Post #13 Highs and Lows, Chronic Absenteeism, ACCESS

What a week!

This past Wednesday was both joyous and disheartening. In the morning, McKay was named the School on the Move Prize winner and Tynan's school facility was defaced with hate speech. I watched the McKay team jump for joy at the Boston Harbor Hotel and then observed Leslie Gant lead with great strength and poise. I am proud of all of you for your leadership during the best and worst of times. 

Solidarity at Tynan Friday morning

Welcoming Students to
Tynan

  

Coanan Harris, Leslie Gant, and Thaddeus Miles

Board of Ed Meeting

Geoff Rose spoke at this past Tuesday's Board of Education Meeting to feature STEM Week activities. Thank you for representing BPS!

New arrival!

Congratulations to Carter School Principal Mark O'Connor. His second child Kayleigh Emma was born on October 14.

Chronic Absenteeism, continued

The OSs and I consulted with the DESE's accountability and data offices to ask questions about chronic absenteeism. The bottom line is that the ESSA/State are measuring whether students are attending school and accessing educational opportunities. The reason why they are not in school is irrelevant. A student is absent whether s/he is homeless, due to transportation issues, or suspended and if tardy, must be in school at least a half day to be equivalent to a full day. 

Regardless of ESSA and accountability, it is a good thing for students to be in school and for us to pay attention. I can't emphasize enough to you: The aim is to reduce chronic absenteeism. We are looking for improvement NOT perfection!

Please refer to Post #12 for directions on how to check live stats on absenteeism using BPS DataWarehouse.

Professional Development Happenings

I should have informed all of you about Carter's upcoming PD on low/high tech augmentative communication systems. I plan to attend and will share information in my next post.

Additionally, I'm excited about the Harvard GSE and ODA Institute that launches next week on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Harvard Portal. Teams from the Lyon K-8, Russell, Quincy, and Warren-Prescott are attending.

Get Students Prepared for ACCESS

How do your ESL/staff use ACCESS results to accelerate English language acquisition? At the Warren-Prescott, staff reviewed ACCESS results and are targeting instruction based on the domains. Additionally, they found the test itself is extremely challenging. Go to Preparing Students for ACCESS from the WIDA website for advice and practice. Thanks for sharing your best practice, Michele! It is expected that all schools will administer ACCESS (and MCAS 2.0) online this year.

Watch for...

• Build BPS community meetings are included in red on the Coaching Calendar tab. You are encouraged to attend one of the meetings in your area.
• Reconciliation emails this weekend from the budget office.
• Projections will be available on Aspen next week for comments.
• I started your plans in TeachPoint. Please let me know if I messed anything up. I will be adding your QSP links as part of your goals and action plans and uploading PDF notes from our meetings as observations. I am getting to it slowly but surely; thank you for your patience.