Post #8 Messaging Preliminary Accountability, Inquiry Institute, MCIEA

Academic Superintendent Introduction

I am new for many schools, so here is a little intro to share with your staff if you choose. Feel free to edit as you see fit.

Grace Wai is our school's Academic Superintendent. She works with principals in 27 schools in the northern half of the city. Before coming to Boston in 2017-18, Grace was the Director of Curriculum and Instruction in Framingham for 3.5 years. Prior to that she served as a principal for 17 years in Lowell and Westford. Grace is passionate about teaching every student, adult learning, and leadership.

Grace will visit our school on a two- to five-week rotation. She is here to provide me guidance and feedback, to monitor progress on our QSP priorities/goals, observe in classrooms, review data, problem solve, etc. When we visit classrooms, we will stay for 10-15 minutes; we may ask students questions about the learning target, why it's important, and how they will know they're successful. There is no need to stop to address us as we do not wish to disrupt teaching and learning.

Preliminary Accountability

Once again, here is the link to the <Security Portal>. Preliminary Accountability is scheduled to become public this week, September 27, 2018. Do you feel equipped to address your staff and/or community? To ensure your readiness, please fill out this <accountability notecatcher> to guide you through the process and share your copy with me the day after your first PLC. If you would like assistance, please email, text, call me 617-785-7656. Here are some additional resources:

Six minute introductory <screencast> using the security portal

Accountability Resources (including one-pagers for parents)

Inquiry Institute with ODA & Harvard GSE at Harvard Ed Portal

Networks 5 and 6 schools have a wonderful opportunity to send a team to an institute to engage in inquiry with your school's data. If you were not able to obtain ODA support this year, here is an opportunity that is free! Please register here.

This Institute will run on November 6 and 7, with a follow-up meeting on February 12. The Ed Portal will provide breakfast and lunch for participants. Workshop Objectives:

• Participants will develop familiarity with the Data Wise Improvement Process through engagement with a case study and application of strategies, tools, and practices to their own school context.
• Participants will understand the power of analyzing data through the lens of equity.
• Participants will analyze student and teacher data with the lens of equity.
• Participants will develop action plans through the support of tier 1 instruction while also attending to the needs of students requiring tier 2 and 3 supports. 

Family Guides to Massachusetts Standards

Family-friendly guides to the standards for each grade level—available in English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Chinese (simplified characters)—are designed to help schools and families work together to support students’ progress toward mastery of the recently revised English language arts/literacy, math, and science and technology/engineering standards. The guides were developed with support from the Massachusetts Parent-Teacher Organization, and they will be expanded to include the 2018 history and social science standards in 2019.

MCIEA: Performance Assessment and a New Vision for Measuring School Quality

BPS and BTU are members of the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment. We are seeking up to 10 additional schools to work on designing engaging curriculum embedded performance tasks and project based learning. This is an excellent opportunity to align with your Instructional Focus. See this communication to school leaders and ILTs for more details on this opportunity. Contact Paul Tritter for more info.

Communication from John Hanlon re: Transportation

Here is the <link> to John Hanlon's email to all school leaders Friday, September 21.

Perception Institute Teacher Survey

Dr. Colin Rose shard this letter with school leaders earlier this year asking for wide participation in this survey. This is a comprehensive survey designed to discover which among a range of factors are most likely to enhance, or hinder, teachers’ capacity to develop authentic relationships with students, including characteristics of the schools in which they teach, the student populations with whom they work, and experiences of the teachers themselves. Since we are working on CLSP district wide, we intend to survey all teachers. Incentives/compensation for teachers’ time will be included. Please take a minute to complete the school leader sign off form (signature on page 3) and email it back to Dr. Colin Rose.

Comment on NAEP Achievement Levels

The National Assessment Governing Board is collecting public comment as part of an effort to revise their policy on developing student achievement levels for each NAEP assessment. Comments should be submitted by Sept. 30.

Post #7 - Coaching Visits, Preliminary Accountability, LionBridge

First Week of School Visits

Thank you for spending time with me during these first days to see school opening in action (establishing building and classroom routines, solidifying schedules, dealing with transportation issues, welcoming kindergarteners, managing late hires or no-shows, etc...) I also saw many classrooms where teachers embedded content while teaching routines. I am becoming oriented to parts of the city with distinct characteristics such as Southie and Allston-Brighton, and I’m getting to know you as educational leaders, each with distinct styles, but what ties you all together is your commitment to the children and families of Boston. Thank you!

Coaching Visits Commence Monday, September 14

I'm excited about starting our coaching cycles on Monday. We will follow the agenda below and use this form to document our visit:

• Operational or other concerns (15)
• Check-in and Follow-up (15)
• Leadership Development/Student Learning & Professional Practice Goals (15)
• QSP Priorities, Includes Observation in Classrooms, ILT, etc... (75)
• Teacher Development/Educator Evaluation (20)
• Next Steps/Commitments (10)

This is the coaching framework all Academic Superintendents will use this year to be more consistent and to focus on your growth as a leader, the actionable and measurable parts of the QSP, and on the development of your staff. I'm excited about giving it a try even though it may feel awkward in the beginning.

Preliminary Accountability Reports

You should have received an email from DESE about logging into the Security Portal to view your accountability reports that provide a measure of whether your school met your targets (from ALI) and the school's percentile ranking. A few thoughts:

• This year is a baseline year. In the past, your percentile ranking was based on four years of data. Additionally, this year's metrics are different - they include chronic absenteeism and considers the progress of students who performed in the lowest 25%. It is tempting to compare percentile rankings, but we should refrain from doing so.
• We no longer have Level designations. 
• A school can have a high rank, but not meet targets and can have a low rank and meet or exceed targets. These measures need to be taken together, not one or the other. The main point to remember is that all students need to make progress and reach 500+ scaled sore.

If you think there is a discrepancy (i.e. low participation rate), you need to reach out to Jake Stern (jstern) as soon as possible so they can review the concern and report to the state. This could make a difference in whether focused or targeted support is recommended.

Academic Superintendents are working with ODA to provide support on understanding, interpreting, and aligning your QSP goals. If you have questions about any of this, there are still two webinars with openings on September 20 and and 24 at 3:00 PM

LionBridge Telephonic Translation Services

Pictured above is Principal McKeigue Cruz communicating with a parent who speaks Vietnamese using LionBridge telephonic translation service to solve a transportation issue.

If you are interested in using this resource, look back to emails you received on September 4 or 5 that included Telephone Interpretation Policy and your access PIN. This tool should be used for times for routine matters that last no more than 30 minutes. Administrators or designee must authorize use of this telephonic interpretation service. Use:

• When in-person interpretation is not available specifically for required Special Education meetings (i.e. IEP and evaluation) after attempts have been made to secure in-person interpretation through the district’s request system. Telephonic usage for Special Education related matters is only allowed when prior written parent consent is received.
• When no trained, professional interpreter is available in person
• When written translation of information is inadequate or unavailable.

Do not use for teaching, classroom use or the delivery of other daily or regular educational programs or services.

How to Access the Telephone Interpretation Option
In-School Administrators must authorize all use of Telephonic Interpretation Services
Cost per minute (at District’s expense):  Spanish - $0.49; All other languages $0.69  

Step #1: Have LEP parent/guardian on the phone/present prior to placing the call
Step #2: Call our toll-free phone number: 1-800-444-6627
Step #3: Enter your school's PIN.
Step #4: Select 1 for Special Education or 2 for General Education
Step #5: Choose language.

• Press 1 for Spanish
• Press 2 for Haitian Creole
• Press 3 for French
• Press 4 for Cantonese
• Press 5 for Portuguese
• Press 6 for Vietnamese
• Press 7 for Somali
• Press 8 for Arabic
• Press 9 for Mandarin
• Press 0 For any other language needs or concerns. If no interpreter is available, the operator will inform you to call back later.  

Post #6 Assessment Choice

Early Literacy Assessment Choice

Good news. Most of our schools will be given their chosen option in reading assessments. I will contact you if your school is one that is being asked to choose the alternate option. If you did not respond to the survey your school will, by default, be enrolled in the MAP assessment system. 
Accounts will be going live on Monday and teachers will receive auto generated “welcome” emails. 

Special Note for EFA Schools in case you missed Mary Driscoll's email from last week: There has been a lot of communication coming from various sources about the plan for reading assessments in the EFA cohort. We apologize that we have not done a good job of getting everyone involved in making this decision on the same page in a timely manner. We are working on having clear guidance about what reading assessments will be used by the EFA cohort this week and will have support in place to get everyone set up quickly following that communication.

Focus Curriculum Updates Available

<Focus on K2 Updates> Are accessible to all. Unit 1 has been updated to be standards-aligned, with shared reading, read aloud and SFL informed writing lessons. The remaining units will be rolled out unit by unit throughout the year. Additional read alouds and writing mentor texts were available to pick up at the K conference. Reach out to Literacy P-2 Assistant Director Brook Childs at bchilds@bostonpublicschools.org for these materials if they were not picked up at the conference.

BPS Data Warehouse Reports

Go to <BPS Data Warehouse> (You will have a school view. Teachers will have class view.)

• Attendance Dashboard for daily, monthly attendance and chronic absenteeism
• MCAS Reports for 2018 MCAS Data, including student writing
• ACCESSSpring Reports for 2018 data

Attendance

Congratulations to the following Network 6 schools with attendance above 90% for the first three days of school!

• Baldwin Early Learning Center (94, 97, 92)
• Eliot K-8 (94, 95, 96)
• Gardner Pilot Academy (92, 93, 96)
• Mary Lyon K-8 (93, 97, 97)

Congratulations to these schools that had 90% or above attendance on Monday of the first full week of school (September 10, 2018):

Alighieri (98), Bradley (94), Guild (94), Hale (97), Harvard Kent (91), Horace Mann (95), Patrick J Kennedy (94), McKay (92), Otis (93), Perry (90), Quincy (96), Russell (90), Warren Prescott (93), Winship (93)

Post #5 - MA Standards Resources

Looking forward to visiting all of you this week!

• ​I have a schedule put together that has me visiting 26 schools by next Thursday, September 13th and the 27th school on Friday, September 14th. The purpose of my visit is to walk through with you, say hello to staff, and thank your custodians for their diligence and hard work during the hottest summer in 150 years. The 2.5 hour meetings will start Monday, September 17. I have sent calendar invites for visits through October 25, 2018. Here is the <link> to the coaching calendar and postings. At the bottom of the page, you can sign up for alerts whenever anything is added to the blog.

You all are AMAZING! With your teams, you MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!! Good luck with school opening! (not that you need it)