Friday Flyer - Sunday Edition - February 27, 2022

 

Seven weeks of strong focused instruction.
You and your teams can do this!

Welcome Back!

I sincerely hope you had time over break to disconnect. With MAP results in, we can proceed with increased focus. I have reviewed grade level aggregate growth data for each school in the region; you can do the same for each class in your school and teachers can do the same for each student. At our region meeting on Tuesday, you will work in small groups to review school aggregate growth by grade and then choose a grade level and teacher to plan for ILT, grade level team meeting, or individual coaching session. Below, please find a list of reports that we can explore (if you have not already) to plan for improved outcomes. 

At this time, we cannot disaggregate results by various groups using NWEA, but you can disaggregate achievement levels in Panorama.

Reports	Analysis Level	Recommended Users	Available
Student Profile	Individual Student	Students  Families	Day after Test Event
Class Profile	Classroom Level	Teacher	Day after Test Event
Class Report	Classroom Level	Teacher	Day after Test Event*
Achievement Status and Growth Summary with Quadrant	Classroom Level	Teacher	Day after Test Event
Grade Report	Single Grade Level	Teacher	Day after Test Event*
Student Growth Summary	Multiple Grade Levels	Site Leader	Mid Administration (2/11)  After the close of the testing window (3/4/22)
Custom Growth Reports	School Site Multiple School Sites	Site Leaders  District Leaders (multi-site)	3/24**

*The district average will not be available on these reports until the close of the test window.
**These reports will be introduced and reviewed on 3/24 during time facilitated by our NWEA partners. These are accessed using a different platform. Given the number of new reports available, we strongly encourage you to preview the reports before our time on 3/24.

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Friday Flyer - February 18, 2022

 

Sweet and Bitter News

The good news is that Alex Chery will be officially named the permanent principal of Lee Academy Pilot at 5:00 pm when Superintendent Cassellius' memo is released to staff and families. Congratulations, Alex!

The less good news for us is that Mike Macchi officially announced today that he will be stepping down from the principalship at the Perry at the conclusion of this school year. Here is the communication he sent to his families this afternoon.

Another "less good news" is a decision has been made to make room for the new superintendent to determine central office leadership structure, the Regional Recovery Academic Director position has been eliminated. As a result, school leaders and central office leaders that were slated to assume those positions will remain in their current positions. 

Recruitment of potential school leaders started months ago with posting, phone and paper screening. The first school leader performance screening day was held this past Wednesday and the next one is scheduled for Wednesday, March 9. I will collaborate with communities in their search for a new leader right after break.

Mid-Year NWEA MAP 

Part I - Participation

Because our region's participation is high, your results are more accurate. Thank you so much for pushing your staffs to accomplish this feat! Needless to say, I'm in awe of your focus on results. Our median participation in MAP Growth beat the district!

Part II - Appreciation and Next Steps

First, I want to say how thrilling it is to see these growth reports that were only possible because your schools administered the assessment in the fall and now mid-year. Second, after reviewing our schools, we have an interesting phenomena: Math Growth is much greater than ELA. As we know from last year's MCAS, overall our students did far worse in mathematics than in ELA. Being back in-person gave our students increased access and opportunity to learn and for the most part they did with some super growth. Students had more success and exposure to ELA instruction remotely and did not lose as much ground, so their growth is muted. Because we generally did not meet growth expectation in ELA, we need to buckle down in literacy in all content areas - we still have a lot of work to do in order for our students to reach the achievement levels they deserve to be college and career ready.

Two steps to dive in deeper by class: 

1. Achievement/Growth Reports in NWEA MAP Platform

2. Subgroup performance in Panorama

I am working on getting regional data, but you and your teams can be reviewing these resources if you haven't already.

Great work, everyone. I'm really proud.

Some Rough Regional Calculations on Aggregate Growth

I did some calculations putting together aggregate growth in ELA/Mathematics from each school. These calculations are based on the number of grade levels across our own region, not the district. (For example, we have 10 schools with third grade in our region.) Here are some low-inference notes based on meeting/exceeding growth and not meeting growth.

In mathematics, out of 39 grade levels 3-8 in our region, 74.4% met or exceeded growth expectations, while 25.6% did not meet growth expectations. (note: Missing five grade levels not reported yet.)

In ELA, out of 44 grade levels 3-8 in our region, 55.8% met or exceeded growth expectations, while 44.2% did not meet growth expectations. (note: Missing one grade level)

Overall across 81 grade levels 3-8 in ELA and mathematics, 64.6% met or exceeded growth expectations, while 35.4% did not.

Inference: Across our region,  fourth grade may need support in both ELA and mathematics to accelerate progress. 

On Sunday morning before returning from break, I will send resources your teams can use to generate next steps. We have a region meeting scheduled for March 1 on this topic, and I will be meeting with each of you individually to discuss as well.

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Friday Flyer - February 11, 2022

 

This week's reflection

Now that we may be past the surge and student/staffing attendance levels are back to more normal levels, it feels like we can get into a routine and a strong start after vacation. 

The new agreement on the vaccine adds a layer of complexity that we will learn more about on Monday - but with all we have been through, we can do this! I am so grateful for all the work you do to ensure our students are learning and cared for - and to continue to create the conditions for staff to continue to be their best selves for students.

The following schools signed up to participate in February Acceleration Academy: Murphy, Orchard Gardens, Russell, Timilty, and Tynan - this requires extra planning and preparation - thank you! 

For fun, here is a link to the Lunar New Year celebration at the Quincy. Enjoy!

Colleague Connections

Orchard Gardens' Leadership Team engaged in a retreat this week to plan their focus after vacation. They grounded their discussion using mid-year MAP data and are working on specific leadership moves that will result in improved instruction/learning. The team is working on the specific moves and actions that will accelerate progress.

Quincy's professional learning this week was for teams to share student writing samples and use the consultancy protocol to frame a question about next steps for a writing sample and to discover together the next teaching move(s) utilizing the SFL framework. The "answers" come from the team rather than an external expert. Their work is grounded in building teacher efficacy. 

March 1 Region Meeting: Mid-Year Assessments

I am proud to see that our region is on track to complete NWEA MAP ELA  Fluency/Growth and Math Growth assessments. Please see our participation data as of today below. Please thank your staff for me and keep up the great work!

We will dive into MAP on March 1. Reminder: Instructional staff from your school are invited to join our region meeting from 10 am to noon. 

Our Region's Gallup Results

Below, find our one pager that represents engagement as of January. Here is a link to a more comprehensive results. I feel great about questions 5-8 and am committed to using this feedback to better support you/us especially in the areas of questions 1- 4, 11, and 12. 

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Friday Flyer - February 4, 2022

 

Region Meeting Reflections

I apologize that we ran out of time to reflect more on the observations. Marvin and I reflected upon the middle school observation and how perhaps zooming in on the standards alignment may keep us from being able to discern the overall purpose of a lesson and the type of student thinking that is taking place (8th grade ELA). The look-fors provide a guide to observation! Jodi has created templates for each school to use as an observation tool that can be tagged to the DESE elements - thank you, Jodi!

March 1 Region Meeting: Mid-Year Assessments

Instructional staff from your school are invited to join our March 1 Region meeting. I know this may be challenging, but if you can, it will be a way to expand the leadership at your school. Please note, we will meet for two hours to dig into MAP data. We aim to share region results by grade and group. You and your staff should use quadrant report (there are many). It is a tool that provides a growth/achievement data point for each student. The Orchard Gardens has already begun reviewing individual student results. We are looking for accelerated growth especially for our students in marginalized groups.

School Improvement Plans

As we dig into the data, it is a good time to also dust off your School Improvement Plan (if you haven't already) to reflect upon progress toward your instructional priority. Here is a link to the Region 6 Document Hub for easy access. I will review priority one with you individually during the next two weeks before break. 

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