Good afternoon. I would like to welcome you to the December 3rd curriculum and instruction committee meeting our last curriculum instruction meeting of the calendar year. Hard to believe. Um, I am Lauren Shernoff and I'm the chair of this committee. And I'm joined by my esteemed colleagues, Dr. Rasheed and Dr. Deans. Uh, we will begin with, uh, normally we begin with public comment, but seeing that there is none, we will move on to item number 3.01. Approval of the draft minutes from November. I will entertain a motion. I move that we received the minutes second from the last meeting. Second,
It is moved and seconded properly. So we will go ahead and vote. All those in favor of the minutes, say aye. Aye. Aye. And those minutes are approved unanimously. Three zero. Alright, we will now move on to our information items we have today. Uh, item 4.01, the welcome center East update and presenting will be Ms. Ris Rosario, director of English Learners. And so we welcome you here and we look forward to the update floor. Is yours. Okay, good afternoon. Um, Ms. Shernoff, uh, thank you for the opportunity
to share some updates on the welcome center and the exciting progress we are making. Opening the second location at the heart of our work is the mission of the welcome center to support students and families enrolling in LCPS with a language other than English or transferring from an international school. Our goal is to provide a welcoming and affirming introduction to Loudoun County Public Schools and ensure families have the information and resources that they need to engage and become supported partners in their students' education.
Why does this matter? Well, the welcome center is often the first point of contact for many of our families. It sets the tone for their experience with LCPS and helps build trust and confidence beyond creating a welcoming experience for families. The center plays a critical role in supporting enrollment and academic success. From handling registrations for F for 60 schools to evaluating international transcripts and determining eligibility for language services. These offerings ensure that every student starts
with their LCPS journey. With the right support and with the upcoming Sterling location, we'll be able to expand these services even further. As we continue to expand services, it's really important to reflect on how we measure impact and identify areas of growth. During the 20 24 20 25 school year, the welcome center was selected by the Performance Monitoring Committee for a program evaluation. This evaluation provided value valuable insights into how well we are meeting our mission and serving families. For those interested in the full report,
it is available on the program evaluation page and it's provided in the link for today. We're highlighting two screenshots from that review. This slide shows the number of unique students the welcome center served during the 24 25 school year. And it's a clear indicator of the center's reach and importance. The evaluation didn't just look at what we accomplished, it outlined opportunities for improvement. Three key recommendations emerged from the review. First, enhanced staff TRA training, sorry, second
improved data collection. And third, the opening of the sterling location. This slide focuses on that third recommendation, improving student and family access by opening a second location in Sterling provided as the link to the direct report Building on those recommendations. We are thrilled to announce that we will fulfill the vision actually set back in 2015. Two welcome center locations, one in Leesburg and one in Sterling. Starting in the spring of 2026, registration services will expand to serve families in Eastern Loudin and zealous South. Shown in the red image of the county.
Having two sensors will ensure equitable access of resources and services in locations that are more geographically convenient for families. This expansion aligns with LCP S'S goals for family engagement and lcp S'S vision for inclusion partnerships and practices. This slide provides a quick overview of the welcome center locations and the school clusters Each will support while more schools will be assigned to the Western location. This distribution will divide student family volume almost equally between the two locations.
This projection is based on a five year average of data. It should be noted that our welcome center team continuously monitors enrollment trends. So school assignments may shift over time to ensure balanced support. So what's happening behind the scenes to make the Sterling Welcome Center reality. We've already begun hiring new staff and collaborating closely with the Department of Digital Innovation on critical logistics. From creating the welcome center east in Phoenix to establishing processes for impacted schools and even determining phone extension deployment,
we've also started conversations with the division of communication and community engagement to increase the welcome center's visibility and strengthen family engagement. On October 27th, select welcome center staff visited the Sterling site to begin planning the move. That said, there's still a lot more to do before we move in, which is slated for mid-February. Once once staff was settled, they'll begin phasing in registration services to the Eastern Loudoun and Dulles South schools with the goal of supporting all LCPS schools by the start of the 26th 27 school year.
Finally, we are working with communication plan for a grand opening and possible ribbon cutting event in March or in April of 2026. This slide shows our amazing welcome center staff who currently work at the historic Douglas location and will be moving to the newly renovated welcome center East. The photo includes from left Chris Ano, the assessment data specialist and our amazing Jennifer Farren who is not here today. The welcome center supervisor who will support both locations, the right lists,
additional staff that are slated to start in January with the two part-time positions joining sometime in the spring. I wanna take this moment to thank the board for approving the FTEs to support our work as we await the opening of the second location. Here are some photos that show some of the welcome center team along with Neil Slevin. Jennifer Far members of the architecture team and myself on a site visit at the end of October. Not visible in these photos is the ample parking for families and staff around the location. The welcome center plan for security as well as a family friendly features.
On the left, there is a photo from inside the waiting area. You can see a guy working in what will be the security vestibule where the gentleman is working is a wi a window that will allow welcome center staff to look out and provide assistance with the AI phone, very similar to what you see in the schools for visitor entering a secu, a security guard and a program assistant will support visitor management as one of their duties. And on the right you can see some of the family friendly facility features like the use of a private consultation space.
As a reminder, families do meet with a registrar or a counselor and family liaison in a conference room. The family then returns to the waiting room and the student goes on to testing. In addition to the private consultation space, all involved wanted as much natural light as possible to enter the space inside the building. This can be evidenced through the large glass panel next to the door and the transom above. We invite you to come visit when all of this is completed. Now in conclusion, as part of the program evaluation, individual interviews were conducted with
randomly selected registrars, EL teachers and secondary counselors and family liaisons. On this slide, we showcase a few comments made by a registrar and a family liaison. I'll give you a moment to read. And on this slide we highlight a comment made by a secondary counselor and an EL teacher. We are proud of the work we do. I wanna take this moment to acknowledge Jennifer Farrin welcome center supervisor and the welcome center staff to ensuring our services are in direct support of school-based staff and offers consistency of services while keeping students
and family at the center of our work. Thank you for this opportunity for our update and we're happy to answer any questions. Thank you so much. This is a very exciting, I was excited to see it pass in the budget as well and, and see that the staffing is gonna be available and I know at least from the registrar perspective, it's just so helpful, such a lift to have all of that work done and have kids coming in with with what they need and families understanding the system. So, uh, the welcome center was one of the first places I visited when I got on the board and I'm looking forward to visiting the new one in the new year.
Um, does anyone have any questions? Yes, Dr. Rasheed. Thank you Chair. I just had a question on the logistical map. I think it was, uh, red and blue with a star. So it explained, I i I think to the best of my knowledge, the like the high schools, the prime high schools or the schools that it, it focused or or centered on. Yeah. Which was this one. So I was just curious with the map with the slide before that, with the one in the east, there's a slight gap between where the hub would be. Is this, uh, how is this determined I guess is my question
in terms of what it uh, what school or what access it goes to because there's a gap between that area on the right side. That's all. I was just curious. That's a great question. I actually asked that myself. That is where the airport is. So we have large areas and data centers. So there are large gap areas where there are homes. Um, and you will see that the agen e clusters are, would then navigate a little more closely to the eastern location. If that answer you think it's, and it's also the roads, So I believe that too is Dulles North and so part of that is Dulles airport.
Um, and looking at, part of it was looking at the numbers of families, the anticipated yes level of services. There had to be some distribution to make it somewhat balanced. And so, um, geographically there is a gap. But it made sense in terms of the numbers from what I recall. Having conversations with Ms. Far and Mr. Zario earlier in the process. Mm-hmm. Anybody else? Alright, we look forward to the opening in the ribbon cutting in the early, late winter, early spring.
Is that what we're hoping for? Sounds good. Alright. Thank you so much for being here. Um, we will now move on to item 4.022 LCPS preschool update. And again, we have Ms. Cherise Rosario, director of English learners and we welcome Ms. Duffin Head Start and step supervisor and I believe she has some other friends with her and I will let her introduce them herself. Floor is yours. Well thank you for this opportunity and uh, as part of the division of English learners, I do wanna say we have the privilege of overseeing the Head Start and step program and I am going to kick this over to Alexis Duffin,
our head start and step supervisor for the presentation. Hello. It's so nice to be here. Thank you for having us. We love to talk about preschool so we love having that space. So thank you. I'm Alexis, I'm the supervisor for Head Start and Step. I have Lori Paget with me. She's the supervisor for Early Childhood Special Education and I also have Emily Hanlon. She is our project management systems specialist. We like long titles. Yes. All right, so we are here and this presentation is really to provide updates regarding our preschool programs. Um, I really wanna highlight areas of alignment and I would like to present consideration
for a few, uh, further alignment. So we're gonna do that by looking at the Head Start and step snapshot. So it's a good way to kind of get that overview of what our programs offer. I'm going to provide some updates and then move into what that alignment looks like and then some exciting collaboration opportunities and then what that looks like moving forward. So this is probably the best snapshot to look at. So when I talk about these preschool programs, I often say they run parallel to each other. They're very similar, yet they're different because of their funding streams. So is our federally funded program, um, step is our state funded program. Head Start serves 100 students where Step serves 320.
Head Start has six classrooms throughout the county. Step now has 20 after our full day expansion. Yes. Um, head Start and actually this is where it's great. So Head Start and Step both use the tools of the Mind curriculum that is new this year, so we're kind of already moving into that alignment phase. Um, and our Head Start program offers comprehensive services, which is separate from our STEP program. And these are, these are our eligibility criteria, so how our families qualify. So families, families experiencing homelessness. Um, we work a lot with income levels, so that federal poverty level. And if you don't know, 100%
of the federal poverty level is roughly 32,000 adjusted gross income for a family of four. So just to kind of paint that picture, it's a federal level. It doesn't matter where you live. So Loudoun County versus anywhere else, roughly 32,000 for a family of four. So families that earn up to that amount can qualify for a Head Start program. Families that earn up to twice that amount 'cause Step takes 200% of the federal poverty level. So 64,000 adjusted gross income for a family of four, um, students with IEPs in Head Start with an income level up to 350% of the federal poverty level step.
It's different, it's an IEP, but the there is no income cap in Head Start if they're receiving public assistance, like TNF Snap or SSI, um, step it's parents or guardians with Low School Achievement. So High School Dropout and Head Start also has students living in foster care. So just kind of paints the pictures of how our families are found eligible. It can be any one of those bullets. It's not all of the bullets. Alright, so let's talk about some updates. Yay. Alright, so we're so excited about our enrollment update 'cause we're fully enrolled. Yay. So our Head Start is fully enrolled with 100 students.
Our step program is fully enrolled with 320. This is new as of last year. Last year was the first year that we filled. So it's great that we're continuing that. We're partnering with our communications department and they're doing a great job really making sure that the word is out. We need to let people know we exist. We have high quality preschool programs and we are here to serve our community. So we have, we are fully enrolled and we are monitoring that wait list. And here's our next really fun update. So we had a federal review in October, so yes, the government was shut down but also we still had a federal review. It happened. Mm-hmm So this was for our Head Start program.
So we went through a comprehensive and we'll call, it's a program systems review and they went through all of these areas so it's not just like one, they go through every single piece and it was awesome. So it was one of those experiences where we got to step back and we really got to see every single one of our service areas, all of those processes and procedures and all of the work that we do. We got to see it like all come together and really kind of brag about it. Like, hey, this is what we're doing, it's awesome. And our reviewers left very impressed. So we don't have our official word. The official word won't come until later.
Um, that probably is due to the government shutdown. A little delay. But they said unofficially that they have no areas of concern and they actually saw many areas of strong, um, practices. So that's a big deal. So whew. Right. And it's more than just our community. So we pulled in human resources, we pulled in, um, April Chandler from school board. She was interviewed. We had parents from our policy council. So it was a big level of this review where often they're just pulling other people in to go through all of this information.
They visited classrooms and they saw all these strong practices. So that was a huge celebration. So that's a big deal that happened in October. Since then, we have applied for the federal grant. Um, our grant actually starts December one, so we don't operate on the school's fiscal year. We operate December one to November 30. And even with the shutdown we received our grant on time. Woo. So that's a big deal. Yes, thank you. So it's a big deal and they funded the whole year. So sometimes they do a half a year, they'll do six months and then they'll do another six months. We receive the full payment. So we are fully paid for this program year.
So it's important to know and it also just kind of helps us see what we, what we're capable of, what we know in Loudoun. And this is really that gold standard. This is how we run our preschool programs. So now I wanna talk about aligning Head Start and step. So this is kind of this next slide. It really kind of shows we pull back the curtain, what are we doing? So we have two programs that are very different but also very, very similar. They run parallel. So we have these different guidelines, but they're running parallel. So where do we find these opportunities for alignment? And over the years we've increased that alignment. So we wanted to call that out
because we've done, we've worked really hard to bring the two programs together to make us stronger. Anything you see the FY 26 next to, that's something we started this year. So that Tools of the Mind curriculum, that's a shift. Head Start was using a different curriculum last year, but we wanna make us stronger. So having that, um, that professional learning together, making that preschool community of teachers is a big deal. We have collaborative learning team meetings. So we actually pull our Head Start and our step teachers together to have that space, that learning space. And it's easier because we have the same curriculum. So now we have that same common knowledge
and that common language to use. Um, another really big piece is our holiday support. So where can we increase that alignment? So if you've walked through the hall, you've seen our advertisement for our holiday give our holiday support for our families. Um, previously, this is kind of going back in history, so now Head Start history, we used to serve 10 families from the Head Start program. So we had holiday event support for 10 families. And then a long, long time ago we said, Hey, we need to increase this. We should be serving all of our Head Start families. So we switched it to 100 families. So 10 to a hundred.
Last year we served a hundred Head Start families and it was an amazing event and we surprised ourselves with the community. Outpour was just incredible. And we successfully served 100 Head Start families. Well this year in the theme of alignment, we're also supporting our step families. So we're transitioning from 10 families to a hundred families to 420. So it's a big deal. We, I'm sure we'll have some lessons learned, but our community is phenomenal. But that just shows how we're trying to align. How can we bring these two programs together? How can we continue to take that gold standard that we have for Head Start and move this into our step program as well.
And you can see we also have an idea for FY 27, um, that we use Second Step already, but you can never have too much social emotional support. So conscious discipline has been very successful in our Head Start classrooms. So we would like to push that into our head, our step classrooms and possibly our early childhood special education classrooms as well to be determined. So go back to that last slide. So now I'm gonna move into consideration for additional alignment. So this year there's been a lot that's happened in the past year. So we've learned over the past several months that it's a good idea to have a strategic plan to continue
to support preschoolers and their families should our funding situation ever change. So with that in mind, we've created a preschool design to consider that would continue to ensure that gold standard level of impact for our families in Loudoun. So that looks like this. It's a unified preschool vision under one funding stream. So should anything happen to federal funding, we have a plan. So we just wanted to make sure we said we've got a plan and this is what it would look like. So we know that we could engage, empower, and enrich our students and our families by delivering high quality, full day preschool instruction. Really supporting that kindergarten readiness
for 420 students. So both, you take both at three 20 and that 100. So we're still serving the same number of students with that intention to grow, provide comprehensive services in a tiered approach. So every time a family applies for our program, they get a selection criteria score and that's how we know what the families need in. So it's a very objective score where we're able to say, alright, this is a family with this level of need. So we could tier our families to still continue to provide those comprehensive services. Um, we could create equitable experiences through those unified resources, having
that professional learning community combined, um, and be in compliance under one set of guidelines. So the Virginia Preschool Initiative guidelines, 'cause that's our grant that funds our step program. We would develop a community hub offering family resources, parenting classes, interview skills, financial literacy, um, just to strengthen those connections and opportunities. So this is basically just a very big picture view of what the program could look like under one funding stream while ensuring that gold level standard of design is still there to include those comprehensive services. So if you remember that snapshot from earlier, it's taking
that snapshot, this is what it would look like. So creating L-C-P-S-V-P-I, it would be state and locally funded. It would be 424 year olds, 26 classrooms using that tools of the mind curriculum and offering those comprehensive services in a tiered approach. So I can't talk about that without talking about what funding would look like. And I also wanna call out, so we have our VPI funding here. We also have our Head Start funding, which as you recall we just received. So it's important to note that we do have that funding for this year. But this is just our, you know, it made us kind of think this year what this is our what if plan. Um, so that's our total preschool funding.
Currently we move to the next slide. This is what a possible reduction would be because our VPI per pupil amount is different from the headstart per pupil amount. So there would be a possible funding reduction and it's all dependent on the state and how many slots they had to offer. So if we didn't have the federal funding and we chose to use VPI slots, it would be dependent on how many they were able to offer. But it would, would create that range here of what that possible funding could be, which would then create a possible funding reduction. Alright, next slide. Alright. So another thing I really want to,
and I'm excited about is to talk about collaboration and expansion. So with VPI in mind and the opportunities we have through the Virginia Preschool Initiative, um, we wanna talk about using VPI funding for students with disabilities, which we believe is an untapped resource to increase funding for students that are already being served. So Lori is here and she is going to be giving an overview of our early childhood special education program and we can talk about how well that also aligns. So next slide. Okay. Doing your thing. Hello everyone. So yes, I'm Lori Pageant supervisor
of Early Childhood Special Ed. Alexis and I already work very closely together, um, with a lot of preschool things. So an overview of ECSE. A lot of words are up there, but the purpose of ECSC is to help bridge those developmental delays or bridge those learning gaps in students who have been identified, um, as having a disability. And those students range in age from two to five years old. Uh, they have, they're found eligible through an eligibility process where it's determined that they have a, um, a percentage
of a delay in at least one or more areas. And those areas are the developmental domains of communication, motor, um, social skills, um, I'm missing that one, but communication. Um, and then we determine based on that eligibility where we can meet the needs of those students. And we have several different programs within ECSE. I always like to say it's kind of like a mini district of its own because we have students who are mildly delayed and just need a little extra support,
but can receive their services in a gen ed setting such as a community preschool that their parents have them enrolled in. We have a class-based program where it's all students with a disability, various disabilities ranging in ages again from three to five. And it's, um, eight students right now. We're trying to keep that student teacher ratio down eight students now. And we have a 2-year-old program, uh, 'cause 2-year-old are vastly different from any 3-year-old in in the world. They belong. So an island on them among themselves.
Um, so we did start a 2-year-old program. We have inclusion programs, reverse inclusion, where we have six students with a disability, six students from the community that do not have a disability. And that classroom is led by special education teacher, which is, is why it's reverse inclusion because it's led by special ed versus being led by a gen ed teacher. We also share four classrooms, um, in an inclusion model with step eight, sorry, four, my teachers eight classrooms. Um, and that is fantastic.
That's been, what, three years, four, five years. Um, and each year we learn something new and we continue to grow. We too use the tools of the mind curriculum, which is just another way that we can bridge. 'cause even if our students aren't in those inclusion programs, we often share students because our students could reser receive services in one of the head starter step programs. Um, so that collaboration is ongoing and um, and we hope to grow that and continue that as we move forward because we are already serving the same
similar population. When you talk about preschool kids, it's just that my, my students have disabilities, um, Alexis's, um, do not necessarily, but they're all our preschool students, so we should be serving them together. Thank you. Yeah. So we started, I think it was five years ago, the inclusion program. And that's been a beautiful way to bring and kind of bridge those two programs together. Um, and it's been a great experience that we've learned a lot from and we really continue, we want to continue to grow that, um, to offer more of those experiences in Loudoun. So with all of that said, it is possible
for VPI funds, so that Virginia Preschool Initiative funds to be used for self-contained classrooms. So that is something that we are currently not doing. Um, VPI funds can be used alongside the six 19 special education funds. And I've actually attended several webinars where they said the six 19 funds aren't meant to fund the whole student. You can actually put those funds together. So you could use VPI for in a special ed, uh, self-contained classroom. So that's different from what we're doing. And anytime A VPI dollar goes into a classroom that becomes a VPI classroom.
So that's important to note. So it would change the structure of the classroom, it would change those guidelines, but those students are already being served. So it's money that could be brought in through the VPI grant for students that are already being served. And we said, what time out? So here's an overview of the three programs. I think it's important to kind of take that step back again. So here's what LCPS has to offer when it comes to preschool. We have Head Start, we have step, we also have ECSE, we have a lot of preschoolers in our community. It's important. We are a pre-K through 12 school division.
We are serving our preschoolers and we are doing it and we are continuing to align to become stronger. So I am a visual person, so I love this next slide. So this is what it could look like. So on the left we have VPI general education, that is our general education step. Classrooms, like we already have in the middle are VPI inclusion. We also have those classrooms. We have eight of them already where we are partnering with special education and they are VPI classrooms. They follow the VPI guidelines. What we're talking about for this collaboration expansion is the image on the right. So that VPI self-contained.
So using both funding streams to support the students that we are already serving in LCPS. So we're just presenting that as an opportunity. This is something that we have talked about moving forward and having three different designs of VPI classrooms and just ensuring that we're following those VPI guidelines. So we are within compliance, but in, in the end, bringing in additional grant funding should there be slots available from the state. I feel like I have to add that asterisk in, but it's a plan. We are forward thinking like that's why we're here. So we're here just to really give these updates,
celebrate the successes of preschool, talk about the alignment, and also show that we have a vision, we have visions moving forward. And we also respond to all the different variables that have kind of been thrown at our thrown our way over the past several months. Um, so moving forward, aligning to strengthen LCPS preschool. So continue to share and expand best practices between the preschool programs. We're gonna do that no matter what. That's what we're already doing. You saw that beautiful heart graphic, the puzzle pieces. We're putting those puzzle pieces together to strengthen our programs. We're gonna continue to do that as much as our guidelines allow us. We want to expand VPI
to include students from early childhood special education. So trying to figure out how can we move forward with that to create additional VPI classrooms in that special education setting. And then I did throw out the considering unifying under VPI, again, dependent upon, um, the source of grant funding. So our goal was to show you that we have solid preschool programs in LCPS. We have high quality preschool programs preparing our students for kindergarten. Um, we are supporting our families, we're supporting our community and we are always considering all of the variables
that are presented and we are continuously adjusting our plans to ensure success. Thank you. What questions might you have? Thank you for that. Um, amazing. I don't, I hope you never feel like you have to prove that we have amazing preschool programs in Loudoun County Public Schools because anyone who steps for five seconds inside any of our programs knows it. And Mr. Slevin and Ms. Rosario know that when things get stressful on the school board, they know when I'm stressed because I will call them and say, I need
to see little people like tomorrow make it happen. Um, and we just go play. And it's been so wonderful. And to see your passion from both of you, your expertise and the collaboration living in the classrooms. I know at Frederick Douglass this year, we got to see the inclusion model in action. And, and something that you mentioned that was just sort of organic that was happening is there's a little one that may be eligible for services, but with that inclusion model, you have that expertise. Those eyes are on those kids that may not have the services or be identified yet. And to be able to reach out to those families
and start to work for through that process and get them in the queue, so to speak, as they get ready for kinder, it's just so many layers of support. Right. Um, I, I can't say enough positive things and I'm so thrilled for your good news because I know a couple months ago when we talked, we were really questioning about the funding and about the review and what all that was gonna mean and if we needed to accelerate this merge process, which I still think is very worthy of keeping on the table in these uncertain times. But wow, so happy to hear this great news because it will help us continue to just do the great work
and hopefully you can sleep at night and know that the work can continue. So I'm very, very grateful overall. I love your passion and your heart for these little ones and it just shines through that you have a heart for this. I do have a couple of questions. Um, one is, you mentioned that the state gives us the slots for VPI. Yes. So if, if we were to merge away from Head Start mm-hmm. And keep those same standards with Head Start, which I love that you're committed to doing that as the bottom line. Um, and obviously I guess the accountability would come from
within, which mm-hmm. I think is a fine thing here. Um, what would be the limits to growth? Because for me, like right now I'm like okay, we're good. We got our funding. Okay, now what, how do we do more? Right? Because I think, you know, my early childhood education background and kids need preschool, right? And we have growing populations that need these support. So what does that look like in terms of growth if we're relying on the state? That's A great question. I love this. Okay, so we are told by the state that there are nine hundred and seventy seven four year olds
that should qualify for our program. So that is a number we are given. But then there is a budget and these two are not in alignment. So the budget is based on actuals that have been used in the past. So even though there are 977 supposedly in Loudoun, uh, in Loudoun County, that is not what our budget is. So I can't just say I want 977 slots for VPI, I won't get them. But what I can do is we can use data. So we can use our wait list data. We could say we already have these students in ECSE in order to grow the slots. And then as you grow the slots, I'm always guaranteed
what I had last year. So we're always guaranteed the three 20. And then if we were to fill an additional, let's say 50 slots the next year, then it would increase by that 50. So you kind of have to work with the state and it's all about the biennial budget too. So knowing that there will be a new budget will impact VPI and what the dollar amount and if that dollar amount aligns with the slot allotment. Does that make sense? It does. Is there a way for districts to compensate for that? Like could a district come in and provide the budget so that you could grow or it has to come from the State? No, I mean we could, half of our budget is local. Okay.
Yeah. So that there's a match, it's required anyway. So it is a 50% match and actually loud and exceeds that 50% match. Okay. Good to know. Mm-hmm. Um, for the future also, you mentioned, um, the standards in terms of like, I'm just gonna use the foster care Yeah. Children as the example. 'cause it was one of those lines that didn't match on the other side. Correct. So if we were to merge, what I'm hearing you say, and I just wanna clarify, is that we could, that's not solely restrictive with step, if we were to merge, you can have higher standards
and include more kids. It's just, it would have to be monitored by LCPS and set by LCPS And we have space available and we have, so as far as like eligibility criteria, 'cause that's where I went 'cause it's not an eligibility criteria for Step but Step, we can have local criteria. Okay. So up to 10% of our program we can determine what that eligibility is. So it ensure that if we didn't have the Head Start program, but we wanted to make sure we were serving our foster care students, that would become a local criteria on the step side. Okay. Does that make Sense? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. And then I think you were called it the gold standard,
but I'm guessing that that means like making, ensuring that whole umbrella is still included in all of that if we were to move forward. Right. The gold standard is really the design of the program and how we go beyond the classroom. So for Head Start it's different because it's comprehensive services. Okay. So we have a nurse on staff, we have social workers on staff, we have a mental health coordinator on staff. Um, we work beyond the classroom to really support the families. Yeah. And we wouldn't want to lose that. Correct. That would be the thing that would, that Is me. The gold would be like, it would have
To maintain it. And that's why every time I had a slide I talked about comprehensive services. 'cause that's what that is. So still being able to provide comprehensive services is critical in the work that we do and the impact that we have on families. And it's evident based on our review that we just had, that we are doing it and we're doing it well. That's awesome. I thank you so much. I'm, I'm so excited about everything that's happening. I, I feel so much better knowing your news and I think it is good to keep this contingency plan because I think that it could give us some more flexibility for growth, but also keep us in the safe zone
so we don't have to put these kids at risk of losing their programs. Right. Which to me would be devastating. Right. Um, I'm sure everybody feels that way. Our, you know, our intention is to grow. How can we grow? Yeah. You know, how can we take what we know and what we know about high quality preschool programs and expand that. That's why we're, again, I keep looking at Christina, we're partnering with, um, communications. Love that. To make sure that word is out. We want to build that wait list. I want to come to you next time and say, whoa, look at this wait list. Yeah. This is why we need to add classrooms. You want to need us. I know. I get it. Any other comments or questions? Yes, Dr. Deans
Question. What is the wait list? Tell me what the wait list is. That's a great question. So, um, we currently have 44 students on the step wait list. But it's important to note that they are all throughout the county. And then we have an, so it's not like I have 44 students in one location ready to go to school because then it would say, oh, then we do need to open another classroom. Currently our wait list is pretty spread out and some of those are what we call over income. We use our local criteria. I just talked about that. Local criteria. It gives us a little bit of flexibility in that eligibility. We actually use our local criteria to go up to 350%
of the poverty level because the cost of living in Loudoun County is so high. So some of those students on the wait list technically are eligible through local criteria, but I'm capped on how many slots I have. So yes, I have a wait list, but I need it to be bigger. So we are going to be shouting, um, preschool programs from the rooftops come January because that is when we start our recruitment for next year. And with those 44 on the wait list, if they don't get in, they just go directly into kindergarten in a public school somewhere. We do refer them to other programs that we know of.
All ages read together is phenomenal. Um, so we partner with other community resources with Parks and Rec. So we will try our best to get that family into a preschool. And if they are unable to, then you are correct that they would not have preschool until they start. Um, they wouldn't have that school experience in Tilt kindergarten. Mm-hmm. I'm sorry, your ratio is eight to one. That's her ratio. That's her ratio. So our ratio, that's for early childhood specialty. Early Childhood, Okay. And it's, I think dependent on the classroom. Yeah. So it's different per the classroom. For our program it is 10 to one. So we have two adults for every classroom.
Our classrooms enroll. Our STEP program enrolls up to 16 students per classroom. And our Head start classrooms currently have 17. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Anybody else? Alright. It's just Exciting. Yay. So great. Yay. This was so uplifting and wonderful. Um, I thank you so much for your work. I thank you for being here and I look forward to future visits with our little friends. Um, thank you so much. Alright. We will allow them to transition because we have a new team coming to the table for item 4.03. We are going to be having an instructional technology update.
And so I will let them transition. And we have coming to the table, Mr. Mike Hendrickson, the supervisor of instructional technology, and Aaron Smith is going to be presenting as well. You're not listed on here, Mr. Smith. We gotta fix that. And then we also have Mr. Donovan, director of Digital Experience joining us today. Um, we are glad to have you. And the floor is yours when you're ready. Well, good afternoon. Uh, it's great to be here to
share a little bit of, uh, some of the work that we've been doing around instructional technology. We've had some conversations, uh, in the past and today we're gonna circle back on some of those conversations and give some update on some of the work that we've been doing. And, uh, so first we'd like to start off by, uh, talking about, uh, uh, the guidance document that we published last spring. Uh, we went through some iterations of revisions on this document. Uh, we brought that to this committee, got some feedback from this committee. We, uh, took that feedback and feedback from other stakeholder groups and, uh, refined
and revised that, uh, document. And, and, and we published a finalized version, uh, last spring. And so, um, uh, this document, if you recall it, uh, helps to articulate LCP S'S vision for how, uh, instructional technology or how student devices support the learning process, the ways in which you'd see those devices support, uh, supporting learning in classrooms, uh, creates a common vocabulary for the different ways in which, uh, that technology supports student learning. Uh, makes some connections to the LCPS instructional framework
and helps support, uh, teacher reflection and school reflection, uh, about how those devices are are being used in classrooms. So, uh, we, we finalized that, uh, document in the spring, and so we wanted to share a little bit about what we've been doing with that, that resource, now that we've got it finalized. So, um, a couple of examples. Uh, we built some professional learning sessions first, uh, in, uh, our lead event over the summer. Uh, we were able to work with school leaders, introduce them to the document, have them, uh, explore and have some conversations around the concepts and the ideas in that document.
Uh, and, uh, you know, engage in some reflection, uh, and, and have them think about what they might take and, and do with that information as they move back into, as they move into the new school year. Uh, on our August staff develop staff development day, uh, we built a professional learning session for our teachers. Uh, and that was an optional session that some of our teachers could engage in where it was, it was very similar to what we did with leaders. They have a had a chance to engage with the, with the document and have some conversations and, uh, engage in some goal setting about what,
what they were doing well in their classroom with their devices and opportunities where they saw that they could, uh, perhaps refine their practice. And we've done a lot of work with this, uh, resource with our instructional technology facilitators, uh, as, um, uh, help having, helping them think about how they can use the contents and the resources in that document, uh, as a conversation starter with teachers, as a way for them to reflect on the practices that they're seeing in classrooms in their schools, and think about where they might see opportunities to work with teachers to en enhance those practices.
So some next, next steps that we are con considering and and engaging in. Uh, first we're, we're gonna continue to find opportunities to engage with school leaders, uh, through some of the existing professional learning channels that, uh, that we can use, uh, existing principal meetings, assistant principal meetings, uh, working with new principals and, and, and deans and trying to, uh, share this resource. Engage more leaders in these conversations around, uh, what high quality instructional technology integration looks like. Uh, and have them think about how they can take that back
and that, that information back and support their teachers. Another thing that we're working on is aligning, uh, the, some data collection tools that we can provide to schools that, uh, help them understand what is happening with their, uh, in their classrooms with these devices. Uh, what are their teachers doing well, uh, where are some opportunities for improvement and, uh, use that data as, uh, as a way to move their practice forward. So, um, one example is, uh, uh, you know, uh, in the, we're gonna share in just a few minutes about some data our
instructional technology facilitators collected last spring using a a a a device usage, uh, kind of, uh, walkthrough tool that we developed for them. Uh, so we're thinking about ways we can take that tool and align it with that document just to make sure it's very clear about, um, you know, what they're looking for on those classroom visits and how it connects to the practices that are outlined in the tool, uh, or in the, in the documents. Uh, and we are working with our, our colleagues in DDI to identify d additional data sources that give schools even more information about what's
happening with these devices in classroom. What are, what are students doing, and where are those opportunities for improvement and refinement as we're considering the practices, uh, the instructional practices. So next we're gonna share a little bit about, uh, some data that we've been collecting around the usage of these one-to-one devices. Uh, we've been collaborating with DDI and with our colleagues in the research office, uh, to collect and analyze some data to try to paint a clear picture about, uh, you know, just what are some of the things that, what are some of the ways that these devices are helping to support student learning
and what does it look like in practice in the classrooms? So, uh, we looked at a, a few different data sources. We looked at, uh, device usage data that, uh, our, our DDI peers were able to collect, uh, through different, uh, tools that they have available to them. We looked at usage data around instructional applications, so software usage and what kind of tools are being used on the devices. Uh, we looked at some data collected through classroom visits, uh, through our instructional technology facilitators, and we used some survey data, uh, from students
and teachers, uh, from a, uh, a, a survey. We participated in this in the spring of 2000, uh, 24. So what we're gonna share, uh, this afternoon are just some highlights of, of some of the data points that we've collected. Uh, we have a lot more data that we're preparing to share in a more comprehensive report. Um, so this is just, just kind of a, a, a highlight or an overview of the, some examples of some of the data that you'll see in that report. So on this slide, uh, this is, um, some data about screen time. So this is looking at some of the tools that DDI has, uh,
that allowed us to measure, um, how much devices are being used during a, during the day at different, uh, grades. Uh, and allowed us to see kind of what does a typical usage look like. So you can see, um, uh, how that breaks down across those grade bands in this particular chart. So this next slide shows, uh, kind of categories of software tools that are used across different grade levels. And I know it's kind of small, um, but hopefully you have it in front of you and you can see it a little bit better. Um, but we can see that, uh, you know, uh,
across four broad categories of, uh, applications, uh, skills, practice tools, uh, content, uh, tools, productivity and collaboration tools. And then other, which incorporates a few different different categories of tools. You can see how that usage breaks down across K two, three to five, uh, six to eight and nine 12. Uh, so you can see an interesting pattern of, uh, kind of more skills practice and content at younger grades and how it shifts up to more collaboration and, uh, creation, uh, as our, as our students get older,
which is, you know, not unexpected. So, uh, we also, uh, had our instructional technology facilitators visit classrooms. We, we did a series of, of, of drop-in kind of dipstick classroom visits across, um, about a month, uh, last spring. And, uh, they were looking for all kinds of information about, you know, what are students doing with those devices in classrooms? Are they using them for what purposes are they using them? Things like that. So, um, uh, here, here on this chart, you can see that in those visits you can see, uh,
the percentage of, uh, of classrooms where students were using devices when that visit occurred. Sure. So what this is showing is, um, when our facilitators walked into those classrooms, did they see devices in use in those classrooms? Uh, or, or, or did they not? So, uh, this shows how that broke down across those grade bands. So in, uh, grades K and one, about 26% of the classrooms were students were actually using the devices. Uh, and that went up to 64% of the classrooms were students were using
devices in six through eight. It doesn't mean that's, uh, I think the, the criteria here was all or most of the students. So it wasn't, um, uh, you know, there, there might have been instances where it might have had a, a few students here and there, but this particular chart is showing all or most, so, uh, another data point from those, uh, observations from those classroom visits, uh, we can see how, um, uh, we can see different purposes or different reasons
for which students might use devices. Uh, and we can see the frequency, uh, with which the, or at which those were observed, um, at elementary versus secondary. Um, so you can see that skills practice was a fairly common, uh, example of how students were using devices when these visits occurred. Uh, and some of them, uh, kind of, uh, were a little less common. And then I also mentioned that we are, we, we explored some data from the 2024 SpeakUp survey. SpeakUp is a national organization that, uh, collects data,
uh, from school divisions across the nation. School divisions can choose to participate in this survey. And, uh, it allows those school divisions to gain some insights, uh, from the, uh, from teachers and students and families and school leaders about how are devices being used, how is this tech, how is technology supporting instruction? Um, what are their perceptions or opinions about, about how technology supports student learning and, uh, or how it's incorporated in the classroom. So, um, here's one example, data point, uh, from that survey.
This is a, a question, uh, of teachers asking teachers, um, which of these, they had a, a range of options to select which of the following are true for you when your students have access to the devices. And so you can see here on this chart some of the most frequently selected, uh, options from our teachers. Alright, we're gonna shift gears one last time to speak a little bit about device deployment models. We've had some conversations about this in the past with this committee, and so we wanted to come back and share a little bit about what we've learned. Uh, I think we'll start by asking Mr. Donovan if you could recap, uh, just kind of
what our current state is, and then we'll talk about some of the data that we've collected. Sure. Um, so the most important thing to note here is that we, on an annual basis, buy devices for kindergartners, third graders, sixth graders and ninth graders. And those devices are deployed and that student maintains access to that device for either three or four years, depending on the grade level in which they're in, um, from first grade through 12th. They keep, uh, they maintain access to that device throughout the summer and it's theirs until, for example, um,
when they hit third grade, they'll turn in their old device and they'll get a new one that they'll keep until ninth grade. Um, the only distinction there to note is in kindergarten, those devices primarily remain in a cart, and when they go home for the summer, we transition those devices for the students from classroom to classroom. So we actually shuffle them either within the school or if they transfer schools, we'll transfer those as round around as well. Um, the last thing I would note here is that, um, some of the primary reasons we have a deployment model similar to this is the consistency and the predictability that it provides, not only
to our staff, our students in our schools, but also to the board when it comes to, um, our ability to predict funding in future years. So, um, just to recap, um, we know that we have our one-to-one deployment model across our K 12 classrooms, uh, in card in kindergarten. Our devices are stored in carts in the classroom, uh, grades one through 12. Those devices are brought home daily, uh, and charged at home and, and, and used at home and then brought back. So, uh, we wanted to collect some data on, uh, adjustments that schools might be making to this,
uh, to, to this model. We, we, we have heard anecdotally, uh, you know, about different classrooms making some different choices or different schools or different grade levels making choices, but we didn't have a great sense of how widespread that might be. Uh, so we wanted to collect some data to learn a little bit more about what those practices were and, and, um, how that was, you know, what kind of patterns we might see. Uh, so we asked our instructional technology facilitators to share a little bit about the practices in their, uh, in their school. And this is the data that, uh, that we collected from that. So this question here is, uh, how many teachers in a, in,
in a school are using the standard deployment? So are, are, are keeping things the way they, they are, are, are designed by the division, uh, kindergarten, uh, devices in carts, one through 12 devices going home with students. So we can see here that uh, the places where the largest adjustments are happening are kindergarten and first grade. Um, so, uh, in our kindergarten classrooms, about 80% are using that standard keeping in the classroom on a cart model. And then we have some adjustments that are happening either,
you know, in specific grade levels or across all cla sorry, in specific classrooms or all classrooms across, across a particular school. Um, and then in first grade, we've got about 75% using that standard model of, of sending those devices home with students and about 25% that are making some adjustments in some way. So schools, uh, having some flexibility to adjust these models comes with some, some challenges and some potential opportunities. And, uh, so I thought we, we would highlight those here. Uh, so, um, allowing schools to have some flexibility and,
and how they're deploying these devices and where they're storing devices and things like that, that could, uh, you know, create an uneven family experience as families. Were talking to another, and I've got a first grader over here, oh, I've got a first grader over here. Well, this is what my school does, this is what my school does. That can lead to an uneven experience. That can lead to perhaps some, uh, some, some questions from families about why those differences, uh, exist. Uh, and what we've seen, I think, again, through, through an anecdotes and, and through classroom visits, is that, uh, without a, a way to store and charge these carts
or schools are getting creative, if they wanna make some adjustments to the model, and those, uh, that creativity sometimes can, uh, create some risks, uh, as far as, you know, too many devices, uh, plugged into things that maybe aren't designed to handle that. Uh, uh, creating tripping hazards or, or, uh, risks of breakage as devices are kind of stacked instead of stored neatly in, in, um, in, in purpose-built carts. So some opportunities though is, uh, you know, are, are some of our schools are clearly seeking some flexibility to align with what they feel their school's needs are,
their students' needs are. So that provides, uh, you know, that having that opportunity allows schools to tailor to those needs. Um, and, you know, teachers in schools can, can, could modify those practices based on, on, on the instructional needs that they're trying to address. So, um, some examples of that are, are we have, you know, uh, in some places where our, uh, kindergarten classrooms are making adjustments and actually choosing to send devices home, uh, they're, they're doing that for, for intentional purposes, right? The teacher has a reason why they want the students
to be able to engage with those devices, or they think the families need access to those devices. So, um, it's, it's good to have flexibility for schools, but it does create also some, some challenges. So with this information, I think we have some options to consider. Um, option one is just to kind of keep things the way that they are and, and allow schools to have some flexibility, but just know there isn't a whole lot of support for, for, um, uh, what choices they might make. Option two might be to, uh, ensure more consistent application of that deployment model and try to build that consistency if we decide
that's important, that we want that school to school consistency, that we work with our schools to try to make sure that that's, that's something that we have in place. Option three might be to look at, at, at first grade specifically, which that seems to be the place where most of our schools are making some choices about how they might differ from the model. Um, one way to look at that might be to think about, uh, extending that charge at school model, uh, maybe for all classrooms in first grade. Um, that would have some budget that would have budget impact because we would need to procure carts for that. Uh, that would have other impacts as well as far
as schools needed to find space for the carts in the classrooms and, and things like that. Uh, option four might be to more formalize some of that flexibility to give schools options for maybe requesting carts saying, you know, we'd like to store these in the classroom. Uh, we, we'd like to request carts for this many classrooms so we can, so we can have some of that flexibility, uh, that would have budget impact as well, but not, not clearly, not as much as, as doing it district-wide. That would, uh, come with, uh, some, uh, procedural,
uh, you know, challenges that we have to work through is, you know, what is that request process? Where are these things stored until schools request them? What is the right amount to purchase? What happens if we have more requests than we have carts? There's some of those logistical things that we would have to work out if we were to look at those kinds of, uh, those kinds of options. So our, our suggestion moving forward is to, uh, to do some of that kind of, Uh, planning for some of those different scenarios and, and perhaps bring that back to this committee for some feedback on, on, uh, what that could look like. And with that, we're ready for some questions. Alright. I really appreciate you bringing this.
Um, this has been something that has been weighing on me since I've been on the board and really since COVID teaching and since we went to the one-to-one device usage. And it's something I'm really ready to seriously consider tackling. I think, I think I'm at that place I'm hearing from my parents, I'm hearing from our community about screen time and, um, just trying to understand that better. So I, I really wanna thank you for doing this legwork on this data. I, I, it appears that it was a lot of work and I know that this will have possibly significant budget impact.
So I am preparing myself for those battles if I need to fight them in January and so on. So I am very appreciative personally. I have a lot of thoughts and questions, so I'm gonna actually defer to my colleagues first, um, and see if anything overlaps before I jump into my pool of questions. So, Dr. Deans Get everybody cards and I leave it to you to figure it out. That's it because I'm leaving. Let's go. I'll take it up. Okay. Um, on slide nine, who are the other,
uh, related to the use of, Yeah, so we, uh, looked at lots of different categories of, uh, applications. And so that other category, uh, includes things like assessment tools, utility tools, some smaller examples of tools that maybe, uh, didn't need to be called out individually, but we wanted to recognize that there were other uses happening with devices beyond just those, uh, just those four on the chart or those other three on the chart. Okay. And do you see any impact
with the new implementation in January of no personal device use? Do you see any impact on this As far as impact on what data we might see or what usage we might see in, in, in student devices? Um, I, I think that, I think there will be some instructional impacts. Uh, there might be some, you know, uh, school impact, I, I don't know if it's gonna change dramatically the way students are engaging with their assigned device. Um, I, I think that we would probably see pretty consistent examples with, with what we're current currently seeing. And I would just add that keep in mind, currently K
through eight students are really, they're bell to bell, no personal technology, so the no cell phones. So they really are leaning on their LCPS. So we don't, I don't envision that a, a massive shift in those device usage or what they're doing with the devices in those grades. I think if we're gonna see anything, it'll be ninth through 12th graders who adjust from not using a personal device like their personal MacBook to re uh, embracing their LCBS Chromebook for that work. On slide 10, why do you suppose there's a drop off in grades nine and 12 in terms of usage?
Yeah, I, I, I don't know if I have a great explanation for, for that. Um, I think that, uh, you know, what you might see in, uh, as students get a little bit older, uh, you, you might see more collaborative, more projects, more, more peer-to-peer interaction perhaps. I mean, the, the, the drop off isn't, isn't enormous. There's a slide on that. There is a slide on that, correct. Yeah. And, and so, um, and we do have that broken down from six eight to nine 12, so we could look to see if there's any difference in the different types of activities we're seeing in classrooms at those grade levels.
Um, uh, but it does seem that, uh, you know, that middle school is where our device usage peaks and, and I don't have a great explanation for, for why that is at this point. Okay. Slide. Oh, sorry. Can I add one thing in for that? Mm-hmm. Um, I do think that when you look at this after this next semester, when those nine through 12 students are the one who are primarily using their own personal devices, so keep in mind this is assigned device data. So we look at this in a year after they're required to use their SPS Chromebook, you're probably gonna see some numbers shift there for the nine through 12. So, um, the data we're able
to collect is when they're using our systems and our devices. Right? Okay. Slide 12, the speak up survey, that's how do we compare to surrounding districts or surrounding, um, states. So that's, that's something we'd have to go back and, and get for you, but we can, we can take a look at that. Uh, the last time we participated in SpeakUp was 2024. We do not participate last year. We don't currently have plans to participate Okay. In this year's survey. Okay. Um, but they, uh, when we participated in 2024, it it,
it was a part of a statewide implementation. So I know the state does have some data and in fact, the questions that were asked on the survey were tailored somewhat by the state because there, there were certain things the state was interested in, in learning about, um, from Virginia divisions. Um, so we, we'd have to take that back and, and bring some of that back if that was something the committee was interested in seeing more about. Okay. And slide 16, I'm leaving the board. So Like, like everything, there's there, there's, there's trade-offs, right? There's, there's pluses and minuses to different approaches and, and I don't, I don't know if there's a, a right answer and a wrong answer. I think it's a, it's, it's, it's weighing of pros and cons,
Dr. Rashe, anything? Alright, I'll dive in. Um, I fundamentally struggle with this so much and so I, I want to preface what I am gonna ask and say with that is not you, it's me truly. Um, I think that what, what troubles me the most after reading the anxious generation and seeing the anxiety and the mental health implications of screen time and all of that. And I understand that it has a purpose in the classroom, but it's more about a compounded issue for me. And we became so digital so fast
and so young with what happened with the pandemic, and I understand it was a necessity and I, I just feel like we haven't moved far back enough because the world has changed, but developmentally our students have not. And so I'm really struggling with that in our spaces. I'm struggling with it when I see many things. I, you know, when I see a lack of play in the younger grades and I see increased rigor in standards and more things happening faster at younger grades. So truly this is just a compounded issue for me.
And it's one piece of the puzzle, but it is a piece of the puzzle that I feel like maybe we could have some real tangible impact, especially in primary grades. Um, and so that's where I'm coming from on this. So I'm not trying to be hard on you all, but I also just have so many challenges when I see and worries when I see some of this data. So I'll start, I'm gonna work through the slides too. So I'll start at slide eight. Um, and I obviously grateful to see that the numbers are, you know, for K one are, you know, average of 17 minutes, again, this is when they're one-to-one on their device.
I was in a classroom today, the day started out with morning meeting with SEL slides, with videos embedded. So that's screen time that we're not accounting for. Then they go into their literacy block and half of their literacy lessons are on slides and they're sitting all staring at the screen. Then they go to do literacy centers and they're, some of them are now playing games or doing Lexia intervention on a screen. So as the day goes on, that compounds more and more and more. And I understand what you're talking about with slide 10,
but I wonder if we went in and said, if kids are looking at a screen of any kind, I think it would be way higher just from my observations, because that Promethean board has become the focal point of learning in almost every primary classroom that I enter. And so I appreciate that one to one. This is the case and the numbers are lower in our primary grades, but I don't think it really gives the full picture of what is actually happening with screen time in our school. So if we can minimize that one-to-one,
which is a piece I can control. 'cause I, I don't think I can take away SEL slides and HMH slides and, you know, rewrite the curriculum for everyone. Um, and certain teachers use different moves to do different things. Um, but, so that's what I'm looking at when I think about these numbers. And I'm appreciative of them and I'm glad they're lower, but I also still feel worried. Um, that wasn't really a question. A lot of this is gonna be more of a soapbox. I'm sorry. Um, the slide nine I'm wondering is if I could have some kind of breakout, not today, but in the future of what apps you're tracking for each
of these different categories. Do we have that? Yeah, we could, we could provide that. It's a a pretty long list. Um, I'll take it. And, um, so, uh, what we did is we, we took some data that we, uh, had access to through tools that we have available. Uh, and we, we did some, some crunching of that data. So the, the, the tool itself didn't spit out and tell us, these are your skills practice tools, these are your content tools. Okay. We had to kind of go through and do some categorization and use, uh, some categories that we, you know, sort
and organize things inside of our EdTech catalog and things like that to, to figure out which things fit into which categories. Okay. But I'm happy to go through and, and I could pull out some examples or I could pull out a comprehensive lists, uh, of what fell into these different categories, which specific titles fell into these different categories, if that was something you were interested In. I'm very interested in that, so I would appreciate that. And then my other question is, this data is all during the school day. Correct. Do we have any way of tracking? I I get like a report each week from my kids who are actually on screens right now sitting over there, um, which is not a great look.
I get it. Um, but are they, are we able to track what the usage is at home in terms of if they're doing skill things or is this most, is this data mostly during the school day? So, so this data is inclusive of both in school and at home use. Oh, wow, Okay. Because that was the data that we had available to us and we didn't really have a great way of breaking that Down, parsing it out. Yeah, no, that's great. Yeah. So, um, but we, we do now we're, we're, we're exploring some additional tools that give us a little bit more granular visibility, uh, in
as to what's in school versus what's at home, which we didn't have when we were, when we were pulling and analyzing this data. Yeah. But we now have, um, at least, um, in the short term as we're exploring some of these other, other resources, um, so this, this particular data is inclusive of, of, in, in school and at home. And we could look to see how we might break that down further now that we have some more tools. Yeah. That actually makes this data feel a little bit more favorable to me. So good news there, guys. Um, the next thing is, uh,
I mentioned the classroom usage. I would be curious if we included any screen what that would look like, but I'm not asking you to do that. I, I know it's way higher. Um, and then the other thing I was gonna ask, oh, in terms of the survey data, so the, you called it speak up? Is that what it is? Correct. Okay. So this is another thing that makes me a little bit nervous is like when people feel like they can better personalize instruction on a device versus, I guess the question would be versus you,
yourself, the teacher, I mean, I guess the question is not phrased that way, but who can better personalize instruction than the teacher? Like, that's scary to me. 69% feel that way. So I, my response to to to that is as I think it's, it's, it's not, not so much the device as it as it, or as it may be the, the tools and resources that are available when using the device. So the Ability to assign different things Are, are, are there options that you have with the device that you wouldn't otherwise have that could help support differentiation? I think the answer to that could, could certainly be yes. From teacher's perspectives. Okay.
And then, I mean, not to harp on the development thing, but when we say like, skills practice, and I understand that the younger kids are gonna be doing more skills based work than productivity and collaboration, that's developmentally appropriate and makes sense to me. But who monitors the skills? Who's following up? You know, I, I, there's just so many questions for me as an educator that make me just wonder so many open-ended things about the purpose of those programs on those devices. And I know they're well intentioned. You've heard me talk about Alexia before and I get it
and I get its place, but it's, again, it's those follow-up questions that leave me wondering because if they're five years old and they're doing skills practice, like who's monitoring that a device? I, you know, so I just, that, that's my wondering about it. And that's really where the angst comes from. Okay. I'm gonna close it out. Okay. Go ahead Dr. Rashid. Thanks. Thank you so much, chair. Um, I was just curious, I know this is all I'm assuming on their Chromebooks is, am I correct, I just assume it's on there. Is there a way that any of these, whatever they're using,
whatever the students are using, apps or programs, is there a way that could be, um, is that that could be linked to their personal device and if so, is there a way to monitor that? So, uh, what Mr. Smith can, correct me if I'm wrong, if a student happens to be signed into the Chrome browser with their LCPS account, uh, on a personal device, some of this data would be collected on that device. But that that's if they sign into the browser and therefore get the extensions and things like that, that are collecting some of this, that, that are doing some of those measurements. That's what Yeah, that's what I was getting at. If they could
Do that. Um, the teams did pretty extensive work to pull data because there's not a single tool that's like, this is how much time a kid is using a computer. It is internet content filter data. It is LPS go data to know how many things they're using. But that doesn't mean they're always using LPS go. They may be going directly to an application. So we, it took the team about six months to build an application so we can have some insight into this. So that's one of the reasons we're it's a 24 hour snapshot instead of just school time because school time's vary and it's casa or what does that look like? So we just kind of took 24 hour snapshots of some of this data just to have something to look at.
'cause there isn't like one tool that's just a kid did 30 minutes of this thing today. So that's, to even get to this number was a pretty extensive, um, data modeling project. Uh, that includes, um, all, pretty much many different LCPS teams to kind of get here. So, um, yes, there is sometimes a student it captures if they're using, if say they're using a personal device and they log into LCS go and then that's how they launch into an application, we would, we would, would capture that. But if, um, they're not logged into their Chrome browser with their LCPS account, that we really start to lose visibility into what they're doing. Uh, so this is really the best snapshot we can have at the,
at this time using with the data that we have. Yeah, I asked because my son is able to do that 'cause he just likes his own Chrome. Uh, just 'cause of ease of use. But I wonder about this data. The other one is, does this data include VDL students in VDL at all? Is there any type of incorporation of that in there? We, we provide devices for all students in virtual distance learning. And so they have their Chromebook, they have their accounts and they're doing, they may not be in a physical school building, but they're still accessing, they still have the same tools and the same ability to access in the same pathways. So they would be captured in this data. Okay. They're captured. Okay. Yeah. Um, I often wonder like if we didn't have COVID,
how would this data be? Would we have, you know, I, I remember, uh, chair s Shernoff was mentioning that, you know, COVID 'cause it was kind of like the catalyst of kind of pushing all of this forward and making it go fast. I am excited, a little hesitant just like what, uh, she said, I am excited though 'cause I know that the world is changing. Um, but yeah, linkage to, you know, uh, anxiety and a lot of, uh, a lot of issues that are brought about makes me a little hesitant. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Rashid. Um, last piece is the next steps.
So I got Dr. Deans over here that says carts for all. I'm not gonna go that far yet. Um, but I would like to see an option five and six on here that, that prices this out for K to three. I, ugh, I was toying with saying K to two, but after seeing everything, I mean I just, I really want them to be little still. And I, I would like to have the options and if that means doing that through the budget process and asking in the budget process, I can get people on that. But I will just give you a heads up.
Like I, this is gonna be something that I'm going to be pushing. I feel very passionate about it and I think that it is a way for us to really impact students at a high level that is not taking it away. We're still leaving it as a very viable option. I know carts are expensive. I think you quoted $850 a classroom. Um, but we, yep. I'm gonna figure it out 'cause I wanna figure it out. So I would love to have the numbers loosely or whatever we need to move this forward.
And just to highlight how we got to kindergarten classroom carts was, that was a board initiative that was directed in funding allocated in order to do that. So, um, you're talking $850 a cart, that's actually cheaper than the last time that we did this in kindergarten. So the prices have come down a little bit. Um, but one of the things I just kind of want to highlight here too is the logistical why we have the structured a little bit this way because it aligns with like, can K one two use, um, smart cards to log in. So they don't have, they don't have to type in their user ID and password. So device configurations, what the content filter alignment is,
what they can access and what they can't access. So if we kind of think about them and like there's, there's other things other than just how they're using the devices that are like technical configurations. And really shout out to, uh, Mr. Donovan here, whose team does 30,000 devices every single year that's 30,000 devices in 30,000 devices out. Amazing. Plus in an elementary school they're deploying kindergarten devices and then they're rolling kindergarten devices to first grade and then they're deploying devices to third grade. So they're really doing three grades worth of deployments every single summer. So it's just a, a logistical thing that we just wanna make sure that
we have accounted for there too. Yeah. Other than just the $850 per cart to just get those things out there. For sure. I appreciate that. And I also feel like I'm gonna need to like, get feedback from teachers and I mean, this would be a, it would be a huge shift. And I'm not saying I necessarily think we can go that far so fast, but I'd like to have the options on the table to play with. Um, I think Dr. Dean's wanted Ask some, but go ahead. I just wanted to add that our recommendation for that would to be consistent, like not like 50% of first grade classrooms. Right, right, right. It would be all all or nothing because we would want to have the option to offer it to all.
So when we we budget for it, we'd be looking at total count of kindergarten classrooms, total count of first grade classrooms. Total count of second grade Classrooms. Yep. I'm on board with that plan. Yes. Dr. Deans, I want to say that I'm not as concerned about the, um, the, the screen time as my co colleagues are because I have, um, an 8-year-old in a different school division who that was personalizing her options was what, um, get got her attention to stop her from flunking
around the room, um, and stop her second grade teacher from saying, oh, we need to hold her back 'cause she's not reading these books, but she was reading books from fifth grade 'cause she wasn't interested in those from second grade. So I think the personalized options are good for advanced students and or for students who may be a grade behind. And so I'm not as concerned about that screen time. It depends on what they're doing on that screen time. And having been an administrator in a psychiatric hospital,
we had ki psychiatric kids in the adolescent unit to do two grade levels in one semester because yes, we look at the results of what they're doing on the computer, somebody has to, or there's no need for having them on the computer. So I I I, I don't, I don't share their concern about the anxiety related to screen time. Fair enough. Any other closing comments? I think that's good. All right. Well I appreciate you listening and I know I'm sorry, uh,
but I think it's an important topic and the data that you've provided was really, really valuable and I know it, it took a long time, so I really appreciate that. Um, we are, we will be able to use it and put it to good use. So with that, we will move on to item five, new business. Is there any new business? No, I have one quick thing. Um, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but I asked staff to be here to, to answer it, so I need to put it on the record. Um, after report cards went out, uh, this time I did get a fair amount of emails from parents asking about the change in elementary
school comments. And that were, I think was a change. So I just, right. And I, I had vaguely heard something about it, but I was just wondering if someone could offer some clarity about how that decision was made, um, so that our families would know. All right. Come on over. Yeah, Good evening and thank you for the question. We're always happy to talk about anything and everything. Elementary. I'm Elaine Lehman, director of Elementary and charter schools, and I have with me Andrew Davis and Brian ple, who are executive principals in the office of Elementary education. And, um, took the lead on the report card project this year.
We, if you have a moment, we would like to provide you with a little bit of historical context and then exactly what process we went through at five minutes tops. So the history of the elementary report card, the primary purpose of the report card is to communicate with parents, uh, academic progress of students. The elementary report card is a pretty comprehensive document in that it has a summative grade under each subject. It has strands under every subject that detail the content of the subject, the skills in math, the skills in reading, the skills in writing, um,
and then a level of mastery for each strand and an effort grade for each subject as well. Additionally, an elementary report card has a section that, that is called characteristics that affect learning, which speaks to the readiness and social skills that impact a child's ability to access learning. Our content supervisors map each standard of learning to the content strands, which appear on the report card, and elementary teachers map each assessment to the assigned strands. All of this is viewable to the guardians of each student via Phoenix. Our student information system, we have used a similar report card format for about 30 years.
It's my 29th year in Loudoun County. Uh, over that time we have seen the creation of internet online portal for parents to access grades and assessments on a daily basis. A variety of parent communication tools. I could list them as long as my arm that enable teachers to communicate in real time throughout the marking period rather than four times per year, solely via the report card. And currently the data shows that about 50% of parents access are online system, which means 50% of parents are even looking at the report card and 50% are not looking at the report card.
Additionally, at the elementary level, we require a parent teacher conference with every family, every teacher, every student, every family at the end of the first marking period to go over the report card format at the progress of the individual student throughout the year, elementary teachers are required to contact parents of students who are demonstrating any behavioral challenges that will result in a less than satisfactory mark under the characteristics that affect learning. Or for any student showing a significant academic performance challenge that would greatly change their grade at three, four, and five or the marks at grades K through two
elementary teachers spend significant amounts of time preparing the report card comments. And for years, elementary teachers have compared our report card with that of middle and high, middle and high for years, had dropdown comments. The middle school and high school report card has subject like math, physics, and A grade. That's what their report card has. Whereas ours has, you know, about 15 lines of, of coding that needs to be done. Um, teach, they had drop, they used to to have dropdown comments, pleasure to have in class, needs to be more attentive, things like that. Uh, they no longer have anything at middle and high.
So, um, just giving you some context, teachers were often asking if they could be provided with dropdown comments similar to middle and high school. Um, additionally, the report card is part of the student's official academic record travels with the student should they move to another school or district. And the elementary comments varied widely in content and quality classroom to classroom, school to school. Um, receiving this feedback again from teachers and principals last year, and coupled with all of the challenges teachers are facing right now, as well as our challenges in retaining teachers and burnout and things like that, we thought it was time to address this
as a potential way for teachers to gain back time for planning and instruction. So now I'm gonna ask Andrew and Brian to provide some, a brief overview of then we did make a decision, we then went through a process to determine whether we should make a change and I'll let them describe what we did. Any we're good? Any, any questions about? Sure. Sure. So, um, this process started, uh, back in the spring and, um, uh, we began to look more deeply into the idea of possibly removing the,
the comments, um, and providing more stock comments, um, that really captured some of the most important pieces that needed to go along with the child, whether it be, uh, comments about summer school, possible consideration for re retention, um, that we already required teachers to put on the report cards anyway. Um, also if a child transferred in, um, and yep. And attendance concern, you can turn your micro microphone on. Yeah, you want to feedback, right? Hang on. Exactly. Um, and so we kind of, uh,
we looked into it and we presented it to the principals first to get some feedback from them mm-hmm. And, uh, surveyed them. And, uh, pretty resounding was, yes, we, we should consider this. Now, um, as some of your parents had concerns, some of our principals had concerns because the two, two out of 60, about two outta 60, two out 60, Um, and even them, uh, they understood the reasoning behind it. Um, but uh, when we look at the number of resources
that parents have access to, the expectations that are, that teachers have of communicating to parents, um, this was one of those things that we felt, um, was an easy win to be honest with you, to help support our teachers and to take something off of our teachers, which is typically redundant. What is shared oftentimes in those report card comments is a redundant thing that's already been shared with, with teachers or, or excuse me, with parents or something that they had access to throughout the quarter. Um, so With that, so beyond that, um, when we, uh,
surveyed the principles, we wanted to make sure that we were streamlining really important information that was really pertinent to our families. We wanted to make sure we unpacked the characteristics of, of learning. And so we really gave some of the families a little more information, maybe families who were not able to come to the conference who didn't understand, uh, those characteristics. And so we wanted to make sure that those streamlined, uh, comments were available across all schools for consistency. Um, as we were developing the comments, we had a focus group of principals to provide feedback to see did it meet their needs.
And the focus group were principals from across the county, uh, from a variety of elementary schools to make sure that we were gathering everyone's perspective. Um, and then we wanted to make sure that we also had a communication plan so that teachers knew how to communicate this change to parents during the first quarter conference. And so we provided a pretty lengthy script for our teachers to utilize as well as community messages for every school to send that out to their individual community. So if there were questions or comments or concerns that they were able to address
that in real time for this first quarter. I think the other key piece is, um, teachers still have the option to provide a personalized comment if they feel it's necessary because sometimes there is, uh, a necessary reason for having a personalized comment. It's just not now the expectation that all teachers do. That Perfectly said. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I support it and uh, I'm glad we took something off the teacher's plate and thank you for answering and being here tonight. With that, we will move to adjournment and this meeting is adjourned.