targeted work that is so important for what we are seeing is becoming rapidly our most vulnerable subgroup it for me it was an easy decision to try and get support and I'm grateful to my colleagues for supporting that because you can only have a partnership if there's two people so the schools are doing the work and they're in the trenches with their kids but they need that

[00:53:27] coaching support they need that professional learning and so I'm really excited over the next year to see where this data goes I have high hopes I think we're going to see amazing things obviously you are as well so i want to thank you for opening your doors to me because it began the conversation that led to the changes in the budget for me that was really that visit and it opened my eyes to what could be possible so i appreciate you thank you you're more than welcome to come back do a me too on that because i want to come see it i want to come see it in action so um you know i think one of the things about living in sterling park is just to have an

[00:54:05] incredible love for our community and it it has been you know part of one of the reasons if people ask me why I ran one is that I really feel strongly that we really needed a really strong advocate for our all of our families in Sterling Park but especially our English learners and getting a lot of support there so I am so excited number one that we're continuing to pour money resources time energy effort all the things we need to into this community and part of that drive was also just look looking at the data saying we can do more loudon county is very blessed with

[00:54:39] enormous resources um you know compared to other divisions across the entire country and so this is really an area where we need to really pour into so number one i want to say um thank you all for taking the investment that that the board put into this in january or february and really maximizing that investment i think one of the fun things to look at you guys know i'm a data a data girl um you know it was costing us and i don't know where i got the number from but it was costing us a lot we've basically saved about 85 percent per person going through qtel right now

[00:55:15] by having the facilitators versus having to send um and having the trainers outside so we're saving a huge amount of money and that compounds over time as we've got more and more people in the process so i'm going to really push that we continue to do that i think the other thing that really appreciate at the school level is i don't want to see and i've said this a thousand times like this little incremental change i love seeing big change because that's what's going to move the needle for these students right if we're if we're you know across the park as we've got students that are not reading and not at math you know anywhere near where they should be at grade level

[00:55:53] we have to make very big improvements and come up with some great strategies to get big improvements in order to get them up to grade level and so what you've done at parkview and i think what's happening with reading at sterling middle is a huge examples of making the very big leaps and to be perfectly honest with you i'm really comfortable with big investment um in you know in our el programs across the division and special education as well because those are the communities that really need the additional support so thank you all for the effort and thank

[00:56:30] you for being creative and coming up with growth this is fantastic i have a master's degree in curriculum and instruction so i got that and i'm like that is so cool and i'm probably going to do something similar with some of my kids at mason because i love the idea um i guess my next question is we're in the budget season you know what do you need at that school level we're and i'm not suggesting i don't want to know from you guys because we've had this conversation internally and privately about what we need to do at the division level and i agree by the way with the the division level investments too for the for this in particular because it makes a difference but at the school level what are you kind of seeing um as resources you know if you had an

[00:57:07] unlimited budget what would i'm gonna i'm no i'm just gonna ask like pie in the sky like if you had an unlimited budget like where would the biggest investments be that would make the biggest impact so every year um when we come back from christmas or winter break i say to my leadership team our goal is sorry our goal is our goal is for for me to keep us whole and what i mean by whole is um no matter where you stand i need you all to be back here next year so that we won't

[00:57:44] lose folks um according to uh numbers if you will you all get what i'm saying um if i did have a magic wand um it would be for us to stay whole as a school um that is so important we have um sharice blew my mind when she said that we were over a thousand teachers in the district i looked at you like what that had been trained almost eleven hundred had been trained in qtel we've made an investment both with some support from english learner um and we've used title one funds

[00:58:18] to support it um like i said it's not just a magic bullet but we've done data wise training through harvard university we've done qtel training we've trained our people um and one of the things if you work in turnaround schools um you know that we spend a lot of money training teachers and then sometimes they move on and one of the things that we want to do and i want to do make sure that we keep that knowledge in our school not that we don't want anyone freedom to be successful and i love my friend um but we want to keep as much of that internal as we can

[00:58:56] to the school so if i didn't if i didn't have budgetary concerns my thing would be for us to be main to continue to be whole yeah i think that's you know the retention issue i think is huge um thank you for that because that's my goal as well is to make sure that at least for our title one schools that we're maintaining our staffing standards for those schools and actually I would say this not maintaining the staffing standards but sticking with what we've got now yeah and and we've got to do some work I think on the staffing standards piece just generally when it comes to some of the title one

[00:59:32] and EL schools for sure so thank you for that the other thing I would say too is do we is we have really I mean some really promising and really good data on qtel and student improvement so are we now are we currently requiring qtel training first for el teachers or title one school teachers or students with a large el population so we are not requiring but we are strongly encouraging um that educators based on their experiences and the student needs

[01:00:09] have them go through our foundational training starting with el foundations eld standards and and then building on to QTEL. And that's also assisting us with managing the amount of participants and whom we're offering spots to for QTEL as those offerings are being deployed throughout the district.

[01:00:28] So I think we're doing a really good job in sharing with schools and our conversation in school meetings. And I will also add my professional learning team has done a beautiful job in documenting all of the staff that's been trained in those three trainings, and that data is available to schools.

[01:00:46] So when they are participating in school improvement meetings and talking about walkthroughs and talking about what PD needs are needed, they have that as a reference to look toward to say, oh, Ms. Riccardi might benefit from Yale Foundations before she attends QTEL. So this would be a recommendation for you this year versus straight to QTEL.

[01:01:04] Yeah, and you had another slide in here, I think the one earlier than this, I think that had the different, I can't remember. Maybe it's the, it might actually, it might be the handout. It's the PDF actually. Yeah, this is another visual of that same information that I shared with you.

[01:01:22] And what I shared with you is what's shared with schools. What I would love to see from a data perspective is the total population of teachers that have gone through and how many are in each of these different tiers, and then what it costs us per teacher to go through the training at each one of these levels so that we can actually sit here and say, okay, we need X number more, so that's going to cost us X number of dollars or whatever.

[01:01:50] So we can start really looking at it from a budget perspective. I'd also really like to see it like headcount by school so we know, okay, well, this school only has a smaller number or a bigger number of people in this school.

[01:02:05] We need to really encourage more at that school or whatever so that we can really start figuring out kind of from a school by school. I mean, we have about 14 Title I schools. I think that there would be something to be said for being able to make sure that we're investing heavily where we really need it.

[01:02:24] So those would just be some interesting data points to see. And then we can also start looking. As we're building out budget requests for this coming year, I think that would be super helpful. So just to be clear, you're looking to see participants per professional learning offering and the cost that associates to that.

[01:02:43] Yeah, and I think the other thing, well, I'm trying to answer the question, are EL and Title I teachers participating in big enough numbers, right? because I want to kind of flood the zone with the training in the schools, right?

[01:03:01] Right, because you have to. I mean, that's the only way you're going to make a huge change, right, is we've got to flood the zone with teachers that are going through this process, and I'd like to know kind of where we are. So we're getting them through the program as completely as it makes sense or we need to, and then if it's not required, you know, incenting those teachers to do it.

[01:03:24] However, I don't know what that looks like for you all. So we can certainly get you those numbers, I think, as Ms. Rosario mentioned, her team tracks that very closely. And I do just want to reiterate what she said earlier about the, and I love, love, love this slide because it really articulates to me the entire professional learning support system.

[01:03:49] It's not just about an individual piece of training. what it's it's that foundation that has to happen first which i think i think her team would agree that we have a solid foundation now for all of our el teachers and our general education teachers are getting there but our el teachers have that solid foundation and we are moving as quickly as we can through that next level the high quality instructional piece and that's those three layers of professional learning and then after that that blue bar that educator capacity bar is so so

[01:04:28] important and underrated because it's that it's that professional that's it's that ongoing co-teaching and coaching support that dr jefferson said you know he's lucky to get his coach two or three days a week instead of the one day she's assigned that's where the real power of that training comes in so it's great to have the one day training we will or actually q tells multiple days four days we will continue to work toward that goal and without that coaching support it it could potentially be money lost because what are you doing with the training after you experience

[01:05:04] so how many um yeah go ahead and ask your question well and i just wanted this is where my fear is about the staffing standards is because a lot of the way the staffing standards work you lose a certain amount of people based off of enrollment but that doesn't really address like the sections of co-teachers that are going to be lost in that flow and I think that's the piece that this year I'm going to really try and understand better because again if you're investing in a general education teacher and a co-teacher to have this training at that high level but you're going to

[01:05:41] lose your co-teacher because now there's not enough capacity to co-teach because enrollment went down and the staffing standard was altered that's where we that's where we have as a school board i think have to pick up this conversation is like what is the school impact because that is also money lost not only is that money lost that's bodies in classes to reinforce those different strategies it just that's where my anxiety is coming from because as we see the enrollment flood which we're just now getting going to get those you know real-time numbers

[01:06:14] that's where the biggest hits happen because it's those supporting cast members that are critical to a co-teaching model versus a pullout model right because yeah you can be thinner at those spots but that's less support and co-teaching has really taken on a whole nother life especially in elementary I mean we're still trying to build in capacity there but that's the power the power is that someone has your back and there's different people attacking different things at different times and that's the beauty of training both people so that's kind of where i

[01:06:51] would like the enrollment conversation to go is and i'm i've been calling them like baseline staffing standards like what are our non-negotiables like no matter what enrollment is where do we have to pick up and and say we're making a commitment regardless because the needs are there and we've seen the success because if we start losing those people you're not going to see those numbers i believe that and i appreciate your comment about co-teaching because that's a nuance that's completely lost in the staffing, 100% on a page in a budget book. And principals are making that work through their master schedule, which is like a PhD skill set and of its own. So, I mean,

[01:07:27] say this one thing, when I was an English teacher, I was assigned a co-teacher, Mr. Gary Grant, you all don't know, but Mr. Grant was a wonderful co-teacher. In the two and a half years that we work together. I was not successful on my own. I was successful because I had Gary in the classroom with me. I could not have done what I did with those ninth graders teaching them about teaching English. I couldn't have done that if he wasn't in a room with me. I didn't have the special education background at the time. He did. So he filled in my gaps for me as an educator. And it's

[01:08:06] Sort of the same thing in our L classrooms. Lamond is a earth science, environmental, and biology teacher. Knows content like the back of their hand. But then you bring Jen in there, and she knows the language acquisition piece.

[01:08:23] And you're right. They go hand in hand. And I couldn't imagine going into that classroom or any of our, especially our ninth and tenth grade classes in math or in science, just seeing one teacher they're trying to teach content and deliver language support to our students thank you so I just wanted to go back to the QTEL training piece and how it's not a requirement but it is identified I would guess by this at a supervisor level for training is that tied to any

[01:09:00] performance evaluation piece or do we have any incentives to move that along When you say performance, can you clarify? Well, so it was interesting, and I don't know if I captured exactly what you said, but it made me wonder when you talked about it being part of an identified training that would be beneficial to your development as a teacher.

[01:09:26] Is it tied to performance evaluation at all? It is not. It is not. And then do you have any incentives that could be offered? That's something we can certainly explore, but we have not. Those conversations typically happen through the school improvement conversations that are happening in the schools.

[01:09:45] And some of the walkthroughs, a lot of principals ask our team to go through their classrooms and give some feedback. And that's when those recommendations are organically suggested. That's not a requirement for the teacher to say, you must do this because it's more of this would be an opportunity for you to grow your expertise in supporting English.

[01:10:04] Right. And to hear it to your point, right, it is an opportunity and is improving a teacher's skill set. So one thing we said, when we do our QTEL training in the summer, we get our teachers.

[01:10:21] We have very I have very direct conversations with them. Hey, guys, we're going to pay you to go and learn and very honest with them. We're going to pay you to go and learn where they can get paid over the summer through our title one grant. And we've used that to incentivize our teachers over the summer.

[01:10:39] We can't do it during the school year, but we have been able to do it over the summer. So you do have a leverage point? Yeah, just a little one, especially in the summer that's really small. And I'm glad you brought that up because we actually, because of our partnership in learning, I often practice with Dr. Jefferson to see how things are well-received and then push it out to the district.

[01:10:58] And these ideas definitely translate to some items that we put in place. But we did this past summer also offer a summer session in paid teachers, and we do plan to do that again this coming summer because we do receive feedback from teachers where they don't want to be out of the classroom for four days, and we honor that and respect that.

[01:11:16] So we want to offer a variety of opportunities for them to attend. The other thing I wanted to add and kind of piggyback on your last thought is with the staffing baseline concept is that I also want to make sure that we're offering kind of the right of first refusal and getting our EL and Title I schools staffed first.

[01:11:38] I know we're working on that, but I think as we're talking about making sure that we've got these baselines, we really do want to continue with the continuity of operations in our classrooms, right? And so being able to give the opportunity to those teachers to stay, I think, early on and earlier, I should say, would be huge, I think, in that piece, too.

[01:11:59] Right, I think that's another piece. What committee would actually take that up? Staffing standards would be through the budget, right? Yeah. But it might be a good conversation for us to have offline.

[01:12:16] Yeah. Before we get there. Yeah, I think so, too, for sure. All right, anything else on this one? All right, we're going to move on to new business. I just had something really quickly, and I mentioned this at the last meeting, too. I do not want to lose the conversation about enrollment numbers. I know we're having a conversation, I think, at this Tuesday at the school board meeting, the next one.

[01:12:36] But it may be interesting to do a little bit deeper dive here in PMC. in the november meeting so we'll kind of see what what services at the board meeting but then we may i may want to do some follow-up here um i really do want to talk a little bit more about some of the data requests that i had made that you all did a great job thank you of responding to i know it was a heavy lift but i have started reviewing and going through it so it didn't go into a black hole um and i do appreciate that so i think that might be one of the topics for the next meeting in november yeah it actually might be a really good idea is to tuck in the

[01:13:13] staffing standards piece in with and that conversation because november would be a good time to do that while we're in the budget conversation too so i might throw that one on the agenda and we'll talk about that a little bit more so anything else we're good all right well i'm going to say that we are now adjourned and we will be back in november for our next pmc thanks everybody i appreciate it thank you

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