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.