#15 Your brain needs a break, Budget, Reminders

I think there was only one other time in my experience when school was out for two weeks during the holiday break. You must turn off. Yes, a lot is happening, a lot is coming at you all at once, but slogging through without stopping actually decreases your productivity. Here are a couple of quotes to give yourself permission to step aside for a while. 

The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration—it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done." - Tim Kreider 

Downtime is in fact essential to mental processes that affirm our identities, develop our understanding of human behavior and instill an internal code of ethics... -- Ferris Jabr

I will be away during the first week of vacation and am turning off the work phone and email. I will be available during the second week and will be back online as well. Don't hesitate to call/text if you have some new ideas as a result of consciously turning off, if you wish to review your budget, or for any other reason.

Coming next - some quotes from the book Deep Work.

School Showcase

It was great seeing so many of you in one place! With the changes in school portfolios over the years, I may now know over 75% of the K-8 leaders! Thank you for representing your school at the Showcase; I know it was a difficult date and the weather wasn't optimal. Regardless, we had a relatively good turnout, and I enjoyed having some time to touch base with you.

 

Budget Timeline

"Our budget is a reflection of our values..."

Central Office Budget Development 12/06/19-01/24/20
Budget Collaboratives 01/09/20-01/25/2020
Budget to School Committee 02/05/20

A draft schedule for Budget Collabs has been devised. Click on the Visit Calendar tab above to view the draft schedule for our group.

School Level Climate Interim Student Surveys May Be Available in January

I have been working with Jerome Doherty and Panorama to devise a few questions using their platform to survey students on 1) Physical/Emotional Safety in School and 2) Academic Press - Challenge. These surveys are for your climate teams to measure whether there have been advances in climate and academic challenge. I know that you are already administering ACCESS and Interim 2, so no pressure. However, if your school is working on climate and challenge, this may be a good interim measure before the full survey in March (Student/Staff Climate and MCEIA Survey). This may be particularly beneficial for schools below the 10th percentile. Please let me know if you are interested in pursuing this opportunity.

In January

In addition to the budget, January brings a flurry of assessments, and we start adding to the pool of potential new school leaders. On my School Visit calendar, these are marked as "School Leader Screening Day." In between budget collabs and screening days, I will be visiting schools. I will work on the visit schedule over break.

School Support Listings

Use this spreadsheet to find your school support department liaisons. Most recently, we added a column for your "Assignment Specialist," who is the person you can call about enrollment/assignment. The Assignment Specialist should populate soon.

You can see your own school's list by clicking on the second tab on the bottom named "Filter by School." Enter your school and a printable version of your liaisons comes up.

Opportunity Index

On Tuesday, December 10th, ODA uploaded SY20-21 Opportunity Index score reports to google data folders. An announcement will also go out via LeadBPS. These reports show the relative ranking of a school on each of the OI metrics, compared to other schools in the BPS. These reports do not include any information on funding associated with the OI.

For information on funding related to the OI, school leaders contact their budget analyst or David Bloom (dbloom@bostonpublicschools.org).

For information on the calculation of a school's OI score, please contact Monica Hogan (mhogan2@bostonpublicschools.org).

When you have a moment:

WCVB-TV: A day in the life of Boston's superintendent

Dr. Brenda Cassellius began her job as Boston Public Schools superintendent determined to visit all 100 BPS schools in 100 days. Other Clips: Disparities in the Boston Public Schools, Enabling the future of the city's youth, Engaging the community to enhance Boston's school system

Reminders

• Please enter your December fire drill into the Operations Center.
• If you have not already done so, please submit your Wellness Action Plan in the Central-School Shared Folder.

Dates

01/06/20 - 02/07/20  ACCESS Administration 

            Participation Guidelines for ELs in State Testing Memo

01/07/20    State of the City 2020, Symphony Hall, 6:00 pm

01/09/20    School Leader Screening Day @ Bolling

01/13/20    ELA Interim 2 Window Opens

01/15/20    School Committee, 6:00 pm

01/23/20    Principal PLC

01/27/19    Math Interim 2 Window Opens

Live streaming
Nate Kuder at School Committee

Students of the Month at the Shaw

Got some Timberlands @ Taylor

Ready to play basketball!

Sarah Jay confers with Jason
@ Timilty PD

Timilty Staff backmapping
standards from Interim 2

Russell K1 students climbing

#14 Reports you can use to impact instruction and attendance before it is too late...

Snow! We had 11" Monday and another 6-8" Tuesday!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and loved ones. We stay home to avoid the rush; however, every year we visit my husband's side of the family in the Baltimore area over the holiday break. (My husband is a Ravens fan!) Having a snow day has its blessings: I finished this blog that I've been trying to write, and I'm super prepared for PD at schools on Wednesday and Friday, and curses: I had to reschedule two visits with principals I haven't seen in too long, I'm anxious about not being present for all of your upcoming pre-probable org meetings, and I'm worried about January being filled with meetings and not being able to visit you with regularity. I look forward to seeing you at All PD next Thursday, at the Citywide School Showcase, and at least once at your schools before break.

As always, thank you for the hard work you do each day in service of Boston's children and families.

Interim 1 Peer Comparisons 

Josiah Quincy was left out of my region for the peer reports published in my last blog. I have replaced the ELA/Math Interim 1 reports as of December 2, 2019. By now all open response questions should be scored and reflected in the results. 

Interim 1 ELA/Math Peer Reports Folder

Reminder of Useful Reports in Illuminate (Visual examples below)

Illuminate Sign-in Link 

> View Reports

Report Name: Subgroup Overview (Any Assessment)

Report Name: Assessment Matrix Report
Shows response of each student and the correct answers. This report can be downloaded as excel or pdf.

Attendance Data

• Congratulations to Everett, Mildred, Murphy, Orchard Gardens, and Quincy for maintaining an average attendance rate above 95%! 
• However, as you know, a high ADA rate can unintentionally take away from the need to focus on individuals who have missed more than 10% of the year so far. 
• Fifteen out of 17 schools have a lower chronic absenteeism rate compared to the end of last year. You still have almost three quarters of the year to improve individual student chronic absenteeism as long as they do not miss more than 18 days (or 10% of the year). Now is a good time to promote the importance of attendance with K families. 
• I accessed this data from DataWarehouse and have found the site inconsistent; however, it is updated on a daily basis from SIS and when working well, can be used to quickly identify students who are missing more than 10% of school based on current number of days. Once the student in grades 1-12 reaches 18 or more days of school, they will be counted as chronically absent.
• Please note: Attendance percentages in the table below include students in kindergarten. 

Attendance Data as of 12/02/2019

Districtwide Suspension Data

The suspension data for black and Latino students is alarming. Percentage of students who are being suspended by race - Asian = .26%, White = 0.5%, Hispanic = 14.2%, Black = 23.4%.

Students with disabilities

English Learners:

Gender:

Upcoming Dates: 

12/04/2019     School Committee, 6 PM

12/09/2019     You will receive your budget/SWF

12/11/2019     School Committee, 6 PM

12/12/2019     All Leader PD, 8:30 AM, Bolling

12/14/2019     School Showcase, Boston Latin, 9 AM - 1 PM