February 15, 2023 — Meeting Transcript

Machine-generated transcript — may contain errors.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Adequate notice has been given.

It is Wednesday, February 15th. Happy belated Valentine's Day. And let's get started with the pledge. I move that the Board of Education approve the agenda for February 15th, 2018.

2023 as posted. Second. Second. It's been moved and seconded.

Are there any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Aye. And we are now on to recognizing our own. Good evening, everyone. It's a privilege tonight to be part of Recognizing Our Own because February is Love the Bus Month.

And in addition to that, February 22nd is School Bus Driver Appreciation Day. So tonight I am here to help celebrate all of the drivers and the support staff who help get our students to and from school after all the athletic events, after all the extracurricular activities and are truly an integral part of our students literally accessing their education every day. And many of you know of the labor shortages that are going on across our country in a variety of professions, including bus drivers. And so we are so grateful for all of the different people who play a role in helping our students get to and from school safely every day.

So we have quite a few special guests with us today. Again, Love the Bus Month helps raise awareness and appreciation for safe transport of students to and from their school settings. And so we want to recognize all the school bus drivers for their efforts on all the ways they go above and beyond in creating these special mobile communities that help start our students day and finish our students days. So here in the School District of Clayton, I wanted to thank Ben Ranz, Carl Doss, Charlie Carroll, Wendell Melvin, Zach Fortner, and Craig Symington.

They helped run our Merrimack route, as well as all of the field trips that go in and out of our buildings and all the athletic events and extracurricular events in and out of the district. I also want to recognize our special school district bus drivers, Michael Siekman, Robin Peel, Tracy Bode, and Tammy Moore, who's one of our aides. And then last but certainly not least, and we have a lot of MVPs with us tonight, and I hope they will come up when I name them so they can be recognized. From the Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corporation, our VIC bus drivers are Felicia Jacobs, Joseph Braden, Kenneth Whiteside, Janina Martin, who runs our Merrimack route.

She's also a Glenridge parent and has 23 years of bus driving experience. Superintendent Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried Tina Wooten who runs our Y activity bus and she got 15 years of experience And then we also have Jeff who the Director of Operations with us tonight and Mary who the Bus Terminal Director And last but certainly not least, Tammy Webb, who is all things transportation to us and keeps all the things going in and out at the right time over at the Vic office. So I just wanted to invite them all to come up, and it would be great if we could just give them a round of applause to thank them for all the awesome things they do. Thank you.

And we will see you every day. Oh, yeah. Thank you. And Janita also does the Captain route, not just the Merrimack one, so.

And then Tammy, do you want to tell the group about the other programs that are going on right now? Janita also does the Captain route, not just the Merrimack one. And then, Tammy, do you want to tell the group about the Love the Month competition you have going on, or Love the Bus Month competition that you're having? Thank you.

So during February, probably for the last 12, 15 years, we've been celebrating Love the Bus Month with doing an essay contest. Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. The drivers and the kids. So we pick a winner out from each bus terminal and we celebrate the driver.

Well, we celebrate the drivers who have a love for the bus. But we particularly celebrate one from each terminal with a special award at their safety in front of the school bus. And that, of course, is exciting for them. And we put hearts with their names all over it, all over the bus.

And principals come out and Administrators and give them a high five and, you know, it's just fun for everybody. So, love the bus month, February. I also want to say thank you to these ladies right here because they do an awesome job and they've been with us for many years and we appreciate everything that they do. So, thank you for recognizing them.

Appreciate that. Thank you. Okay. That is great.

And on behalf of the board, thank you so much for everything that you do. All right. We are now on to public participation, and I believe we have three comments tonight. So I will go ahead and start with Suzanne Whitman.

Hi, Suzanne. Hi. My name is Suzanne Whitman and I'm a parent of two eighth graders at Y-Down. I understand the district has been working to implement literacy requirements in Senate Bill 681, which was passed last summer.

Tonight, I'd like to request two additional things from the board and the administration. First, please survey Clayton's parents to find out what Supplementary Education, they're providing their kids and why. In this district, parents can and do pay their way out of the school district's weaknesses. And by doing that, we create a smokescreen for you.

When my kids are making A's and B's now, it looks to you like it's all you. But Clayton did not teach my kids to read. They taught my kids to look like they were reading by looking at pictures and guessing. So when I hear, Clayton is so great, I mentally add, Clayton and Linda Mubell and WashU Occupational Therapy and Churchill together are so great.

It's telling that the scores for kids that receive a free or reduced lunch are so much lower. When parents can't buy their way out of the school's weaknesses, maybe you're seeing things as they really are. The second thing I'd like to request is proactive communication. We parents have been talking with you all about dyslexia and scientific evidence-based literacy for five years now, but I have not heard this topic mentioned in any of the board meetings so far this school year.

Last fall, I asked about what was happening and heard back that you all would write something up, and then I heard nothing more. Now after another inquiry I gotten a great email detailing what Clayton is doing but I think other parents are interested in hearing about what state law requires I think that parents should be aware that Clayton basic literacy program is changing Three years ago my kid was a reading buddy for a younger student and was saddened that the younger student was guessing at the words by using the picture and had no idea how to go about reading the words on the page Guessing wrong, by the way. Now, the law requires that reading programs for K through fifth grade must be based in scientific research. This is a huge change from the way that Clayton taught my kids and apparently was still teaching them as of three years ago.

To quote from the law, such programs shall include the essential components of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. As of today, Clayton should be teaching all of these elements to students in K through 5, according to the Reading Instruction Act. I would like to be assured not only that Clayton's curriculum includes all of these items required by law, but also that it does not include those elements proven by science to create non-proficient readers, such as guessing and looking at pictures. I'm guessing that other parents would too.

Thank you for your attention and I'm looking forward to hearing your discussion this evening. Okay, thank you, Suzanne. Frank Hackman. Good evening.

My name is Frank Hackman and I would like to take a minute to briefly pay tribute to the late Alma Dolts. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superroportion O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Thank you.

Thanks, Frank, for that tribute. Where am I? Kim Smith. Hi, I'm Kim.

I have a daughter at a grade school in Churchill. And I just want to speak for a minute to piggyback kind of on what Suzanne was talking about. I have been working with a handful of other parents for the last five years. And we, prior to the pandemic, were able to many times with the past superintendent and many different people and really to kind of work on and talk about the progress the district was making around some of these pieces.

I want to share some stories about my daughters with you. Laura, my daughter, who's a sixth grader, is Churchill. She's been there for several years. She has made a tremendous amount of progress since we moved her to Churchill.

And I say that knowing that currently she's reading on about a second grade or third grade level as a sixth grader. And that is a lot of progress for her. When we left, was not reading at the end of second grade. I mean completely.

Really was not reading. Laura's dyslexic, and she has what we're often told is profound dyslexia. She also couples that with severe anxiety and pretty significant ADHD, which made education really hard for her. And we found quickly that there were a lot of roadblocks in Clayton in terms of her education.

We had teachers that didn't know what to do with her and would put her on an iPad for parts of the day just because they didn't know what to do with her. We also had teachers that bent over backwards and learned everything they could. We had administrators that bent over backwards to try to learn how to help her, but were continually roadblocked by the current curriculum and different policies that were in place. And we just, SSD was a similar story, which I know is out of your purview, just didn't really know what to do with her.

So we made the choice to move her to Churchill, and that's a $35,000 a year choice that we made. And we are very very lucky that we can afford to do that We are one of five families in our neighborhood who have made that choice and been able to pull their kids out of Clayton to pay that money for each year There are families that cannot do that My other daughter, Lucille, who is in sixth grade at Y-Down, also is dyslexic. She has something called stealth dyslexia, meaning she can hide it and cover it. Often children who have this are successful in school until about eighth grade, and then the bottom drops off.

So we have been able to tutor her. She did two summers of summer school, lots of tutoring. I was able to get So that I could help her at home. Again, this is a piece where she looks super successful and is thriving at Y-Down, and she was thriving at Captain.

But for our support outside of the school district, that might not continue. So I really want to encourage you to find a way to help those kids so that parents who cannot do what we were able to do don't have that bottom dropout, don't have those frustrations as they move forward. Thank you. Thank you.

I know we don't typically comment on patron comments, but I do want to, first of all, thank you for being here tonight and sharing your thoughts. One thing we definitely all have in common, especially with me, is our love for reading. You know, I remember my very first memory growing up was that for my birthday gift, my parents would take me to a bookstore to buy a book. That's literally my first memory of my birthday.

So I've grown up loving reading. I have a passion for that. And I want to assure everyone here and whoever's listening that we have a comprehensive approach to literacy, which includes staying true to the five pillars of literacy, which includes phonics and phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. In 2020, there was a board report that was made and the board approved the literacy program, you know, that includes implicit instruction on phonics and phonemic awareness and included us buying resources for that.

And as a result, obviously, of Senate Bill 681, we're even changing and being even more proactive with that. We already have a literacy committee that's meeting this spring, working throughout the summer to make it more explicit and intentional. So we continue to evolve with our thinking. So I just want to assure everybody about that.

Thank you. Okay, so Dr. Patel, I think, are you going to tell us, is that, okay. Yes, so moving on to superintendent update, I always start off with a few celebrations.

So we've got a couple of, well, first announcement is that we did send out information to our families. We have officially approved Amy Perry to be our Family Center Director. We could say we're welcoming her back home. She was an educator for nine years at the Family Center, and she left us just this year to take another leadership position, and we're bringing her back.

So we're very excited. We formally announced her, and I know the staff is excited to get to work with her and thrive under her leadership. And then our swim and dive team, we have eight swimmers and three divers that have qualified for state this weekend. We're looking forward to seeing how they thrive as well.

And we're hoping that they, actually we've had really good trajectory with the swim and dive team. So we're looking forward to seeing how they do this weekend. And then finally, I'd like to invite everybody for a celebration of Black Achievement Night that we're the district is putting together. And that is going to be on February 27th at 630 at Clayton High School.

Should be a wonderful event. We actually I want to thank Dr. Poole for putting it all together and everybody that's worked with him. We're actually having alumni that graduated from Clayton High School coming in and they're going to be part of a panel that's going to talk to the audience.

So I think that'll be a great event as well. So mark your calendars for February 27th at 630 at the high school. Our presentation tonight, we do our annual assessment report. So Dr.

Garganego and the principals are here and they're so excited. They're waiting. I could just see it. They're ready to come up here and they're going to share some of the data that we have and as well as explain what's happening at each of the buildings.

And one of the things that I want us to keep in mind is that we're going to be doing a lot of work on the school board. And I think what we've outlined as we listen to the presentation is our focus as a district on three big ideas, right? And if you look at the research, it goes back to DeFore and PLC work, There are three big ideas. One, that our purpose for school is learning.

We are here to ensure that every child learns. We're not here to just continue to say we're covering the curriculum from page one to page 1,000 plus. We are here to make sure that each child learns, which means having interventions in place, which means making sure that we're personalizing that learning experience through empowered learning. Second big idea is the collaborative culture.

You know, we have amazing, amazing teachers who will go above and beyond in making sure our kids learn. What we want to do is be collaborative in that process. Our teachers work together. Just yesterday we had teachers coming into our district leadership meeting, and they were talking about what they're doing in their classrooms.

And the teacher that I was with, she was talking about her first grade team is collaborating together and they're putting units out there where they have worked together on it. So all three teachers are literally working together as not my kids, but our kids. And that's powerful. So if we can get all of our teachers teaching, whether it's the same grade level or the same subject, collaborating and saying these are our kids, we can truly, truly make a difference for every child.

So we're thinking, like, we have to start to think about de-siloing ourselves with that. And then finally, the third big idea is results oriented. I know this is an area that we continue to grow and improve on. You know, education is a human profession.

It's about people. It's about relationships. It's about caring about one another. It's about making sure our kids are successful.

But we also need to look at results. We have the best of intentions. Every educator got into this profession to change lives. But we have to, at the end of the day, look at data to say, are we making a difference and what's the impact?

And the data could be numbers. We've said that before. And it could be qualitative. It doesn't have to be either or.

It should be both. So we continue to focus on making one of the most human professions into also looking at data and having results on that. And so I share this picture with you in terms of we can do things right, which we do, and we've seen this image before, but we really need to focus on doing the right things. What are we spending our energy on, and is that really making a difference, and how do we know it's making a difference?

What are we looking at? So when you hear the presentation tonight, Dr. Garganego will present you the data that's from the state. She'll present the data that's from our local assessments.

And then the role of the principal really is to come and tell you stories of what they're doing in their buildings with the data to actually see it in action. That's where the difference comes. So what are we doing with this information to help all kids thrive? And so you should hear that from each of the principals tonight.

So that's with the presentation. And then finally, I did wanna let you know Starting next week, I'm going to be meeting with the seniors. I sent an email out to all the seniors. Dr.

Kaczewski, I'm sure you got a copy of that. If you did not, you're finding out now. I will be meeting with all the seniors. We're going to do small group, like 10 to 15 seniors at a time.

And I just want to hear what their experience has been like in Clayton. So I'm going to ask them two questions, basically. What's going well and how can we improve? And I'm hoping they all come.

Although I heard from other seniors when I asked them what would be the best way to get our seniors to come, they said try it during Greyhound time and have some food. So I'll have some snacks there. So hopefully we can get them there. But I would really like to get their input and view on how we're doing as a district.

So we'll start that next week. That's all I've got. There you go, Carter. All right.

So today I am also going to talk a little bit about academics at Clayton. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. We seen this throughout all grade levels like elementary schoolers have said that they using GIM kit and playing and using their technology in the classroom which I know wasn usually done when I was in elementary school And even at the high school we just seen that teachers are getting a lot better at incorporating technology into the classroom and really using it to the benefit of the kids And now I'm going to talk about some of the other less happy results of the pandemic on our education. So the first thing that a lot of students have noticed is that during the pandemic, there was almost like a widening of the gap between the students who were very academically inclined and motivated and those who maybe weren't.

Because specifically, we saw that during the pandemic, students really had to become a lot more accountable for their own learning because, I mean, they weren't in a building with a teacher to sort of keep them focused. So what we saw is that the students who were really motivated to, you know, get good grades, even when they were going to school on Zoom, continued to, you know, get those educational experiences and build those habits which they need. But the students who maybe weren't as motivated to do so didn't really have those interventions as readily available to them to make sure that they stayed on the right track. So, in general, we've just sort of seen that even after, like, even now that we're back in the building, that this effect of having, like, a whole year where, you know, some students didn't really learn a lot is still impacting them.

And, I mean, it's just something to definitely look out for. And then the next thing is that just in general, like, school was a lot harder when we were doing it online. So most people acknowledge that there's a lot of things that we weren't able to learn in those years, and teachers acknowledge this as well. But in general, the gaps which existed during the pandemic in online school have primarily been filled, most people feel like, and that as teachers do discover things that maybe we should have learned that year, they catch us up and really the gaps are being filled as we go, which I think is definitely a big positive.

And then the last sort of main thing that students have noticed is the impact on like work ethic and building habits as it pertains to school. So specifically, it was really hard to build those like academic habits during the pandemic when like, you know, homework wasn't necessarily required and it was just very hard to pay attention to a computer screen all day. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superexpensive, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Superexpensive, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I thought you were going to say that they wanted like McDonald's for lunch or something. They probably want that.

I'm sure they do. All right. Well, thank you. And I really appreciate you taking the time to go and talk to the elementary age kids so that we getting to learn about or hear their voices and the voices from the middle school too So thank you Does anybody have any questions Okay Thank you Does anybody have any questions Okay Okay so we are on to our presentation Good evening.

We appreciate the opportunity to share both data and our stories with how these data influence our work in schools tonight. So I want to introduce the team to you. Melaina Garganego, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning. Dan Kaczewski, Principal at Clayton High School.

Doug Wehner, Assistant Principal at Clayton High School, Acting Principal at Widown. Patrick Fisher, Principal at Merrimack, and Jennifer Martin, Principal at Captain. So thank you for the opportunity for us to talk to you tonight. Our goals of the strategic plan tonight, we're going to focus on goal two, the idea of growing as learners.

Thank you, members. And while we're going to focus on this goal tonight, all of our goals are interconnected and really grounded in our profile of the graduate. And I think that's really important. But the full phrasing of our goal, too, is about the fact that we're going to commit to the educational growth of our learners.

And I want to emphasize that idea of educational growth. So as we're focused on this and what you'll hear from the stories from our principals tonight, and you'll see with some of the ways that I've changed the way to present stories, I'm going to Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Thank you. We didn't know how to teach in a pandemic.

We didn't really know how to teach from home when everybody else was at home also and not knowing what was going on with those children. One of the things that I think we really embrace is every day when children come into our doors, we know their story. We can connect with them. We can talk to them.

When they're a black screen on the computer or they're just a little box with a little head on the computer, it's very hard to connect with them and understand that piece. I think, Carter, what you were talking about, particularly with the social-emotional piece, I think is really important. During the pandemic, a lot of the guidance that we had was to start to focus more on priority standards. So the things that were the most important to focus on to help kids as they're moving through because we couldn't focus in the same range that we had focused in the past.

And while I don't like the term learning loss, I don't think students lost something during the pandemic. We just discovered different strengths and we discovered different areas of growth. And as students came back into our schools, we were challenged with different things that we had to focus on than what we were used to focusing on. So in fourth grade math, it didn't look the same as what fourth grade math had historically looked like.

And we were challenged to look at that in a different light. And I think Carter did a really nice job talking about the student perspective of that because we as adults were feeling the same thing. Before I start to talk about the data in particular, I feel like it's important to share with you the changes that are happening at the state level. So the Missouri School Improvement Program, which we refer to as MSIP, we were in cycle five of MSIP.

So for a couple of years, I've been coming and talking about MSIP five and how numbers are factored in and how accreditation is determined. We just moved into the sixth cycle So we in MSIP 6 We have not yet received all of the data from the state related to our annual performance report etc So like those are the things that normally I would come and talk about at this time That not yet available because we still in the process of working through it But I think a couple of things that are really important for you to understand that when that accreditation piece comes forward it will look different And it going to be a lot of work Thank you Congratulations. Thank you. But this is in the presentation, but it gives you a sense of like what are the components that factor into MSIP 6.

I'm going to highlight a couple different things for you. So achievement in MSIP 5, achievement was determined by if you say a student scored below basic, they got one point. They scored basic, they got three points, proficient four, and advanced five. It didn't matter where within the range of that performance band they scored, they just got a static point.

The shift to MSIP 6 is Thank you. So, that's going to look different for us. The continuous improvement piece, there's one part that's just required documentation. These are things that the district does on a normal annual basis.

Submitting the audit, the annual secretary of the board report, timely submission of core data reports, all of those things factor in as a very small percentage of the points. Success Ready Students, there's a couple things that are new here. The Kindergarten Readiness Assessment is an assessment that we just started. So the state of Missouri now requires that it happens within the first 30 days of school.

What that assessment looks like is not different than what we were already doing as a local district as far as gathering information about our students as learners as they were coming into kindergarten. It's just reported differently. And now we're using a standardized assessment for it. ICAPs are individual career plans for students.

They're required, we're required to do them starting in eighth grade. So the eighth grade counselors meet with every student in an individual meeting, talk through those plans, think about courses that they're going to take at the high school, etc. Those ICAPs then move with the child to the high school and then the high school counselors go through those and continue to add to them each year as the, at the child is at the high school. So those have always been a part of our practice.

They have not been something that we've been required to report to the state until now. So last, this, in 2022 was the first year that we were required to report those. Attendance, similar to how it's been looked at before. A comprehensive school improvement plan is our strategic plan.

So that's what we within the district refer to as our strategic plan. You need to have one of those. And then that you need to show that you're continuing to focus on continuous improvement within that strategic plan. The response to standards was something new for us this year that we wrote and this is really where it comes into our story.

So there's a series of standards that are given to us by the state including things like leadership, teaching and learning environment, all different kinds of areas. We write a narrative about what we are doing within the school district and it's an opportunity for us really to highlight the things that are the most important We submit that. We were part of the first group to submit those. Those actually won't be reported on the APR reports until all other school districts have done them.

So the first group was the APR, and then we submitted the APR. We were kind of the guinea pigs going through it. I don't know how much we love that, but we were part of that work, and then they'll continue to refine that process. And then the last one is a climate and culture survey, which the panorama is the climate and culture survey that we use within the school district.

And so they want to make sure that all school districts are using something similar. So all of this part is new to MSIP 6. This is 30% of our points. The stuff that we have always been reporting on is 70% of our points.

Okay, so now the data. So if you remember last year, one of the things that I talked to you about when we think about data and numbers is the story of the numbers. And I showed this slide last year of when you're looking at things with percentages and when you're looking at things with numbers of students, they tell two different stories. So if I was just to look at that middle column, it would tell me one story.

It would tell me that both of these groups had students scoring in the basic range, about a comparable number of students scoring in the basic range. But if I look at the rightmost column, it actually tells a different story because of the size of the total population of each of these groups. I say that to say as we go through and we talk about these data, I want us to be really careful when we think about things in percentages. And so some of the things that I'm going to present tonight in the slide deck I think might help to explain a little bit more some of the data that we're talking about.

And then definitely the stories that the principals are telling will help you to understand how we individualize this. We actually as a team don't ever speak in percentages except when we're here with you. We speak in names of students and individual students and knowing those students well. So as a district, when you look at the overall picture of our data from the state, and this is just the state assessment, so it's the MAP test, grades three through eight, and then the EOCs at the high school.

In each content area, there's one instance while the students are at the high school that they take an end of course exam. So in math, it's generally Algebra 1. In science, it's biology. Social studies is government, and English is English 2, so their sophomore year.

So when you look at this, in all three content areas, generally we're in the high 60 to 70 percent range of students being proficient or advanced. This is our total population of our students. This is true on all three assessments, generally speaking. When we start to divide that out, first of all by race, the district, we continue to see discrepancies when data are broken out by race.

So you start to see a pretty significant difference between some of our racial groups and our total population. That is also true when you look at the data split out by what the state used to call the super subgroup, which has sort of a negative connotation, that name. So they have changed the name to student group, but it's still the same group of students. So it's students who are receiving free and reduced lunch, are English language learners, special education services, and then that also includes black students and Hispanic students.

So again, you see that same sort of discrepancy between the total population and the students within these groups. The state data provides us with essentially what I call kind of a temperature check. It's one data point on one day. It's one instance of information.

It's pretty difficult for us to respond to because we get the data so late. So when it so as a third grade teacher I give that assessment to my students in the spring we don't actually get the data until after those students have moved into fourth grade so it's the third grade teacher can't really respond to it and and by the time we get it and we disaggregate it it becomes like it's we it's just hard to respond to. So our local assessments are the things that actually help us to make more instructional decisions both for groups Thank you. When we so we use the FastBridge A reading assessment as sort of a screener to cast a wide net and then students who fall below the threshold of meeting the benchmark then we follow up with additional diagnostic assessments to really try to understand what going on with them What I want you to notice, these data are different than what I presented in the report.

And I just want to take a minute to sort of walk through this and the next slide, and then you'll see the same for the NWA. I tried to parallel them. But when you look at this by grade level, the number of students below the benchmark in the fall of 22, that's a number of students. And that was important to me to list it as a number of students.

And then because our focus is on growth, the second column, so the number of students showing growth between the fall of 22 and winter of 22, sometimes you will notice that the denominator is different. Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. And 42 of those 45 showed growth. 37 students still were below the benchmark.

So if you remember back when I was talking about, like, the piece with the map where there's, like, a range, this is also to say, like, we haven't yet moved those students above the benchmark, but we have shown growth. And those students have shown growth on the assessments that they're taking. And that's consistent across grade levels. The reason why I'm only using elementary grades here is because in elementary we give this test multiple times throughout the year.

As students age up in the system, we start to give it less frequently, so we take away that winter test. We start to see test fatigue with students when we're giving it as frequently as we could, I guess. So, that's, some of them, yeah, now I feel like I'm, sorry, there we go. It, 30, so, 30, yes, it's generally the same students.

Sometimes it's new students adding in or something like that. So, the, the, like, Venn diagram wouldn't be a total overlap, but it would be close. Does it really matter? But if I was a student scoring, say I was a student scoring in the first percentile, then in order to meet the benchmark, I have to be above the 40th percentile.

So that's a pretty big leap to make. Thank you. Yeah, but I want to be careful because these are different cohorts of children. So I want to be careful to say like we should be going...

Because our demographic... Correct. Okay, so then when you look at the... So this chart also is to sort of help delineate when we're looking at those students.

So of the, again, I'll read across the first grade line. So of those 47 students who were scoring below the benchmark, you can see the percentage of the 47 and what race they're falling within. So we did that for each of the grade levels. Then I tried to do similar, like a parallel way of looking at these data for the NWA map.

So the NWA is a math assessment. It is not an achievement test. What it gives us is a score that gives us an instructional level for students. What we have noticed with this assessment, so particularly with math, what we noticed and I talked to you about last year was that as a consequence of the pandemic, we were seeing our NWA scores being lower than what we were traditionally used to.

Our scores now within the fall of 22 are closer to what we would have seen pre They are not back to the space that we historically have seen them pre But what you see within the blue columns is the norm data so that the national data in comparison So our data is in white in comparison to those national data So generally speaking if you look at that middle column of our scores in the fall of 22 we doing as a total population consistently a little bit higher than the norm So then looking again in the same way that we did with the A reading the Number of students falling, and I used the 40th percentile here too because of what we were using with FastBridge to keep it parallel. So the students falling below the 40th percentile and then the number of students showing growth out of that number. So I think that's really encouraging that the majority of our students are showing growth on this assessment. And then this is their score, the scores broken out by race in comparison to the norm data.

And again, you see with that there are discrepancies within these data when you're looking at it between racial groups. And then this, again, the same slide as we did with the FASBridge when we're looking at our students. So just our students, what's the racial makeup of the group that's falling below the 40th percentile? And then the last thing I want to talk about when I'm talking about data, and then I'm going to hand it over to the principals, is about our high school data.

So we, and the board approved this a couple years ago, we had historically been a school choice for ACT, and we decided to move to the PSAT-SAT sequence for a couple different reasons. Partially because it gave us a data point for every year that the students are in the high school. The other part, because the NMSQT is used for national merit, and so if we as a district pay for that, then it relieves the equity issue of students not being able to pay for something. That determines, that potentially determines something moving forward in college.

So when, so we decided to use the entire SAT sequence, and then the ACT became a test of choice. So you notice how small the number of students who took the ACT last year was. Dan and I have talked about this. We think that's also attributed to the fact that a lot of colleges have gone to test optional.

And so since we're already paying for them to take the SAT, if they needed a score, they have one. But we do have a handful of students, so that's about a third of the class, that's still taking both assessments. We give a practice ACT. Yeah, we give a practice ACT.

It's literally a screener for kids and parents, actually. Since we don't give the ACT that, like I said, it's just kind of a value-added sort of thing that our kids and parents like. Okay. Sorry, I got microphone.

Okay, so a couple of things to think about about how these data inform us with curriculum. And I chose three areas to spend a little time talking about before we talk specifically about the students and the stories there. So some of the things that we have been doing, and Nisha alluded to this in 2020 with our literacy report, We talked about the infusion of phonics and phonemic awareness within our literacy instruction, particularly at the elementary level. And so we started to focus more deliberately on the use and the instruction of phonics and phonemic awareness.

In doing that, what now we're coming back to revise with that is like continuing to evolve there, but also looking at we, when we brought in units of study related to phonics, what we were seeing with teachers is that they were teaching a lesson in reading, a lesson in writing, and a lesson in phonics. And so a lot of our work now is to look at how to more deliberately join those up so that the phonics instruction is helping to then that we start to see a better transfer within their reading and their writing. So what we're seeing is we're seeing evidence of making progress, but we're not necessarily seeing the transfer that we're looking for. And so we're rewriting our units.

So Nisha talked that we have a team right now that started in the spring and is rewriting some of these units. So that one of the pieces of or one of the ways that these data is helping inform our practice The other is around math fluency It a similar type of story So sometimes I think about math fluency similar to the ways I would think about phonics and phonemic awareness is this idea of like these foundational pieces of math And so part of our work right now in last year you approved us looking for some different Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. A third example that I wanted to provide was around biology. So if you looked at the scores on the biology EOC, it's the one score that really sort of stands out differently than others.

It's the, our percent proficient and advanced is in sort of the mid 50s range. The biology EOC changed, so it was a new test in 2019. Then the pandemic hit. And so when the scores came, the first time we were looking at the scores, we were thinking, like our theory of practice was essentially Thank you.

Thank you. Spervantage, P.D., So, I'm going to let Dan go first. Good evening. Well, Carter kind of teed this up really, really well earlier.

And one of the things that we realized when we came back from, when we came back in person from COVID is that we really needed to look at how we were supporting students in a variety of ways. We really needed to broaden our perspective of what data we were using and what we were looking at in order to make sure that we were supporting all kids. I will say just kind of a little bit jokingly, when Melaina asked for a slide for this evening and for a picture, she said something that is representative of the work that you're doing. And specifically, I'm talking about grade-level meetings.

So I actually sent a slide of a couple of rivers converging, and she said, what is this, actually? And I said, well, it's like the grade-level team meetings are kind of the convergence of all this data where we have these conversations and we help kids. And she told me I was being a bit abstract. So we have this slide.

Oh, actually, and this is actually a picture of one of our grade level teams up here on the left. But honestly, grade level team meetings are probably the most important way that we use data to influence like the daily lives of students. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superroportionate, P.D.

Social worker and sometimes even our athletic director. And what we do in those meetings is each month we sit down and look at grade patterns, grade trends for all students within that particular district. We also look at attendance and tardy data. We look at teacher feedback and counselor feedback.

Now, sometimes when we look at the data, we can see trends and patterns. And like if a kid is getting, you know, let's say two or three D's and that's a kid we want to highlight and make sure that we're We're supporting that kid, and that's going to be a focus of that conversation. Teachers and counselors, parents can also recommend kids to be discussed at that meeting. Now, in those meetings, some of the examples of data that we use, obviously grades are really, really important.

We use grades. We use attendance and tardy data, teacher feedback, counselor feedback, if necessary, reading data, gifted data. We'll also look at the student's data profile, so that may involve the end-of-course exams or standardized test data. We'll even use nurses' logs.

One of the other components of this, too, is the social-emotional realm, which is something that we really wanted to make sure that we were touching on when we came back from COVID because we had so many students that were, you know, like really struggling as we made the return to in-person learning. And one of the things that we do with that, one of the data points we use is the panorama survey, which you've heard a lot about in various capacities, but we use that. One of the other things that we do is we do a lot of work around identifying trusted adults, both from the students identifying teachers and teachers identifying students. And so once we look at all that data and we have an individual student that maybe needs some support, that group sits together, puts together a plan for that individual student, kind of contacts the student, contacts the parent, and then we identify a point person for that individual student.

A lot of times it comes from that work that we've done with the panorama or that relationship data that we have collected. And we try to leverage relationships with adults in the building as much as we can, particularly those relationships or those adults that the student has a positive relationship with. Once we put together a plan actually to support that student, and sometimes frequently it's academic. It may be social-emotional.

Superroportion O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Thank you. Good evening everyone. So at YDOT, one of the things when Melaina talked about this data, I was thinking about what to present to you all because I knew you were just going to get inundated with a lot of quantitative numbers and stuff like that.

I'll move it back. Am I too loud? Is that better? I have this problem.

It's my lunch duty, you know. So one of the things that when Melaina talked about this, I thought, well, let's talk about one thing in particular that sort of gives you a qualitative picture of the impact. And it's the PAC program that I wanted to talk about because it's a great example of how our teachers use something, put something in place, and then modified it as this data came in around what the students needed. So, history.

So in 2020, when it broke out, and I'm surprised when Carter brought this up, I thought it was a great segue. We formed the PAC program because our teachers were afraid that we're going to lose kids. We're not seeing them. What happens, we had about 50 kids or so that all of a sudden we just didn't see, right?

And so we were scrambling. So we put PAC into place originally so that it's a program that now has evolved to 25 minutes every day. One teacher, 10 to 12 kids, right? And the teacher really gets to know the kids really well.

It's a teacher that they have in the classroom, but then also gets to spend a lot of time outside doing team building. Anyhow, back to history. So in 2020, it evolved mostly the social-emotional scramble, really, to try to make sure we didn't lose anybody. And so it was spent primarily on just how are you let set you up with this person And it was almost all around making sure they connected with each other and that there was a sense of trying to build community through computer Once the kids came back at the end of 2020, then we started to get a lot of this data coming in.

And so the teachers felt like now that they were back in person, what can we do now academically? Because then the academics came in, right? And we're like, oh, what are we going to do here? So with it being five days, what the teachers then started to do is they said, can we take half that time and make it academic?

And what they wanted to do was they said, because with our standards base that we have at YNAM, it's the idea that a kid, let's say they're taking a unit, right, in math. But the unit wraps up, but they still want to keep trying to improve even though the curriculum is moving on. The teachers were like, what does this child do if the class is moving on, but they still want to go back and get help individually? So what they decided to do on Tuesday and Thursday during PAC is start like basically almost a greyhound time where the whole building in PAC, the teachers would be available at that time so that if kids needed individual help, they could leave that PAC and go see that teacher at that time.

So it started out that way as one of the academic interventions that they wanted to take. So kids would start to go if they needed help on Tuesday, Thursday, they're struggling in literacy class, they can go see the literacy teacher, right, and get individual help. Then it morphed a little bit more with our equity work because equity talks about the importance of not just saying to a child, I am here, come to me. Equity talks about the arrows going the other way, right?

Equity talks about the teacher saying, okay, I need to see you and you're going to come here, right? That's what equity really focuses on. So then the teachers took another step. They said, now we're going to start identifying kids who we want you to send to us.

Originally, it was kids who say, I need help in this class, this class. Then it morphed, and now it becomes an issue of some teachers now saying, please send this child to me. And so we got a lot of luck with that as well because a lot of the students that are naturally resistant, and to be honest, it's the end of the day. They're tired.

So then they go and they get that one-on-one time. So it's really, it's been interesting to morph, and it's a testament to our teachers because they take all this quantitative that you see here and make it very qualitative that it impacts children. And one of the things, even, it's still morphing as we speak, one of the changes they wanted to make for this semester was they said the last two weeks, the teacher said, of each quarter, all days where they can either work on homework or go see a teacher. The two weeks at the end of the quarter so that they can get their grade up with enough time for intervention.

So, yeah, so it's been a really good, it's been really successful, and, you know, it's still morphing. Now the teachers too, the PAC teacher, because we made sure that the PAC teacher has the student in class so they see them academically and they see them social emotionally because the other days in PAC are spent in circle and doing team building. They really have a grasp on that child, and every two weeks the teacher sits down with the kid and looks at PowerSchool, and they look at the grades and they say, what's working, what's your goal, et cetera. So that's the qualitative piece of it right now.

This one. All right, so I get to start off our elementary schools. For me, as I started to think about this, we've got six different grade levels in our building, and so I thought it would be best to kind of shape it through one grade level. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

The first grade starting off remote learning and then not being able to be within six feet of each other. And even last year, things were still not quite there. And so like this, I routinely find myself saying the last ones who were able to do this were our third graders. But I mean, that was in kindergarten.

And so their entire school experience has been shaped by the pandemic. And so thinking about the way that that may have impacted them and how that's, you know, how that's continuing to play itself out in our classrooms. So for me, I'm going to do this through the context of our PLC. Spervantage, P.L.C.s, and thinking about the way we've kind of set that up.

So the P.L.C.s, those professional learning communities where our teachers come together to collaborate with our coaches. That includes, for us, that includes our technology specialist, our math and literacy person, and we come together, may include our counselor, and usually includes myself, our instructional coordinator as well, as we kind of think through this. The first part of that is planning out our initial instructions So what the instruction that taking place in the classroom And one of the things we started talking a lot about is not just focusing on those kids in the middle but thinking about how do we start to take in those kids that may be what we may have considered generally on the margins who might be those undiscovered geniuses that we need to think about that may have a unique trait. So I'm just going to say if we were looking at this board as a classroom, Jason's standing up.

So maybe Jason has something neat where he needs to move. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. You bring some of the other things into what we're doing as we learn about who those kids are and start to think about how we can shape that. That comes all the way down to different things with what we call responsive classroom, where students are learning classroom meeting strategies, building community, getting to know one another, focusing on some of those collaboration types of skills as well.

And that's our first best instruction. The next part is that we still have students that may not get to where we are from that first instruction. Then we have to look at what else might they need. And so the picture in the lower left corner shows one of our teacher assistants working with a small group of students.

And in that small group, you know, we, this is a grade level, like I said, it's also one of our larger grade level. We have larger class sizes at a couple of our grade levels and, you know, through the support of board approving and having a couple of additional teacher assistants to help with this, it's given us the benefit of being able to have some of these interventions that are taking place right there in the classroom. Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. We still have kids that we're still seeing or may have some really significant learning needs.

We're finding what our last, our problem-solving team, through our problem-solving team approach, to work with our special school district, to work with counselors, social workers, like what Dan was talking about. We bring nursing, we bring anybody that may be based on what the kids may need. So a couple of the other pictures are kids who have had a lot of growth in different areas. So that may look like students who have a hard time, who have had a hard time collaborating, Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

As adults, those are our life skills that we still want to make sure our kids have as well. So how are we collecting that evidence and make sure we're incorporating that? And then we're also looking at intensive reading interventions. Maybe we need more structured reading interventions for a student because one approach wasn't working, so we need to take a different approach to start to see that kid grow.

And, yes, it may be that they came to us in the second percentile and we're celebrating because right now they're in that 10th or 12th percentile, but we're seeing those gains. And so, you know, like to see some of those smiles and to see some of those things is showing some of that growth that we want to continue to see. Now, I will say this is also a cyclical process. So we are continuing to go back and look at these things.

And if we're not seeing some of those pieces, then it is further collaboration. It is looking to our SSD. And then we're fortunate enough in this district that it may mean Paul coming in, Angie coming in, Milena coming in from central office to help support us, not just collaborating on the building, but a district wide collaboration and thinking about all these different supports that we're going to be getting. We have a lot of things that we may be able to have.

I'll say I was in a meeting this morning with Robin and Robin and we were talking and one of the things she's like, I'm going to be able to do this. And it was because of that district collaboration that I know our counselors like you just made my day. This is the best news I've heard all day long. And that's that district collaboration that's also taking place and benefiting our kids.

And so as we've kind of gone through this, it's a continual process. But I think it is also very, very important not to lose that piece of who the kids are having to drive a lot. We can just assume and it hard for me not to put this into a sports analogy as a guy who likes sports Some of our best coaches approach these things as I going to fit my system to the kids that are in front of me especially if I don get to recruit or pick those players A great coach is going to change their system to fit the kids not expect the kids to fit their system And so we got to start thinking about how we can do that for those kids to make sure we seeing that growth And the last piece I just going to share from this group Evaluation That's what we want to kind of, that's the lens we're going to continue to approach it from. Good evening, everybody.

When I look up at you, I can't see you, so I'll do a lot of on and off. My colleagues have really demonstrated a great example of the way in which teams come together to support kids. I'm going to continue our conversation tonight talking about CAPTN's PLC journey, and I'll come to that slide in just a minute. At CAPTN, grade-level teachers engage in purposeful collaboration that characterizes professional learning communities through a systematic process in which teachers work together to analyze and improve their classroom practice.

We do this at CAPTN for three reasons. First, to ensure students are empowered through a variety of learning experiences. Second, to approach individualized learning in a way that maximizes the ability of our students. And third, to ensure disparities in equitable educational opportunities are eliminated.

This evening, I'm going to kind of take you down the path of our fifth graders and their learning experience at Captain. And specifically, I invite you to celebrate our mathematicians with me. COVID hit this group of students in their second grade year and no doubt had an impact on their learning and social development. Over the past few years, this group of students required more time to navigate the curriculum as foundational skills were lagging for many students, particularly in mathematics.

In the spring of 2022, this group of students collectively scored at the 66th percentile as measured by the NWEA. As a result of our professional learning communities, I'm happy to share with you that we have documented significant growth. As part of this PLC process, our teachers unpack units of instruction to determine priority standards. And then from those priority standards, they work together to develop a SMART goal.

This SMART goal is kind of the centralized focus where each teacher has committed to ensuring every child in the classroom will demonstrate proficiency for that targeted skill. Weeks prior to the start of the unit, teams collaborate to plan for and anticipate student learning needs, including how students will respond if we teach it and they have not mastered that skill, and how we will deepen a student's learning experience if they've already mastered those skills. Teachers have developed systematic ways to collectively monitor progress and initiate tiered interventions. Supporting student growth requires an all hands on deck approach.

Now I'm going to take you to our slide. My colleagues did point out that I'm the only slide with hearts and arrows, so I'm going to explain those to you. It is Valentine's Day. So what you're looking at here is a way in which we have thought outside the box to utilize our human resources within our school to provide smaller settings for our students.

And so our fifth grade class is our largest class. We have students of 21 and 22 students in each classroom. And as I shared with you, they had some pretty significant impacts to their learning. So specifically in the area of math, what we have done is we have borrowed teachers from across the building.

As you know, in the elementary program, we are fortunate to have science specialists, and our science specialists teach that instruction to students in third, fourth, and fifth grade. So that allows us at CAPTN to repurpose our classroom teachers when their students are in science in a way that they can support other students across the building. And so when you see two hearts in a picture, you're looking at two classroom teachers in that classroom for that math instruction. And so in the top left corner, you see two fifth grade, excuse me, a fifth grade teacher and a fourth grade teacher who's come up during fifth grade instruction to support students.

This gives us more touch points with kids. It gives us an opportunity when we think about how students may not be responding to the learning or if they already know it, it gives us another set of hands, somebody who's already experienced our Clayton curriculum, to come in and to work with kids in a way that makes the most sense for them. It's really awesome when you see a teacher from a grade level that before come back up into a grade level that's after them. So, for example, in that bottom classroom, bottom right is a fourth grade classroom.

And in the far back-hand corner, and that's why I did those little cutouts so you could see better, but the far back-hand corner is Mr. Campbell, a third-grade teacher, who comes up into the fourth-grade classroom, Mrs. McGaughy's classroom, and the kids are just delighted to see that interaction, to see that collaboration, and to reconnect with teachers who support them throughout the year. So there are still experiences.

The two pictures without the hearts are kind of showing a fifth grade teacher and our math specialist. So we are still really responding to what students need. Some students need a push-in approach to support their learning. Other students might need something targeted, more individualized for them.

And so that's what this particular slide captures. Throughout the unit of instruction, teachers continue to engage in ongoing conversations about the current instruction and how students respond to the learning in an effort to adjust our approaches along the way, ensuring every child reaches the desired success. So my question is, do PLCs work? Well, this is a lot of work for teachers and a lot of work for kids, so they better be worth their while.

So I'll invite you to consider our data. In the recent unit of instruction, so localized data, our fifth grade teachers established a smart goal for our students, this is all students, to demonstrate proficiency with adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers. Historically, this is a very difficult unit for fifth graders. I am happy to share with you that 97% of our fifth graders did in fact meet the goal, which was the highest proficiency percentage in our history of this unit of instruction here at Captain.

So that's quite a celebration to know that 97% of our students are walking away with a skill that historically has been the most difficult thing for them to conquer in that grade. We kind of look for these things to transfer into universal data points. And so our most recent winter 2023 NWEA assessment demonstrated that our fifth grade students are collectively scoring at the 74th percentile. That's an 8% increase from where they ended at the end of fourth grade.

And so if you take out those summer months, that's just a few months of instruction. And we've already seen an 8% increase, which is statistically significant in this data set. When we disaggregate the data, and this is something we're really excited about, 91% of our African American students in this grade level demonstrated growth. 73% of our African American students are at the 40th percentile or higher, which is significant to us because that means they are on the track to be proficient or advanced on the MAP test.

That is a 7% increase for this student group. When we look at our multiracial students, 90% of them have demonstrated growth and 100% of them are at the 40th percentile or higher and on track to be proficient or advanced for our state test. And when we look at our total population for white students, 66% of our students demonstrated growth, 97% of them are on track to be proficient or advanced, and that was a 6% increase for this particular student group. So while Captain Staff does recognize that we still have more work to do, our PLC process is resulting in significant and very promising growth for all of our students.

Thank you. What questions do you have for us? All right, well thank you for the presentation and who wants to start talking? All right, board meeting over.

Okay. I'll start by saying thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you. I can feel your energy. I can feel your positivity.

I am just thrilled to have you all here. Our numbers already speak for themselves in a lot of ways, but when you come up here and you give those stories Thank you. Let me get close to this then How this No all right So I want to say you all did a great job of explaining this I have to be honest to you So I sat here a couple years now and heard you all present these stories and anecdotes about how things are working in class And it been fantastic But I have to be very honest I always overwhelmed by the data But tonight I going to start off with the positive So it is, it's great to hear what you all are doing. And I love the strategies.

And it's great to see if Joe were here, he'd be excited because there's, you know, he always talks about the outcome, the data. And so there's data, there's outcome, there's data. We can see the growth. And it's good to see the growth.

So this is not a but. So good job on that. All right. Now, I do have another question.

So the first question is, I'm sincere about what I just said. I don't want to think I'm bullshit. I'm serious. All right.

So the first thing I want to ask is, is there any data that supports students when they were at home who may have done well during the pandemic? I know we always talk about the students who were adversely affected by being at home, but was there anyone who was impacted in a positive way? Would your measure of that be like some of these data points that we were presenting tonight, or would your measure be something more specific to the profile of the graduate? That's why I love talking to you.

Yes, so we can do both, right? It can be maybe along these lines, these data points here. Are there other metrics that you may have read that we don't know about that you can probably share with us? Right.

Last year, some of the data that I presented to you, disaggregated data specific to learn-at-home students. And so when we had, like during our interrupted times of instruction, we had students who were at home Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Okay. Spervantage, Propriety, and Equality.

Historically, I think collectively, no, it was not a good learning situation for the majority of our students. And I think Carter even acknowledged that in sort of the anecdotal piece that students are talking about. I think from the profile of the graduate lens, that's the piece that I think for us as educators broke our hearts. Coming back, the emphasis that we have to, the different kind of emphasis that we have on social emotional learning, Because students, like I saw it in my own home, my children weren't interacting with other people.

So that idea of collaboration that Patrick talked about is something, like a lot of these sort of like human skills are things that we've had to spend a different kind of time and energy emphasizing now. Because we believe those are important for people to be successful as they move on. I collaborate every day with people, but if I haven't had to do that ever, like some of our students not even having done that, and now they're third graders learning how to do that when they were learning it when they were five, that's the impact. So I think that's sort of the non-example of your question.

Right. That's great. And then, let's see. Let see so I mean obviously I going to talk about the test scores It always shocking to see how far African Americans are in this educational gap And and like you acknowledge that there was a certain percentage that might be basic and improving Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

And so on a broader level, right, so on a state level and a national level, you know, there's always this talk about how African American history is in certain states right now is not really valued right now. Thank you. Benefiting, well, a lot of folks are benefiting from these strategies, but there's a certain group that aren't really benefiting from these strategies. They're just not benefiting based on these metrics.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Are we taking into account that there's a historical, there's a history that we're not really looking at like we should be? You know what I'm saying? So what are your thoughts about that?

Anyone want to share some thoughts? I'll be happy to start. You know, kind of referencing back to some of the data I shared specifically for our fifth grade group, when you were talking, Jason, part of what I guess came back to my mind was the importance that Melina put on the number of students Spervantage, and I wish I would have heard her say that before I prepared all of this. Because when I think about 91% and I think about the number of students who are in that particular student group, nine of ten students made significant growth.

And when I also think back to sitting at this table four or five years ago and having these same conversations, Spervantage, Poverty, and Poverty. We have students who experience very traumatic lives. We're going to approach each child as an individual and try to put forward strategies that will support that child, supports that will help them grow, but it's not going to look the same for everyone. And I think one of the things that I am excited about is when I look at the amount of growth, particularly for our African American students, we're starting to see that particular student group grow faster than other student groupings.

And so while other student groupings did start off at a higher proficiency rate, we're starting to see that needle move. And I think that's really important to acknowledge. It will take us time to make everything as proportionate as we would like, but I just remember several years ago sitting at the table going, how on earth am I going to do this? And now I'm really excited about the way that we've come forward and to say, here's how we're doing it.

Thank you. So Jason I just wanted to acknowledge to your point you know I really thought about this and coming into the meeting tonight you know as much as we collectively love our data and things like that I think collectively we have to ask ourselves which groups are looking at this data and saying this is great data and which groups are looking at it and saying actually it problematic right And so I think that I was thinking about this on the way in because, you know, our gap has been like this and it's been like this for years, right? And to your point, I think you hit the nail on the head when you say we've been doing all these things, but it's not moving. It's not moving our black kids.

And so I speak to you not as a we have to ask ourselves at some point then what is happening culturally, right? In Clayton. So the only reference that I have for me, not as an administrator, but this comes from being a teacher in New York City. So I taught in New York City, and our students were, like my students were one-third Dominican, one-third Puerto Rican, and one-third black is how they self-identified, right?

In Clayton, I just want you all to think about this. Don't act on it, but seriously talk about it when we're not here. Right, right, we're not here. But Clayton has always had this philosophy, we do not teach to the test.

We don't teach to the test like this. We don't do that, we're above that, or however you say it, right? In New York City, where my kids were 80% free and reduced lunch, you know, underperforming, if we didn't teach to the test, we were considered not to be student-centered. Just think about that.

Because we knew for a fact that if our children didn't perform, if our children had an 18 ACT, we knew how that was going to limit their future. So you better pay attention to that score. And it better mean something. And I think culturally, what I would encourage this group to think about is, I think that that is something that everybody needs to think about.

Because to say blatantly we don't teach to the test serves one group, but I think it actually hurts another. And I know that's not, that may be controversial or maybe, but it is something to think about culturally. Well, it's a conversation. I do appreciate your statement.

And I like your broad lens. That is kind of innovative in this space for sure. And so I was thinking the same thing, not what you were thinking, but something that was innovative as well. But something that talks, you know, when we think about school districts and then evolution, like we are evolving.

I mean, you all see it in your data and your research and your disciplines. You all see there's evolving, there's an evolution in education, and there's certain things that kind of hold us back, right, this antiquated kind of way we do things, this culture, this whatever. I'm also thinking about the superintendent. In order to really help move the needle in the right direction for all students, and this is all students, but black students in particular, but even every other student, all students in the school district tend to benefit.

The school district tends to benefit if, for example, if you took the number of black students, that data in just like a few days, Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. If you took these kids who are like not performing very well in these tests and took that data off, excluded that data, and then add the numbers back up, what would the numbers be? I mean, I have no idea, but 87%, 90%, right, roughly? So what I'm saying is in order to increase the numbers, to feel like you're doing a good job, right, to also help all students, we need to look at the superintendent in a different way.

I think it needs to be, as much we don't want to be political, it needs to be some kind of way in which we, the superintendent also is able to lobby the city, the state, so that kids who are coming into the district who come from spaces where, or places that don't have all the necessary things that other kids have, We're able to lobby to make sure that we have those things. So that when these kids are coming in, they're kind of starting to come in on a better playing field. Because it's, to me, looking at this day and age, you know, it's like there's this inherent issue that's bringing us down, that's killing us, that's slowing our growth. It's preventing these black kids from really learning and having the best opportunities.

Thank you. Tell me I'm making sense? Yeah. You're talking about a larger societal issue.

Yeah. What you're referencing. Yeah, I mean, it's just, you know, I mentioned this before. This isn't the first time I think Amy's heard me say this before.

At this table, Gary has before as well, where I think the superintendent's position kind of needs to evolve, you know, Thank you. There needs to be some other things involved that can support these kids outside of teachers. I would agree on many of these things, but I also think part of this gets into what you're talking about is a different version of what you're looking for from a school. So, like, if we're looking to prepare kids so that what you're talking about is that you're talking about life.

Like, what are we doing to impact, like, your communities? So how are we determining whether kids are just successful in their communities? Like, when they're done with school and they're able to prepare and be ready for life, that's a different success strategy than just saying I have fifth graders who are reading on grade level. Like, that's one piece of this.

Like, that's obviously a piece of it, but how are we looking at determining what we're looking for from a successful student? And I think that is part of it is spreading this out. Like I've shared this data before. Like when we look at our Panorama data, our black students are the highest subgroup in our building with regards to positive feelings about school, feeling like they belong, feel like they have people who care for them, feel like this is a place where they can come and be happy and successful.

But they have the lowest scores in self-efficacy. And so what we're trying to figure out is where does that come from? And some of this, and I don't know exactly the answer, but I do think we're looking at trying to figure out what is that. Why is it that they feel they're cared for, they feel like they have a trusted adult?

Higher than every other subgroup in our building, our black students say this is the way they feel at school. But we're looking at that different piece of, is it, but when they're asking, can they do the hardest work in the classroom, they're saying no. And where does that come from? Most of them I've talked to students, we're hearing it's comparison to other students.

It's the way in which they're internalizing some of these messages, and it's what they determine a successful student is. So that's what we're trying to dig into is when you're talking about being successful, and I just had this conversation with a student the last couple weeks, and we talked about what does it mean to be a successful student. This student was separating the academic skills and saying that was what was making them as a successful student. But when I would say, can you do these other things that your classmates want to work with you?

Yes, but that has nothing to do with being successful. So like some of the things we talk about with being successful in life, this was a kid talking about how he can overcome challenges, how he can do all these things, but he still wasn't seeing himself as a successful student. And he's not necessarily even – he's going to be above the 40th percentile on all the – even on the academic things and still is not saying he sees himself as a successful student. So my point of this is I think when we look at these things and broaden out our version of what success is, and we have to let the students start to see there's a multitude of skills that we're getting from these things and help them starting to see that.

And I think even I think the other part that we have to be cognizant of and it came up when we were talking about SAT scores is that there a change in what happening other places As test scores become more optional as they start to look at holistic admissions processes as they start to look at some other things there some changing there And if we not careful if we I afraid that well if we not careful as those things change what we going to do if we continue to if we only focused on one side of this we could just be creating the next gap and not even be realizing it because there these other things that colleges are starting to look for And I can say this as a parent of a senior in high school right now, and surprised at my own journey through this admissions process with my son, is that they're not just looking at those test scores. Yes, they need those pieces, but they also wanted him to be able to talk about other things, and they want to see different skills from him. And they were talking to him about this, and he was looking at me like, yeah, but I got this. I can check all these boxes.

And we're like, well, wait a second. What about all this stuff? And it was a whole other conversation. So I think we have to be careful on how we're putting our eggs in those baskets.

And I'm not sure I'm completely answering your question other than to say yes. And the last thing I'm going to tell you is, and you said it's frustrating, I've sat with educators in the last few weeks in tears because they just like, they feel like we're trying everything. And I still just can't quite figure out this puzzle that's going to unlock this kid. And that's why I keep thinking, I've listened to Melaina talk about what we're adding with regards to our literacy instruction, what we're adding in regards because we're never going to arrive.

And it's a constant process of working through this to get there. So, yes, and I'm never going to hear you say it's not our fault. We're going to hold on to that because that's why we're in this profession. So I'm going to look at the we can do those things and hold on to some of that fault.

We're going to continue to hold on to it. We're going to continue to carry on. There's going to continue to be tears and things that are shed because we're trying to figure that piece out too. Well, I do want to say, I want to share one thing with you all before I move on.

So last night, I chose not to read this section of our agenda until last night. And I shouldn't have read it last night. I should have read it like, goddammit, like today at 12 noon, right? Because last night I went to bed and woke up mad at my sons.

Now, it's funny because Kim knows. I'm very competitive. But I woke up mad because I was like, because they were like, you know, kind of getting out of bed slowly. You know, Shanti had to go tell them, hey, move faster.

Like, your dad's about to leave. You know, now I'm getting frustrated. And what happened was I started to think about this data. I started thinking about, are my black kids going to be in this data, on this other side, basic side?

Because it doesn't, because it honestly doesn't matter if you're wealthy, your parents come from a two-parent household, if your mom's a freaking, you know, professor, it doesn't matter. All these things don't matter. It's like something's holding us down. Something's preventing these kids.

I woke up this morning, and I yelled at both my boys. I was on. Because that shit was in my mind. I hate this data.

I hate seeing this data. I hate reading it. As someone who's competitive, there's nothing worse than reading, you know, like it says, the largest percentage of black and African American students scored within the basic. If you're competitive, that sucks.

But we're in a no-win situation. You understand what I'm saying? This is where I'm trying to pull in the Rhonda Santus of the world to make sure he understands and everyone understands that there's a history that's involved here. We're talking about a head start.

We're talking about anti-literacy laws. You cannot even read. You get caught reading, we're going to kill you. That lasted for a long time until 18-something, right?

And then it was slavery and then it was other shit you couldn't do. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. After we actually got the bed, twice, that's basic. So, I'm just letting you know, man, this data sucks.

And I think there needs to be some evolution on what we can do as a school district And I do appreciate you all for really Superintendent Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried Can I say something in response? Thank you for your voice, Jason, and I know we all really need it and appreciate it and keep it up. But what I'll say is we really need to disaggregate this data, and that's what Cameron is doing in the Equity and Inclusion Committee. That is, that's our first, in my thoughts, that's our first step, is looking at these kids, these black kids who continue to be here, what's going on with them?

What's their discipline data? What's their, do they have an IEP? Do they have, we're looking very closely at these pieces that might help us with this. And I think I'm proud that we're doing that because that's a really good place to start.

I agree with you that as a district and as a team, as a board, I also think it's our responsibility to look at the bigger picture, the community, the state and the way the laws, the legislation. So I agree with you that I'm not afraid to say that schools are in many ways political. And the reason I can say that is because they're in the human world. Everything's political in the human world.

So I just want to remark that I see all that. I see this as this very big problem that none of, just one of our teachers can solve. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. We're already here and are bored.

I'm not sure if it does, but I'm trying. Jason, I think to your point, I don't think anyone in this room can look at this data. Absolutely, we have a lot to celebrate. But all of us in this room can look at this data and it's glaring, the areas that are not where it needs to be.

I think all of us can agree to that, right? And we can all agree that everyone's doing everything that they can, but there's always more. That's my competitive side. When I looked at this data and I continue to look at it, it does keep me up at night.

And it is frustrating when I see these people doing so much. But then I also know the reality. And I do see gaps where we can be better. And that's what we can control.

So what are the things that we can control? And what are the things that we can continue to be better at? We're going to keep doing that. Because that's what we do.

Right? And that's what we can control. The things we can control. So when Jen talks about all of her amazing celebrations and she says, Nisha, you're going to get a PO or I'm going to buy some sparkling wine and juice and celebrate with my staff, go for it.

Right? It's non-alcoholic. I just want to be very clear. Very clear on that.

When Patrick's talking about his profile as a graduate and they're celebrating that and they're creating digital portfolios, that is something that we can control. Right? Same story for all these buildings. So, again, my competitive side is this is okay.

We've got the data. We're seeing our black students, our free and reduced lunch population, our SPED students, and our ELL learners are not where they need to be. That is a reality. And I have said that, and the team can just attest to this, the day I got here, I said, if we can't figure this out, I'm not sure who can.

We have the resources, we have the staffing, and we have phenomenal people. So we've got to be able to figure this out, and how are we going to do that? And that's the challenge that we've put in this room, right? And so that's what we're going to do.

And Cameron's work with analyzing the data specifically, breaking it down, that's what we need to do. And if we're talking about it's a story and we individualize each child, what's the name of the kid and where are we at and what are we doing for that kid? Speaking of, I mean, one last question. So free and reduced lunch students, are they the same students as the black kids?

Not 100 Like 90 I wouldn be You can do that Well not right now We could figure it out for you Superintendent Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried Spervantage, and those who help them out, I say team. Sometimes I think that just the data isn't, it's not just for you all. Some of that data is over your head. Like, what are you going to do with the data?

You get all this amazing data, it just reconfirms, reaffirms what you already know. If you didn't know it, now you know it, right? You really know it. But some of this data should be for folks in the state.

Thank you. The city of St. Louis, Virginia Heights, all other areas. Right?

So it's the St. Louis issue. All right, that's all of us. Jason?

Sorry, I'll go just because this is on topic and then we can move on from this topic when, you know, or after or something. So first of all, I'll just say thank you to all of you again. I thought the presentation was great. It was really helpful.

And this is, as I said yesterday, it was my first time around the track, so to speak. And so it was very educational for me to sort of be able to read through this and hear you all give some color to it. I know we don't, well, first of all, I'll just start off by saying there are points, data points, you know, Jennifer, you spoke to some, but there are even a couple of data points where it looks like we have had some successes with some of our, within our student groups, and that should be applauded. And so, you know, I don't want anyone to get up from the table without acknowledging things like that, right?

I know we don't think about things in terms of percentages. I get that. But can someone walk me through what does happen when we get this glaring data point, whether it's by race or by language learner, you know, English language learners, bring or reduce, launch, whatever it is. And if the answer is Cameron's working, you know, that's what Cameron's working on, this is how we work together on that, that's fine.

But, like, what does happen when we see a challenge, just a challenge, broadly speaking, and it's in the spirit of continuous improvement, not, like, solve it by next year, right? So, I mean, I'll do kind of what we look at. And I will say we don't look at it in the way in which you just described it. We do do it more by student, right?

So if I were just to look at, say, my third grade, which is what I used, and I know you can relate to. But, you know, I guess I look at this, what I would go, we go through and say, who's below the 40th? If I'm looking at who's below the 40th percentile, who is that student? Like Nisha just mentioned, what do they have in place?

Do they already have an IEP? Do they already have a reading? Are they already in a reading intervention? Are they already in a math intervention?

What are we actually looking at? And I will also say whether it's NWEA, and Melina mentioned this, but the MAP test data, it's so old, like there's really not a lot we can do with it. And because it's changing, it changes all the time. Like you can't even compare one year to the next all the time, so it's not a lot that we can really do with that.

But the NWEA, A reading, our teacher's college benchmarks, we use those things. But then we also look at what are you seeing in the classroom? What are you seeing from the kid? What are you talking about from the student?

What are you seeing on a day-to-day basis? What's your anecdotal information? When you're teaching the math lesson, where do you see them stumbling? And then we have a conversation around what is already in place for that kid.

If we're seeing growth, is it growth on the right trajectory? Do we want to continue that process or do we need to stop and look at something else Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Because within that group, we don't want to look at it as though there's any group that has a single story. So we want to look and see what might we be doing for that student that isn't already there and what might be the story for that kid.

Okay, that's great. From a central office perspective, I guess, is it that we're scaffolding down within the building and that's really our course of action at that point? Or is there something more holistic that we do? The only other layer that I would add to that is like so when these data come in from the state, the first place they go to is the principals and the coordinators.

So the subject area coordinators start to dig in from a curricular standpoint. So the example that I gave with the biology is a good curriculum standpoint of Dan and I having conversation about that. We have conversation with the coordinator of the department had to say we need to unpack this piece. Other than that, I think it's all very parallel.

I'll hurry into this in high school as well. Okay. With the with the Fastbridge assessment and now I may be getting like too wonky in the auto of my skis here. But is there a way to show like growth within a year?

You know, there's you know, I think the point is well taken. Like, let's focus on growth. If I'm going to make this up, if someone comes in at fifth grade at Mayor Mack or Captain or Glenridge and they're reading at a first grade level and we get them to a third grade level all within fifth grade, that should be celebrated. But they're not going to they're going to look like a black mark, you know, a bad mark on the assessments.

Like, is there a way to think about in terms of that or do we not? So are you saying so? Yes, there's a there's a way to like so we always measure growth with within a year. The growth that I'm showing, that I showed on this slide, is less than a year because I'm showing this year's data.

So we'll do another spring data point. So we do always have multiple data points that we're looking at, or sometimes we'll look fall-to-fall growth. The fall-to-fall growth becomes a little bit more complex because you have that summer piece in there. So in the instances, we would prefer to look at spring.

Okay. But so, yes, we look at those pieces and celebrate those pieces. Yeah. Yeah.

We also don't generally talk about grade level to grade level, especially in the area of reading because there's such a wide band. So when you're looking at, say, a first grade, you may have multiple steps within a first grade. So there really isn't a first grade level as much as there may be a level D. And so then we would say if you're going from a projected idea of how much should you grow in first grade, we have an idea of how many levels with regards to like the A through Z leveling system that we would expect that you may grow in a first grade level.

But we would look at it within that year's growth. And so you're looking through it. Now, on an A reading, we also have percentiles. You have other things.

So we can see that percentile moving. But it's very rarely would I say this child's at this grade level. It would be they're at this level, which would be where they should be at that month in that year. All right.

And then I get to ask her a worky question for like three more months. So do we ever get to see that data? Or does that sort of data ever get presented to the board? We don't present the data at that level because we feel like that's what's going to influence us instructionally.

So we try to keep it pretty high level for you. That's fair. And then the last question, different topic. So we've talked a lot about learning during the pandemic and what I would call peak pandemic, learning from home, whatever you want to call it.

Did we capture any of those? This district did a great job of standing something up in like 36 hours and getting the ball going and then figuring out in three months, That's like what to do, right? So, you know, and I think, I really do think the district did a great job. But did we capture any of the lessons learned from there?

Because, like, what if there's a coronavirus 10 years from now? You know, we got to do the whole thing over again. I'd hate to see us have to, like, you know, start back over from scratch, as I'm sure some of you all would do. Anecdotally, yes, we captured things.

I wouldn't say that it was formalized. I think there were things that, like, you could see the evolution of our thinking from, like, the minute we went to shelter in place. And we had sort of an asynchronous learning environment for students that we knew was not the ideal learning environment, but it was what we could do at that time. To then shifting to a live, synchronous learning environment.

So, like, you could see that evolution over time. I think we continue to think and evolve about those things and what parts of those things worked for us. Even when you think about when we came back in person, at one point, we were trying to manage students at home and students in person simultaneously. All of those things were not ideal learning situations really for anyone.

Because at that point, you have a teacher trying to manage people in front of them and people at a distance and trying to do both well. Yeah, 100%, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm not saying that this is not, I not saying hey let go back to that You know don get me wrong For many reasons I don want to go back to that I think we probably have better a list of what we don want to do if that situation presented again and more of like maybe a better starting point I mean, I remember very strongly those days when we were having these conversations. And I remember at one point saying to Jeff, like, how far down this exercise are we going to go?

Thank you. Okay. Thanks again to all of you for telling those human stories because I think it paints such a great picture for us that all of our kids are more than these numbers and to see it in action is great. And I also appreciated how it seems like we're really doing a great job setting our kids up for success at the next level, at each level.

Like when Doug talked about how we kind of shifted pack time to look like Greyhound time. And I think that's really going to help our eighth graders as they transition to high school, advocating for themselves and seeking help when they need it. So thank you for all of that. A lot of my questions were answered already.

Like when we sat down, I actually told Jason the first thing in my notes was asking about our black students. And I appreciate everyone's answers to that. Nisha, I appreciate you saying, like, what can we control? Because I get mad about thinking about things like the tests that are inherently biased.

Well, we can't control those, especially if they're mandated by the state. So it puts in perspective to me, like, think about what we can do to help and not get angry about those things that we can't change. So thank you for that. A couple other subgroups that I did want to ask about, like our EL students, I assume the number of our EL students decreases with, to Y down in the high school.

Yeah. So it might not be fair to compare, in my mind, the data with our EL elementary kids and our EL maybe secondary kids, would you say? Like, there was one in literacy, in English. It's on the MAP test, like in elementary, the EL kids scored advanced, and then at Y-Down they were basic.

And I thought, I would think it should be the opposite, like that their English is improving. And so I don't know if you relate, if that's about the MAP test itself, or it's just a much smaller subgroup of kids. And so I really shouldn't be comparing how they're performing. I think it could be contributed to both of those things.

So the group of students is much smaller in the secondary schools. There's also, the EL population, there's also a little bit of a trickiness with who is required to take the test. So, like, if you've been in the country for more than a year, you're required to take the test, even if you're still receiving services. Okay.

And so that there there are some nuances there with with that identified population group that that create I just think a different level of challenge for those students when they're when they're taking the test. Okay. Yeah thanks. And like our kids on the federal lunch programs too on the MAP test as we acknowledged earlier they're like basic in all the levels but on the Fastbridge reading it It seemed like half of them were meeting benchmarks.

So I don't, I'm wondering where the, I mean they're totally different tests, but like which one should we be paying attention to when we're thinking about their literacy, I guess. So we would say that we would put more emphasis on the A reading because if the fact that we use it as a screener that then leads us into other diagnostic assessments. So when we, so it's like we cast a wide net, so testing everybody, certain group of students falls below a benchmark, we then follow up with multiple other assessments to really identify what is going on, and to be able to then make a decision instructionally about what we think is the best approach for that child or those groups of children. So those tests mean more to us, and actually, Like if you look at the local assessments, I would say the diagnostics actually mean more to us than the A reading in that sense because the A reading does feel a little like a temperature check And when we note a fever then we follow up with to figure out what going on there And that's the piece where most of the diagnostics become a one-on-one situation with a teacher and a student.

And they're listening to the child read, and they're asking them questions about comprehension and those kinds of things and have a much better picture of the child as a learner and where do I need to go instructionally. Right. Right. Real quick, point of free and reduced lunch also.

Because of the free lunch that we had been provided, one of the things we're also still trying to make sure is get, we're trying to make sure families are re-enrolling. Because for the last two years, they hadn't been charging for lunches. So a lot of families didn't fill out the paperwork. So with regard, we're still trying to figure out.

Capture. Yes. Who all those students may actually be. That's a good point.

Thank you. It's actually, the state now does it through direct certification. So it's actually a little bit different than what it had been in the past. Like we used to have to get paperwork and everything, and now the state is using direct cert for that.

But this is the, I think this is the first year. First year, probably, because it was free. Yeah, we didn't have that for two, three years. Yeah, right.

And the special ed student group, what percentage of our kids that we identify as special ed, are they all required to take all of these tests, the MAP tests? There's a small percentage of students who can take an alternative assessment, the MAP-A, but the percentage across the district is very small. So you will run into situations where we're sitting in IEP meetings making decisions about which tests a child should make, and it sometimes doesn't always feel like the most child-centered. Right.

Because when I was looking at those numbers, I thought, well, I wonder how many are really, Thank you. Back, that's not the same at the elementary and the middle school level. They're factored into the grade level composite, but they're taking an alternative assessment. Okay, thank you for that.

And then one just broad question. How are we communicating the data and the results to our community, like to individual parents about their kids and just the community at large? Like what we're hearing tonight, you know, is maybe more detailed than we need to push out literally to the community. But are we communicating it and how?

So the individual reports get sent home now electronically. We used to send them through snail mail. Now they get sent electronically, so it goes through the portal. And then, Jen, you might be the best person to talk about with your meeting at the beginning of the year, your title meeting at the beginning of the year, how you talk about some of those pieces.

Thank you. So as a, probably the school that's most consistently determined as Title I school in our district, there are certain requirements that we need to relay. And so it starts with notification to the parent community that's part of my opening welcome back newsletter that includes information that parents click open and read it. It gives specific information regarding our Title I status and how we receive additional funds and what those are for.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Sometimes we open it up to everyone, but we're really being very intentional about making sure students who qualify for free and reduced lunch are students and families who are receiving these types of supports and services as a result of the funds. Okay. And then from a district standpoint, Stacey, besides obviously doing the assessment reports, our goal is by August of this year to have a version, which would be in the infancy stage, of a data dashboard on our website.

And so our like Cameron Melaina Robin Tony we been meeting with Jeff because that Jeff skill set I not sure where he is That his background In developing these types of data dashboards looking at data and analyzing it So we taken each of our three goals and looked at the action steps and we're trying to build a data dashboard that could align to that. That would be public-facing, and then the internal-facing would be more detailed for us. Thank you. That's great.

Because I think it's such an important story to tell, the successes and the challenges. But I think it's so important for the whole community to be aware of. So thank you. I appreciate it.

I don't have too much more to add. I will just say I appreciate you all being here and working through this with us. It's never easy for any of us to process all this, and it's 9-15 on a school night. So I appreciate that.

And I think my typical response to this over the years has been to make points about standardized tests and how much I hate them and things like that. So I'm not going to repeat that chorus, but it doesn't mean it's not true. But I appreciate you helping us work through this, and I appreciate the mindset of whatever it is that we have to look at. We have to look at standardized tests.

We have to take them. We know there are other things that we want to look at that's more important to us in many ways. We have to look at that too. Whatever it is, we're trying to get better.

And not just get better so that we're done, but we're always trying to get better. And that mentality, I think, comes through. And I want to encourage it and say it to all of us too, is just to keep trying to get better on whatever it is we're looking at. So I think that comes through, and I appreciate that.

And we might not be good. We're not there, but let's keep trying to get better. I don't know what else to really summarize it. Okay, my turn.

So thank you, and I thank you everybody for everybody's comments, and I know it is super late, so I'll try to keep it as brief as possible. So I think a lot of good things were talked about. I think that the most important thing is what can we control, right? Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. I heard, Jen, you talk about SMART goals. So one of the questions I have is, are all of these schools using SMART goals in these PLC communities?

Because I think that's great, right? It means they're measurable. It means that they're, I think, Jen, we're a captain, old captain family. And I remember Jen always saying what gets measured gets done, right?

So are all the schools using SMART goals? So that's a question that I have. Are all the schools using SMART goals? No, I would say maybe they're using a version of it, but I wouldn't say that you could go PLC to PLC and say, what is your SMART goal?

So that, you know, as you guys are figuring out next steps of what to start, stop, and continue, and I've heard that used in some schools and not in other schools, that might be something to, should all the schools be using SMART goals or some other version of that acronym? So that's something, you know, maybe you guys can take away from this. And then I think the continuous improvement that everybody's talked about here really is what's important, right? So it's great that we're doing things that are great, but, you know, and, you know, I guess one of the questions is, Melania, you said we only ever use percentages when we talk to you guys, which is us.

So then stop using the percentages if it doesn't make sense when you talk to us, you know? I took one of the slides just so you had up and looked at the number of absolute kids in second grade that were below grade level, and it was 34 kids. And then that same slide, I just did the same thing, how many in fifth grade were below grade level? It's 35 kids.

Like, you know, should we be looking at 34 or 35 kids over that four-year period? Should the goal be that it goes down from the 34 kids you started with so that by the time they get to middle school, it's whatever number. It's a 10% improvement or not percentages. And I know that you guys are dealing with individual kids, but again, maybe with SMART goals or something as measurable.

Otherwise, my fear is it's 34 kids in second grade, it's 35 kids in fifth grade. Thank you. Question 2, will you ever report that test? No.

We don't want to see that. But if the board could see something that says, in second grade, again, there were 34 kids, and as we go through time, we've tracked the progress of these 34 kids, and 10% of 10% of them moved out of, to be proficient, year over year by the time they got to the middle school, and then they continued and were successful through high school. That, to me, is what success might look like. And then, I know I've talked to you guys about this before, when I think we last talked about the homework policy, but I want to hear things about challenges with math fluency, how much of that is related to our kind of optional, you don't need to do your homework anymore.

So, you know, do we, do you look at those policies, like, when you get results like this and you're thinking about, well, why has math fluency fallen off? Is it, is it a result of a change that we've had, not just in our approach to homework, but also the pandemic? I mean, are all those the different levers you guys are looking at there, too? Thank you.

And I think that's it. Oh, and I was happy to hear you acknowledge learning loss, even though I know you hate that term. So, because I think we can all agree that there's been learning loss. I've definitely, definitely personally had brain loss over the pandemic.

So thank you for acknowledging learning loss. Okay. I'll just say one thing. And I think everybody's brought up great comments.

And I say this with all peace and love, and I really appreciate all your data and your hard work with the data. I just, I think we all just need to keep in mind that the data probably has very little correlation to how successful these kids are going to be in life. And so just making sure that we keep that in mind when we're Thinking about these things or even, you know, just because you have, you know, a high achieving child doesn't mean that that child doesn't have a lot of social emotional issues or, you know, isn't going to, you know, completely fail out of college because he became addicted to drugs or vice versa. You have a kid that's performing at basic level.

I mean, might set the world on fire. So I think we all just need to keep that in mind when we're looking at the data. And with that, yes, you can. Sorry.

I'm sorry. I was just going to end with, what's the one thing you guys are most proud of in this report? You get to pick one. I have to use the restroom.

Card is the most important. And I know Chris is equally as important. Okay. So the first thing I want to say is, I can just say as a student, it means a lot that you guys are really all thinking about this, you know, that, you know, students are more than just data points and, like, there's stories behind it.

And as a student this is very encouraging to hear because our lives are complex and it more than just how we perform on some test And there really is a lot more that goes into it And so I think it really encouraging and important that you guys continue to have that more of a human focus on us than a test score while still acknowledging that test scores can be important. So I have two sort of more specific questions just sort of about how we're using this data. So you guys talked about how, like in terms of test scores, like state mandated tests, and how we could use this information to like look at curriculum specifically. I guess my question is just like how much does like this, how students perform on the test play into how we shape the curriculum?

I think normally, so when I use that analogy of like a temperature check, I think that's the place that it probably influences us the most. So when Dan and I have talked about the biology piece, like that feels to us like, okay, something's going on here that we need to have more conversation about. Beyond that, I think it's a factor when we start having conversations about curriculum, when we start having conversations about alignment to standards. So like the tests come from the standards.

So if our curriculum is aligned to the standards, then ideally students should be doing well on the assessment. So I think that's why the biology one is a good example of us saying what's going on. Well, and then if you look at our standards, our biology standards are aligned to the national science standards, actually. And then presumably the state standards are also aligned to that, so we're using the same kind of key data pieces.

Now, they're pretty broad, and so there are different points of emphasis, and so those are some of the things that we're looking at. But each discipline, particularly by the time – each discipline has its own set of national standards that are – Social studies has their standards. Literacy has theirs. Science has theirs.

And those guide our curriculum, but obviously there are, like I said, different points of emphasis. Okay, and sort of just to follow up to that, so can you like break down like sort of how these test scores are different between like different classes, like especially in the, with the example of biology, like I know like biology, honors biology, and AP biology all have like very different course curriculums and very different styles of teaching. So I guess my question is, in this data, does it break down by like which class the student is actually in? So the overall piece, no.

So the level that you all see it at, no. The level that we see it at, yes. So we can disaggregate by class. But we do that because we know the students who are in that class.

So we do it at the student level to look at those. And then my last question, I really just have to ask this because my bio teacher, my stat teacher would be mad at me if I didn't. Again, this probably isn't a question or something for a board table, but just in terms of reporting those numbers on test scores and stuff, is there statistics on how variability is with these data sets and showing how significant our jumps are from year to year? Okay, so here's how I'm going to answer that question.

When we get our annual performance report, one of the things that, so achievement data is reported in a couple different ways. And one is like by status, so that's what I've talked about tonight. And then there's growth, and within that growth they start to talk more about that kind of idea of variability and that type of stuff. But no, we don't – not a very good answer.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. And then you can answer them in whatever order Would any of you like to address the comments that were made earlier related to our numbers around literacy And if not great But because the two parents were here and because we don get a chance to address those things I wondered if you guys wanted that opportunity And if you don I totally respect that Whatever you think is great And then the other thing I thought of is, Jason, and I really want to know from your point of view, because we haven't seen these numbers for our black kids move as much as we would like, and because we all know that that's incredibly important to us and to our community, Have we considered as a board, or Nisha and you're among administrators, having someone, a consultant come in and look at what we can do? And sort of, instead of us just sort of grinding our gears, you know, again, having, and I talk about this all the time, let's have some experts from outside come in who are educators, these folks would understand education, But it can really help us look at this issue in a broader view and look at what specifically we're doing and what we could do differently, just like we do with all the other. Have we considered that around this issue?

I would say we have not really considered that because I think that the data that we look at is so personal in terms of like identifying by kid. What are we doing? You know, strategy wise to help those kids. So our outside lens would probably be like somebody, like Cameron, who comes in, right, and looks at it from that equity piece.

But coming from someone from the outside of the district coming in to look at it, we haven't done that, but we do have individuals coming in and looking at our curriculum, our professional development. You know, Melina's office works with lots of different individuals that does that. But that's a thought. It is.

It's a good thought. And then the other one. Yeah, so here's how I'll respond to that. One of the things that I feel like in this report that I'm able to make a comparison from last year to this year, so like when we're looking at local assessment stuff, and this is particular, I think, to the public comment, and I know what you're interested in.

When looking at the page of the report that starts to talk about how we're screening for dyslexia, et cetera, When we say that 15% of the students assessed were considered to be below the acceptable threshold, last year that was 21%. When we say that 4% of students in grades 1 through 3 were identified as demonstrating characteristics of dyslexia last year, that was 8%. And then now, as a consequence, like when I wrote this report, we didn't have the kindergarten data. We now have the kindergarten data, and we were predicting like a 7% to 10% of kindergarten students, and it's 6%.

So I think what we're seeing is an outgrowth of our deliberate focus that came out of the work that we did from the literacy review in 2020 and the things that we're putting in place that we're starting to see some different things happening with foundational reading. And I think it's important to say that we maintain a sense of really wanting to have this, like, comprehensive approach to literacy instruction that focuses on these five components of literacy, but then also continues to focus on instilling a love of reading in students. And so like Nisha's story, I think, is a really touching story for me because I, you know, we have put programs in place. So like since 2020, we've put specific phonics units in place.

We've put the Hagerty work in place. And then we've started to look at decodable texts that are at our younger grade levels. And I think we're seeing some some progress with that. But we're also really dedicated to this idea of like a workshop model of students having choice, et cetera, to be able to still instill this love of reading and this idea of like literacy being really important.

And so like trying to find the right allocation of energy and time there. And I'm careful not to use the word balanced. Like I want it to be the right allocation of being able to see joy in classrooms. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

I didn't see on this, and I don't think it says specifically what you have to say. Again, I know there's always vague things in these Cinebills. Do we give resources for outside testing if we have these students that are, again, flagged by a screener we tried some interventions we aren seeing those numbers go up What are we doing to partnership with the parents to make sure the kids get what they need in terms of understanding their maybe possible learning disability et cetera So the requirement from the previous House bill was a letter. One of the things that we feel is that to be human-centered, that we can't just send a letter without a phone call.

Yeah, we talked about this. So we make a phone call to the families first to explain that the letter is coming, that there's a requirement of a letter, but this is really what the data is telling us, and this is what it means. During that conversation, so we're very careful in the fact that we are not medical professionals and we cannot diagnose dyslexia. Right.

So we will not diagnose it. What we will talk about within the conversation is that your child is exhibiting characteristics of dyslexia. If the family asks for resources, we can direct them to a place. The challenge with a lot of these places is that there's a long waiting list.

There's a lot there, but yes, we can provide some information. Generally speaking, yes. Why is that? I would say probably from a space of making sure, like, the person who's making the phone call is not always the closest person to that child, So they don't necessarily know the dynamics of that family.

There are a lot of places where somebody could refer somebody. And if we don't know a whole lot of that piece, I think we're being careful in what we say and to where they might go. I don't, at this point, I don't also, like I wouldn't feel comfortable making that recommendation because I don't necessarily have any kind of training related in that. So I think we could probably be working to do some professional learning with our teachers just about, like, what are the resources out there and providing some of that.

Most of the stuff within the letters that we've written, we have followed sort of a script that has been given to us by the state. And so that's, so it's really just from maintaining a sense of what the state has provided to us less than, it's really not from a lack of caring. Oh, I know that. Yeah, I know that.

Yeah, I wonder, I do think of an equity piece there because I know that just like the parents said, there are many parents who are able to go and get extra resources for their kids and take them to other schools or get after school tutoring, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. There are some parents that aren't able to do that. And so thinking about making sure these parents are aware of what else is out there for their kids, I understand where you're coming from, Melania, but you see how it just feels like we can't just, I can't feel good about just assuming the parents are going to know they need more testing or assuming that they know that, you know, these tutoring places exist. I feel like ethically we should be in some way helping them to know that this is an important thing for them to understand about their students' learning beyond what we can offer.

Does that make sense at all? Even if it's not our responsibility to get them there, because it's not, wouldn't it be part of our responsibility to make sure that if we see a student that interventions are not working, etc., etc., that we look into why that might be. Even if it's not us looking into it, we allow them the chance to say, here are these other resources for you to look into further for your student. But I think that we are in the sense of we're talking to the parents and saying, you know, these are the deficiencies or characteristics we're seeing in terms of dyslexia.

But I don't know if it's, Chris, I don't know if it's our place to say, here's where you need to go get tested. Oh, I didn't say that. Never said it once. I said, these are the resources available in terms of understanding better how your child is learning.

I never set a place. We are allowing these parents to sort of come on board with us and say, okay, there are other resources too. Not which ones, just that there are. I know that these reading specialists know these resources, and I understand why they're hesitant.

Because it's, again, nobody here is diagnosing dyslexia, not one of us. But I just can't see why there's a disconnect between saying, okay, We're all part of a community and we all want our kids to do well, so therefore, let's make sure we're lifting up all the other resources that also exist in addition to what we're doing. Got it. No, I never want to be specific.

I understand that. That's what I thought. Oh, no, I can't. That doesn't work in terms of private sector versus, yeah, that's not what I was going after.

Okay. Okay, let's, if nobody has anything further, let's take a very short three-minute restroom break and reconvene and we'll talk about the policies and get everybody out here. I'm like, stop calling me. He said, 12 minutes left.

We're down 49, but we were down . I'm like, perfect timing. I can tell you it's Dr. .

Yeah. I know. And . Sam was on the call.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Is everyone ready? All right, sit down, everyone.

Is nobody hearing me? Sit down. Let's go. I know, I know.

It wasn't just you. And Carter, if you need to go home and do your homework, please. Feel free. Female Speaker 1 It's optional Amy.

All homework is optional. Amy Gorman No, it's test optional. Female Speaker 1 No, homework is optional. Amy Gorman Okay.

Female Speaker 1 It's an account, it's a personal account. Amy Gorman Okay, so let's go back on the record. Okay, so we can go home. I'm tired.

Let's roll. Okay, let's go. We're back on and we're going to talk about this policy that Robin is going to tell us about. All right.

I think we're live. All right. So tonight I am bringing policy JHG forward for its first reading. The policy is about reporting and investigating child abuse and neglect and this policy is being updated to reflect changes related to Senate Bill 681.

Now in this policy all allegations are Allegations of child abuse must go through the Children's Division, including corporal punishment allegations. And if there's any reasonable cause to suspect child abuse of any kind, including abuse by a district employee, the district must immediately report the abuse to Children's Division. Okay, I just have one, can I just say a comment on this? So I think we need to take out, so we deleted in the body of the policy all reference to sexual misconduct, but we still have a definition in there at the beginning on the first page.

So if you do a term search, you'll see that it's all, there's no more reference within this policy to sexual misconduct, but it's still defined. So we might need to... I will double check with our district council. I believe this part, the sexual misconduct definition, was added as part of the state law and is connected to the policy that Tony is going to be bringing forward, even though it's not used later.

But I can get more information as to its purpose and if it needs to be struck or not It just feels like it should be defined in the other policy Okay And then do we have a definition of corporal punishment? Are you going to make one of the paragraphs with definitions? It talks about what Kim is saying. I mean, I think we should.

It says so, but it says abuse, right? Is it any physical injury, sexual abuse, or emotional abuse inflicted on a child other than by accidental means by those responsible for the child's care, custody, and control, or by any other person, except that discipline includes thanking, administered in accordance with the law? Then it says corporal punishment is not allowed. Correct.

Correct. So I think we, well, like, that's why I'm wondering, like, what is the definition of corporal punishment then? Previously, we were allowed to investigate it, and now it has to go through Children's Division. Yeah.

So what, I mean, how is the Missouri legislature at its finest defining corporal punishment these days? Does anybody know? I looked it up. I always thought it was spanking, but it doesn't do it spanking.

It has handling, which is a different thing than spanking. In the Missouri statute or just in general? I think it's outlined in another policy and I'm actually surprised it's not cited in, under the cross-references. Yeah, I just think that since there's a specific reference to that in the explanation, I, at least for myself, ought to understand what that is.

Okay. Well, they used to do that in schools. The paddle? Oh, yeah.

Outstanding assertiveness. I forgot you had a little whisper. Yeah. Outstanding assertiveness.

They probably still do it in some places. Yeah, there's a paddle. Last year, some school did some lawyers. I don't doubt it.

Yeah. Yeah. We need to just get that straight. Carter?

Behave yourself, Carter. Yes, getting the definition of corporal punishment And the sexual misconduct definition clarification. Are there any other questions? Okay, yeah.

Did you have a question? I'm sorry. Did I? I'm sorry.

Good evening. So I have policy GBLB for references for first reading tonight. MSBA has revised policy GBLB to reflect the recommended changes that Robin just presented in policy JHG regarding reporting and investigating child abuse and neglect. The only change to the policy is the addition of the The definition of sexual misconduct.

Is that sufficient to just be citing it elsewhere and not really define it here in the policy itself? I think they're trying to be as thorough as they should be. I don't know. From a legal perspective, it's done all the time.

Yeah, like as defined and – Okay. We don't like have to give the definition here if we're citing it that it exists elsewhere. I don't think so. Okay.

Okay. As long as it actually exists in the policy. Right. Well, that's great.

To your point. Okay. Any questions? Okay, good.

So now we're on to the action items. Thank you, Tony. I move that the board approve policy JFGA with proposed changes. Second.

It been moved and seconded Are there any questions All in favor Aye Aye Aye Any opposed Motion passes I move that the board approve policy JHC student health services and requirements with the proposed changes Second It been moved and seconded Any questions All in favor Aye I move that the board approve policy JHDF suicide awareness and prevention with the proposed changes Second. It's been moved and seconded. Questions? All in favor?

Aye. Aye. Okay. Is that our consent agenda now?

Oh, no. I'm sorry. Our financials. I think you can read the motion.

Okay. I move that the board adopt the resolution authorizing participation in the motion. MoCat, M-O-C-A-A-T program. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Questions? No, I just think maybe it would be valuable for any community members listening to have John talk, just give a brief summary of why our participation in this program is beneficial for the finances of the school district. So just a couple sentences.

I think it's great that you're putting this in there, by the way. So MoCat is an investment program. It's a partnership between various local government agencies across the state, and we're already in a similar arrangement program called MOSIP. The purpose for adding a second one is to be able to invest monies beyond 12 months.

MOSIP limits us to 12 months. This would be able to be one month to 24 months. In this current investment environment, we think that's going to be valuable to us. That's our request.

Okay, any questions? All in favor? Aye. Thank you, John.

I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda for agenda items 10.02 through 10.07. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any questions?

I'll say quickly, I think it's great that we're having sports camps for Clayton students, you know, over the summer. I think it's a great move. All in favor? Aye.

Any opposed? Let's see. Are we on? Okay.

I guess the approval of minutes was included in the consent agenda. Okay, good. So now we are on to board communications. Anybody want to report on any meetings?

Hey, Pat? I had, well, first of all, some of us attended another legislative advocacy call. I think that was since our last meeting. Which, as I've said before, I'd encourage everybody to do if they can, because there are a lot of bills coming up and right now being debated on the floor I think it was in our weekend update from Misha about Advocacy Day on March 28th, going to Jeff City.

I'm free that day. I'd love to go if anybody around this table wants to go. I think it would be great to get a really good representation of our board there. So we can talk about that offline, but I just wanted to put it out there.

Any questions for our students? Probably, I believe so, but I'd have to double check. I would think you could. I think it would be great to bring students, or if students go organize on their own or whatever.

So I think we should, Dan left, but maybe even publicize it at the high school. So that was first thing. I attended the teaching and learning committee that Melina runs, which is comprised of parents, students, teachers, this time focused on our gifted program. So the gifted coordinator, Megan Margirio, and the specialists from the schools were all there as well, and we were broken up into different groups, combined parents, students, teachers, to talk about the gifted program.

And really, Milena posed two questions for us, which were great, which was, one, they wanted to learn from us what kind of evidence would be helpful to the stakeholders of the community, and To understand basically what our gifted program is and does. And number two, how do we communicate that to the community? So what evidence would be good to share with the community? And there were great discussions.

And it was, I really valued all the different viewpoints, especially from the kids. But it was great to hear from everybody. Some things that stuck out were there's such a misconception, you know, every district handles gifted education differently. And I think an important distinction to be made that many people don't understand is that our gifted program is different, is not just academic acceleration.

Like we're not just gifted isn't just like the high math class or higher reading class. It really is, in a way, what we talked about in the meeting is kind of related to what our SSD kids needs are. It is a totally different set of learning needs. Special needs really it like our kids with special needs And how do we teach to those special learning styles And they focus a lot on critical thinking problem solving creativity a lot of social emotional areas like a lot of children identified as gifted struggle with perfectionism anxiety procrastination and not in a way that a quote unquote typical kid might So it very abstract so it hard to define And Milena challenged the group with well what kind of things can we share with the community to explain what we do Because it really is still very misunderstood, and it's hard to collect data on those types of things to share.

But it led to great conversation, and I personally do have a child that has been identified as gifted. So as a parent, I appreciated the conversation as well, and there were some parents that were former teachers. And so I loved the conversation. I think it was great, and we could have probably talked, like, you know, all night.

And anyway, it's great. I think any opportunity we have to be with different groups of stakeholders to talk about our curriculum is great. And I know the community members really appreciated it too. And that actually a new structure we put in place this year the Teaching Advisory Council which is made up of staff and parents and a board member so that instead of if you recall quite often we would have curriculum updates coming to the board like almost once a month like it was getting a lot So now we've put this structure in place where Stacy's representing the board.

She understands what's going on, like gifted update, and she's sharing that with us. Yeah, and as a former teacher too, not just a parent and a board member, I really like, I felt like I was wearing a few hats and it was great to have like the perspective, be able to relate to the perspectives of the different stakeholders in that conversation. So I look forward to more. I thought it was a great discussion.

I think Carter went to the first meeting because I was unable to. And that was it. Go ahead, Chris. I think we'd be, I feel like I would be remiss without making sure that we just bring up the fact that I hope all of you have read, or will read if you haven't yet, that all the CDC report that just came out around teen mental health.

You know the numbers are alarming We all know this in general but it I think it great for our board to really look at those numbers You know obviously the administrator should be as well But it is alarming. The rates for girls, especially also our LGBTQIA communities, it makes me really proud that we're focusing as much as we are on social emotional learning. Now we have that consultant coming because it's real. It's happening.

And we're going to continue to see students struggle. And I just want us all to have that as something that we every day continue to focus on. I already know what it is. I'm preaching to the choir.

But this report was so important for all of us to really look at. And it sort of refuels why we're doing what we're doing. Okay. I move that the Board of Education adjourn.

All in favor? Aye.