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good morning i' like to welcome everyone to the Louisiana bard of Elementary and secondary education superintendent advisory council meeting uh just a few reminders if you'd like to comment please pick up a car from Miss
rosson uh and superintendent if you when you go to speak please make sure your microphones are on and you speak clearly into the mics and I'll have Miss Ros roll call or Miss La dramy is not present Mr Burton here
Mr berer here Mr Cole here Mr Corley is not present Dr Eloy not present Dr Fountain is not present Dr Gray here Mr G here Mr javia
here Mr Jones here Dr Joseph not present Mr Martin is not present Dr artling here Mr Powell pres Miss Dilly here Dr Stokes here miss strong not present Mr
touche not present Dr Van metry present Dr voron is not present Dr Walker here we have a quum thank you okay the first agenda item is the approval of minut minutes for February
2025 can I have a motion to approve Dr second second by Dr Walker all fav saying I I okay that motion
passes approve our next agenda item is consideration of revisions to btim 158 people appraisal handbook regarding special education pupil appraisal can I get a motion to
receive Mr second drry uh and now we turn it over to our state superintendent Dr CER uh thank you uh Dr sorry for my delay was ajan on the fourth floor of the capital but had u a
lengthy conversation with me this morning that delayed um I will uh suggest I know it's not directly related to this item but I did want to just speak out about uh the results that we're seeing with students with disabilities Statewide if you look at
results from our uh leap assessments for three consecutive years students with disabilities have shown year-over-year growth um and also if you look at Nate our students with disabilities are both outperforming the national average for
light students but also have absolute performance higher than light students nationally and so I just want you to go back to all it possible and have some conversations with your special ed team and just say thank you for the work that they're doing in that space you know we rolled out um The Playbook about two or
three years ago uh your teams have overwhelmingly uh absorbed that and and have been a part of that and it's you know it's about providing students disabilities more time with content area experts and more time on task and tutoring supports and so I just want to say uh thank you for that and thank you
for allowing your District level special education uh team members to participate in some of the Statewide collaborations that we've been holding over the last few years you know those were not happening for a period of of years uh and we got those that rolling I want to
say three or four years ago and I think it's made a difference so just want to say thank you for that and then Meredith has some information she'd like to share Rel the Personnel good morning uh Mar Jordan executive director for diverse Learners here at the department uh completely
Echo um those sentiments um thank you um to to what you're leading in your school systems um and to our Educators for for all of the work that they're doing um to help help us um grow and continue to improve um so this morning I am happy to
review with you all some proposed revisions to bulletin 1508 our people appraisal handbook which really governs um the way that we conduct child find in our state the way that we evaluate students with disabilities um it Perfection is a
process and so you do have an updated copy with just some last minute um technical edits on talk um through some of those as well so having current and the most updated child
find give me one second perfect so having updated child fine policies evaluations procedures are absolutely crucial um to ensuring that all of our students um and continue the work and support that you're currently
doing um ensuring that those students suspected of having a disability or having a disability receive those supports and services um that they need and so the next slide really just gives you an overview of uh bulletin 1508 the
people appraisal handbook what's its purpose this is really our final uh special education policy that we really haven't done extensive work in or review in um outside of a approximately two to three years ago um we did bring here um
and throughout the state and throughout all of our stakeholder groups we updated our visual impairment criteria um but really outside of that um haven't done an extensive review um in bulletin 1508 and so um this was a huge undertaking
for um our team uh who were sitting there in the back and get them a lot of credit um for helping work through this process um the revisions before you looked at all other language and sections um really outside of of that visual impairment section um and you'll
see um there are a lot um so just a reminder um there are some things that we can accomplish um and have some State specifics but we also had to keep in mind as we worked alongside stakeholders um that everything that we do also still
has to align um with Ida any prescriptions or prescribed timelines that are in Ida we have to to stay steadfast as to those but there are some things um of course in state policy that that we can do many perspectives um many experts
were involved in this as you can see in bulletin 1508 IT addresses um our eligibility criteria for all of our disability learning categories those eligibility requirements all of our related services so all of those individuals uh were brought to the table
in us uh we have shaped these recommend recommended changes over about a six-month at least period um our team engaged all of these relevant stakeholders that you see here from AP assisted technology otpt School Health
Services mental health services social workers speech language Pathologists our Ed diags our school sites um all of those individuals were brought to the table we're also uh meeting regularly now um with our pupil appraisal teams
and appraisal leads across the state providing additional support So we had a lot of opportunities to also talk with those individuals as well um as we shaped uh these recommendations uh we facilitated probably over half a dozen collaborative meetings um that's probably shooting low
um even more one-on-one or small group consults with experts to really give a comprehensive look here um and so we have all of these professionals clinicians in the field if you remember several years ago we also had a related Service Commission so we had a lot of
those people at the table pretty regularly some of the recommendations here um uh kind of follow uh through from that group as well um and we'll also bring these changes um next week to se our state special education panel as
well um for further refinement um and feedback so like I said Perfection is a process um but U hopefully I wanted to pull out um some high level some key edits that I I think um include some high lever changes for you all uh for
your teams that either remove some possible challenges for them um remove some burdens uh add ease to their work um to these processes we know uh we talk with a lot of parents special education processes can be very complex are very
complex um so we want to uh remove some challenges any way that we can um with our teams um with with that goal of providing better support to our kids um we added language that uh adds some support and Clarity for our people appraisal teams um a lot of what you see
were things that they uh recommended and asked and said hey if you include this it will make it better it will make it easy for us um to to to provide um those needed services so uh just a couple of these specifics I think I have two two
remaining slides um and then we can kind of talk through in whatever more detail that you you all would like one suggestion we received was to add licensed specialists in school psychology and licensed psychologists with a school specialty those added uh
uh professionals um is a significant allowability for our school systems for our pupil appraisal teams and school psychologists to have additional and added capacity and additional um assistance uh where they need it um so
this was really important for us to um as we've talked with a lot of people appraisal uh teams um and thinking about challenges and shortages that you may have in finding some of those specialty areas um if if our state language is a
little bit too limiting um right so it it adds that capacity for you all within the speech impairment section I believe that's section 721 we added speech pathologist assistance there um so those are still licensed individuals who can
help support your speech language pathologist um in giving some assessments providing some in uh some intervention and working alongside your school uh your speech language pathologist so adding some of those capacities um for you all for your pre
qual teams um they were really appreciative and thought this would really help them um and open up their capacity um the second one that you see here this has really always been the case um and we hope um that we are communicating very clearly um it's been
communicated very clearly to states by the US Department of Ed that evaluations should not be delayed or denied solely based on a movement through tiered interventions when you clearly suspect a disability and so we added that language
um in there very clearly uh in section 301 I'll give you a real clear example of that right so um when you suspect or you know there are visual impairments um because a student is coming um and those supports those needs are very very clear
there may be medical diagnosis we do not and should not move those students through through some sort of tiered intervention right we can go ahead um open up that evaluation and and provide any supports and services that that they may need um so we added that really
clear statement additionally many of our school systems already do this uh but we added statements in really clear language about comprehensive evaluations considering any Ed delays um any additional disabilities um essentially
uh adding that our people appraisal team should look at um at the entire student um and any concerns that may be there um we're going to evaluate we're going to look for for all of those things that may exist um together based on any referral data any information um that
you may have while this is also a clarification uh we believe it's an important one uh we believe it's a needed clarification in connection um to uh our best in instructional practices a lot of the supports that we've been given um and
like Dr Brumley said um many of your teams um our school systems our special education teams are moving around special education best practices we did update our definition and description of response to intervention um it is one of the first
opportunities we've actually taken to codify some of our best practice work into policy language really defining high quality intervention um within our RTI model in this policy and so we did add some language there you'll also
notice several places where we added um the the language to provide access to General curriculum really signaling to um our special Educators our general Educators as well uh reiterating that the foundation of special education is
general education these are all supports and services that are intended to have them accessing um as much as possible high quality uh teaching and learning um and so we we took took that opportunity around that section um to clarify some
of that and support some of the work that um clearly we know you all are are doing um with some of the results we're seeing so just a few more um our school psychologist uh gave us some really valuable input on updating the language
around um the exceptionality of autism aligning that terminology with the latest research um and the latest uh medical definitions of how uh that disability uh manifests within students we did that in just a few other um
disability specific updates as well um really clarifying that mental health diagnosis mood anxiety disorders those are better appropriately addressed under emotional disturbance and these again were some clarification that pupil appraisal teams really wanted us to
provide um tell us where um some of those things that may cross the line of other health impairment or um fit in that emotional disability category um so we we added all of those some of that recommended language uh we updated uh
policy language around re-evaluations for related Services uh we updated some language that uh re-evaluations should not go through two years of reevaluation cycle so every three years we are
required to conduct a reevaluation one of the things that we wanted to be really clear about best practice unless requested by a parent that we shouldn't go six or more years without current assessments um for these
students so we talked a lot about people uh with pupil appraisal staff we actually created a process probably four years ago called the re-evaluation data review process um so many of our school systems are already doing this and
making sure at a reevaluation we're considering all of that data but of course if a parent says no I don't want any more assessments I don't want further uh data on my student I feel really good about where we are we can't take those rights that right of a parent
to say no I don't want any more testing away um but what we know is we shouldn't get six years down the road N9 years down the road and we don't see some current data um on our students uh within a reevaluation we also had a lot of
conversation around bulletin 1903 we have very specific State legislation now and required dyslexia screeners um and we had people appraisal team saying please pull that over to 1508 make the connections there um so that uh we can
make sure that those screenings are happening and then we take the preponderance of that evidence and within specific learning disability we can note um those concerns of Dyslexia as well in alignment with state law with what we've already codified in bulletin
1903 and so we did that that is a pretty um significant shift here um we have never had a a specific section that says in addition to your specific learning disability evaluation here are some
additional steps you take um as part of pupil appraisal team if you suspect um dyslexia and really though we already know we have a responsibility to identify those students and it's in state law it makes a lot of sense to to
make the connection here in 1508 um another shift uh one of the last ones uh that I'll talk with you about that removes some burden for people appraisal teams is this shift from only accepting um doctor's diagnoses and
doctor's notes from a ajent States um and we opened that up and said we will accept a doctor's notes from any of the United States and I think that's going to we're not real sure why that was there and I think this is one of those
clear places where you all and your teams tell us hey help us out here um and and I'm certainly uh we're certainly happy to do that um and that is going to prevent you all or your teams from having to go to parents and say no I can't accept this doctor's note I can't
accept this diagnosis now I need you to go to another doctor here a little bit closer um and then we'll recognize it and so that seemed like a really clear place um that our people appraisal teams were asking us to help them out with um and we were happy to do that and lifting
that burden um finally uh there there were many technical edits there were a lot of cleanups um aligning to uh other legislation for example um that certified School nurses now must be registered nurses so we changed that here um as well we repealed any
unnecessary language there were places in 1508 where we really felt like our youngest children ages 3 to five um weren't referenced um and we're really left out and we know that's been in place you're doing that um and so that was really just what we considered a
cleanup um but we had a responsibility to conduct child line on on those younger students uh as well and so those are the highest level um you know most impactful I think changes um that we we
did here um in 1508 so I'm happy to talk through answer any questions take any additional feedback perfectionism process like I said we're still going to se next um next week um to get some feedback from uh from them as
well okay Council we open it up for our discussion comments questions Dr one one comment is that as Meredith said this will go to a special advisory panel and you know they are not to say you are not but they are uh
highly qualified experts in this particular body of work and I'll just say this I know my team reviewed the changes this Merit they were very appreciative of the changes and get went into to changes U they also mentioned how important it was to add the
flexibility for the the uh certification of the the school whereas you were previous version you were required to have this psychologist now the flexibility really and those are very hard to find so that flexibility is very much appreciated any other comments
questions Ive we endorse the recommendation okay we have a move to endorse the recommended revisions to both in 1508 uh Mr Jeff Al second second Mr Burton all in favor who must say
I have it thank you by the council yes maam okay that moves us to agenda item 3.2 consideration of revisions to V in 118 Statewide assessment standards and practices regarding cell phones during State
Testing I will turn that over to Super entertain a motion to receive I'm sorry Tommy B second second Dr Walker thank you so just basically consistent with uh what your students
experience when they take nationally recognized exams such as act Etc we're trying to align the um cellone policy uh here and so Mr Lambert can make the presentation sure we're also attempting to bring some consistency across the way that school systems approach these types
of issues when they occur uh some school systems automatically void the assessment when a phone is found some are only voiding if they find information on the test on the phone that suggests that the kid access the phone during the during the testing
period so the first one just clarifies that if a student has the phone in their possession at the time that the test is occurring the test is voided and and then the second uh revision provides for the first time an exception if you have a student who has a health condition that requires them to have their phone
nearby for example for gluc monitoring that's becoming a much more common thing to be done through the phone so we're putting that exception in policy to really clarify that that's okay um and create a process in a form so that folks can uh submit that to us and let us know that that's occurring and then it's then
it's all good so those are the two revisions happy to take feedback on them okay we'll open up to the council for any questions comments no law issue thank you Mr app
that your your your teachers um whenever I had superintendent advisory Council several months ago and then we had it again about a month ago cell phones were discussed and I would say overwhelmingly your teachers were very positive about it and they were not just positive about
you know the benefits but also positive about your implementation so it seems like you all done a really good job on except for one District I'm not going to say I'm just kidding so Mr langry this is very small
in detail but when you look at the revisions of 118 number two this one I read number two is it's very lengthy and hard it took me several reads to truly understand what was being stated while I understood it there may be some better
language to use just a consideration um or we say regardless of the presence or lack of material first of all should we Define testing material like we say material that's just one suggestion and the other is perhaps to set the same
regardless of the presence or lack of material regardless of whether M testing material is present I can give you this copy after just as a recommendation and then the second part number four in number two you reference um
the test will be the test will be boarded but in number four you say the test score of the student will be boarded just consistency of language between those two thank you any other comments feed
back no public comment do I have a motion to endorse make a motion Miss sty and Dr Walker all in favor I saying I okay thank you thank
you next agenda item is 3.3 consideration of revisions to bulletins regarding educated preparation evaluation and credentials and can I entertain a motion to
receive Dr so Dr Joon will make this report but opens up his binder I want to just let everyone know that uh we were able to meet a couple of days ago and talk about the work with aspiring leaders uh and new leaders uhin school systems and I
really think that that's a place where we have a ton of opportunity to support uh if you have individuals that you know you'd like to see step into a leadership role at some point you know us having programming to support those things I think is helpful uh especially if you
don't necessarily have capacity within your district office to assign someone to princial development uh which I know uh a great deal of our our systems don't necessarily have that capacity and so uh you'll be hearing more about the aspiring principle work uh and I think it's good and quality work and I'm
thankful for Dr joean uh and uh his new team member for leading on that good morning uh Arthur Joe on uh Department of Education uh will'll share several updates with you regarding some policies that reside in the office of teaching
and learning um specifically in the Wheelhouse of educator talent and Workforce Development at the April Bessie ldoe is going to be proposing policy revisions to three primary bulletins bulletin 130
which is our regulations for evaluation and assessment of school Personnel bulletin 996 which is standards uh for approval of teacher and our leader preparation programs and bulletin 746 which is Louisiana State uh standards
for state certification of school Personnel policy that we are recommending uh changes around align with other policy as well as system capabilities and updates to
align with recommendations from the computer science commission and the English language uh learner task force uh the revisions to bulletin 130 are regarding evaluation report reporting
the department is removing outdated reporting uh requirements and replacing them with requirements that align to the new reporting capabilities of the new evaluation system the language on the slide shows the first revisions to this
policy and what will remain in policy once all the revisions are made to part a of this section the information that will now be required to be submitted will all be retrieved from the LEF
portion of Le the ldoe will be able to retrieve all information from the system and will alleviate the burden of alas having to submit data to US policy revision two to Part B of
section 701 includes additional reporting capabilities and required in the new evaluation system in Part B the requirements include the final rating score and the percentages and the numbers where available of teachers
leaders and counselors rated as exemplary highly effective proficient emerging and ineffective this solidifies our previous um requirements and all information will be found in the Lees system meaning
no burden to local school systems I always forget to change the slide sorry um bulletin 996 uh changes are specific to computer science the department is updating
teacher preparation policy to align with computer science legislation as well as the computer um science commission recommendations previous policy included the introduction that computer science
coursework would be required in teacher preparation coursework beginning in 2627 the updates here include some details of the topics that would be required to be covered in the computer
science coursework so you can see that the coursework shall include the following but it's not limited to the following it will include an introduction to the K to2 Louisiana content standards for computer science I
do want to stress that these content standards do cover the gamut of kindergarten all the way through 12th grade preparation providers will also be required to have an overview of computational thinking and computer
science content including broad knowledge of computing systems Internet safety and data analysis to enhance student learning as well as an overview of Standards based instruction based on the Core Concepts and practices found
within the Louisiana computer science framework the changes here to bulletin 746 will now be aligned with what is uh just has just been reviewed with you in um 996 beginning in 2030
2031 all certification areas will require this coursework or contact hours that include instruction on teaching students computer science these will be included in many cases in current
coursework that our preparation providers are um adding and all of these will be reviewed by the ldoe to ensure they are in alignment with the content standards that have been create are are being
created um specific language that's added in the um policy is here on the slide and I just want to reiterate that all certification areas will have to have this um computer science as part of
their coursework for teachers to be eligible for Louisiana certification and and Dr J that aligns with legislation right that's yes sir it it aligns with current um legislation as well as the computer science commission
recommendations another change being made to bulletin 746 specific to computer science um and in response to the field and I wish that uh Jared Martin would here because he and I have had hours of conversation around this
but in response to the field the ldoe is removing the literacy requirement that was recently added to noncore secondary specialty content areas you can see here on the slide the um two sections of policy that will be
removed um at April vessie Dr Jos I'm sorry to interrupt just real quick is that also the same concern that Mr pervis had from Livingston Parish relative to their content teachers do you happen to recall I don't recall the
specific content he had but notice this is secondary noncore correct pretty certain I think he he made it a point last time I talked to him that he had concern he s me some correspondents back and forth but I think that that does solve it so thank you yep and again this
is in response to conversations that we've had with the field Dr thank you for all this information I just want to I hate to do like a specific example but I think we may have had the same conversation as well we had
a a secondary teacher getting their add-on ad certification that was is being required to do the literacy train so is my is my understanding correct that this policy change will eliminate that requirement for those types of add-ons as well yes sir okay thank you
yes anything that's not math science social studies are reading so that person who is currently taking the courses to get his certification and has paid that he still because currently under that policy has to continue on and
complete that right and remember that the policy will go to Bassie but then the policy is placed on notice of intent meaning that it could take 3 months typically for it to come off of notice of intent so if someone wants to to have
that certification now then they should continue in the vein that they're moving forward knowing that this will take some time to go into effect but if they want for next you answer my question from Bessie's perspective I would not rely on
this rule for the upcoming school year because it's going to be very tight when it comes off of notice of intent I would expect August of September probably or somewhere around that givee yeah August 20th would probably be the earliest that
this would would go into full effect thank you all right shifting gears um to English language Learners so the El task force has made recommendations for Teacher preparation programs to include instruction on teaching language
acquisition strategies to support elel Learners Um this can be included in already EX existing coursework and further competencies are being developed in conjunction with a work group including teacher preparation providers
as well as many of your system leads who are working in the El space um this is set to begin in the 2728 school year and you can see the specific policy language that will go into effect here on the
slide in order to have policy 996 and uh bulletin 746 in alignment we are making recommendations to 746 in 2031 2032 school year
certification team will be looking for coursework that includes the eel um coursework mentioned earlier um to include the necessary competencies and if you notice all certification areas
will be required to have this e um coursework included in their program um the ldoe will do a coursework review prior to this date to ensure that it is in alignment with the work of the El task
force Dr Brumley that concludes my updates and I'm happy to take any questions we'll open it up to the council any questions comments we have no public comment Dr J thank you can I entertain a motion to endorse
changes to votes in 130 746 and 996 Dr Stokes second by Mr pow all in favor signify signify by saying I okay motion passes so our next agenda item is
consideration of an update report report regarding act 650 numery screener and act 260 numery skills train to receive motion to receive by Mr B second by Mr
Po yes sir um so what we wanted to do is just provide an update report much like we've done um over the reading work over the last few years in response to legislation we wanted to make sure that uh we had um aat for conversation around
some of the numeracy legislation that's passed over the last couple of years um in 24 act 650 pass uh dealing with the numerous and screener that will go into effect for next year uh and then the year prior in 23 act 260 pass uh where
your fourth through e8th grade teachers had to begin uh their Math training consistent with what your K3 teachers did for literacy and so Dr chassan made this report good morning everyone Jenna sass Department of Education um just first a
little update on the numeracy screener so next year the numeracy screener will be administered for kindergarten through third grade um and it will be considered a learning year meaning that every kindergarten through
third grade student will be administered the screener but during this learning year scores may not be reported and they will not be used in school performance scores this will give um a time frame for testing the items and then determining cut scores as
well um it will be administered during all three Windows of the screener and the windows will align with the literacy screener Administration this is just a little timeline for you all to see what transpired over the last several years
and then what's to come the learning year in 2526 followed by the full Statewide administration of both the literacy and numeracy trainers in 2627 our team is hard at work on the numeracy screener across our assessment
content and academic content teams um as they really think about what will be the best items and the best item types to inform upcoming instruction for educators for school leaders and for you all at the district level so we're really looking forward to the
administration of the numeracy screener um and are doing absolutely everything we can to make sure that we get it right I know you said that the scores will not be released but will the districts receive those scores just during that learning year Our concern is around making ens
sure that it all psychometrically aligns so we could provide like raw score type data but it it would be challenging to really make a whole lot of interpretations based off of that data so yes we can provide uh in a way that we have not done with other standardized
assessments a little bit more data in this learning year um particularly around item types that are like can the student count forward from 1 to 10 can they count backward from 10 to one um and then you'd have to make your own assumptions about those different types
of things some of the items we might might be a little bit less straightforward like one version of a question might be a little bit harder that psychometrics would try to adjust for but we certainly could provide some information to guide um and maybe we'll learn over the course of the year that
we can provide a whole lot more uh but we're still kind of in that uh Drafting and and getting to a place where we're really comfortable to all the item types but so far what I've seen it's going to be a relatively short strainer and it's going to really impactful data to teachers in the long term to inform like
the third grade information at the end of the year is really going to tell a fourth grade teacher what it is that these third graders are lacking in foundational skills so we're really excited uh Jenna team is working closely with my team uh in both academic content assessment content and diverse Learners
all at the table to really understand what we're trying to measure here and how to inform instructure practice Mr Burton too I think it's it's certainly something we would welcome is as we go through the year with it if there is information that you think would be helpful just to maintain an ongoing conversation around what we can provide
because we're going to be learning through the years like you're going to be learning thank you as you as you talk about this and obvious as school performance course you know I'm going to ask you a question so next year we're rolling out a new
accountability formula but at the same time what does K3 numeracy and ly look like I mean we already are testing our third graders we we're just trying to figure out how that new system works what are we looking at when we say I mean it's going to be part of school
performance scores I I I mean I would hope that we would get some Advanced ideas of what K3 literacy numeracy screeners are going to look like in the new form yeah so once we get through the the spring Administration this year we'll have two solid years of consistent
full year implementation of the screener we'll be able to provide simulations of what that will look like um the numeracy screener will not go into accountability for quite some time um it won't be next year it won't be the year after that so we have we want to have two solid years of data so that we can look at growth
measures so that we can look at Absolute achievement and really make good decisions around that so we're going to need two years of data before we can do anything with that and we're only into our second year of a full year of implementation of the K3
screener if I could just follow up so right right now next year with the new accountability system there's not been a clearly defined category for K3 literacy although we are in our second year so K3 literacy will not be included in next
year's accountability scores for our students they will not be in the 205 24 25 scores which are this year that are released in the fall they could potentially be in the 2526 once we get the spring data and we have a chance to
look at it and have further discussions with you all about the ways in which we would incorporate C3 um into that but the current policy essentially says that it goes into the ELA component it goes into the math component that's already captured in the
policy in my the question revolves around the screener itself so if I understanding correctly the department is developing the en numeracy screener whereas obviously with the the ly piece we had a um you know a valid and reliable instrument relative to dibles
um how will you test the validity and reliability of this instrument based on your testing over the next two years are you all using any other um Norm reference examples like how is that being developed I guess in in a very
similar way to the way that we do Le testing um and those types of De development you identify achievement level descriptors that then help you determine where exactly a student needs to be to be at proficiency um and you use those with Educators to identify uh
if you got the cut scores right or incorrectly so we have a very standardized process that we do that for leap um some of your some of your teachers some of you may have participated in those different type of bookmarking activities um but we we do have a standardized process that we follow I guess the only concern with
that I I'll probably say is that those are being like while teachers are educated in in the profession of teaching they're not educ I mean they're not Professionals in test developing and or assessment writing so um are there
any other opportunities to pair with and I'm just throwing this out here some type of National Organization that has a standard and a history of developing appropr assessments not saying that department can't I don't want I don't want that to be assumed but when you
talk about reliability and you know the the validity of an instrument we're talking about profal that that is not their primary focus or job responsibility it's hard to hang her hat on on something like this for a long period absolutely so we're partnering
with uh an entity that will provide the assessment uh platform itself they also do psychometric work um we will work closely with them uh we also have psychometricians on our teams um and we also have uh content and content and
both assessment and instruction experts on our teams and we have done this many times where we the the process that we go through with teachers and Educators is not a like a it's not a psychometric process we we talk to them about what the expectations are for this particular
standard we then take field test data we show them in order of what we think the complexity is they identify where they think that this is where we're going from basic to Mastery and they put a spot in the bookmark there's like there's several different really
recognized ways to do it um and we're confident in our ability to to do that we'll be open to feedback as we go through the next two years so um we're really excited about the university screener because in our mind we are really hoping that we can
also eventually get to the point where we can progress monitor between assessments um but I do have a a quick question is the assessment going to be administered whole group or is it individual assessment or does that
depend on the grade level at this time it's looking individual we are exploring ways in which we can separate the components out to potentially be some of it on the computer independently and then some of it oneon-one being done um
you can imagine as you're working with a student to uh to use manipulatives it's really hard to do that whole group right particularly when you look at kindergarten so we're spending a lot of time with uh our academic content my content and our Converse Learners team to really uh try to get this right
before we bring the the draft to teacher and eductive committees Thomas it's also true that you know in working with those groups that we have also tried to provide a priority around like the the amount of time that the student takes doing it so it's not taking them an
extended amount of time it's a quick hit to know where they are and then moving on yeah we're looking at 5 minutes or less to be in and out on that scer um and and in terms of progress monitoring all of the work that I've seen coming out of the team is very easily reproduced by a teacher once they've
given the Stringer they're going to very easily be able to go I know exactly how to do this in my classroom because of the way in which it's actually done it's how do you like how do you take this number and get to this number with the manipulative so it's going to drive instructional practice and create a
really cool progress monitoring tool that teachers can just Implement once a week every other week in whole group or in small group or in GR thank you um knowing that bit of information about possibility of it being individualized helps us because um
like right now coming up in April we have a lot of testing happening a lot of movie pieces in each school so um that will help us to plan for next year knowing that we have another individualized assessment Dr Chad Dr Chad I didn't mean to interrupt
or somebody are we finished with this part I'm finished this part any other any apologize any other comments questions okay we move on to the next part of the update which is around um the required numeracy training which
came um came out during the 2023 legislative session at which time you know we were tasked with developing a training that would really worth fourth through e8th grade math Educators time um and you know I think we really we
really um worked very hard on this with our partners over at um The Dana Center to create a numeracy training that I think is really top-n very much wory of our fourth to eth grade math Educators time and so I wanted to First highlight two systems the city of Monroe and
Richland who are over 50% complete at this time which is fantastic that's a really good place to be um and we have a lot of our Educators most of them across the state according to our data enrolled currently in the numeracy training on
our Louisiana professional learning platform this is some feedback that we've received from Educators across the state um in our numeracy community of practice we have over 50 Educators who have volunteered their time to take the training and provide feedback along the way we've been able to make adjustments
to the training to make sure that it was meeting Educators needs and we've also worked really hard to ensure alignment of the numeracy training to high quality instructional materials that are being used in classrooms across the state and also to the Louisiana educator
rubric so I just wanted to remind everyone about this training and the completion date this one we had a longer Runway from the legislation um to develop the training because there was really nothing as I would call it off the shelf um like there was for our science of reading training originally
and so we took the time to velop that training um and gave you all a Runway to prepare for it during that time but it is a a faster time period in order to complete the training so just highlighting for everyone that um completion needs to
take place by August 1 of this year and so that is a a tighter timeline than everyone had for the science of reading training that was required so just want to continue uh to encourage the numeracy contacts um in every District to monitor
progress so they are able to pull reports and communicate with school leaders about the progress of your math Educators in 4 through 8 grade and then I also wanted to just share with you all that we've also developed a similar training for kindergarten through third
grade and for high school grade level so that's something you all should definitely consider especially as we go into the summer months and we think about professional development um we think about what you might emphasize and encourage your Educators to do through your own PD system and so those are available and I think are equally of um
high quality as the required fourth through eighth grade training I had one more note that is um related to required training but it's actually on the science of reading training I just wanted to note for you all that new kindergarten through third grade leaders
and teachers do still need to take the science of reading training and so they do not necessarily have to take the one that you worked with a vendor off the vendor guide for because we now have our Louisiana Art and Science of teach and reading training available free of
charge on our professional learning platform so anyone who is new next year a new leader or a new teacher to kindergarten through third grade does need to still take that science of reading training that is now available for free on our
platform we did if you all remember several years ago based on legislation we updated coursework and practice requirements um to include the science of reading in reading coursework for our education preparation providers but I
also wanted to note that that does not impact this incoming cohort so if you all are hiring new graduates going into next school year they have not necessarily had that updated coursework and that new practice at this point there was again somewhat of a runway for
our education preparation providers to prepare for that and to prepare their students for the the new practice exam um so we will let you know when you are receiving that new cohort when you do receive that new cohort who has been through that updated coursework in
science of reading they will still be required to do some training of a 2.0 version of the science of reading that we will communicate with you about when we get to that codo thinking about that just from an HR standpoint as a s as a district
superintendent um anyone new that's coming in you might just make it a part of your HR onboarding process to check to see if they already have that and if they don't have it then you can utilize our our modules that we have at no cost to you to make sure that they get it but I do
think it's been really impactful that training has been really impactful and so I think making sure that anyone that's coming into your class rooms um has that training as good the other piece is hopefully um graduates from colleges of Education come out better
prepared moving forward both on the reading fees but you I know we're doing some work on um making sure that they better understand the way in which they'll be evaluated too so hopefully those are two shifts you out of the colleges of EV okay open it up to the council for
any questions comments um tell you something first of all thank you for the numery training it's it is outstanding is there going to be an opportunity to replace the Louisiana content leader which is another know 450 hours in the
past has been a requirement for our CR schools with um act 260 we are currently having discussions about the future of content leader um and I'm happy to gather any feedback from you and your team superintendent Burton um it does seem like some of that
content leader kind of crosses a little bit or even at times with uh some of the same content that's found in these training content leader is in policy and so that's something we have to visit around uh the policy changes that would be required that required in our schools
with academic labels um that also make it a certification option um so those are things that we're discussing right now because we do know that there's a lot of overlap in that content so happy for anything feed back on the language in super at seems to to Le that it's no
longer a require with see can you clarify that so it's a requirement that you either have a trained content leader or you are partnering with a vendor who is from that approved list who can provide your training do you expect do you expect any
update to 1566 agression relative to numy training or numy screen re for next year yes in um bulletin 741 will it be reflected people
progression as well it will be reflected people progression as well hearing no other comments and no public comment we'll move to agenda item 3.5 consideration of an update report regarding third grade retention and promotion can I entertain a motion to
receive drry second Dr gr Dr brle or yeah no I mean I don't think we've talked about this enough in sack over the last two years so we thought we would hit it one more time um
so we wanted to provide once again an update report regarding third grade retention and promotion and um Dr chassan will provide the report so just a few things we haven't yet discussed uh as a superintendent's advisory Council call your attention
today um one is that we did make some adjustments we received feedback from several of you um about our end of year schedule for the third grade uh implementation of the literacy screener we heard that that would be problematic
based on some of your school calendars and so we did make some adjustments that I just wanted to call to your attention they're listed out here around that first Administration the second attempt and then the third and final attempt I do think we were able to land in a place place where we reach some consensus um
that is helpful for your school calendars but also um you know takes heed of I think what was required in the law and also what was intended in the legislation so I just wanted to make that note for you
all um secondly just to highlight the importance of Summer learning and ensuring that you have those highly effective teachers who are trained in the science of reading to work with this particular group of students who are even who are either between um their
second and third attempt or even after their third attempt that you would want to work with through a summer learning program and that during that summer learning program this subset of students is being provided with really solid explicit instruction based in the
science of reading to get them where they need to be for next school year also wanted to highlight for you all that we've talked a lot about good CA exemptions and how they are listed out um particularly in the legislation um and then the policy but I
wanted to highlight that there should be some documentation when using good cause exemption and this little bulleted list on on the slide um really outlines the steps of what should take place when you all are considering a good cause exemption to take place and that there should be
documentation um for why or why not this exemption is taking place and then finally I think most important part of today's update is to call your attention to what happens in that next year um if you all have read the actual legislation around third
grade promotion it's quite ly and so not only does it list out the good cause exemptions but it lists out what should happen for these students in the following school year whether they are repeating the third grade or whether they are going on to fourth grade due to a good cause exemption if they are
falling in that well below category it is very explicitly named in the law what should happen these students during next school year so I wanted to make sure that that was really top of mind for you all that parent notification um progress monitoring and intervention plan the
time that that student spends in a reading block and an intervention block and the teacher that they have access to during that um repeated year in third grade is not only very important to ensure their success and their growth but it's also listed in the law and then
similarly for our students who are promoted to fourth grade because they they have that good cause exemption that is approved they also will need that individual academic support plan um just with good communication um to the
families and also le le support to schools and teachers for strategy implementation and that concludes the thir great Mo update okay any comments questions for Dr chess I'd just like to say uh thank
you for listening on the the second attempt scheduling we were one of the ones who had vo some uh some concern and this right here makes it so much easier logistically for us to get those kids tested okay any other comment
questions thank you Dr chass No public comment with that said the next meeting for the council was June 5th 2025 that concludes our meeting pleas J