#33 Transitions, "JLI," 2019 Accountability

It was a beautiful weekend with glimmers of summer days ahead. Congratulations on completing MCAS administration!

I spoke with Rubens Dort to extend your OEL Monitoring Checklist due date to June 21, 2019. Please let me know if there have been other requests that can be extended to after the last day of school, but before you leave for summer vacation. Speaking of summer vacation, school secretaries are to report to work through June 26th and principals should report through June 28th.

Transitions

Alighieri Principal Glenda Colon has accepted a principalship outside of Boston. She has communicated the news with the Alighieri community, and she and I have met with the School Site Council to begin the process of finding a new leader. Here is Glenda's announcement.

As many of you know, Baldwin Principal Tavia Mead will be retiring this summer. I am happy to announce that governing board has selected Min-Jen Taylor as her successor. Min-Jen met with Mary Driscoll, Laura Perille, and me last week and was officially appointed the new leader of the Baldwin. This coming week, Min-Jen will meet with the staff and families during field day. Here is the announcement that will go out to the community this week. Tavia will be recognized at lunchtime on June 6th, the day of All Principals PD, to congratulate her for her retirement and for 14 years of service to the children and families of Boston Public Schools.

June Leadership Institute (JLI)

The district will be offering professional development for principals during the last week in June (a.k.a JLI). Please review this list of offerings and put an X next to a session you would be interested in attending. If there is something you would like to see offered that is not on the list, add it to the final page.

2019 Accountability Highlights

• 2019 Criteria for Awarding Points for Targets
• Must use caution when comparing 2018 to 2019 percentiles because 2018 only includes one year of data and 2019 will include two years of data.
• Your cumulative target percentage will = 40% of 2018 and 60% of 2019.
• Change in categorization of schools to include "not meeting targets (0-49), "improving towards targets" (50-74), and "meeting targets (75-100).
• Chronic Absenteeism: In addition to the +.5 improvement, schools can earn 4 points for meeting criteria for top 90th percentile statewide, 3 points for meeting criteria for top 80th percentile statewide. This gives schools with low chronic absenteeism an opportunity to earn points even with a rise/fall from an already low rate.

Important dates: 
Thursday, May 30 - Final PLC
Thursday, June 6 - ALL PD @ Bolling
BPS 2019-2020 Calendar

#32 Secretarial Subs, EDFS, Accountability Presentation

Wow, what a week it was....

The early last day of school has reduced the amount of time you normally have to complete end of year traditions, celebrations, and tasks. I am so sorry about EDFS going down this past week, but also so glad I did not email out an automated individual messages to you all about our network and school completion rates. I very much appreciate the conscientiousness you have demonstrated regarding the importance of evaluation and the push/pull between the conversations about continued instructional improvement and documentation. One of my goals for next year is to support you all in easing the burden of evaluation. Remember, we are going to be transitioning to using TeachPoint next year.

Have a great week!

Please help find subs for school secretaries!

Several schools are experiencing the burden of having no secretary due to various reasons. Lauren McLean Britt (email username: lmcleanbritt) listed the schools without secretarial support: Adams, Baldwin, Hale, Hurley, and Mattahunt. Please help us find people who can fill in at our schools for the last busy weeks of the year! She asked: 

"I've been asking School Leaders if they have referral of capable school volunteers or Subs that would be willing to be hired as Guild Temps for the remainder of the school year to please send them my way.  I just connected with a Sub [recommended by a principal] who is willing to switch over to a be a Guild temp, because a BTU Sub cannot sub in the main office [due to] crossing Union lines. So, if subs are willing to be hired as Guild temps that's the way to go at this time along with reputable referrals from School Leaders and colleagues." 

email: lmecleanbritt@bostonpublicschools.org 

Preliminary MCAS Data 

Good news! ODA is working on putting the preliminary MCAS data in a digestible format for schools. You may certainly download your csv file from the portal when it arrives, but if you wait a bit, it may be available for you before the end of the school year. ODA and OIIT are collaborating to make data available to you and your staff. 

It is vitally important that your schedules in Aspen reflect homerooms/subject area teachers as well as co-teachers, related services, or support staff with teaching responsibilities. If, for example, your ESL teacher has a "platoon" of his/her students and a defined schedule in Aspen, they theoretically will also have access to just the students in their platoon in DataWarehouse. 

Accountability Presentation - Friday, May 24th

As you may have seen in LeadBPS, there will be a DESE Information Session to provide district and school leaders with information regarding 2019 accountability. Please mark your calendars. I will be there and will share out relevant information with you in my next blog post.

Friday, May 24th
1:00 - 2:30 pm
School Committee Chambers

Topics for the session will include: the overall design of the accountability system, the weighting of accountability indicators, how districts and schools will be categorized, and how results will be reported. The presentation will also highlight potential changes to the accountability system for 2019 reporting, as proposed by DESE. Participants will be given an opportunity to ask questions about the system.

Carter School Prom

The Carter was featured in Saturday's Boston Globe. Check out the article here. 

172nd Annual Josiah Quincy Banquet

 

Superintendent Cassellius

Dr. Cassellius introduced herself to principals this past Thursday. She shared the initial four guiding principles of Equity, Inclusion, Collaboration, and Joy to the group. One of her goals is to make Boston Public Schools one of the Top Ten Places to Work. A second is to work with the Mayor and the City to eliminate opportunity gaps for children before they come to school. Dr. Cassellius said that she is committed to staying at least 13 years to follow at least one generation of students from K2-12!

ACCESS Scores Release and Student ELD Leveling

• WIDA has indicated that scores will be available to schools by May 28th. LATFs can download the data directly from WIDA AMS.
• End of Year LATF Presentation, March 2019
• Deadline for Leveling June 14, 2019

                   

#31 Chronic Absenteeism as of 3/1/19, Ramadan, PLC Survey

It is planting and grass mowing time... The past few days have been beautiful, but I wish it would stop raining on the weekends!

Welcome Dr. Cassellius

Dr. Cassellius greeted us warmly on the third, fourth, and fifth floors at Bolling on Tuesday morning. She shook hands and individually asked our names and roles. She thanked Interim Superintendent Laura Perille for the work she's done this year to keep the district running. She radiated sincerity!

Thank you

The MCAS landscape has been relatively quiet with most issues around finding ways to assess students who are not in school for various reasons. The decrease in the amount of boxes from Measured Progress, the unpacking, counting, and recounting of booklets makes security and administration less cumbersome. Scheduling and finding space for accommodations continues to be a challenge. 

Evaluation Support

You can reach out for support regarding EDFS or TeachPoint using the email address eval@bostonpublicschools.org. The performance management team will be monitoring the email address throughout this final push. Users will be locked out of EDFS tonight.

National Principals Conference, July 18-20

We have a limited budget to pay for principals to attend this conference. Please respond to the survey below if you would like to attend. 

Ramadan

This year the season began on Sunday, May 5 and ends on June 4, 2019 and Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. Here is a folder (thank you, Glenda) of resources with FAQs and information to share with faculty and families.

2019-2020 Principal Leaders

In collaboration with Boston College Lynch Leadership, next year's Principal Leads will be:

Julia Bott, Jason Gallagher, Geoff Rose, Cynthia SooHoo, and Ana Tavarez

Congratulations! Jodi and I are excited about working together to further develop the continuum and to push schools to the next level towards a culture of achievement and eliminating opportunity gaps.

Reminder: Deadline for PLC Survey Extended to Friday, May 17

To accommodate the May 15 deadline for summative evaluations, Network 6 Principals have until Friday, May 17 to respond to the Leadership Continuum Reflection Survey. PLC sections will be announced on the June 6 All Principal PD.

Please note: The focus of the PLC should advance your vision for the school. For example:

• Teachers are planning well, but student work does not reflect the intent of the plan. If not, Stage 4: Excellence in Planning - Execution may be the best choice.

As you reflect, which description will help you move your school to the next level?

I'm happy to talk if you want clarification or would like to discuss the choices considering your school's context.

Chronic Absenteeism and Accountability as of March 1, 2019

Speaking of absenteeism - below, find two tables with information on Network 6 chronic absenteeism based on the March 1 student information system synchronization with DESE. These numbers reflect the students who would be counted under accountability criteria. You can find your school's individual report in your ODA folder.

Note 1: A practice where we are inconsistent is when students are marked "Constructively Present" (CP). Marking a student CP is only appropriate when the student has a physicians note that they will be absent for more than ten days throughout the school year AND the student has home/hospital tutoring. The district will be cross-checking ASPEN attendance and the home hospital tutoring list in order to ensure that our data are consistent across the district.

Note 2: When the "difference between actual and target" is a positive number, the school currently has a chronic absenteeism rate above their target. When the difference is negative, the school has a chronic absenteeism rate below their target.

ALL STUDENTS

LOWEST 25%

Links:

Lead BPS 5/7/19
Around BPS 5/6/10