Good afternoon. My name is Lauren Shernoff and I'm calling this November 5th, 2025, curriculum and Instruction Committee Meeting to order. I am joined by my colleagues, Dr. Rashid and Dr. Deans, and we will get started tonight with, uh, item number two, which is procedures for public comment. We do have one public commenter tonight. We wanna thank you for engaging with us in the public comment process. Due to the small number of speakers, you will have three minutes and I'll start whenever you're ready. And it's Ms. Andrea Wesoff. Welcome. Hi. This was important enough. I even wrote it down beforehand.
First, this has nothing to, are you okay? Okay. This has nothing to do with VDL administrators. They're the best ones I've worked with in the county. The first or second day back in August, we were presented with a co county mandate to standardize grade books by CLT. We were given four options, but the options were just slight variations on the mandate. There is no flexibility. The, in the English department, it was decided we had may have three minor summatives of the same point value.
Um, and that doesn't matter whether it's my sixth grade English class, my 11th grade English class, or creative writing. That is what English must have. Um, and in world language, since I teach Latin, I am allowed for minor summatives, which is the exact same thing that French four has to do because you can't tell me we are not heading toward an identical grade book across the county. I've been here long enough. And this isn't about being a better teacher, it's about being a better employee.
You are moving to do this across the board to make it as scripted as the English six scripts from Dr. Picard. I feel micromanaged. My years of schooling and teaching experience are being actively disrespected. Do you want me to be a better teacher or a better employee? Actually, I probably shouldn't ask that. Um, black Lives Matter. Thank you, Ms. Wesoff. Um, that will conclude our public comment for tonight. We will move on to item 3.01, the approval
of the draft minutes from October 1st. Is there any additions or changes needed for the minutes? And if not, I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Thank you, Dr. Deans. It is so moved. May I have, I will second it. And all those in favor with that? I, aye. Sorry. With that, I will approve the draft minutes from October 1st are approved, and now we will move into our information items. Uh, first off is item 4.01, which is a math update and a new policy that is 51 40 advanced or accelerated mathematics.
And, uh, to present tonight is Mr. Rounds Director of Teaching and Learning. And Ms. Juliette Kenny, who is the mathematics supervisor for K through 12. Welcome, Good evening. Thank you. Uh, and it's great to be here. Great to be joined by Juliette Kenny, who is recently been appointed to our role as math supervisor. And, um, she's done a great job laying out some of the requirements that we have for PO for House Bill 2 6 8 6, and how LCPS plans to respond, um, to that bill. So on the next slide, you may remember some information we've shared around House Bill 2 6, 8 6
and the requirement that we create a policy based on that, which is Policy 51 40. So House Bill 2 6 8 6 says that school divisions must develop policies outlining criteria for grades five through eight student eligibility for accelerated math. And what we're gonna share with you tonight in this information item is a, uh, proposed draft of that policy very closely aligned with the VSBA model policy, uh, around this particular topic. But LCPS has a very long history of supporting acceleration in mathematics. And as part of the documentation that you have in board docs tonight,
you'll see the LCPS math course selection information from last year, which outlines all the various ways that we offer acceleration. And we feel as if most of our, uh, existing practices really do very closely align with House Bill 2 6 8 6, and that the policy 51 40 is really putting in place a lot of the work that already exists in our math office. So here are some key requirements for, um, house Bill 2 6 8 6. The first one is automatic enrollment. So for students who score in the statewide upper quartile on a grade level, end of year standards
of learning math assessment, those students are automatically enrolled in an accelerated math course the following year with parental optout. So, uh, students are automatically opted in. Parents have the ability to opt their child out of that accelerated course if they wish to. Also multiple pathways so that that acceleration is not based on any one singular thing. But also that we give parents opportunities for their input, for teacher recommendations, for student choice, for grades, for other standardized test reports, for portfolios of work. And that acceleration isn't a one-time thing.
If you're not accelerated in fifth grade, for example, you can never, uh, accelerate. There are multiple points where students can enter into, um, an accelerated pathway and make choices about where they wanna go from there. And finally, annual notification so that each year we are providing parents with information about the enrollment criteria in an accelerated math course, the opt-out process, the importance of middle school math, and how it really sets the stage for students to explore high school mathematic options. Uh, the impact on high school math sequence and available math courses in LCPS.
And again, most of these things already exist and, and are part of our existing practices. So you have a draft policy of, um, policy 51 40 in board docs tonight. And really we have gone section by section of the requirements from the law and tried to spell out some of that information for parents. So the i the information around automatic enrollment is included in Section B. Um, parental opt-out is also a part of that as well, that parents can opt their children out of accelerated choices, the multiple pathways. And then, uh, the policy opens with annual notification in section A.
Um, and we'd be happy to answer any questions you might have about the policy at the conclusion. I'm gonna turn it over to Ms. Kenny to talk a little bit about the impact of that this bill had in LCPS last year and some of the things we've done to support our schools in implementing it. Thank you Mr. Slee. So it's important to note that the house bill is referring to the top 25% for grade level SOL scores statewide. So this table here represents the SOL score range from this past spring of students who are automatically enrolled in an accelerated math course
from a grade level math course. So, as an example, a current seventh grade student, if they received a four 40 or higher on their math six SOL this past spring, then they were automatically enrolled into pre-algebra or math eight. And every year these numbers may change slightly based on student performance across the state. We currently follow a pretty comprehensive math course selection process where we do consider multiple data points and teacher recommendations, family input, and also student goals. You do have access to a reference document
of our current math course selection information, where you'll see opportunities for acceleration through multiple different pathways, including opportunities for students to access algebra one in middle school. We've been collecting feedback on this document from teachers and counselors and administrators. And we also plan to share this document for feedback from community stakeholders over the next couple of months. Now this graph here shows the LCPS middle school students who are currently enrolled in accelerated math courses this school year.
So what you can see is that 55.8% of students shown in the blue there, that represents the percentage of students who were enrolled in an accelerated math course prior to house bill 26 86. And then that 3.7% in orange shows the additional students that were enrolled based on House bill 26 86 over the course of the summer. So what this means is that of the total number of middle school students who were in accelerated math courses within LCPS, 93% of them were accelerated from the current processes
that we already have in place. And so our department, the math department, has been working actively to support both teachers and students through these accelerated math courses. So for teachers, there's a variety of ways in which we're providing support. We've been providing ongoing professional learning on our new math resources for middle school. All middle school courses have access to math space as their math resource. And our math space trainer has been able to visit every single middle school this year so far to provide personalized support and training for math teachers and teams and departments. And math space has an adaptive digital
resource for students. So this resource provides student support and content where students may have gaps. And alternatively, it can also adapt grade level standards to meet students where they are in their learning. Our curriculum, Munich guides for our math department also provide a daily lesson sequence to support teachers with their planning, including a section on student centered supports. So here's an example of what that looks like and what you can see here is that, um, this section specifically will highlight content and provide lessons and resources for students who've been accelerated
and may need that additional support during the transition. Also, this year we've been holding quarterly collaborative learning team meetings with secondary math teachers across the county where schools can send a representative to meet with other secondary math teachers just all across the county. So math six seven pre-algebra, algebra one teachers, it's an opportunity for teachers around the county to collaborate together. And these have been an opportunity to get engaged in more professional learning from our vendors and also to collaborate on countywide resources to best support students. We've also been offering cohorts to support teachers
with additional licensure certifications to be able to increase the capacity of our teachers. So for example, we offer Praxis prep courses for Algebra one, and we're also going to be offering a ma middle school math practice prep course this year as well. And we, um, collaborate with George Mason University to offer a math specialist cohort for teachers. And then coming soon, something we're excited about, we are creating a summer boost program that's gonna be able to provide middle school students with an asynchronous opportunity to be able to dive into some math content in the summer in preparation
for the math course that they'll be taking in the fall. So we're really looking forward to being able to roll that out for students as a summer support. So at this time we can open it up to questions. All right. Thank you guys so much. Um, colleagues, you have any questions or comments about the policy or the presentation? No, no. I have a couple of quick questions. Um, it feels very straightforward to me. It feels like we had a lot of this in place already, so we're kind of just codifying that, which is great. Um, one of my questions, and this really isn't about the policy or even it's more just out of curiosity,
what happens if we accelerate someone based off of these scores or for other reasons and then they struggle so much they need to retake that math class. What would the process for that look like? Yeah, so we have a, um, just like parents can opt out from the policy, uh, requirements if a student is accelerated, we have a similar type of opt out procedure. So we encourage, um, schools to be able to communicate with parents and families about and have a conference about that. And then they would have to then do an opt out form so that we can collect that information on that data.
If a student is struggling and wants to, um, go back to a grade level course, so that option is there, Are they able to retake the same? So if they were in math seven when they're a sixth grader and they struggle and they can, they take Math seven again If they've already taken math seven? Yes, But struggled. I, Um, I think for the most part, so really what we want to, what we're trying to do now is identify those situations early where a student is struggling. There's a process to expunge a grade if a student is in a high school math course. Okay. Um, ultimately I would,
in most cases we would want a student to move forward, but I do think that would be a conversation between principals and counselors, parents and students in special circumstances. But I think most of the time we would wanna catch that during the year, provide additional supports, come up with a plan for intervention and if necessary, move students down. That's what Ms. Kenny was talking to because we are tracking that data to see if a student was accelerated and then is moving back to a grade level course. Um, and again, there is a very clear policy written out if a student is in algebra one or geometry, uh, or Algebra two in middle school, that they could expunge
that grade and retake the course. But ultimately I think there's some room for, for schools and parents and um, students to collaborate on the best spot for a student. Yeah, I just wonder with the scores, it sometimes feels a little bit arbitrary. It doesn't really tell the whole story about whether a kid is actually ready for that math course or not. So just kind of wanted to know what the contingency plans are if kids struggle, are we seeing that, I mean, I know we've accelerated some this year. Are we seeing that sort of shift from kids in any way or any trends that we can identify yet? There have been students who have been accelerated
and then have decided to make that step back down to the grade level course. Um, we are pulling that data from the permission click, opt out form that we have been given, been giving, uh, to schools. Um, I think something that our department is really trying to focus on is what supports we can give to teachers and students for students who have been accelerated. And so we've been really trying to, um, enhance the student-centered supports parts of our unit guides and our curriculum resources so that teachers feel like they have those resources to be able to help students who are in that boat vote.
I appreciate that. Yes. Dr. Deans, That expunged piece is that in the policy? So parents can readily see that. So that is a separate existing policy that already exists, but that is already an LCPS policy. Okay. But do parents know Schools every year are required to send out a notification to parents about the expunge process? Um, it's written in our program of studies, but that is a yearly notification that parents receive and counselors work very closely. There is a, a threshold where it's an automatic expungement and then a threshold where, um, counselors and and parents work together to make a decision about whether
or not to expunge a grade that refers to not just math, but any high school credit earned in middle school. So world languages and and math are both included as part of that. To that other point, I think one point where, uh, this really important in our policy is the idea of those multiple pathways. The the, the house build does accelerate students based on one singular point of data with the SOL score. But the policy makes clear, um, and also is part of our existing practices is that acceleration decisions are based on multiple points of, of, uh, parent contact grades, student history,
other standardized test scores. Uh, and that's one thing we wanna, we wanna emphasize that while the house bill requires us to accelerate students, we should always be having conversations around the full data picture of a student in math to make sure we're putting students in the place where they're gonna be most successful. Yeah, I agree with that. I think that's good. And it seems like I said, these processes have existed before this, so it's good that we've had that conversation. Um, as far as the policy goes, I see that the LCPS mathematics course selection information is cross-referenced here. I'm wondering is there a plan to do a regulation with this
or is that sort of serve as that piece of the puzzle? What would you anticipate in terms of sort of operationalizing and making that information known is, and maybe that something for us to think about too. So we did add that as a cross reference. This is a document that has evolved over the years based on consistent feedback from parents about how to better understand their math options. And so if you, I don't know if you could pull that up, Juliet, but if you go through the document, there's visuals of the course progressions depending on where students are.
Um, it lays out the options. And while a regulation is more flexible in terms of updating every year, I guess I would, I think staff would maybe need some feedback on what from this 16 page document may be enhanced through a regulation. Um, I don't know if we'd wanna replicate the entire entirety of the, of the document. Um, us like we wouldn't have, uh, tables and such in regulations. Um, we could, um, so is there a particular cons? I guess my question really in terms of just the parent piece, I mean, this is great information.
It's really well written. I think that it's very clear. I like that it has charts. Maybe we should change that about our regulations. But, um, I am just wondering in terms of a lot of things get cross-referenced in policies and then do people know to go click on that, that that's the process for it? I think we do a pretty good job of educating our parents on this, especially as kids transition from elementary to middle school. Um, so I know that as a middle school parent, that that's something that we see, but I'm just wondering in terms of someone wondering about this policy, would they click on that or would it be better served that we tuck some of those processes into a regulation?
I, I don't really have a feeling either way. I just for transparency's sake and clarity, since it's a new policy, it might be nice to have an accompanying reg, but I don't Know can certainly, we can certainly take, take a look at this. I don't think we'd wanna replicate the entire thing, but we could look at the structure of it. Yeah. And, um, see what might make sense in a regulation. Um, would that, would that that work? Okay. And does that feel like something you guys are interested in or, yes. So, okay. Yeah, I would appreciate that.
I think that just having, I mean it's pretty operational this process after you get your cut score. So, um, yeah, I don't have any other comments or questions. I am wondering if it would be okay for the committee to have this sent out for public feedback and then we can have it as an action item in, is it December? Yikes. Wow. Where'd the year go? Um, is that all right with you guys? Yeah. Great. Okie dokie. Thank you so much for being here. We appreciate you. And with that, we will move on to our next item 4.02 policy 50 30 grading and assessment update.
And I believe Dr. Ellis will be presenting. Alright, Mr. Slevin is gonna pull up the presentation and while he does, while he tries, I have, I have faith in you. I will, um, briefly introduce this item and then pass it off to my colleagues. So we are providing a brief update on the implementation of policy 50 30, uh, that was implemented in August for this current school year. Um, as you as a committee know, we went through, um, many meetings, many conversations, a lot of feedback over the course
of the past year to get to this point. Um, Dr. Single and Dr. Blake Lock have been instrumental in gathering all that feedback, working with the, um, work group and developing resources for policy implementation. So I'm going to turn it over to them to talk through a brief update. And because the first quarter has just ended, we don't have any data to share with you. Um, and we anticipate bringing that back at a future meeting. So with that, I'll turn it over to Dr. Single and Dr. Blake Lock. Okay.
Thank you. Um, good afternoon and thank you for having us and provided the opportunity to share an update on the assessment and greeting policy. Um, I will. All right. Take two. Um, good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to provide an update on the revised assessment and grading policy. Our objectives today are to revisit the major changes within the policy offering a precise overview for all in attendance. We're going to discuss the support structures and systems implemented, um, to ensure a successful launch of this policy, and then present the current implementation
progress and outline some next steps. So as we move forward with this conversation, just a brief review of the journey we took last year with this policy based on the feedback we received from focus groups. Let's talk, um, and thought exchange as well. So the, the major changes were that we added definitions for both homework and reasonable effort. The language was referenced in the previous version of the policy, and we added those definitions. Um, we required that students demonstrate reasonable effort on all assessment on all assignments prior to the initial assessment to be able to be eligible for the reassessment. Um, the REA major, uh, the reassessments are only available
to students who score below a 70% on the summit on the major summit of assessment. And the highest score that a student can get on a reassessment is 70%. The floor of 50 now only applies to quarter grades. With the exception of AP courses, they are excluded from that floor of 50. Um, formative assessments can count to a total of 10% of the quarter grade. Um, we've introduced language to differentiate expectations across grade levels, supporting developmentally appropriate practices. Uh, projects completed outside the classroom can now be considered major summative
assessments if they meet rigor and relevance criteria. And finally, deadlines for late work are required promoting accountability and time management. Okay, so let's take a moment to review the support structures and systems that we put in place. It was really important to us to have, have teacher and administrator voice in helping us figure out how to translate the policy into practice. So we assembled the assessment and grading work group comprising of classroom teachers, principals, assistant principals, instructional coaches, and instruction technology facilitators to collaboratively develop a comprehensive implementation guide. Together, we produced the assessment in Grading handbook.
Um, and this is the first time that LCPS has had, um, an assessment in grading handbook. And based on the feedback we received, instructional staff and administrators are appreciative of this additional layer of guidance and support. Um, we believe it offers consistency in the application of policy and the guidance. Um, the work group also provided input on the technical aspects of the grade book setup. Um, following this, um, the handbook was reviewed by principals, school-based instructional staff, and the Department of Academics and, um, improvements were made. Um, and then after the revised policy was approved, we did attend a principal meeting to provide principles
with an overview of the changes and to inquire about additional supports that they might need, um, to help implement this policy with fidelity. As a result of that conversation, we developed a turnkey presentation for them to use in staff trainings. Um, we developed some frequently asked questions, documents, um, posters, little what you need to know, cards that they could distribute to families, um, and students as well as a roles and responsibilities document. Um, in addition to meeting with principals, we met with various offices, um, and the middle school and high schools directors of student counseling.
Um, we held office hours in May, June, July, and August, um, for administrators and other leaders. So department chairs, assistant principals, dean coaches, um, could attend, um, to review the training materials and ask any questions. Um, you might have noticed that we did launch a multi-language website for families, um, so they could, um, understand the policy and what that looks like in, um, schools. Um, and our research department developed a click app, um, for administrators to monitor compliance, um, with the policy.
Um, and I just wanna give a shout out to our DDI department for updating Phoenix and the Phoenix user guide, um, that our teachers use when they set up their grade books. So to ensure widespread awareness, we did partner with our, um, communications department to disseminate updates through newsletters as well as, um, various media outlets. Um, as with any policy revision, it does take time for everyone to fully understand and implement the changes. Um, while we haven't received major concerns from constituents, we have addressed a few questions, um, particularly regarding the learning curve associated
with reassessment requirements. Um, students recently on the student advisory committee have expressed, um, that they believe this revision is fair and encourages students to diligently study and work hard for initial assessments, which I thought was surprising that they supported that part of the policy. Um, we also started receiving questions, um, about addressing transfer grades, um, for students who have changed schools sections or, um, courses. The solution to this was to apply the grades, um, the student had in the previous course to a major summative, a minor summative, and a former or a formative assessment.
Um, another adjustment that required some time was the transition from a points-based system to a weighted categories, um, system, um, a change implemented based on the input from the work group and, um, the need for more consistency across LCPS that we received, um, through surveys and focus groups. Um, the weighted category system offers several benefits over a total point system. Um, so firstly it provides greater clarity regarding the value of different assignment types. Um, under the system, teachers are required to administer, um, reassessments, um,
because we, um, have ensured that major summatives are required to be one of the categories. Um, and then this addresses the previous concerns where some teachers categorize all assessments as minor summatives. Um, thus avoiding reassessments, which was, um, an issue we heard from families. And, um, students. Additionally, weighted categories give teachers greater flexibility to adjust the number of minor assignments, minor summative assignments, allowing them to reteach content or make other adjustments based on students' needs. So, um, if teachers notice that students have a mastered, um, certain content, they can administer, um,
additional reassessments, um, that they find during the quarter that they might not have had planned for at the beginning of the year. So as we are doing all this work, we recognize that there will probably be gaps that would emerge in the process and what we learn, uh, Dr. SLE just named some of the ones that sort of came up the transfer grades and things like that along the way. So our immediate next steps, um, are to work with those students from the student advisory committee. Um, they mentioned it as a pot potential focus, uh, area for them this school year. We'll also collaborate with the original assessment and grading work group to gather their insights on this year's implementation. Our plan includes monitoring quarter one grades
and comparing their distribution to last year's. Um, my office is already starting to work by pulling last year's grades for first quarter. So we're just, once we have this year's, we will have that ready to go. Um, finally, based on feedback from both the student group and the work group, we will revise the assessment and grading handbook this summer. So fill in some of those gaps that were found. Uh, we were also happy to return to the c and i committee to discuss implementation successes and challenges the years progresses. Thank you again for having us. We would be happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you guys so much for coming and, um, I'm very grateful to be having this conversation sort of throughout the year,
along the way as we're adapting to this new policy and no policies. Perfect. And this was, there were some major shifts, so I'm grateful that we can be reflective and hopefully if there are, you know, significant areas of feedback or changes, we can, you know, address that. As it comes. I am anxious to hear from about quarter one grades. I will toss it to my colleagues and then I will address some questions and just some overall feedback that I have received as well. I'm just waiting for quarter one grades. Okay. Sounds good. Dr. Rasheed? Yeah, to piggyback off Dr. Dean's also waiting, but, uh, your feedback groups,
I was just wondering if there's a number, did you receive a lot? I know that's subjective, but I'm just curious if it was a little bit of the feedback that you received In terms of the policy revision or the, um, or the developing the handbook policy. So the policy of revision, we did, um, we engaged in a project last year where we did 10 focus groups across teachers, uh, families, uh, students and principals. We also had a let's talk, um, form that went out, uh, division wide for folks to, uh, provide feedback on as well. I think we got about five or 600, uh, responses to that. So we tried to make it available to everyone
and we, we had people, gave people the opportunity to sign up for the focus groups and then did a random selection for that. So we tried to cast the web, the web as wide as we possibly could. Um, I did put this out on social media and you know, I've been kind of engaging different people when I met schools and just having the conversation about how's it going with the new grading policy. And I mean, not to overgeneralize, but it seems like teachers are pretty happy and some parents and students are, have concerns. That seems to be sort of the breakdown that I'm hearing. The major group of concerns is largely in my community
coming from parents of juniors who feel like they are getting hit particularly hard in a year, that really, really matters. So, um, I hadn't really thought about that. So I'm curious if, if you all are hearing that as well. I, I know someone had suggested to me like they should have been grandfathered in like rezoning and then you could start the policy with the sophomores, which obviously it's not really how policy works, but I'm curious if you've heard from parents of, of juniors and especially particularly these are kids that have above a 4.0 GPA that I'm hearing from
that are very concerned about what an A minus or not being able to do a retake might do to that GPA as they apply for colleges. So, and stay competitive. So I will, um, speak to this and then ask, um, Dr. Blake Lock and Dr. Single, if they have anything to add. Uh, one concern came straight to me, um, through a Let's talk and it was a parent of a, of a senior, actually not a junior. Um, but the concern was, I think similar to what you are hearing in terms of, um, grades being reported to colleges.
Um, and so the information that I shared, I worked closely with the, um, school counseling office and, um, explained that while grades are important in terms of college application, they are one of many, many factors in a college application. Um, also every school district in the United States uses a slightly different grading scale or grading policy. There is no obviously one set grading policy. So colleges are, are used to grading policies being different candidate to candidate and even year to year. Um, so they, they take that information just as part,
as one tiny part of a holistic process. Um, to, to sort of help that. We, um, we were able to add, um, what hasn't been on our, on our, um, LCPS school division and school profile, that school that colleges receive is a link to our policy. So we did add that this year. So colleges do have access to the policy. Um, I don't know if they click on it and read it. My guess is no, but it's available to them. Um, and students may even if they're super concerned about it or feel like the grading policy has drastically changed
their grades in some way, um, they are, they can certainly write about it in an essay or ask their, um, school counselor who also is required to write a letter of recommendation that gets submitted with their college application. Um, the school counselor may also add language about, um, about the grading policy change in the application. Um, but overall I would say that that is, um, a minor concern that is being addressed through the um, LCPS profile that gets submitted to colleges. Um, I will also say that the conversation
around a phased approach did not come up in any of our focus groups, um, or with the work group at all. Um, and so I'll just, I'll just leave it at that. Do you all have anything to add? We did not receive, um, feedback through Let's talk or from teachers, but in listening to the student conversations at the student advisory committee, um, which juniors and seniors are part of that group, um, students are very excited that formative assessments now count giving them that bump. Um, so, um, that part
of the policy I think is in student advantage and they were excited about that. Um, but other than that, we have not received any, um, additional feedback. And I, I mean, I'll say I, I haven't gotten a lot of feedback. I mean, I think I got seven emails after soliciting for some, you know, specifically after quarter one. Um, so I know that there are, I, I understand where the concerns are. I get it. Um, so we'll continue I think to take that into advisement. Um, the, for the teachers, I think, you know, I think one of the things that people are struggling with is sort of consistency and different interpretations
and nuances of the policy. So, um, and I think parents also expressed some of that too in terms of, you know, making sure it feels teacher specific. But again, we're addressing that through the learning curve I think because there's a lot there. There was a specific question about whether or not the spirit of the policy, and I think this sort of speaks to the public comment we heard tonight, is to make things extremely uniform. Mm-hmm. And if that is the goal, I don't know that that was ever really like said as an objective when we were going through the journey, as you call it.
Um, but with the weighted grade grade books and also are all assessments across certain departments supposed to be identical? Well, I don't remember that being part of the spirit of the policy, but if you could speak to that Of course. Absolutely. Um, and I appreciate the, the public comment 'cause I do think that there are so, so I'll start by saying that I, I think this implementation has gotten us to a place where we are more consistent than we ever have been before with assessment and grading across schools. Um, I will say that consistency is a word that we heard over
and over again in, in feedback, both written feedback and focus groups. Um, we are not expecting uniformity in our grades. Um, and I think that's a conversation that our office can have with, um, the department of school leadership in terms of clear expectations around consistency rather than uniformity. I do think there's a difference, um, that is maybe that is not necessarily outlined in policy and maybe unclear in the regulation. Um, but again, in terms of getting to a point
where we are consistent, the concept of moving to weighted grades was an effort to be consistent across the division. Um, so an A is an A regardless of what school or course you are in, um, that was really important to parents and students in the feedback. And that's our goal. We're still working toward that goal. This is, this is a learning year for sure. Um, we are not a hundred percent con consistent in that we are definitely working toward that. Um, would you add anything to that, Dr. Sing or Dr
Just to uh, reiterate what Dr. Ellis said in terms of, uh, if you look back at the focus group report, one of the, one of the big major themes that we heard from, from staff, from families, from students was the lack of consistency from school to school, department to department grade to grade teacher to teacher. Um, so that was one of the things that we were trying to address but not so extreme that it is that one size fits all approach. And I would, um, just like to add for, um, from the teacher's perspective, the feedback that we received was around um, having to use an external calculator. Um, the work group that we have, um,
really urge us against that. And so, um, to get rid of the external calculator, they did ask us to provide a couple of different options for weighted categories, um, which we do. And there is an option where teachers can say their own percentages or their own weights. Um, so there is a lot of flexibility, um, while providing consistency across the system. Um, and so that was an action that we did, um, as a result of the feedback we received from teachers specifically. And I'll just, maybe an example will be helpful. So in terms of consistency across CLTs, the feedback that we received from the work group was
that grade level. For example, in elementary schools, the second grade team will work together to create common assessments for second grade at that school. At the secondary level, the English nine CLT will work together to create common assessments for the English nine team at that school, not across schools, if that makes sense. Okay. Yeah, I think there's just also some confusion about the idea of you can create some common assessments, but that doesn't mean you can't have other smaller
assessments that aren't identical to one another. So just kind of hashing that out. Um, and then I, I also am hearing people that are very grateful to have formatives as part of the grade teachers as well as students feel that that's a, a mechanism, a lever that they can pull to help boost or support. Um, a couple of the comments were just, you know, making sure that that's not making sure that those formatives are things that they have been taught, not like pre-test or things like that. So I guess there was some specific feedback around, around that, especially with middle schoolers I think 'cause they're doing a lot of that. And then as far as the positives, I mean,
teachers seem to report that it's doing what we wanted it to do, that the engagement is up, that kids are prepared, that they are giving it their best shot on the first try because of the retake shift. That there are, you know, higher scores on their first quarter summatives than they've seen in the past because of the retake ability. That there's, um, a clear structure in terms of the progression with late work and that that it's due before the, it's assessed and that the end of quarter stress is down for specifically for teachers.
But also noted that, you know, for, for students too because everything's in 'cause it had to be. Um, so I do think that those are important things. Those were the goals that at least we had, you know, coming outta the feedback. So I think that that's really positive. And then I sent on some of the specific feedback that I got as well so we can continue to kind of address those case by case. But, um, I'm looking forward to seeing what the Q1 grades are and going from there and seeing how we are. I think maybe, you know, end of quarter two we'll have a even better sense for, for
where we are in terms of how this is working for people. But I would encourage the public if you're listening, reach out if you are feeling good or have concerns, let us know so that we can continue to monitor this before the updates next summer. Yes. Since you're speaking to the public, can I put in a plug real quick? So for anyone listening out there, I would just encourage, uh, students and parents or families if they have questions, don't hesitate to reach out to your teacher. Um, talk to your teacher and express your concerns or your questions.
The teachers are learning the implementation of the policy as well and sometimes the conversation could be really, really helpful to them. Um, and also your administrators, but start with your teacher. Yeah. And I just wanna thank you guys for your work. I know at my back to school night, all eight blocks I heard about the grading policy every single block that it was a change. So I think that we got the message that it had changed as parents and um, having the website and the FAQs and all that has been really helpful in terms of being a school board member to redirect people. 'cause you guys seem to, to cover it all. So I think it's an ongoing conversation.
I'm definitely gonna be keeping tabs on things along the way. Ms. Wesoff, I will follow up with you as well. Um, and thank you for coming and if there's, is there anything else on grading an assessment? All righty then with that I believe we are. Is there any new business? Well, with that we are adjourned a record less than 45 minutes. So thank you everyone for coming and we'll see you next time. I.