Board Retreat: Impressions

I'd been under the weather for several days, but was feeling better and made a point of going to the Board's scheduled retreat in Devens* this past Tuesday. I thought I'd share some of my lingering impressions:

• Elections (and ballot questions) have consequences. Once we were coffeed and seated(1), the Chair opened the meeting with some comments about "company off-sites"(2), the election, and the Board's work. About the election he said (paraphrasing), in terms of Massachusetts, we're "maintaining the status quo" for children in our schools, and members of the Board have a "role to play" and it's more important than ever that we help every student become proficient. Some members said they weren't clear if he was talking about the outcome of the national election or of the charter school ballot question. He clarified that he was indeed talking about Question 2 and was of the opinion that the outcome of that debate had [put] "limitations on this Board". Suffice to say there were several around the table still feeling sour about the outcome of Q2, which was soundly repudiated by voters 2:1.

• Safety pin solidarity. In light of the outcome of the national election, several members commented specifically about the spike in harassment, hate speech, and bullying playing out, not only in communities across the country, but with students in schools across the state. The Department noted that school superintendents are providing reassurance to support students. I raised the Attorney General's hate crime hotline and asked if either the Commissioner or Secretary had worked/is working in coordination with her on this issue. Both said no. The Secretary was of the mind (paraphrasing) that these incidents were coming on the heels of the election and might be "out of proportion" due to social media sharing. The Commissioner said he'd be meeting with superintendents and "schools as safe places". (Have to wonder who is advising the Governor and his team on this and why the Governor remains silent? As of this writing, many thousands of phone calls have been made to the Executive Office, with a request that the Governor address the issues to which my Board colleagues attest and to which the Attorney General has responded: to openly declare Massachusetts a safe haven from hate). 

• How many Board members does it take to write a mission statement? There was a good exchange of ideas about updating the Board's mission statement, with a decision to let things sit for a while, as opposed to forming a subcommittee to wordsmith a new one.

• Actually, the Foundation Budget wasn't on the agenda. There was uneven reference to it, nonetheless, and to the Foundation Budget Review Commission's analysis showing Chapter 70 funding is about $2Billion short. Inadequate education funding was brought up by one member who asked if it's within the Board's purview to advocate for implementation of adequate education funding, including the FBRC's recommendations and the "Fair Share Amendment" proposal to come before voters in November 2018. I said that adequate funding is central to everything we do and that we should be advocating for it. FBRC came up again, noted under the last bullet below.

• Does the SEA add value to schools and districts? If you're a Superintendent or Principal, the answer is yes, according to DESE data gleaned from surveys since 2009:

• Asked whether or not ESE provides services in a coherent, well coordinated fashion:
• Superintendents agreed 57.9% (24.1% in 2009)
• Principals agreed 65.9% (41.0% in 2009)

• As to whether ESE is effective in its efforts to improve the overall quality of K-12 education:
• Superintendents agreed 66.7% (41.7% in 2009)
• Principals agreed by a whopping 74.6% (58.4% in 2009)

• The Board and Department didn't strategize, per se. The Commissioner presented his slides: several slides on changing demographics in Massachusetts and the wide variation in school effectiveness; several scatter plots illustrating persistent gaps in achievement, along with the range of achievement at each level of school economic disadvantage. Teeing it up as his most "provocative" slide, the Commissioner displayed a slide with information about students in high poverty, high minority schools:  
  
   So, there followed some discussion about how to work with this information, and several questions asked by my colleagues: Had the Department looked at thus and such, and the Department responded with their data and engagement with the field. After some discussion, again I raised the fact that the Foundation Budget is some $2Billion short and this time I was met with questions from the Secretary: How does increased funding change the information [in the slide]? How does [increasing Foundation Funding] change the effectiveness of teachers in the face of these facts? I don't know, but I posit that the educational enterprise is an eco-system and everything is connected. If schools and districts had the adequate funding that the Foundation Budget Review Commission's analysis acknowledges they lack (for English language learners, in determining economic disadvantage, special education, and addressing costs of health insurance), who knows what positive impact would be felt in other areas, including teacher effectiveness? And we owe it to our children to find out.

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*The Office of Charter Schools and School Redesign will host the  DissemiNATION Fair in Devens on Friday.

(1). Board Members Present: Paul Sagan, Chair; James Morton, Vice Chair; Nathan Moore, Student Representative; Jim Peyser, Secretary of Education; Ed Doherty, Labor Representative; Michael Moriarity; Penny Noyce; Yours truly, Parent Rep. Board members absent: Roland Fryer, Katherine Craven, and Margaret McKenna had informed the chair in advance of their unavailability to attend this day. Staff members in attendance: Jeff Wulfson, Deputy Commissioner; Bill Bell, Associate Commissioner for Administration and Finance; Russell Johnston, Senior Associate Commissioner; Carrie Conaway, Chief Strategy and Research Officer; Heather Peske, Senior Associate Commissioner; Rhoda Schneider, General Counsel; Cliff Chuang, Senior Associate Commissioner for Educational Options; Helene Bettencourt, Chief of Staff; Lauren Greene, Assistant Chief of Staff; Jessica Leitz, Communications

(2). Retreat off-sites are publicly posted meetings of the Board; we had one member of the public join us at a little before 10:00.

EOE Presentation

Secretary of Education, Jim Peyser, gave a short presentation at today's Board retreat in Devens entitled, "Education Reform in Massachusetts: From Good to Great". I've recreated text from his slides below, with his permission:

• Key Outcomes
• Strengthening the global competitiveness of Massachusetts' workforce
• Closing the opportunity and achievement gap

• Getting the Conditions Right
• World-class standards & assessments
• Accessible, timely & meaningful information for policymakers, providers, educators & parents/consumers
• Transparent, predictable, sustainable finance systems, with incentives for performance
• Effective educators and leaders
• Authority to act with accountability for results
• High-quality options and parental choice

• Focusing, Aligning & Integrating
• Upgrading Early Education Quality
• Workforce Development
• Kindergarten Readiness Screening
• Rate increases Tied to Quality Improvement

• Strengthening & Expanding Career Pathways
• Voc-Tech Capital Grants
• Workplace Learning (STEM high school internships)
• Expansion of engineering and computer science courses
• Early College/Dual Enrollment

• Improving College Affordability & Completion
• Reducing/Accelerating Remediation
• Commonwealth Commitment
• Alternative Pathways/Models (including On-Line & Competency Based Education)
• Coordinated Regional Planning
• Workforce Skills Cabinet
• Higher Education Capital Investment

• What Success Looks Like*
• An early education system that works in partnership with local school districts, while developing and supporting its workforce, to ensure literacy for all by 3rd grade
• A K-12 education system that empowers schools and offers parents diverse, high-quality options -- especially in high-need communities
• Expanded opportunities for high-quality career education and workplace learning in both high school and college to better prepare young people for successful careers, especially in STEM fields
• A focused, efficient higher education system that offers students and families accessible and affordable pathways to a college degree, while providing supports and incentives to ensure their success
• Integrated regional public education systems that maximize resources and capacity, while responding flexibly to the changing needs and priorities of the state and local economy

*Emphasis as it appears in the Secretary's original (bold red)

ESSA Community Forums: UPdate

If you've registered to attend the first ESSA Community Forum this Monday from 6:00-7:30 PM in Boston, you already know it won't follow a typical "public hearing" format.

As per the email from DESE, those who have registered to attend a session will be seated at tables for facilitated brainstorming sessions, and it looks as though they'll home-in on a few areas, based on the first round of survey and private meetings last spring. An outline of activities was provided in the email:

• ~10-15 minutes: DESE staff will introduce ESSA and the opportunities for Massachusetts to consider

• ~30 minutes: Brainstorming - Session 1: DESE will conduct brainstorming activities at each table. In this session, they'll be focused on the opportunity to modify our school accountability system (the measures and leveling systems used by the Department)

• ~30 minutes: Brainstorming - Session 2: DESE will conduct a second set of activities at each table. For this session, participants will choose among several topics:
• ideas to improve students' health and safety;
• ideas to ensure students have a well-rounded education;
• ideas to ensure teachers have high quality supports

• ~15-20 minutes: Open Q&A/Wrap up (15-20 minutes)

The ESSA flier has a link to a survey at the bottom of the right-hand column; if you can't make one of the scheduled Forums, you may still provide feedback. As of this post, when I clicked on the link, a message appeared that the "survey is under construction" and to check back soon to provide your feedback.

ESSA Community Forums

Five ESSA Community Forums/Fora are being hosted by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The first Forum is this Monday, November 14 from 6:00-7:30 PM (details for all Forums/Fora below).

Each Forum provides an opportunity for stakeholders to join in a regional discussion and share ideas on how to improve K-12 public school assistance, accountability, and engagement, so that schools receive the supports they need to benefit each and every student. A stakeholder is anyone with a stake in the success of all students in our K-12 public schools, including:

• Parents
• Students
• Teachers
• Principals
• Superintendents
• other education administrators and personnel
• community members
• business leaders and entrepreneurs
• community organizations
• faith-based communities
• Statewide organizations and associations
• post secondary public and private colleges and universities
• paid or elected public service individuals and committees

Monday, November 14 | 6:00-7:30 PM: Boston Public Schools, Bolling Building, 2nd floor, 2300 Washington Street, Roxbury

Monday, November 21 | 6:00-7:30 PM: Shrewsbury's Oak Middle School, 45 Oak Street, Shrewsbury

Tuesday, November 29 | 6:00-7:30 PM: Brockton High School, 470 Forest Avenue, Brockton

Thursday, December 1 | 6:00-7:30 PM: Holyoke High School, 500 Beech Street, Holyoke

Tuesday, December 6 | 6:00-7:30 PM: Salem's Collins Middle School, 29 Highland Avenue, Salem

Join an upcoming public forum by registering online HERE. More about the Forums/Fora HERE (including a link for giving online survey feedback) and HERE.

The Hours*

I've blogged before about my years living at Shim Gwang Sa, Mind Light Temple, located on the outskirts of Boston. It was wonderful community living and a privilege to train zen martial arts under the tutelage of a modern Zen Master. After several seasons I became attuned to temple life and the concomitant seasonal changes in nature, due in part to the tempo of care and maintenance of the temple building itself, its gardens, and grounds.

With the setting back of clocks this weekend, I'm reminded that we revere monastics (and poets) for their moment-to-moment awareness: awareness of subtle shifts in nature, awareness of time.(1) Thinking further about time found me reflecting on the monastic understanding of the word "hour", which goes back to the Greek word, hora.

The Greek notion means "time" or "season", and is more expansive than our notion of a day evenly divided into twenty-four-hour segments. Modern folk come closer to an appreciation of the original understanding when considering the seasons of the year: in which a season is a mood and an experience, not an exact period that starts, say, on December twenty-first and ends on March twenty-first. We sense a difference in the quality of light, the length of daylight, the feel of the air on our skin and are aware that something is changing in nature.

This time of year feels natural to slow down and begin a daily practice of contemplation and meditation. All of this thinking about monastic life has drawn forth memories of extended family who had taken Holy Orders -- and of my first encounters with the canonical hours. A canonical hour is more a presence than a measurement. Benedictine Brother David refers to this sense of time as "a soul measure". He says, even in our busy modern schedules we notice that pre-dawn, early morning, and high noon each have qualities all their own. Mid-afternoon, "the time shadows lengthen", has a different character from the time when it gets dark and we turn on the lights. Each monastic hour issues a distinctive challenge and calls for a unique response; just reading about them invites a sense of calm and purpose:

• Vigils - The Night Watch: before the day's noises begin; when it is still perfectly quiet

• Lauds - The Coming of the Light: around breakfast time; nourish your soul for the coming day

• Prime - Deliberate Beginning: when you get to your workplace and just before you begin

• Terce - Blessing: a mid-morning prayer break

• Sext - Fervor and Commitment: a meditation during lunch hour

• None - Shadows Grow Longer: the needed boost for the last hours of the work day

• Vespers - Lighting the Lamps: an evening celebration

• Compline - Completing the Circle: at night just before going to bed

Of course, there are many ways to pray (and not all chose to). It was said of Abba Arsenius, a desert monk from 4th or 5th century Egypt, that on Saturday evenings, preparing for the "the glory of Sunday", he would turn his back on the sun and stretch out his hands in prayer towards the heavens, till once again the sun shone on his face. Then he would sit down.
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* Bonus hour this weekend with the end of Daylight Saving Time; clocks back Saturday night.

(1). 

Modern Lead Learners*

To the Gilbert & Sullivan tune, "Modern Major General":

To model a true Partnership with Fam'ly and Community,
(As leaders of our school it is a key responsibility),
To strive to liberate the barriers with true integrity,
For Stu' success we'engage all fam'lies to our best ability!

We do not hesitate to work hard to improve engagement rates,
Shared vision that we all create will lead us to eliminate
The gaps in learning that exist, the urgency is oh so great,
Our staff is focused ev'ry day, as school improvement demonstrates!

The Partnership needs all of us, it's more than a philosophy,
We take to heart relationships and excellence and equity,
Our strength lies in diversity to re'lize opportunity,
Modern fam'ly 'engagement is a shared responsibility!

We have experience and skill with tools and staff most critical,
Communications ev’ry way from face-to-face and digital,
We build relations big and small, collaborate with one and all,
For Stu' Engagement, most of all, Fam’ly Engagement is our call!
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*A theme song for today's school leaders! "Family" refers to the community of adults in a child's life who provide advocacy and support for them to succeed at school and in life.

Parent Perspective: State Assessments Under ESSA

About state assessment results, parents have said they want to know and understand:

• How does this information help me and help teachers to provide a better learning environment for my child?
• What does this mean? Is she doing well or not doing well? 
• How will teachers get the information they need?

(Note to DESE: Look at, and think about, what you're going to say to parents!)

One of the things ESSA has done is give States more flexibility* in education governance. It's not a perfect system; it's a series of trade-offs and choices.

Those trade-offs and choices begin with the question: What do you want the test to do? If one thing is to spend less time on testing, are we trading-off on content coverage, which may result in less reliable data than a longer test. How well is the assessment aligned to state's standards? Both questions are striking, given Massachusetts is in the midst of developing its 2.0 test.

(I'm told every testing vendor, if asked, can give an analysis of how well the questions line up with state standards. Note to self!) 

B: Align to Standards (ELA/Literacy) Criteria (L) & Evidence (R)

Also important is to understand what a high-quality assessment is. CCSSO criteria outlines principles for assessing a high-quality test, including testing for "depth of knowledge" (B4). Constructing a response, writing, or doing a performance assessment - all of these types of responses are considered high-quality assessments. (They also take more time and cost more money to score hence, the trade-offs!)

It seems obvious to state this, but apparently it's something frequently overlooked until quite late in the development process: To ensure a test is actually assessing higher order thinking skills, some questions should ask students to do the kinds of things we actually want them to do in classrooms.

Questions this parent still has:

• What information will be reported?
• How will information be reported?
• When will assessment results be shared with parents, teachers, and policymakers? (If teachers don't get info on how their students did until November, it really isn't going to do them any good in terms of making changes to their practice or lesson plans.)
• How transparent and accessible will those results be?
• Are we monitoring everything we're doing?
• How?
• Do we understand the capacity of our local districts?
• Do they have enough computers/devices?
• Is there sufficient bandwidth? (Many times parents feel as though the testing sessions go on for weeks and weeks, even though it's not happening to every kid; the perception is no other learning is taking place in the school).

• Is DESE ready for new reporting requirements by subgroup ("N-size") to include military students?

Upshot: Where state assessments are concerned, DESE can't do it all and can't do it all well. Test developers' decisions are made on which content standards are being prioritized (and the Board didn't establish a list of content standard priorities). Given the fact that state assessments are going to continue, and that the test represents the particular skills and knowledge the test developer has chosen to assess, I'll be referring to the above questions as the Board considers its ESSA decisions concurrent with the development of the MCAS 2.0
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*ESSA also provides for additional flexibility under the Innovative Assessment Pilot, but Massachusetts isn't taking this on at this time.

US Department of Education (July 2016): ESSA Assessment Fact Sheet

NASBE (January 2016): The State Education Standard

Ensuring Equity in ESSA: The Role of N-Size in Subgroup Accountability

Modern Family Engagement

Hands: How often have you experienced "random acts" of family engagement at your child's school, those one-off events to count heads in the building toward the school's family engagement plan?

Research demonstrates that when families are engaged in children's education, student achievement and graduation rates increase. Also? Studies show that effectively engaging families is cost effective, so much so that schools would have to spend more than $1,000 per pupil to get the same results.

So, it's clear that schools need families to help close learning gaps, but few know what good family engagement looks like, and fewer are willing to take the risk.

It's been observed that, in the homes of high-achieving children, the academic climate is in-sync with the academic climate of their schools. Together they generate a series of beliefs, attitudes, skills, and motivations that lead to higher achievement of many kinds.

Modern families play critical roles for student success, raising their children in multiple settings and across time, in collaboration with many others:

• Modern family engagement is a shared responsibility in which schools and other community agencies and organizations are committed to engaging families in meaningful and culturally respectful ways - and families are committed to actively supporting their children's learning and development --> where families and schools co-create responsibilities and roles for student success

• Modern family engagement is continuous across a child's life --> where schools and communities provide opportunities for family engagement

• Modern family engagement is carried out everywhere children learn - at home, in pre-K programs, in school, in after-school programs, faith-based institutions, and community programs and activities --> where families, schools, and communities take stock to learn and improve

It's important for schools to be intentional in their approaches to build relationships with families, yet many teacher preparation programs provide very little preparation on how to work constructively with families. As the Lead Learner in a school building, Principals set the tone, co-constructing roles based on a shared responsibility and their understanding of complimentary responsibilities.

How family friendly is your school? How do you know? One way to find out is through a welcoming school walk-through. Invite some families, some community members, teachers, and support staff, including custodians, cafeteria workers, and school secretaries. Walk through the building and ask them to look at your school as a new visitor would see it:

• How inviting is the entrance?

• Are signs clear and in the languages represented by families whose children attend the school?

• How welcoming is the front office?

Consider using a guide like this checklist from Beyond the Bake Sale.*

All parents have the capacity to support their children's learning and there are many different kinds of learning. Many times, educators don't understand how they intimidate families, especially those whose first language isn't English. How can you shift culture in a school?

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* Beyond the Bake Sale is a great book for the whole school to read together, but it's even more effective to read it in mixed teams of educators and parents. I've read it several ways and one of the most powerfully engaging was as a virtual book study across 10 time zones using blogs, twitter, and voxer to share learning and challenge thinking.

Too Small to Fail is an initiative of the Clinton Foundation and The Opportunity Institute to empower all parents with tools to talk, read, and sing with their young children from birth. Check out their Programs & Partnerships to see how they are shifting awareness in the media, in laundromats, on the playground and more.

Harvard Family Research Project helps stakeholders develop and evaluate strategies to promote the well-being of children, youth, families, and their communities.