Post #6 Welcome Back! PD, Racial Equity Detours, PLC Survey

Welcome back! I hope your first remote day with staff went well. I was able to drop in on several PD sessions. I'm especially grateful for those of you who have connected the year's work to the anti-racist/CLSP lens. I've started adding your nine-day PD plans into this folder and appreciate your sharing links to the sessions.

I dropped in on the Quincy Lower and the Shaw today. Both schools are working to be anti-racist. The Quincy is using data from last year's equity roundtables, and the Shaw is continuing its work discussing Kendi/Love teachings and holding affinity groups to make space to be intentional moving forward. Tomorrow, I will begin the day at the Timilty where they will bring CLSP/Implicit Bias/CRIOP to the table. Every school is on a continuum in this work. [OGPS and Mildred both got an early start last week - so I think I missed their actual openings. 😢]

I'm resharing an article named Avoiding Racial Equity Detours by Paul Gorski. It describes the ways in which we avoid addressing race in our schools; the detours remind me of Kendi's definition of non-racist (denying there is racism). We need to name these detours with our staff. I hope to make this article a focus for a future region meeting.

Region Meeting: This Thursday, September 10 at 3:00 pm

Family Wants to Change Answer to Survey? Parents who want to change their remote/hybrid choice can call the transportation hotline 617-635-9520. The transportation staff have language capacity AND are trained to either take a parent's choice because they haven't answered OR change their choice.

Clarification on Group C: Students in Group C will return two weeks early. Right now, we have to hold on providing four days due to space and transportation limitations. These have to be assessed before providing four days. Additionally, you need to make sure there is enough space so that 100% of As and Bs can choose hybrid. It's possible that there is neither enough space nor transportation available for students in group C to attend all four days.

Reminder - PLC Survey: From Natalie, Tommy, and Mary Driscoll:

We know you are off to a busy week, but we are asking you to make one final push to complete the initial PLC survey:  PLC survey #1 (originally included in last week's Thursday Memo). As of now, there are 26 responses from ES principals across all regions. 

The purpose of the initial PLC survey is to anonymously assess interest in various PLC topics for SY21. In addition to the pre-suggested topics in the survey, school leaders are welcome to add or suggest any other topics in the open-response section of the survey. The results from the initial PLC survey will inform the preference/selection of the finalized PLC offerings that we plan to send out by the end of the week or early next week. For interested school leaders, we also hope to finalize the PLC Leader role description by the end of the week.

PD Information from Academics - Returning Boston Strong & Update on A/B/C Lists

"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." - MLK

“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of 

America.” - John Lewis

Things are moving at an extraordinarily fast pace. Please, please give yourself permission to take some time for self-care this long weekend. I am anxious about your burning out before the year even begins. I am, however, extremely excited about having students and staff back in schools. 

I'm happy to read/give feedback, talk through, or practice, your Monday opening words with staff over the weekend. I labored over mine 17 times, scripting, re-scripting, practicing late into the night. Not once in those years did I have a thought partner. I'm happy to serve as one if you wish. Send links to PD times you think my presence will help or where you would like feedback. I will try to pop in.

I will be scheduling a regional meeting in the afternoon of Thursday, 11 am - 12 noon for us to touch base as a group; looking back, we should have met earlier this week, but I was hesitant due to all of the optional meetings. After our Thursday gathering, I will create a more regular time to meet either weekly or bi-weekly. 

Update on A/B and C lists

A/B lists are being refreshed to reflect the removal of students who have chosen all remote as well as newly assigned students. Once you receive the refreshed lists you will be able request changes to balance the number of students in A/B groups, with lists finalized by mid-week. The students identified as "high needs"  is also being compiled for your school. Families in this group who have opted for hybrid will be able to begin in-person learning on October 1st, two weeks early. Initially, students in this group are being scheduled for their two days per week based on their assignment to either the A or B hybrid group. We will continue to work with you to identify opportunities to increase their in-person learning to 4 days per week after October 1st based on parent preference and space/transportation availability.

Division of Academics - Memo on PD

Dear School Leaders,

Welcome back to the 20-21 school year. In an effort to provide you with information you and your teams need for a safe and equitable return we have curated professional learning experiences to lessen the weight on your shoulders. We are providing you with several resources to support you in designing and finalizing your professional learning plans. We previously shared two catalogues, one of optional and one of required sessions. In this Returning Boston Strong Professional Learning, Part 2 Schedule you will now find the week one schedule for professional learning and training opportunities for you and your staff. We have designed the sessions to provide you the maximum flexibility by ensuring that all sessions are available asynchronously. 

Whether you use live or previously recorded sessions, or a mix of the two, we recommend that all required staff engage in the session simultaneously to maximize engagement and collaboration. As always, be mindful of strong adult learning practices and provide time to reflect on and apply the learning so that by the end of this two week period, educators feel planned and ready for students. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to your School Superintendent and/or the Academics Division for support in how to best utilize synchronous and asynchronous sessions. 

Week 1 Schedule Information:

• The schedule shows when sessions will be provided live. 

• Wherever possible, sessions will be provided for the maximum of 300 participants and will be repeated over the two days to increase access. 

• Recordings for all sessions will also be available to you (and linked in Cadence) on Wednesday, 9/9 so that you can use the sessions flexibly within your broader arc of learning across the two weeks. 

Registration Information:

• Participants will register in Cadence for all sessions.

• Cadence will go live tomorrow night for both required and optional session registration. 

• Please plan to provide 30 minutes for your staff to register for the sessions they will attend on Cadence when they return remotely on 9/8. 

Looking ahead to week 2:

• Optional sessions will be presented live one time and also available asynchronously through a link to the video on Cadence. 

• Plan for 3 hours of training on COVID health and safety protocols provided by your nurse for your whole team as well as a one hour session on developmentally-appropriate ways to teach these protocols. To the extent possible, please include everyone who works in your building. Nurses will be trained on these protocols by Children’s Hospital during week 1. 

• Please also plan for teachers who are teaching ESL to English Learners in mixed groups (ELD 1-3 together or ELD 3-5 together) to participate in self-paced WIDA e-courses. This is also a requirement for any teachers seeking emergency ESL certification. There is more information in this draft memo from OEL.  

As always, please let us know how we can support you. 

In partnership, 

Division of Academics Team

Andrea Zayas, Chief Academic Officer

Jill Carter, Assistant Superintendent, Office of Health and Wellness

Ethan d’Ablemont-Burnes, Assistant Superintendent, Office of Special Education

Shakera Ford-Walker, Assistant Superintendent, Office of Teacher Leadership and Development

Faye Karp, Interim Assistant Superintendent, Office of English Learners

Christine Landry, Assistant Superintendent, Office of Academics and Professional Learning

Dr. Regine Phillipeaux-Pierre, Deputy CAO