protocols are not being followed, please let us know. Um, and uh, so once again, I want to uh, thank first I want to thank everybody here today for making it. Uh, May is always a very challenging time at our schools for our educators.
It's the same here in the district, I got to say. um but you made time to be here and so I'm very grateful for you to be here and I want to thank our our staff as well as the board secretariates team and our district folks for
supporting us in this meeting. Um, so I also want to remind you that last time since our last meeting, we have some recommendations that we have already presented to the division of instruction and um some of these are improving the
cultural relevance of CKLA. We want to make it easier for educators and schools to access materials to support their students whole identities. This has already been presented to uh the division of instruction and of course we we were um recommending that
some of this work happens during the summer with some folks some teachers who do this work already to come in and uh support uh the the um uh creation of these lessons or to to be able to submit
them into the CKLA already you know guide planning guide that exists. lists so that teachers can just plug and play basically or grasp the culturally relevant material associated with that particular lesson. So um anyway, we will
continue this work uh next year as well. Okay. So for today, I'm really excited to end this meeting with something that I learned about at the beginning of last year when I was taking my daughter to college. Um, it's called YPAR and it's I
don't know what the whole acronym stands for, but I'm sure it has to do with youth research, youth initiating the research, coming up with an action plan, trying to affect change in society. So, it's all of those wonderful things and we're going to be
learning about it and we're going to be um hearing from an expert who is doing this work and I want you to know that there are folks already in the district doing this kind of work but we were not able to get the the educators to come and present. Um so, we're going to be
doing that. Um I also um uh we are going to talk about assessments. Um that is a topic of importance to everyone in LUSD. As we know, assessments have a big impact on our school sites. You know, it also impacts your priority status,
right? And how much oversight you get from the district. So, assessments are very important in the sense that it can limit a teacher's ability to be creative in
the classroom and to select the things that they want to teach. Right? depending on your scores because there are schools who have more flexibility because the assessments show that they're higher they're they're performing higher. So in that sense
assessments are important but I also want to share that assessments are just another day in a student's life. We have to remember that our students come with many stories, many experiences on a daily basis. And as
much as it's important to us in the LUSD, to you know, principles and to the board and to the superintendent and to everybody who is, you know, overseeing everything, an assessment day is just
another day in our students life in in the context of everything else. immigration, losing your family, divorce, whatever is happening in our students life. So I also want us to to see the lightness of it as well because
it is it should not be the end all for everything. Um and so I also want us to talk about a little bit about the screen resolution. Um the uh the the exemptions on who's going to
be using screens. Um but also just the reality that even though K1 at least as it is the the proposed um uh policy on screen usage even though K1 will not have devices and will not be
using screens they will still have to test on a screen. So let's think about that. Right? So that's something that I want us to reflect on and and and talk about. And then of course we want to widen the lens of especially what a summitative assessment is and that's
where Yipar comes in. It's not just a fun thing. It's a serious thing that can be used as a summitative assessment. So I'm that's pretty much what we will be talking about today. Um we will have some questions at the end of the
presentation and um some closing remarks. I also have some wonderful certificates of appreciation. So stay for the end because I want us to take a picture. All right, why don't we begin
with our uh first presentation which will be um from Mariana Ramirez who is an associate director of ethnic studies at UC Irvine at the UC Irvine history project. Uh Mariana was also a teacher in LA USD and that's where I met her
when she taught at Roosevelt High School. So she will be talking about building inclusive curriculum and instruction, the role of assessment in this moment of heightened insecurity and repression. How can assessments be part of building schools and classroom
climates that honor students whole selves? That is the question for today. So why don't we begin with our presentation. So welcome Mariana. >> Thank you. Good afternoon everyone. >> Hello.
>> So my response to that wonderful question um I'll I'll just go back to it. Um, in this moment of heightened insecurity and repression, how can assessments be part of building school and classroom climates that honor students
whole selves? I have the screen in front of me as well. um is YPAR and I'll be saying YAR and what the acronym is is youth participatory action research and and so the proposal is to engage in the
work that many of us educators I was a teacher here for almost a decade here at LA USD working in the east side at Roosevelt High School and we engaged in the work of WhiteAR already and there's so many educators that are committed to this work Um, so shifting assessment
practices to community knowledge and action. And again, my name is Mariana Ramirez. And so we have a rich history of youth action research in Los Angeles and particularly in our district. And of
course, this is an image that was taken here at L USD headquarters during the East LA 1968 walkouts where youth organized one of the largest or the largest movements organized by high
school students um for educational equity, right? And I had the honor as a teacher in the east side to meet many of the elders when I engaged in my in my research. um and to meet them as a teacher then as a researcher and in my
oral histories I shared with them that with my work as as a teacher with Yipar that their movement the way they organized it reminded me so much of Yipar practices and of course they didn't call it Yipar at that time but um
they they gave me the blessing and said go ahead and you can call our movement white par um so this is a critical practice cycle that I'll touch upon a little bit later. Um, but when I took on oral history upon oral history from the
elders that created this movement that is part of our district's history, um, I could layer upon this cycle that we use to train educators as my role with the UCI history project when when we've systematized white part across school
districts in Southern California and identifying issues in communities and researching the issues. So, I took snippets of oral histories and we don't have time to go over every single one, but I'll read one by um PASTO
who was a student here at Roosevelt High School and also became a teacher in LA USC and also a board member. And when when I asked her about how did you research the issue, she said, "We created a survey." And she said, "And we started a survey. Have you ever been
asked to go to college? Do you know what it means? Do you want to go? Have you ever been disciplined? Were you ever swatted? Because during that time, teachers and administrators were habitually um beating kids in schools. Were you ever suspended? So, these oral
histories show us how we have that rich history on our in our district and in our school sites of youth organizing through this white part lens. And for today what I will be covering
going back to our question is um what is wip what is a definition what is a framework how do we implement it across school districts and schools in classrooms what are some barriers challenges and what is the impact on on our students
and so the work that that I did as a teacher on this timeline you could see the work um when I began and teaching in LA USD at Roosevelt High School. Every single year we organized a YA park conference, a youth participatory action research conference and these are the
posters for for that year and we had very minimal support from admin. The only support that we got was they opened the doors for us on a Saturday where we held our conference. It was an autonomous space. We didn't get any PD. We sought the PD on our own and we um
supported our students through their research in the communities and our own classrooms through that PD that we sought on our own. And we had from 200 to 500 folks come to our community conference at our high school that were parents, community members, artists, and
our students were the workshop presenters and the keynote speakers. And you can see some of the themes for every single year. And these were some of the um the workshop topics that students selected throughout the years because they students that need to be passionate
about the the work that they're conducting about their communities. They were everywhere from educational justice um to immigrant rights. And of course the roots of YAR we add the Y for youth but PAR participatory
action research has its roots in the global south and you could see all the different elements of PAR and you'll see one and two has the word researchers in it but as teachers we can replace that for our students in kindergarten and elementary school and middle school and
high school where our students for number one our students work in a team or in a group. The idea is that they learn that dynamic of working together in a collective and community and number two that they're immersed in the issue being studied. So, so that means that
they're experts in their community. They know they have the heartbeat of the community. They know what's going on in the community. So as educators we develop this reciprocal relationship with our students guiding them to understand the issues that happens in their communities and also to to share
with them what are some research skills that they need to guide them through the research process and also some civic action skills. And then the third idea is intersectionality when they collect their data. How do we guide them to analyze that data through these different lenses that it's not a
one- layered approach that there's gender issues that they can they can consider as they analyze the data, class, sexuality, etc. And then four and five is really having them reimagine and envision new possibilities for their
communities and to present those visions to to their communities. And another goal for Yipar is um critical consciousness. Let me go back. So critical consciousness is central to
YAR and it's can be broken up into these three ideas. Social analysis, political agency and social action. But we can really translate that um into really three basic ideas. is do our students
feel that they can identify issues in their community that are impacting them? That's social analysis. Political agencies, do they feel like they have the capacity to create change? And that's the political agency piece. And lastly, the social action, do they feel
that they can then create activities and events to then take action on those? And that is our goal with um with YPAR. So this is the critical practice cycle that I talked about earlier and this is how we have trained teachers at the UCI
history project in different districts and also here some teachers at LA USD around guiding students through the research process. And if you can imagine in this cycle the different lessons that it would take to then have kids identify
an issue in their community and the different formative assessments that then we would implement and then all the way from identifying to researching an issue to then evaluating culminating at maybe at a presentation or an event that like we would do at at Roosevelt High
School. And so if we compare the typical assessments that we know in the state of California um to whitear, how is it different? Right? So for whitear it's it's studentdriven students design um how
they want to be assessed through through things like oral histories, interview surveys. It's real it's a real world focus. It's a focus on community knowledge and action. And then rigor, we define that as inquiry and impact. And it's a learning through action. And the
assessments that we typically think about are assessments that are retroactive, right, of learning that has already happened. It's a one-time snapshot and the rigor is is more contained around accuracy, around
multiplechoice, around standardized tests. And and so with my role with the UCI history project, we created a teacher fellows program for ethnic studies teachers. And these are all LAUSD teachers that work either in the east
side or in South Central schools. And they all had the task of developing a YAR project in their classrooms. So a huge shout out to all their beautiful, beautiful work that they created. Um so these are one group and this is another
group of them. Um, and so what we did is we provided professional learning for them in the summer and then supported them throughout the year and their work. So I'll show share three of the teachers ideas around whitear and this is Danielle Torres who I heard already has
come to this committee to present and she teaches a 10th grade world history class and her whitear project is a endofunit assessment. Um and she taught it in a way um where she created an
industrialization unit in 10th grade where students look back to look forward and and thought about how industrialization impacts the community of Boil Heights still today. So the students collected data and created an investigative
journalism reports that they publish in the Boil Heights feed. And then um the next teacher that I want to talk about is um Joan Ye. Oh, I went forward.
So Joan G is if this is okay here. U Joan Ye um wanted to counter the deficit notions that in South Central there aren't any elders that have brought together the excellence and history that that exists in those communities. So she
worked with community coalition to identify elders that have those rich histories and partnered elders with students to create a repository of or oral histories. So this was an end of semester wip project for her history class.
And then finally in a drama class, this is a whole class um project where all students were engaged in this white part project where they identify leaders in their communities and this drama class and they together uh drafted interview
questions for leaders like Pa Christomo which was one of the leaders of the 1968 walkouts and that was important because she's teaching this at Roosevelt High and she partnered with about productions to help the kids then create a script
and then they would perform this play and the kids had different roles like producing, creating costumes and they produ they performed this play at um Roosevelt in the daytime for the school and also in the evening where they also invite the elders in.
And so if we if we take a look at what do teachers need, I'm going to go back. What do teachers need? Um, and what are some of the problems of practice? If we compare and contrast, if you look at the examples that I've shown you, these teachers had the opportunity to work
together even if they weren't at the same campus. They were connected to each other and they had support year round. So something like a micro credential in the district that offers the ethnic studies vision for um research practices
would would really be beneficial for teachers engaging in this work. And another idea if you notice the the examples that I shared with you is all of the teachers partnered with different organizations that supported the kids in their research. So to have community
representatives that can support teachers in identifying um these organizations that can help students be successful in their in their projects. And then to develop um vertical lit literacy practices from from the
kindergarten level all the way to the high school level that are specifically focused on research skills and civic engagement skills for every kindergartenner, elementary school child, middle to the high school level. So that when they get to the high school
level, it's not a shock for them like how to engage in re it's not the first time they engage in research. And then there is at the 11th grade level a service learning requirement for all 11th grade students. But that service learning requirement at the t at the
time it lacks um a an a need to engage in in inquiry or some sort of civic action. And so to create some policy that can support educators that are already doing the work of white part within the district to engage in that.
And to finally close today, I want to show you just a a three minute video of one of my former students who's now in graduate school. She's in law school about to finish um in into her second year and the work that they did and they
call the work service learning because that's what we had to call it. But all the methodology we engage in with them was white par. So just hear what they have to say. My name is Abigail Gonzalez and I am a senior at Roosevelt High School in Boil
Heights, Los Angeles. Living in an immigrant family, my parents didn't attend college. That had always been a dream of mine. At our school, we do this year-long service learning project or SLP, and it is a graduation requirement.
When you're a freshman and sophomore juniors and seniors are telling you it's a really hard project, very complicated, very rigorous. We're researching, we're collecting data, we're working with others. We're creating our own maps. They told us find
an issue in your community. I've grown up in Boil Heights and so I've always been around gang violence and I've had um cousins who have gone into prison. So the basis of our project was the effects of the school to prison pipeline and just the injustices that occur in our
communities in the country. I formed the team with friends. >> I think having Abby as like part of our team like was a major part of like why it worked out. She was a good leader. We mapped out the funding of of
incarceration per person versus the funding of education per pupil. the darker the state was meant that it spent more on prison than it did on on students. And so California spent more on incarceration than it does on education. And so that was shocking
thing to see there. I didn't think that maps could share stories. And so it was really cool to see um not only our group share our story, but other groups share their own stories. The project definitely changed my perspective because when people drop out
or when they go to prison, they tend to blame the individual. If we want students to pursue higher education and we're not giving them the tools to do so, then how do you expect them to achieve greater things? I figured out what I want to do now because of this project. So in college I
will be pursuing a public policy major and one day I want to work in Congress in making laws that will change policy. I applied to 19 colleges. My three top choices were Pomona College, UCLA, and UC Berkeley. SLP looks great on college
applications. It distinguishes us because we come from public schools who don't have the tools to be um as great as other like private and charter schools. >> Please put your hands together for our senior class president, Abigail
Gonzalez. >> When you get into college, the first word you read is congratulations. You feel so happy and proud. I hope that you always remember your time in high school and I hope that you always represent Roosevelt and Boil Heights with pride. One of my biggest
dreams was to attend college because all your hard work is finally paying off. So Abby is now um about to finish law school. So I'm really proud and continues to be engaged in her community through her activism supporting her
community and also at the the campus level. So thank you all for providing this time and thank you so much for that presentation. I'm always so inspired by these. I know I certainly was a learner who needed to have meaning behind the work I was doing
or I would just shut down. So, I'm that's part of the reason why I'm so passionate about this kind of work for our students. Um, well, let's open it up for discussion, questions, comments. Um,
anything that uh called you. >> Yes. Go ahead. Tell me. >> Okay. How would you um envision this uh being done in the lower grade? Do they have any ideas for lower elementary teachers? I've I've witnessed this happen in
elementary classrooms where um students are interrogating issues in their in their communities um where they um are practicing their their agency um by the teachers focusing in on
selecting a theme that that they feel comfortable with. Um and mostly around environmental justice. Um and so they select the teachers select a theme. So that supports the teacher, elementary school teacher or the kindergarten teacher in guiding um the readings that
the students have and then that creates dialogue and discussions then that the students see around their community. Um and then they feel empowered to then from that theme it generates so many different research topics that they then
present on. Um and it and we are lucky in the state of California that that there there are different possibilities for students to get um the the recognition on um I'm I'm missing the name right
now, but there is a state seal of civic engagement that some schools take advantage of. and the state seal of civic engagement um I think it requires um to get students to a certain point but because YPAR is asking students to
to to engage in inquiry and then re-imagination and then engage in their communities. It pushes students to not they easily meet the requirements for the state seal of civic engagement and then go beyond that and and so there
there is a pathway that we can um introduce this at the elementary level and then guide students to the middle and then and then they can be experts at the high school level. Yeah. >> Thank you. You know it reminds me at
Delivan Elementary which is an IB school. I visited the school and the second graders asked me, they were doing an investigation, part of their project for the year, how I felt about punishing students at school for any sort of thing
that they did. And then it just triggered a conversation amongst all of them about why students, you know, misbehave, right? and they all gave me their ideas for wise students. And some kids were like, "You know what? Sometimes kids just have a lot of energy
and they need to move and maybe the rules are too strict for kids our age." I was amazed how these all these second graders had these ideas and reasons. And so it reminded me that sometimes we do
this kind of teaching in certain areas with certain students but then we don't feel that certain students is I'm a special ed teacher sometimes we feel if kids are having difficulty reading or have some language some expressive language issues that because of that we
cannot give them these kinds of projects that will help them think critically ask questions share ideas and that's not okay because that's why I like white part because it really does bring this
to everyone not just the advanced kids not just the gifted kids not the ones in AP everyone. So I think it's doable for elementary and I think we should be doing this in elementary. These are the
things that actually make us brighter and more um effective human beings in society to think critically to ask questions and come up with solutions. >> That's what Okay, I talked too much. Anybody else? Cesily
>> and then Dr. Bias. >> Yeah, the word I wrote down was flourishing and also meaning same idea. And I want to say thank you and how exciting because like you had this vision and you're doing this work. You know this action research. Um and it makes me think about teachers. I'm now
old enough that when I look at these videos, I also think oh my gosh, not only are kids the agents, right? And oh, you're really listening to what I have to say about punishments and consequences, but teachers, I'm sure, actually feel less isolated and that they're important. So I want to ask
about money >> because one of the things I think is so exciting about shifting assessment is that it's so expensive. You the way we do it currently. I mean, it's such an investment. And so, if you think about shifting that kind of funding,
um, you laid out like vertical uh, literacy would be important. Like, what do you think would be the costs or investments that would be most valuable to make YAR happen at the K through 12 level?
Since I've engaged in this work as an educator for almost a decade and then now as a researcher and then thought about it historically, all the work has been done from a grassroots perspective and because we love our communities and
we love our students and the the next generations of our students. And I think the question about funding was always um something that never came to our hearts and minds. Um but then when I I now that
I am a associate director at the UCI history project and when I was able to um fund teachers to engage in writing units and assessments around whitear, they felt seen and heard and
appreciated. Um, and so we were able to not not only provide professional learning that that offered catering, which is something that, you know, I never experienced as a teacher, um, but also that offered them the time and the
space to honor their expertise of work that they had already been doing. Um and and so to create um I think a pool of those teachers to create something like a microcredential to to have something
to add to the pace scale for instance um for for educators um there's plenty of educators that engage in LA USD in the work of whitear and I showed you some of their faces today. they're on record now. Um, and so to pull from their
expertise and to have them negotiate, I think to ask them that question of what it would take um um to to build in um that question about money and also to honor the partners because the partners
that work with us um I showed you three um the Boil Heights Beat about productions and um communal in South Central um they do this work out of their heart as well. So it's a
lot of work that gets done out of out of everybody's heart and and so I am just not in that position to to give you dollar signs but I think to sit down at the table with the folks that are doing the work on the ground and the reason
why teachers weren't able to come today is because last Saturday UCLA man community school hosted a white park conference the fourth annual white park conference some of our student teachers at Roosevelt became teachers that most of them work
at UCLA man and now they're hosting a white park conference then and so today was a big field trip that they had to to honor their students for all their hard work and so they said you know we're not going to be able to make it to to today so because we're we're going to be tired
and they you know it's the end of the year and all the activities that go with that so I think to honor their time and their expertise to ask them that question because there are educators that have been committed to the work of Yipar but it is to take into account the expertise of teachers the expertise of
our partners that have been working with us for decades that >> I got Dr. Bias and then Trevor >> and then Laura sorry Laura okay >> right good afternoon Dr. Ramirez, thank you so much for your presentation. I was very pleased to see how you've been able
to bring this to life and see how our students flourish um with the with Yipar. We've been using it um since 2020 as part of our ethnic studies program. Um and so I I was able to connect all the dots and see how valuable it is when
our ethnic studies use it as well. Um and so the the um what happens often in our district is with these types of of um learning experiences um we see them in international baloria programs or we'll see them in CTE link learning
during defense we'll see them as part of culmination we'll see them as they they live in our system in different places to get them to scale is is what our goal so that all of our students get access to this. We've just recently introduced
some of this with um our community schools where a couple of schools are creating those project-based learnings that are aligned to the curriculum but that help the students go deeper. And this is at the elementary level where they're learning how to do that. We do that with robotics and esports where
students have to look at a uh at a project and come up with a solution um and it's based on the um um the UN sustainability goals. So, we have aspects of this everywhere, but bringing it to life is is one of the of the challenges. Um, I see that this also
complements um the the assessments that we have that determine skill one moment in time, but they're not meant to replace what the instruction looks like. It should be meaningful and engagement. So I see a nice complement of of raising a question, having students investigate
that question, present their findings to their peers, and then have this move forward to activism to how this then becomes um a way to um to transform um a problem. So what would you recommend as a way to scale something?
You've heard our situation. We have lots these pieces in different places. What would you recommend as an approach to scale? And in my role as a UCI um associate director for the history project, we've done a scaling of whitear across two
districts now um with Asienda laente unified and San Diego Unified and this has was done through their ethnic studies program and um we started at the high school and Asienda Laente has now scaled it into middle and then is moving
now into elementary school And what they've done is they've done it through the state seal of civic engagement. And so they've they've asked the teachers um that are ethnic studies educators through and through that course um offer
YPAR um as the culminating assessment. And so they create a conference for their students every year through the district level. Um and at laentes is a much smaller district so that's much more manageable for them to to have a a
conference for all their students to present their their um wip projects. Um but uh Sano Unified they they offer um smaller scale conferences at the different high schools and this is an optin
um situation at Sano Unified. It's I think it's the second largest district in in our state. Um so they they uh started with a few teachers and now they've grown into 30 educators
um that teach ethnic studies. And so every year their goal is to grow. and they started with um about eight students getting the state seal of civic engagement and now um they've grown to about 500 students every year getting
the state seal of of civic engagement through the white part lens. So I think there's different avenues um to to to gain the state ca civic engagement that are already established and then training the teachers through a white
part lens that that makes it a very attainable goal for school districts because it that that establishment and that reward is already there for students and parents. And so it makes it an easy avenue approach. And it it also
um creates opportunities for partnerships like folks like us to to come in and support with professional learning. So that's one recommendation that I have. >> Trevor. >> Hi Dr. Ramirez. Um in my work at one
institute, I lead uh curriculum professional development for LGBTQ history and we do all of that work in collaboration with the UCLA history geography project. Um, so I'm really familiar with the history project sort of model. Um, and I was interested in the point number one and problems of
practice. Um, I'm wondering if you could talk more about the benefit to teachers of having a sustained like cohort model for with coaching for professional development. Um and particularly thinking about having teachers from
different school sites um that are working together um over a longer period of time um and both the sort of the impact that has on them their sort of motivation um but also uh for their
practice for uh the actual work that they're doing in the classroom. So >> yeah, youth participatory action research requires that educators are constantly learning about community issues. And so having a cohorted model
um would then allow for educators to to grow together and to uh research together about what is going on, what is going on in the communities and what are the best practices, who do I communicate, who are the elders, what
are the organizations, how do I stay connected to the organizations? That's one way, right? and then the work of researching and engaging and reimagination with our students. And if we take a look at at least the communities that I've worked
with here in LA USD, which is the east side and South Central, a lot of our students have um these harsh realizations when it comes to data and and so it it also takes an emotional toll on the educators, right? And just
to go back to the issue of environmental justice, um most of our communities are highly polluted. Um there's there's lots of um health risks in in those areas. And so when our students take a look at
that those data pieces, they say, "Well, that's me. That's where I live." Right? And so to guide each other first as it and it involves also training each other in restorative justice. How do we hold space for our students and for each other um to to to know those moments of
critical consciousness with with educators, right? So that the impact of the research that we're doing, we're we're finding ways to then take it back in age appropriate ways to our kindergarteners, to our elementary
school students, middle school, and high school students, and finding the right most exciting readings and films for them. And and that happens when we when we sit together as educators, when we engage together and support each other
at a pedagogical level, right? We're uh year round we're collaborating and and also motivating each other for addressing those issues not just at at a community level, at a pedagogical level,
at a literacy level, but also at at an emotional level like I mentioned. So, it takes it takes a village, right, to to continue to inspire this work because the the the work that our students do. I've had the privilege to stay connected
to our students um that worked with us at Roosevelt High School and most of them continue to grow in their research and have taken on the research that they've done as high schoolers into the college level. So, it's just a seed that we're planting and they continue to
grow. So to have a cohorted model really supports all of us in this space. >> Thank you Laura. >> Yes. Thank you so much. Um I've been fighting my emotions because it's been a
long year. I'm at a tier one school where we have to hue very closely to the curriculum. And um it's the fifth curriculum I it's the fifth program I've taught with. And whereas in the past we've covered stories about students in
uh South Central um growing gardens and making salad dressing and selling it at farmers markets. We've read about immigration, you know, a story called Amada, my journey from here to there. Things that the kids can relate to and that we can talk about. um to get on my
soap box, you know, now we're reading Donkeote, Midsummer Night Stream, Martin Luther and the Re and the Reformation and we have to stick to the script like White on Rice and it's emotionally
draining because if you sneak in right before the test um a persuasive essay about what would you like to have see in the cafeteria and why, oh my gosh, the kids are so excited cuz they're talking about something relative to their lives, right? And I see this and I'm like, "Oh
my gosh, I want this for my kids. I want this for me. I would love to just do this on my own." So, um, my question then is, you know, this seems very words that come to mind are organic, authentic, intuitive, right? You don't
necessarily know where the road's going to take you as you start your investigation, your journey, right? And so to what extent are you did you find yourselves constrained by how does this meet the standard? What standard is this going to cover? What are you going to
this this this? Because that I know for us, you know, on a good year, we better anything we do better be the standard. And on a tier one year, it's like you better be following the script in the
book and no side conversations. So, um I wanted to know if you were constrained by that. Yeah, I think as teachers we all felt those constraints and those pressures every year to uh test prep our students.
And I think when we began, we unfortunately didn't have the time to to note the data increases in our school. But when I started working there, I I was uh told by the principal that if
because I was so low in in in um the the seniority, thank you. That if I didn't increase my scores that, you know, I would be on the chopping block for the next year. And I w and I was because I came into teaching during that
time. Um, but the scores went up and I could tell you that I focused more on inquiry and wip than on test prep. Then that was a decision that I made as an educator taking on my agency and we
didn't document that data and the scores continue to be increasing in a time where scores are declining. Um and there is a test um there was a just a report that came out from from several universities that say that
scores have been declining even before the pandemic and at our school common core >> at our school they they haven't dipped well I still call it my school because forever I'm going to be a teacher but the teachers that continue to get
engaged in wip their scores have continued to stay consistent So, we still need to do that study about the correlation between students engaging in inquiry, community- based projects that relate to their lives and
um the increase in scores because all of those standards when I sat down and did an analysis because I did get called to the principal's office for not test prepping. So, but when I did an analysis, I I I sat down and said, "Oh,
common core is represented. My students are writing research questions, collaborating in teams. They're they're writing um research reports. They're engaging in all of the different modalities of literacy. They're
presenting and publishing to authentic audiences. So it's all represented in the standards in the common core standards. So I think after that they felt uh like a a way that they could relax as a principle. Um but I think we
yes we definitely need to do that study about the relationship between scores increasing and why par. >> Thank you. I did somebody have a Kate Were you gonna say something? >> I thought I I saw you go like this. Okay. So let me I have um Charlotte and
then back to you. >> So thank you for bringing this to us. Um it's always great to hear that you know the students doing innovative so to speak kind of authentic work and uh we just recently saw some students do a
problem or practice at their school site um for um our advisory council and then they brought in their research and so it's good to be able to see this. My question was is looking at the educators that you shown here, these are only ethnic study teachers. Could it be done
in another subject? >> Some of them teach ethnic studies um but some of them consider themselves ethnic studies teachers. They don't have an ethnic studies assignment. Um some of them are math or chemistry,
English, history. Some of them have a full load of ethnic studies. So they have ethnic studies sensibilities or they or they majored in ethnic studies um or they engaged in the work of whitear in some way. So the way that they were able to apply to this
fellowship is to show that that they had they have ethnic studies sensibilities. And so the the drama teacher, she teaches ESL and drama. So she doesn't teach an ethnic studies course, but they they have the the ethnic studies
background. um and and so we can expand on um but why is uh a methodology that comes out of ethnic studies. So it is necessary to then engage in professional learning for educators from this ethnic
studies perspective because then we would have to teach like when we analyze data what is intersectionality. So to not look at data from a flatline perspective but from all these other perspectives for for instance. So it it
could be educators that like for instance I was never assigned an ethnic studies course because I taught before AB 101 but I engaged in YAR. So it it just depends >> with the school districts that you mentioned. Did it start in an ethnic studies
course? You say that they you know eventually went from you know high school now moving down to middle to elementary. Was it just one teacher on that campus or were they working collectively together across subjects? Because you know there's opportunity to
work like in a small learning community where I'm doing part of this project, you're doing another part of this project from different disciplines >> that that would be ideal to work at AC across different disciplines. At Roosevelt High School they did that
where the chemistry teacher worked with the English teacher and that was really beautiful. But as de la um they the middle school teachers were not ethnic studies teachers because ethnic studies isn't offered at that level at that particular school district. Uh so there
there was different middle schools represented. So their goal is to have all students um and engage in some sort of YAR project at all levels. So all teachers are all campuses are
represented. um during those professional learning sessions. Um and slowly they're they're going to have all students gain the state seal of civic engagement. That's their goal for that for that district. >> Awesome. And then with the professional
development, what did that look like for that school or those schools that you mentioned? >> It it first began as kind of like how I introduced it here. What is YAR 101? And we began unpacking it. um what is the
philosophy of YAR? We did a lot of pedagogical readings on Yipar and then we we we got into studying the community. What are some issues that as educators you noticed um from this intersectional lens that you've
identified as an educator and uplifting educator expertise of their knowledge of their of their community. um and then begin to identify what are the research skills that educators already teach in their classrooms. So, so that we can
then mirror those to the practices of WIPAR and then begin to implement from their teacher expertise because these are educators that have been engaged in teaching for at least five years. So, they have lots of ideas and their own pedagogical
knowledge. So then begin to plan units and assessments um around introducing civic engagement and research skills through their students, infusing them in the courses that already exist and tying it to the the courses that that they already have. So doing that work
together with the educators and and then rolling it out to the students in ways that that make it exciting for them that that they feel like they have agency in the work that they get to decide who they work with in that particular school district. That's how it was laid out to them. Who they work with in their teams,
what is the research that that they're going to engage in, what issue are are they passionate about, and what is that action going to look like for them? They get to design that and then share that with their community. Last question for me. Yes. In a district
our size, right, we have, >> you said five years the, you know, educators, we tend to have folks that are five times that. So, uh, in this district, what is like the key component because we often talk about buy in and,
you know, folks wanting to say, "Yeah, I I champion this because I can see the benefits." What are perspectives in order to get that across to those that are in that different box that I just mentioned that are here five times that
within the district? I think for for you you're talking about educators that have been here for 20 plus years. I I think I I leaned into those educators when I started working
um as as guides. They they introduced me to folks like the elders that organized the walkouts that were coming out of Roosevelt. They knew them. >> Um they introduced me to organizations. They knew who I could talk to. So I think leaning into their expertise and
honoring their expertise comes first. Um and their energy then than then is contagious. I think with the younger generation that for for many young teachers they come with this knowledge of what is YAR, what is ethnic studies
and I think having an intergenerational focus on YAR professional development is so essential because the work of YAR is intergenerational. We do ask our students to interview elders in the community or experts in the community
and mostly they lean into the folks that they see their neighbors that have knowledge of issues that have been ongoing in the community. So I think having um the teachers that have seen it all that the district has I've heard
that you know educators the district going at it again asking me to do this. I've seen it all. >> And so beginning into 5 plus one. >> Their knowledge and their and their wisdom I think is important to bring them into the space because they've
they've been organizing and they they've been at the heart grassroots organizing the ones that have guided me uh in my work as a teacher and now as a researcher. I think um I think at the end of the day it's it's about having that ethnic study sensibility to to have
um like that heart of justice that so many of our teachers do have um in this district. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, Dr. Bias. Yeah. So, I just wanted to clarify though. I just wanted to make sure that we were aware of of of an education scorecard that was
just issued this uh this month indicating that uh in analyzing the achievement levels of students in reading and math um across the nation uh California's largest district LA Unified posted the highest average improvement
in math scores between 2022 and 2025 and it highlights um Los Angeles Unified. So, I know that there was a statement made about declining um uh achievement, but actually there's just been an educational scorecard uh released recently, and I think we should all be
very proud because everyone here at the table had something to do with that. >> All right. Thank you. And I know somebody in the audience wants to ask a question, but I'm confirming with um our board secretariat. I don't know the rules around that, so let me see what he says.
>> I'll chime in back of the room. >> Uh no. uh an audience member unfortunately cannot chime in uh in an iterative discussion with those on the on the committee. However, they could still sign up for public comment uh if they if they'd like and those on the
committee and the presenters can certainly engage in a fully iterative discussion. >> Outstanding. love that we are inspiring our audience to participate. I love it. Thank you so much. I I did want to ask some
questions, but we do have the assessment presentation coming up right now and we do have public comment, but maybe when we're done, you can respond to why YAR would be a good summitative assessment and then how can YAR be used to uh
assess grade level competencies because you know that's always the thing that everybody brings. Now I'm with you. I taught special education third through fifth grade special day program and my kids participated in debates. They wrote speeches. They did plays. They did
research in their own way. So we figured it out. We with the limited skills that some of our students had, we still were able to do some of this work. So thank you so much again. Um and I'll pass it over to Dr. bias who will uh present on
assessment. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Please stick around if you can. >> So um good afternoon everybody. I've been asked to share information about our assessment um initiatives that we have here in LA Unified. So I'm going to
walk you through that. Uh and we also have our team member Dr. Cho who's here from the office of data and accountability um to uh respond to any questions you may have. So, um I want to provide you with uh a a calendar or kind of a a
overview of the assessments that we offer our students that are state and national assessments. These are mandated by the state. Uh and we begin first with the initial assessment of English language proficiency assessment for California which is used for our
students who are identified as emerging bilingual or uh English learners. uh that happens uh at the beginning of the year all the way to the end. That means that anytime a student enrolls and is identified, they need to take that initial assessment. Uh the initial uh
initial alternate ELPAC is another assessment. The California um assessment of science is an assessment that has a window of October through May. However, it's done at a different it's not necessarily done throughout that period.
the National Assessment of Educational Progress. That's a national assessment. It occurs every other year and it occurs at with certain schools. Not all students have to take that assessment. The you'll see then that the ALPAC uh is
listed again in writing, in speaking, in um in all domains, in reading and listening. Uh so you see that the colors that are in in gold there are all related to the ELPAC related to assessments of our students who are um
English learners. And then we get into uh those that are in the navy blue and here you see the California assessment of student performance. Um and here you see the Smarter Balance Assessment in Language Arts. And then you see it in math. You see the California Science
Test. Uh and then you see the breakdown by grade levels 3rd through 8th. Um the CAST is taken by students in grade fifth and 8th. And then the Smarter Balance assessment is for students uh in uh language arts and math are for students
in grade 3 through 8 and 11th. Uh and so this calendar here shows where the highest concentration of assessment is taking place and it's mostly around uh the springtime. So this is the period when those students are taking those assessments. Those are state and national assessments. So we must take
those. When it comes to the district's assessments, this is the comprehensive assessment program. And we begin first with the um interim assessment of I ready reading and math. That assessment has been in effect. I
think it's about been about three years. And our board approved that assessment. That assessment will be uh suns setting soon and will go out through for another u RFP to provide the board with some recommendations. Uh for example, the shot settlement does require our
students to take um an assessment and so this is the current assessment that we have in place in kinder through second. So uh the students who are taking the beginning of the year assessment that happens uh in August through September in grades K through two in reading and
math. And then the last links that is the language assessment skills links for standard English learners. And this is to help identify what language um support students need who are standard English learners. And uh then we have
the um preliminary scholastic aptit aptitude test which is the PSAT that is administered in grade 10. The board of education has required us to administer that assessment um in grade 10. the reading difficulties risk screener for grades K through two. That is actually a
state requirement. Um so but it's um an assessment that our district has adopted. It's adopted uh the Dibbles assessment in order to ad uh determine uh the risk of reading difficulties. Uh then we have the middle of the year
assessment here again and that is for I Ready. You could see that we're administering that in February. The last links again for middle of the year. the OLSAT, which is the Otis Lenin Scholastic uh ability test for gifted
identification. That's done in second grade. And then we have the Scholastic Aptitude test. That's in grade 11. That's the SAT. Uh again, that is another board adoption. And then uh if students are in an an AP course, they take advanced placement tests after they
take their AP course. Uh and so what we'll find is that many times our students in high school are finding that that springtime is where they have it's very heavy when it comes to assessment because of what's required with the state and also the courses that they're taking. So if they're taking an AP test
uh that the benefits to that is that they get college credits going into college. So there's benefits to that. And then lastly uh the endofear assessment. However, the students in grades 3 through 8th and 11th are exempt from that because they are taking the um
uh taking the uh they're taking the assessments. They're taking the state mandated assessments. So, we don't want to overburden them with that. Um and then except for the students who would need that for reclassification. So, the only um so the the assessment that is consistently administered to all
of our students is the I Ready. Anything else you'd like to add, Dr. Ch? Yeah. Okay. >> Thank you. I skipped over PFT and that is Oh, yes, of course. Hello everyone. I'm Dr. Elmer Cho. I'm the new executive
director for the Office of Data and Accountability. Very nice to meet all of you. Uh recently was the principal at Frost Middle School for seven years. So, and so it's kind of a homecoming for me. Before that, I worked in division of instruction. Very nice to meet all of you. Uh we just uh skipped the PFT.
That's the physical fitness scram. So, I just wanted to Yeah. >> Yeah. >> And that concludes our presentation on the state national assessment and our comprehensive assessment plan. >> All right. Thank you. Um I'm sure we have lots of comments and questions on
this. If anybody would like to start, I certainly would like to ask about the um the loss. Who are the students that generally take this test? >> That would be our our standard English learners. Um so our students who are um
African-American, Mexican-American, um there's the whole category of students that are standard English learners. Those are the students that would take um that would take the uh the loss links. >> Okay? So those students take the loss
links and they also take the I Ready, right? >> That's correct. >> Okay. They don't take the LPAC though, right? Okay. So So these students are taking uh let's see, they take two tests three times a year,
>> right? >> If they the the I Ready is taken two times a year and and for grades three through eight, they don't take it they don't take the end of year because they're taking the Smarter Balance assessment. M >> so grades 3 through 8th and 11th don't take the I Ready. Um so the last links
would be for those students that are English only students who are you know historically in these in these different >> So that's our African-American and Mexican-American students. And then then the second graders also take the OLSAT. So I'm just looking at how many district
assessments our littlest kids take and it looks like they take I Ready. uh some our our African-American and and Mexican-American kids additionally take um the loss test and then so that's two
tests for one particular group and I'm sure that there's some some kids who probably have other identifications, right? Um and then then there's the OLSAT which is for our second graders. So then our second graders actually, and if you're African-American, you may wind up taking three different tests. Or if
you're Mexican-American, cuz you take I Ready, then you take the OLSAT in second grade. If you're second grader who is Mexican-American or African-American, you'll be taking I Ready, LOS, and OLSAT. >> I think I would call the standard English learner. Um,
>> okay. Standard English learner at AMP schools. >> Okay. I just don't I didn't know what that designation was like. who are the standard English learners. So, okay, but th those students now take who are in second grade take at least three tests
um you know somewhere between two to two one to two times a year or three times a year. It just I'm I'm pointing this out because I can sense why families and why teachers feel like there's so much assessments. And usually we say, well,
well, it's only a couple. You know, it's only one question. But it feels that's the complaint that we get most of the time is that there's not enough time to actually teach because there's all these assessments. And now I see it. I mean, I felt it as a teacher because I taught
special education. My kids not only had to take tests, but they also had to do progress monitoring, which meant more testing throughout the year. So, I'm just I don't know why we have so many. Well, the reading difficulties for screener, for example, that is state. That's that's not something that
>> it's here on the we collected. It's not a choice. Um the and others are board mandates. The PSAT is a board mandate. The SAT is a board mandate. Um we also have um the grade two that was to help our students be identified as gifted.
since that um initiative occurred where we have all of our students being assessed, more students are identified as gifted and and it's students of color. So that is a benefit to our students to be identified as gifted students. Um so what so some of these
here are either board board mandated or the state um >> the I Ready is >> the Ready is is the one that's really for all students and it's and it's something that um is required for reclassification. So, it's our assessment to help our students
reclassify. >> Okay. And then there was a question that I got from a a teacher about why not use dibbles when we used to use dibbles. And the positive thing and and maybe folks can chime in on that, but the positive thing about dibbles is that it was
administered by a teacher, right? So the teacher could see the struggles could do more assessment in in the process of assessing versus I ready which is the computer and so anyway why are we not using that anymore? >> Sure I'm happy to respond. So when we I
when we adopted the screener which is dibbles what the state guidelines requested is we could not use it as a high stakes assessment as well. So for example, for our students to reclassify, they require a number of criteria. One of them being an assessment. The
assessment that we had to pivot to was I ready in order for for our students to be able to reclassify. Um so because the minute we we identified it as the screener, we could no longer use it as the criteria for reclassification. Instead, we went with I Ready because it
was already being used in the system. everyone, most all students were using it except for kinder through uh and accepted kinder through second grade uh in language arts. And so that's the reason we went that route. >> So we had to get two different assessments now because we have we're
using one for reclassification and the other one as a screener. >> We couldn't use the screener to reclassify. >> All right. >> That's why we had to use another assessment which is the I Ready. I'm going to give folks a chance to to ask some questions, but I'm just curious why you said that there's one of the
criteria to reclassify as assessment. Curious about the other criteria that we have. >> And I don't have our EL experts here in the room, too. >> Okay. All right. I will go ahead and and offer. Okay. Um Laura and then Kate, you want to Kate, do you do you have a question? I keep calling on you as if
you do. I feel like I need you to say something. Maybe that's why I keep calling you. Okay. All right. Um, so who who had their hand up? >> Hi. >> Okay, go ahead. >> Hi. Um, so this is uh my 26th year uh teaching fourth, fifth, and sixth grade
uh classes. So I am very familiar with testing. Um, and you know, just when you think you've mastered it, they change it up on you and things things are different. One of the more recent changes that I would just like to bring
to people's attention is um the last maybe I don't know for sure two or three years where we take uh beginning of year assessments um in Ire and I think because of our our status as tier one we took also I a
>> tier three >> sorry tier three for some reason because grades are 421 I think of one is low sorry okay tier three thank you Um, I think last year we also did IABS at the beginning of the year, middle of the year, end of the year. And the problem
with that is that especially in math, the standards are very clear from one year to the next and they're different and they're different, right? They're it's not like we're just teaching the same thing over and over. And so for a child a child to come in at the
beginning of the year and be tested on standards that they have never been taught like let's say adding and subtracting fractions you got to get the common denominator etc etc um or you know whatever it has to do
with decimals I'm okay right so the for as teachers you know we are intellectuals But we are also empaths. And the demoralization of the child on, you know, their first,
second, third week of school back to be faced with problems that they've never been taught and to have to deal with 40 of them and then, oh, surprise, surprise, you didn't score at a fifth grade level cuz you've never been taught this. It's just it it goes against
common sense. And I just think that that's what sometimes the importance of having teachers in the room to share anecdotes and to share boots on the ground. And so and even when you get to the middle of the year one, well maybe you've been taught half the standards, but half you still the child still has
that sick feeling in their stomach of like I don't know what to do here. And and then you are surprised when child when children disregard the test and they just finish as fast as they can. So, I would just love it if we could teach it and then test it. Teach it and
then test it. >> Right. So much common sense. So, the IAB is um is optional. Um but I'll ask um Marisella Sanchez Robles to speak >> uh >> but it's not in this. So, I'm yeah uh but uh regarding your question about the
um you're you're testing you're assessing students in all the standards at the beginning of the year and she can provide some rationale for that. Good afternoon. My name is Marisella Sanchez and I'm the executive director of elementary instruction. Um, so I think what I'm understanding from what
you're saying is that possibly maybe your school is using the optional IEB maybe as a pre and post assessment in terms of understanding, you know, um maybe the students and and and administer administering um maybe what
they're learning from the standards. And so again, what what Dr. B just mentioned is that the IABS or the FIABs are optional assessments in both ELA and math. And so those are, you know, school-based
decisions that are made. Um, and I can understand, you know, your frustrations as what you mentioned. Um and so that could be something that we take back and in terms of providing recommendations you know to schools as to what would be
bestures >> and cynically as teachers you know sometimes we're cynical uh after so many years um we think well is it the reason is so that the kids will do really bad at the beginning and then we'll show growth and we'll show more growth and then we can all celebrate that the kids
learned what they were supposed to learn because they didn't know it when they didn't know it. So, I mean, it's nice to see growth, but if you're doing it that way, it it seems a little disingenuous. >> Yeah. >> Right. Thank you so much. >> You know what it makes me? Thank you for pointing out that some of these are
school site decisions, right? So, it makes me wonder, right? The the schools that are deciding that are probably experiencing a lot of testing. So just wondering then maybe it I mean why why are people making that choice at a school to do I ready and then again to
do an IAB you know are they getting different data is it I mean what would be the purpose of doing that or is it that they don't feel one is giving them the information they need I don't know >> inquire I will inquire about that >> yeah because it is a very uh it's it
that's where I think this feeling of we're testing more than teaching comes from when we're doing way too many tests. Anybody else have anything to say? I want to I want to encourage folks who have not spoken yet to raise your hand and speak because
it's not about me liking what you have to say. I want you to to feel safe to speak to ask the questions that you want and I want to hear from everybody. This is our committee that you know we want Dr. Bias to hear everything from everybody. We want our executive
director to hear. We want, you know, our data person. We want everybody to hear this. So, anybody not I'm going back for Oh, yes. Go ahead. >> So, our school actually, >> will we go back to a place where schools can choose ICABs over I Ready? because
our teachers actually really like the IAB and FIBs and they don't really care for the ready. >> Yeah, that's a good question. And when we go through the RFP process, that's the request for proposal. That's when we are sunsetting or concluding a contract uh before that we begin a new selection
process and as we're engaging our school communities, that will be something that we'll take into consideration as we're identifying that tool. Can you tell us again when this is going to happen? What is the timeline for this RFP? >> I believe um it's going to start is it
in the fall of 28 or the it's this fall or next fall? >> And can you explain to every the committee what that RFP is? What what's that process? >> It's an application process. So we um we work with the procurement office and
follow their guidelines about um creating an application that's public so that all know that there's a window open. We develop a scope of work. The scope of work means this is what the district is asking for. This is what we need. Uh and then there's a number of applicants. Um there's a selection
committee that is comprised of educators uh in our system and then they look at a rubric. They um they look at all the applications. Uh we narrow down the list. uh and then we work with procurement and then we negotiate contracts and then we go to the board
and we recommend uh an assessment >> and this is for the assessment since I Ready is suns setting right >> we'll be sunsetting soon in 2029 if I'm not mistaken it's >> oh okay >> so but we don't want we don't want to start then we want to start before that >> in the fall of 2028 is when we're going
to go through the RFP process >> got it all right anybody else have any other questions or comments Since Okay. Yeah. Go ahead. Tell me >> say something. But now that um I have since you made that com
>> since you made that comment that made me think of uh so who you're you're going to get in a group I guess. I'm sorry. I'm not really good with the RF all that stuff. RFPs and all the all the acronyms. I'm not really never been good at that. But you're going to be in a
committee. I sense it that I get the sense. you're going to be in that committee where you're selecting the next assessment tool. >> That's correct. >> Correct. And so my question to you guys is do you have teachers in that
committee? Because what happens is that uh do you go through like a trial run of the tests? Because when we as a teacher, what I experience is like here's your test and here what and then here's what you guys do and then all of a sudden it looks like I don't like this test. It
seems like nobody is doing like a run of like what the benefit of the test, what it looks like and what is actually intended to do with the children. You know it seems like I don't know if there is any like trial you know like there
should be a trial and a test a testing period with like the kids actually test on that you know the platform and then you see if this is a good platform if it's like performing well like because I feel like that is something that you can actually do especially with big
companies and LA USD has a lot of power you know you can't just be like oh this is what you have for me I think LA USD could be like this is what you need to designed for me for me to to get your so for you to have my business and I feel like we shouldn't be like this is what
you have okay I'll choose from the best >> we we really thank you for that feedback we'll take that back for the selection process but please know that that's what we do we push back on all all the all publishers and everyone we don't we don't take things off the shelf we have them customize it for LA USD
>> okay miss go ahead I did have the other things Oh, okay. >> Could I So, I have a couple of questions. You said that the uh the last uh the last test for the uh standard English learners um that have to take
and I was wondering what is the what are the what what is being done with those test results? Like what is the purpose? I mean like I can see okay you got a test but what is the what do you do with the results? >> The results are meant to help guide instruction when it comes to language instruction. Um, and I would invite the
experts from the academic English learning m English mastery program to come and to speak more to that and to give an overview. I'm not the expert in that area, but that is really what it's meant for. >> Okay. So, in general, I guess my comment is like we should like review like what
actually is happening because like you know as like when we do the ready and I get an already test score, I don't revise my instruction based on that because we have our our our curriculum that we have to follow. So they I got the test score but I am
continuing my curriculum. We have a curriculum we have to follow. So like yeah I just got this score but it's not of use to me but I mean it is some some of some years actually I ready and what I was going to say back it was that I did end up doing the I Ready. So
somebody was asking in the committee like who would do the I ready over this other one at the end of the year and I selected even though it's like we don't have to do it. I as a teacher selected to I elected to do the already on my
perform it with my students because what is the use for me to do a beginning of the year assessment and then and a middle of the year assessment then hey you don't have to do the end of the year so we have not we don't really have the whole scope of the growth at the end. It
seems it seems really backwards to me. >> Okay. Oh, then then I actually so I can get more of a sense of what my students are doing. Selected to do it, which is like kind of something awful because it's overesting the children. But like if I'm giving these assessments, why are
we not doing it at the end? It makes zero sense to me. Um Deli, can I um do you have another question or >> No, because >> Okay, let's try to keep it lean so that I can let um >> and the last board the last lean
question is I know that for students to reclassify, they use the I already scores right now. >> But my question is why are we using an I already score that is below grade level to reclassify them? Because that's the the score we get. So like if I if if a student we're reclassifying a student,
they don't even have to score on grade level on the I already their score is like below grade level and then the problem comes with like that they don't meet the scores on the grades on their report cards because hello your score below grade level and the district
selected that this is the passing score for you. However, how are you supposed to reclassify when you're not on grade level? >> So let's um I think Dr. Dr. Bayas said that we we should probably invite Med to address those questions. So, uh we can
probably do that for next year. Um I just I'm going to let um board member new speak and but before that I'd like to hear more about alternatives to I Ready. What are some other options that we have? Go ahead.
So actually that was kind of my question kind of like looking for new assessments with the RFP process having the RFI process we're understanding what is when we look at an assessment what's the
usability how do we gauge that for our students knowing that we got the right product to the point you were making you know going forward do we want something that we can use that is going to really help us or we just getting an assessment ment just so we could check the box that we have an assessment but what is in the
process of making sure it's usable. So that's part of the scope of work. And then of course we want to see the reliability, the validity, um the predictability for students to be uh to be able to show proficiency on um the standardized assessments that the state
of California administers. Uh are are are they the best tool? Is it the best tool to determine if students proficiency at that grade level at that time? So those are some of the things that we look for, but it's really it's in the scope of work. And all of the feedback and things that you're sharing now and the feedback we've collected
through the years are helpful to develop a scope of work are helpful to determine what types of activities we're going to need to go through with the selection team so that they can actually work on it. They can actually go onto it. They can log in and they could actually see
what the enduser experience is like. So we're hearing that feedback and taking it to see that the selection process that we go through next time it's going to require a lot more steps. >> And with that what you're just sharing because you said the 28 is when they're going to is that when the window opens
or is that and then what does that process look like backwards planning to this is where we want to get the final goal. So going backwards we have to start with our selection team here in order to get here. >> Right. So in the fall of 2028 is when we
will open that whole process so that by by the or maybe a little before then probably spring or summer because we would want to come to board um January, February, March uh to present that to the board and then at that point negotiating the contract at that point I
sense setting and then we begin the professional development of teachers and the entire system and the use of that so that we begin in the fall of 2029. So, spring of 28, is that what you said? >> Spring of of 28 is when I anticipate us starting.
>> Thanks. >> Um, so Dr. Bias, you Oh, let me give you the poor. >> You're like that one student I've been begging all day. Go ahead. Go ahead. >> Good afternoon. Um yeah, just on this
topic of the of the next assessment that teachers could be um utilizing as both a parent and a teacher. Um, one thing that I think is most effective for me, um, and helpful as a teacher is having something that's diagnostic and
different from the way that I Ready is because I do understand that I Ready, it seems that the diagnostic nature of it, that the goalpost shift a little bit across the year. And so that's something that I I think is very very important um is that it's truly diagnostic in nature.
Um and additionally that the data that gets um produced from I Ready um what I have found as a teacher and my capacity as a coach is the lack of precision. And so one of the things that I think people teachers feel like they have to do is to
administer other assessments to figure out not just what the needs are but what are the clear next steps. And I know that I ready they offer some lessons and oh you know you could try this or you could do that. I have found as a as a
reading specialist not precise enough. um similar to any sorts of math the math uh data that gets that gets uh produced or that gets uh what do I want to say that that the children can um put out
that it does not really help us to be able to do the kind of tier 2 instruction that we want to be able to see in classrooms. Uh the other thing that I wanted to bring up is with the data breach what I understand happened with I Ready that just to have
on people's radar that whatever assessment is decided upon that that is one of the criteria is clear commitments to protecting our our kids data. I'm very concerned about that as a parent. Um, and then the final thing I'll say is
I did want to just agree with the fact that we're not doing an EOI, the end ofear assessment at the end in grades three through eight. I'm thinking of as a former fifth grade teacher, my kids had ESPA, they had the science, they had the fitness gram, and it would it's I
think this is a a good decision that was made to not administer the I Ready or whatever endofear assessment there is at the end of the school year. Yes. because um yes culmination uh so so many things that are going on so I did want
to just say I do agree with that and I understand the the thinking behind it. >> Thank you. And and something I do want to mention is I don't know the nature of the security breach, but what I can tell you is that is part of uh any contract we have with any any um provider uh
related to technology or devices, digital tools go through a very thorough process to protect student information. They cannot do business with LUSD unless they have that on file. All right, hold on. Um Laura, let me see
because we're almost done. Okay, Vicki. Okay, so I have a few comments and then one question. Um, so we go and advocate at the state level for money all the time. We ask for more. Why can't we go ask for less less testing? Like I don't
see what the problem with just asking um why and ethnic studies since I didn't get to comment earlier and I'm just going to take it real quick. I really um I'm a big fan of ethnic studies and Yipar and as a parent I was really disappointed with the district and how they rolled it out and how I've seen it
for my kids. Um and to hear that it's been since 2020 is kind of disappointing because then my kids have been cheated and it's been six years and that's not cool. And as a parent I had to research somewhere else and I have that privilege but what about everybody else? So not
okay. the LA USD. And lastly, my question is, why is it beneficial for a child to be identified as gifted? Is that for the student, for the parents, or for the district? Who's that beneficial to? >> All right. Thank you for sharing that. Any any comments
>> question regarding gifted? That's actually something to meet the needs of our families that want multiple ways to demonstrate students identification. It's not for the benefit of the district. It's to serve the parents and community and the children. Okay. Um, real quick. >> Yes.
>> Yes. I wanted to piggyback on something that Kate said about um, actionable information that we get from testing or that we don't get from testing. My unwritten thesis in my head has always been entitled transparent testing. Um,
because uh, for example, when we get the results from I Ready or IB, they might tell you and I'm a fifth grade teacher. um your student is at a third grade level, second grade level, first grade level. And for example, because we had funding because we're a tier three school, um you know, the kids would get
pulled and I'd say, "What are you working with them on?" Oh, well, I've been told to work with them on multiplication. Okay, that's great. But in moments where I I'm not following the script and I'm working with my kids and I realize these kids don't know what 7 + 5 is, these kids don't know what 15 - 8
is. And so the it's unfortunate that the test does not come back with needs work adding, needs work subtracting. We just get second grade level and whatever that means. And so people interpret that to mean, okay, you need help with
multiplication. When in fact, it's like, hi, we need help with adding and subtracting. And maybe this has been skipped because this process has been going on for so long and we're not doing authentic assessment and we're not meeting the students needs as they have
and I'll just I wasn't sure and so and I would just like to put forth my thoughts about one statement about testing in general is that it's really important to identify what's being evaluated because if I wanted to know do you know how to
find the area of a rect rectangle, but I make the problem such that the length is 7.5 and the width is 6 and 3/4s and I embed it in a word problem. Then maybe you did know how to do it if it was just 6 * 7, but you didn't know how
to take a decimal and a fraction and multiply them together. And so we're not really getting the basics of knowledge. You know what I mean? We we we a lot of things get conflated in in tests. and I just wanted to take this opportunity to share that. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Um, all right. So, just before we end, no, we're going to end right now. Sorry, committee committee. I just I I want to I want to honor the time that we have. We have public comment coming up. So, that's the reason why we're going to end. But just want to
say that I know that a couple of things that I heard from this committee is one there are some issues with I Ready in terms of using it as a tool to guide instruction when it does not give you the exact need that a student has especially when it comes to reading
right when they're little. The other thing is that we do have a policy that we're working on um around screen time and we are not the the proposal right now is that we're not um allowing
littles like K and one to use screens to use any devices. However, they will continue to test I ready. So that is a discrepancy right that we I think we're going to uh bring up to the um not only to the division of instruction but I
think to board should be having these conversation because that contradicts you know the policy to be able to do that. Lastly I understand that kids have to spend 90 minutes in order to uh do their personalized learning system but
they have to reach 70 to 80% in order to pass. it takes longer than 90 minutes. And so a lot of times kids who are spending anywhere from 90 minutes or more are only that the passing rate is like 56% of the kids. So less uh you
know than 60% of the kids are passing that I ready uh assessment weekly assessment that they have to take. So, there's some issues with that. And I think that um I'm glad that it's sun setting so we can stop and and look at
how this has been um used and how beneficial it is and just look at the context of, you know, privacy issues, data breaching, usefulness, amount of time, screen time, all of those things. So, anyway, thank you so much um for
being here everyone. Again, I want to make um I don't know if everybody knows, but Dr. Bias will be retiring this year. So, I want to thank her for all of her years of service, for being a leader in this committee and doing all the work um
in instruction um for many many years in the district in many capacities. So, thank you Dr. Bias for all of your your service. Now the committee will reform next year
but every year we try to change the membership while maintaining some continuity. So stay tuned for any possible changes. Um if you are interested in continuing let us know. Um but it's not a guarantee you know
because we try to you know bring in um uh new voices ideas from a variety of backgrounds. So thank you again everyone for participating. And now I'm going to hand it off to Mike McClean so he can um lead us in the public comment.
>> All right, we've got five folks signed up for public comment. The first speaker is Erica Pizaro. Erica P, are you here? Let me check online to see if Erica P is with us. One moment, please. I do not have Erica P. Maria Ramirez,
are you with us? These are all folks who signed up to speak in person. Gary P. Gary Prisau. Oh, there you are. You'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Unfortunately, they won't be able to directly answer your questions,
but I have a feeling they will write it down and either answer it later or um some other you via email or something. So, uh please go ahead. You'll have two minutes to speak. Why don't you begin? very shrewd. >> Don't know what that was. Okay.
Yes. Okay. >> Okay. So, uh, I'm Gary Priso and, um, I'm here on behalf of the, uh, LA USD parent for desegregating, uh, for desegregated history. I'm also here on behalf of my fifth grade daughter. I'm
really happy to see that there are fifth grade teachers here. And uh I want to to talk about uh the fact that you can't really have a an inclusive uh community if the history that you
teach is actually ex has exclusions in it. And so I really dislike this book. So this is the McGraill uh making a new nation and it's full of falsifying historical emissions, factual
errors. uh it um it it falsifies history by removing historical facts. And I'm as we're asking actually for LA USD to stop using this book as part of its resources. And in fact, we'd like uh
LUSD to specifically uh break all contracts with McGra Hill because uh this book for example w erases history. And so it was very interesting to listen to Dr. Ramirez about the history of the
elders for that specific reason because it doesn't include in it doesn't even include the formal history not the one from the elders but I'm very appreciative of the oral history uh and so one one thing that I wanted to point out there are so many problems
like the story of Pocahontas where they removed uh the entire part about the uh abduction of Pocahontas keeping her out for a here for ransom her husband was killed and so it makes of course the colonists
look moral and ethical which they were not but one thing that the reason why I brought this book is because you'll notice that in chapter six there's a quote of Martin in with two gentleman's
one of them is James Madison and the other one is George Mason >> thank you so much for your time that is two minutes I know you have more to say sir I'm so sorry >> you who would like to hear more >> I wish >> so so what I'm saying here is that they
put mark >> I'm so sorry we have a we have a two-minut we have we have a two-minute limit sir I'm I'm so sorry um for public comment otherwise I must give everyone additional time I'm not happy about that uh Mr. David
Tokovski, come on up. You'll have two minutes to speak. >> Thank you very much for uh an engaging uh meeting today. I'm a former school board member of 12 Years California Teacher of the Year. If you want to know about I Ready, go on the district website and look at May 9th, 2023. That
is the day in which Superintendent uh Carvalo and um Dr. Bayz brought the procurement there. And if you're a board member interested, I would get the RFP, look how who scored it, how it was scored, and uh who signed the contract,
and all of the details are available to you to make lessons so you don't make the same uh procurement process. They were scored by teachers, selected by Miss Bias's team, uh and so on. So, uh that was something I would didn't expect in this meeting, but that was great to
hear all of that. Next uh on the AP test which uh we don't publish publicly you don't have to put the kids' names but it would be nice to know how the kids are doing in on threes fourths and five gifted has no purpose except for the fact that uh there's no money attached
to it. So at this point it could be neurodeiversity and it could be uh a different way of looking at things. Next the independent study program needs to be analyzed. The test scores on the independent study are egregiously low.
6,000 children are in the independent study on a Florida virtual schools Florida curriculum has made it into the district. 6,000 kids are on that along with uh one other uh approach. The credentials of the teachers is a
workaround. There are teachers who are teaching the independent study in subjects that they don't have a credential in. They're overseen by somebody. But that's not it. Next, the exciting things of the presentation uh from the professor summer school
electives. We have no sociology. We have no anthropology. We have no oral history. We have very few ethnic studies. We've barely used the AP research and the AP seminar in a way that could be used for creative ways. There are lots of things happening, but we are losing teachers on the budget
cuts. And tomorrow the board will be looking at massive uh budget cuts and layoffs and uh as well as furls. So ask which teachers are being let go at different schools from RCA High School to Irving Middle School and why are they
being let off? Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. Uh Mr. Juan Mandi, are you here? I don't see you here. Mr. Mandi, we do have folks online with us. Let me pull them up. All right, we have Erica Pazarro. I see
you're on the line. Please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. And uh I don't know if you're watching, but >> you'll hear our timer go off in >> Can you hear me? >> Yes, please go ahead.
>> Hi. Yes, my name is Erica Bizaro and I'm a parent volunteer and CC committee member at Burton Elementary which is a community school within LA USD. As a parent who is actively involved in our school
community, I believe it is important for L USD to be aware of several concerning issues related to our use of school funds and transparency. There were discuss of spending approximately $8,000 on a DJ for an open
related house um open house related event despite many families feeling that the school funds should be prioritized towards students programs academic resources and direct student support in the classroom. Funds were reportedly used to decorate the principal's
personal office. In addition, concerns were raised during the LSLC meeting where parents asked questions regarding the purchase of new office furniturees and we were not given a clear and honest explanations. Due to these ongoing concerns, parents are now requesting a
financial audit review of how school funds are being allocated and spent. She constantly treats parents and teachers, staff and students with disrespect, intimidation, creating a toxic, hostile, and deeply unhealthy environment at
Burton Elementary. >> I'm done. >> Thank you. Thank you so much for your for your time. Uh, Maria Ramirez, I see you're on the line. Please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Maria Ramirez.
Hi, good afternoon. Can you guys hear me? >> Yeah, please go ahead. >> Okay. Um, so I'm also, uh, a parent of Bird Trend Avenue Elementary School. U, my name is Maria Ramirez, uh, which is
also a community school for LA USD. Um so Bertrand is going through some things right now um where the students are feeling unsafe and unsupported and unheard um instead of many family staff
and students feeling um are feeling uncomfortable and ignored and the fact that the fifth grade students created a petition for the for Miss Mendoza to not participate in the culmination should be something that should deeply concerning
for LUSD. Um my son uh turned in that petition to Dr. Baka and Mr. Steiner. Um as a parent, I have personally witnessed the way staff members have been spoken to and the fear and the tension it
creates. Um when staff members feel intimidated, the students feel it too. environment of the school starts with leadership and it is very unhealthy right now. Um many parents no longer
feel warm and the sense of community that once Bertrand had is not special anymore. Um, we're asking if you guys could please listen to our concerns as we're we deeply care about the school and our children's future and we're
scared that she's running our school to the ground and you and we don't want it to close because of her negligence. Um, I'm dead. >> Thank you for your time. That concludes public comment unless Mr. Juan Gandhi is
in here. Uh, I do not see you online. Mr. Mandhi. Uh, thanks for your time everyone. That concludes public comment. >> All right. Thank you so much everyone. Let's stick around for a quick picture. >> Thank you.