It is focused on addressing the systems and structures necessary to ensure that all of our students graduate with the knowledge, skills and experiences necessary to thrive in this world. The purpose of our discussion today is to
provide feedback on the plan's progress and content. The strategic plan will return to the committee in May for finalization in June. So at this time, I'm going to bring forth the informational summary and
introduce my fellow board member. Go ahead. Good afternoon. I'm Natalie Zimmerman, representing district two. And of course I'm Brenda Wolff, district five. Are there any comments on the informational summary? Not at this time. Okay. I also want to
note that Miss Montoya is unable to be with us today. So at this time, I am going to ask Brenda, what's your last name? Brenda Brown. I'm going to ask Miss Brown to continue with the discussion on
disproportionality. We have the same first name, or I wouldn't even be able to remember. Or I might change it to French to who knows? Well, good afternoon, everyone, and it is my pleasure to. Bring the slide deck up. Oh,
can we have the slide deck, please? Thank you. Thank you so much. Can we go to the next slide? Brenda, if you could just say your title so that they can get that on screen. Certainly. My name is Brenda Brown. I'm the assistant to the associate
superintendent in the Office of Special Education. And when last we met, Miss Wolff and Miss Zimmerman and those of us who are watching online, we began to talk about the comprehensive, coordinated early intervening
services is really about disproportionality in special education. And so just going through and just doing a quick summary, it is required by the individuals with Disabilities Education Act. And we have to do
this ongoing monitoring of disproportionality by race in areas of discipline, identification and special education. Placement and disproportionality is determined by a formulaic calculation.
That's called a risk ratio. And when we are identified and it takes two years of data in order to be identified, 15% of the idea individuals with Disabilities Education Act funds
must be reallocated to address these issues. For those of you who would like to know, I would like to share that amount. It i. $5,638,869. Just to be clear,
and these funds are directed at evidence based practices and strategies to reduce disproportionality in suspensions in general education, as well as special
education. Next slide please. And so when we talk about significant disproportionality and how it's measured, it is measured in a risk ratio formula. And msde. The Maryland State Department of Education
uses lagging data. So if you see on the slide there, we are currently disproportionate in discipline and suspensions for Black and African American students who receive special education services. So you will
see in 2021, 2022 school year and then the 2022 2023 school year. Those were the two years of lagging data in which we were identified for significant disproportionality for
African-American students receiving special education services and had to implement. CCE, e I s. Okay. Every spring we are updated by the state with
a letter to see how we do for the next year. So at this time, we typically get that letter in May, so we will find out at that time how we are doing based on the state. We will have another
year's worth of lagging data. So it will be 2023 and 2024 data to see how we're doing in those areas. This area of disproportionality. Next slide. Thank you so much. So the
process begins with the Msde identification based on the report from the previous school year. And then a cross office team will identify the data, go through a self-assessment tool
and identify what are the root causes based on the data that we receive. And then a plan is developed to address those root causes. And then goals are determined. Measurable goals are
determined. And we have planned response actions. And they can be about a review of policy practice, professional learning and evidence based interventions. Some of the root causes that we found, according
to this year's grant, was it was around belief systems for our students and relationships. That type of connection for students in the schools. We move to the
next. Again, the root cause for the planned response action. Number one, you'll see the goal and the root cause, implicit bias in disciplinary decisions and some of the activities that we are working on right now to
address that is that we are in the process of developing a data dashboard, similar to the Chronic Absenteeism Dashboard, that will allow schools to see
in real time where they are with respect to their suspensions and the impact of how it may be or may not be disproportionate, so that we can go in in a more proactive way and deliver what
those schools need. It is we are working with the Department of Students and Data Systems and plan to deliver the dashboard. Beginning of the upcoming school year. We also have the school data review and collaboration
meetings. We work three times a year with the identified schools, and the identified schools were listed in the memo. So I'm not going to repeat the identified schools. Now if that's all right with you. Okay. Thank you. And in addition to our CCS instructional
specialist, the school based resource teacher for special education, resource counselor, staff development teacher, the assistant principal or assistant school administrator, the restorative approaches coach a number of school based
individuals meet three times a year, and they discuss the current data, focusing on disproportionality between groups, monitoring of the grant activities that each particular school has focused on, and
provide suggestions and supports if needed. There was a review of the Code of Conduct. We monitor how it is being implemented in specific schools and support schools in their data entry.
Really monitoring for those subjective discipline codes and looking for any type of implicit or explicit bias in that documentation. Okay. And as we see the progress reported, we did speak briefly about that the
last time that there was a 13.8% decrease in suspensions of our Black and African American students, and therefore, it leads to the thought that the disproportionality has decreased. If we could go to the
next slide, our planned response action. Number two, the root cause is the overreliance on exclusionary discipline. And so really the goal was to reduce the number of students suspended more than once during the school
year. So we are looking at these activities, the review of functional behavior assessments and behavior intervention plans, the policy, the review, the development. And that is not just a special education process. It is a general education process. So this is
how we are able to work with our general education students. The relationship mapping. And again relationship mapping is really identifying which students have a trusted adult in the school and building those
relationships. Another thing that has been very key to this is the summer. Summer belonging initiative. So it's in the summer, typically in July, bringing students and school members together to really build
those relationships, create those foundational structures so that we can reduce disciplinary issues throughout the year. And we get student voice, family voice. And then there is
collection of pre and post data. And there are a number of schools. Would you like to know the schools who had that summer institute I think different schools because they they're not all of the schools, but it's something I can follow up with.
You finish your discussion first and then we'll sir. Certainly. So these schools, for example, are Bethesda-chevy, Chase Baker, Northwood, Paint Branch, Pyle, Briggs, Chaney, eastern, Richard Montgomery, Seneca Valley, Shady
Grove, Loiederman, Banneker, Clarksburg, Gaithersburg High and Gaithersburg, middle, Holly Wells, John F Kennedy, Julius West, Montgomery Village, Northwood High School, Sherwood High School, and Walter Johnson High School. They have had the
summer belonging initiative during. As part of their plan. Okay. And again if we take a look at planned response action number two, the data that reported we have 12% of our
suspended students had been suspended more than once. And now we've reduced that number of students by 22.5% that were recorded. And our last plan response action, again, the root
cause is insufficiency of and capacity of resources for social emotional learning, self-regulation skills and trauma informed practices, and the goal was to reduce the risk ratio of Black or African American students who receive
special education services. And so some of the things that we have done, the social emotional services positions, we've amplified those positions. There's a classroom culture, the de-escalation, professional
learning. We have aligned to restorative approaches, specialists. And then there's a lot of professional learning for our CCS. Paraeducators. So one of the things as of December.
2024, there have been a 55% decrease in the suspensions of Black and African American students receiving social, emotional, special education services. As a result, the progress report again, we've talked about that. Our anecdotal
some anecdotal success about classroom culture. The schools are reporting that it is a good match for the staff and the students, and it it provides replacement behaviors. So if you
used to react this way now, you know not to do that. Here is a more proactive, student centered and supportive way to react and interact with students and staff are reporting that they find it intuitive to make these shifts.
So those are some anecdotal reports that we are getting. In addition, we have had the CPI Crisis Prevention Institute, Professional Learning and Ukerewe Professional Learning. Every year, about 12,000 staff
members receive that de-escalation professional learning. And they are they must demonstrate mastery of the skills. And so again, we've had at least as of December, 627
additional staff members receiving that professional learning. When we talk about our social emotional learning materials, we are providing students with tools to build self awareness and develop interpersonal skills. And we are
implementing zones of regulation, really helping the students really monitor how they are feeling and identifying ways that they can proactively address what is making them feel dysregulated. And there's been a
book study as well, Reclaiming Youth at Risk. And that's primarily used in our special education, social emotional services, really helping people to walk through the understandings, the information in that literature to start
shifting practices and mindsets. And again, the classroom culture training that covers five topics consistent and calm behavior, sustainable routines. First, attention to best conduct, and
then the scripted intervention. Specific ways that we can speak to students that doesn't escalate okay, and restorative approaches okay for our. CCS special education, social, emotional, special education
services Paraeducators who really provide some foundational supports in those services. They have been receiving explicit professional learning on relationship building, social emotional learning, self-regulation skills and strategies, restorative
practices, trauma informed practices, and then specific topics and support depending on the student. Because sometimes you really, you know, need to personalize your responses to a particular student. And then as
we move to the other slide, you know, this was just what was received back in. I believe this was 20. Yes, it was the 2021, 2022 school year. And you will
see the different areas of identification and placement as well. One of the things that impacts us, you'll you'll see in some of our in our American Indian Alaska Native in the identification and placement
with emotional disabilities. That was a student group less than ten. And so when we have a student group that's less than ten and one student may receive services in a more restrictive
environment that really tips up the scale for identification. And so we really have to closely monitor the disproportionality in those areas because of the base number being so small that we can't even identify it as a
number on the screen. So we typically do not see large increases or decreases in the risk ratio for these categories year on year. And this is because we have processes in
place to support identification and placement. And these decisions are not made unilaterally okay. And I am now open for questions okay I have
quite a few comments. So I'm going to turn to my fellow board member and let her start first. Thank you, Miss Brown. Thank you again for coming back. You're really knowledgeable and I appreciate the way that you talk about your subject matters.
Thank you. I have a question about the charts that we've been looking at. It's my assumption and based on the following slide, that the reason why we're not looking at the 2324 data is that it hasn't come back from MSD. That is correct. Okay.
Thank you. That is correct. That won't come to us until May. Okay. That's also how I understood it. I just want to make sure that anyone else that maybe was viewing and didn't understand that they could understand that too. I'm also curious how when we're talking about code of conduct, how are we making it accessible to all
of our students? I know that there's been a way to we've put it on my M.C.P.S. Classroom that there's a course there I'm thinking particularly about, like our special education students as well. How are we making sure that it's accessible
to all of them? So that's a broader question that involves not just special education. It involves in general education. But again, like you, it is the course on was it a M.C.P.S.
Classroom. And it is the relationship building. So when we think about my, my understanding would be and when we think about how we need to communicate with students, it can't for some students and some some student groups, it just can't be the course. Right? It
has to be the trusted adult really sharing. It has to be, you know, those kinds of things. So individual schools would be would be my assumption would be moving forward with making sure it's communicated and emphasized
in a positive way to each student, of course. Miss Zimmerman, just to add to that, so what we and we did it this year and I know that they're going to be continuously refining it. We know that students can't rise to the level of expectations that we have for them. If they are, like you said, unaware of what the
expectations are. So one of the things that Central Office has created are lessons and outlines for schools to do at the start of the year, with all of their students that are grade level appropriate, to really kind of go through. What are the expectations, what does the code
of conduct say? And I know they did a little bit of that last year. They're working on continuing to fine tune it as they continue to fine tune the code of conduct, because that is critically important. I mean, we can't expect anybody to meet expectations they're unaware or not clear of. Absolutely. So
then related to that, when you know you're talking about the data dashboard and the code of conduct review together in the same. Planned response action. I when that dashboard is up,
something that I think would be really helpful to see as well is if the behavior has a potential consequence of a restorative approach, how often we go with that restorative approach instead of a more restrictive
approach? Yes. I think that would also be something really important to add to that dashboard that we can see that that's duly noted. Thank you very much for the feedback. Yes. The last thing that I want to talk about is the crisis prevention interventions training. The way you described it was really great and really
spot on. Characterization was really great. So I know that that has it has to have a space in the budget. Are we like looking to increase that, like how it's a three year certification. Then you have to
re-up. So are we having like three. Are we on three year cycles? I'd love to see more information about that because I've asked to be recertified multiple times at two different schools. And both times they said, oh, you don't fit like we can't recertify you. It's just it's a really important training. As you talked about.
I'd like to see us increase that. Certainly we can give you that information about the cycle of professional learning for our CPI courses. That'd be great. Thank you. You're very welcome. And just to draw a connection to the strategic plan, I do believe that we have one of our actions
is to broaden the access over the next five years to those de-escalation trainings because, as you know, like, yes, security needs them. But sometimes the regular classroom teacher, the way that they teach those de-escalation are valuable for every educator. Absolutely. And it's so much about safety of
everyone, safety of our students safety, safety of our staff, and, you know, making sure that everyone can, like, do their best and keep in their regulated state. Exactly. Thank you. Thank you. I just have a couple of
questions. Well, maybe more than a couple, but I'm only going to do a few now. This memo that you provided on disproportionality, it's written from the perspective of special needs children. But what about the disproportionality that's showing in general education,
because that was also covered by the strategic plan. So specific to this board. Board presentation. There are two different types of disproportion disproportionality. There's for lack of a better term general
disproportionality. And this is specific to the CCS grant is specific to students receiving special education services. So the memorandum and this presentation is specifically only covering disproportionality
for students receiving special education services. Well that's what I gathered. But I think the strategic plan covers disproportionality. And this May I'm not saying that you did it wrong, just trying to understand when I'm going to hear about
disproportionality in general. Is that coming to the board? We did that. We did that in in. Yeah. Yeah okay. We did it in the January meeting I know that, but I'm just trying to figure out year end. You know, we're getting to the end of the
strategic plan. How are we looking now on that issue. Because what you presented in January was previous. So are we seeing improvement or not? I mean you could just send me some information on that at a later time. But with regard to this particular memo, can you tell me
how you picked the schools? Were they the ones that were they were the top schools showing the disproportionality? Okay, okay. All right. And I thought that was the case. But let me just say the issue that you the root
cause analysis, we didn't need a root cause analysis because we've known that for years that this was the real issue. It's also the real issue for general education. Implicit bias. We do the training. We've been doing
all of these things and nothing seems to well, I won't say nothing because the numbers look a little better and I have some concern about just the number reporting. But we're doing a lot of these things. So what is going to be different about this
program? So to address the first piece about the root causes we have, the state oversees the development of the plan. And we are required to go through a root cause analysis process
which identifies specific areas. Is it implicit bias. Is it all of these things? And yes, these are things that we have known for a long time, but we also want to see by doing this year
on year, maybe things, maybe it's not implicit bias, maybe it's lack of resources, you know. So we really want to see what it is and what we can do. So for an example, if because I don't know if we are still in
CCS next year when we get our memorandum in May and we go through this process again for plan, it may not be implicit bias, because all of the things that we have done, it could be another area. So you know that
that is what I would be saying is, is a part of that. And some of the things that we are doing, we based on the analysis and how things work, we refine, we have added things. For an example, we
have not. This is classroom culture was an addition. Some specific focus on professional learning for our CCS. Paraeducators was an addition. So as we take a look at this because we have to submit
another an update to the state. And when we meet three times a year with those schools, and each school has a plan and they collect data and they provide feedback, we get ideas on, okay, we can scale this up, or maybe we need to revise this, or maybe
we need to add this person in on this. So we get that real time data. And we do get the student voice. Because one of the things that is new is that summer initiative thinking about, let's bring the students and the
families in before to set the tone to share what the expectations are. Here's your trusted adult. So those are some of the things that we're able to do as we refine and as we analyze the data. Okay, so you
said classroom culture was something that you discovered, but isn't that just a fancy term for implicit bias? Classroom, the classroom? To me, that that's what you're seeing when you are reporting on classroom culture is whatever bias is
going on in that classroom. Well, it is about I think it's about creating a culture where the students and the individuals are are valued. And yes, we all have implicit or explicit biases
when we deal with children and what we perceive their behavior to be. And maybe we don't understand the root cause of their behavior. And so, yeah, we are providing staff members with evidence based professional learning on making them think
about how do I replace this behavior, how do I not think about Brenda Brown in that way? And, you know, it could be cultural, you know, a way a child responds or doesn't respond. It could be disability based. It could be it could be
gender based. Really having that staff member think about all those things and then proactively and positively try to have a structure, a strategy not to fall back into their bias
and move forward in a much more positive way that has positive impact on the student. I hear you, I really do. All I will say is that this is what has been at the heart of the issue in the
whole. I'm in my seventh year here on the board and it hasn't been just seven years because when I worked at OCR in 1997, did a review and we determined that that was part of the problem. So what I still am not
hearing is what's going to change it, because, you know, a change in hearts and minds is not an easy job. But not only do I never hear what's going to change what I do hear what you're saying. I just don't think that it's actually been
helping as much as we would like to see, I would want to know what we're going to do. If your heart and mind doesn't change. Well. And I know that you can't answer that. I already know
that. So just just know that I'm going to keep asking that question because I just don't see where we're doing anything really new. I mean, I saw your summer belonging initiative. So just one question on that. So when you bring your child to the
summer belonging meeting, do they get assigned to one person as a trusted adult? How is that work? How does that work? So I don't have the specifics on the summer belonging and it as to is
it 1 to 1 matching or. Let me see. But I will get that very specific information for you. I know that we're using student voice. I know that it's a time for people to establish relationships. My, you know,
they would have people like the counselors, the people, perhaps the restorative justice coaches, teachers being in there, really working to identify who they are, who the students are sharing with the people, who who
they are, and really making the children feel like they're a part of the school. I can get back to you with respect to whether or not a mentor, a 1 to 1 mentor, but that would go back to the relationship mapping because they identify a mentor for that child through the
relationship mapping process. I actually think that's beneficial for all students. So I would just be curious as to how that works. And I just wanted to say to my fellow board member, you weren't here at the beginning of the school year, but we go to
visit schools the first week, and I actually saw the code of conduct being explained at various levels. So you'd be amazed at how much they spent almost an entire week on it at some of the schools. So I just wanted to confirm that that
actually does happen. And thank you for your presentation. Thank you very much. Now I'm going to turn it over to Miss Sharon to carry on with the strategic plan. Unless you had any more questions. Sorry. Go ahead. Thank you, Miss Wolff. And actually, I feel like your last
question really teed up the whole purpose of this next strategic plan. And it really was in our thoughts as we were building out the framework over the next five years for the district. You just said, and I just wrote it down, what is
going to be different? I'm still not hearing what is going to actually change. When is when are we going to get over just working on changing hearts and minds. And I think at the at the foundation of the strategic plan is how we are creating the
structures, the accountability and the systems to make sure that we're going beyond the hearts and minds. We can give you a laundry list of strategies that work that the research says work. That's not the problem in Montgomery County, we have been
told by numerous people through numerous reports that y'all know the best practices. You all know the research based practices, but what you're missing is consistent implementation and structures and processes that are consistently applied to hold people accountable. And I think
that is really where when we look at any of the disparities that we see across anything, whether it's discipline or academics, where we really need to be shifting. And that's what the purpose of this strategic plan is. So before I pass it on to Mr. Landsman, who is going to
be kind of teeing up the framing and the vision around what this looks like, I want to show you this graphic. It is also in the materials that you were provided in advance, and this graphic was very purposefully identified. We call it a nesting. It's like a it's like a nesting graphic. I
actually asked my son what this looked like to him. And he's 12 and he said, it's like measuring cups. I'm like, that is exactly right. And I actually wanted him to understand that. And I asked him, what are the measuring cups mean? Right? Students are at the center of everything that we do.
So the reason that you see the concentric circles building out with parents and caregivers who are obviously the first layer of support, right? Then we have our educators, then we have our school administrators, then we have our central services is we all need to fit together and be aligned so that we're in support
of students. What we're not trying to achieve with this strategic plan is we're not trying to fix our kids. There's nothing wrong with our children, but what we do need to do is reevaluate and reevaluate how we are functioning in support of the children so that we're
effectively meeting their needs. And that's kind of the crux of this strategic plan, and how it very much so looks different than the strategic plans that we've had in the past. So what I'm going to do at this point is turn it over to Mr. Landsman, who's just going to refresh our memory a little bit on our
journey so far and frame out the vision of where we're going. Good afternoon. I'm John Landsman, executive director in the Office of Strategic Initiatives, and I want to start just by reading a quick quote that kind of sums up why we have gone, the approach that we've
gone. And it does hopefully speak to some of what you've been asking about. Miss Wolff. The quote comes from a publication called The Future of Strategic Planning, and it's from the National Equity Project. It says, look on any school district website, and you're nearly guaranteed to see
a link to the district's strategic plan. Odds are the document is beautifully designed, likely around 50 pages long and full of detailed charts and data visualization visualizations. It probably includes a narrative about the district's plans, strategies,
objectives, goals, and key performance indicators for the next five years. But in too many cases, these strategic plans quickly become irrelevant and often sit dusty on a shelf or unclicked on a website as an education. As education has become more complex, the
limitations of traditional strategic planning approaches have become more apparent. This quote resonates with us or resonated with us, because that's exactly what we found out as we began this work last July. We started out by looking at dozens of different strategic
plans across the country, and in every case, they were shiny. They had new initiatives. They had lots of pages. They could tell you all the different ways that they engaged the community. But as we dug deeper, we couldn't actually see how they were addressing the issues that
school districts were going through at the time, how they were addressing gaps, how they were prepared for the changes in education, and what the needs are for our students. And so with that, we changed our approach to how we were going to organize the planning for this
strategic plan, how we were going to engage. And it came down to two different new approaches for us. The first is, as Miss Sharon has said, is that we are going to we knew that we needed to focus on systems and structures, the systems and structures that we needed to be
put in place. This wasn't about changing students, but what do we need to be able to put in place to ensure that our educators had everything they needed, our families had everything they needed, and our students have everything they need to be able to reach the goals that that we all think they need to reach. And the
second is that we needed a different way to engage our community and build this plan. And so we developed a new and iterative approach to developing the plan that ensures input and feedback from different parts of the community throughout the development process. So as you'll see as we go through this, and we've shared much of
this already in the January session, is we began with a group of stakeholders. Then we kept building on it, going back to what they said and building again, which I'm going to go over with you just briefly in
the next few minutes. So as you can see from the slide that's here, this was we've planned five phases. And the first phase was phase one that began in August and September, where we had several different focus
groups where we engaged about 200 different stakeholders. We had students, we had parents, we had community, business and higher ed partners. We had staff, school based and central
office from all the different staff associations. And we asked them two questions or we asked them several questions. But the two most important questions were, what do you think students need to what skills do they need? What do they need? By the time they graduate? And what are
the challenges that we need to overcome in M.C.P.S. To ensure we can provide those skills? So that was phase one. From that, we created a 24 page report that we've shared with you that was organized into several different
themes, into seven themes. Then you can see phase two, which we began in October. As we began to look through that report. And in November we had a big work session. There's a picture of the beginning of that work
session where we had 180 stakeholders in the room together, organized in those seven different themes to work together. And in this case, what was different about this than what we've done in the past? We had students. We had higher ed
partners, parents, staff all in the same committees working together, having conversations. For example, in our ESL workgroup, we had ESL students, school based M.L. Teachers and staff from Delmy all in the same
group. Hearing, working, having the conversation together and planning. In that conversation, they were their goal was to do a root cause analysis on the systems that were challenges that we needed to address. The question that they were asking
was, what are the systems and the beliefs and values that uphold those systems that must be in place for M.C.P.S. To effectively implement best practices with consistency? So they each did a root cause analysis, and they also brainstormed approaches for how
to address those root causes and what they thought needed to be in place to hold us accountable. So they knew changes were being done. From that, we created another report based on all the information that was provided to us. Again, that was sent to you.
It's been on our website for our community to see. And that led us to phase three, which is when we developed the priority areas that we shared with you in January. And then we held another work session in January with 80 internal experts to
analyze the and analyze the reports. The phase one, the phase two input to understand what our. Community said we
needed, what they saw as the root and develop five new workgroups that met for each one met for two three hour sessions, where they then built on what was said again, went back to what they saw in the previous sessions, the previous reports,
and then they suggested strategies, goals, strategies and actions that would that would go into the strategic plan, sort of another way of showing how things were different. One example is the Operational Operations Excellence Workgroup, where we
had school based business managers working directly with central office staff to really understand together how something would work, how it would impact the school and vice versa. So that's how we how we
have gotten to where we are today, which we're going to share with you the strategies and the action action ideas. We want your feedback. Then we'll go back out to all the folks that have given us input in the past to find out, did we actually do what we said? Would
you ask us to do? And then we'll finalize the strategic plan for the school board in June. So I'm going to kind of go over the our vision and our overall goals. And then Miss Sharon and Doctor
Addison will go over the more specifics. I'll stop before we get to those so you can give us feedback on what those visions are. So as you can see here, this is our vision unleashed potential. All students will graduate with the knowledge, skills and experiences necessary
to thrive in an ever changing world. This includes strong academic foundations and critical thinking skills, skills that foster resilience, adaptability, and lifelong learning, effective communication and collaboration to build meaningful relationships and engagement in
their communities, and readiness for success in careers and life, no matter how society or the job market evolves. What was interesting to us when we did all those focus groups in phase one, what our business community said, what our higher ed partners said, we're very
similar to what our students, f and parents said about what they thought students need. There was a lot of consistency across all groups that were very similar to what we've just shared with you here. Next slide please. So how we get there,
going back to what Miss Sharon has said is this is about creating the systems that we need to be able to put in place. And while the words here may look similar to what we've said before, as we go into the more of the details, you'll see the differences in how we get there.
So the first part is transform structures to remove barriers and expand opportunities for all students. This gets back to we know how to do a lot of things. Oftentimes our systems and our structures are not prepared for us to do what we already know is
the best way of doing something. And I'll explain a little bit more of that in a second. We need to strengthen family and community engagement to ensure meaningful partnerships in support of all students success. We need to support all educators with the tools to deliver rigorous, engaging and inclusive instruction that meets diverse
student needs. We need to develop strong leadership to drive instructional excellence and equity focused decision making, and we need to strengthen central services to ensure schools receive the support they need to implement district initiatives. Before we go on, I want to sort of explain
this a little bit more deeply. What we have noticed is we have to change our systems if we're going to accomplish our goals. We know that families need to be involved, how we engage them, what we do and how we work together with our partners needs to change, and everyone needs to
be able to do it together. We know that things that we're asking our educators to do in the classroom is different than what we asked them to do ten years ago. We can't just say do something different. We need to be able to show them, show them, and give them the time to learn.
If we want our educators to do something different, we need leaders who also know how to do those things. We need to provide them the professional learning, and we need a pipeline of leaders that can actually continue to build and move into those spots. And if we're going to do all of that, we certainly
need a central services, central services that is organized in a way that can best support our schools. Miss Wolff, you keep asking and in a really important question, ever since I've known you, you've asked, well, we've provided the professional learning, but nothing changes. Well, hopefully what you'll see
in the reason is that nothing can change if going through a 2 or 3 hour professional learning, there's no one professional learning that's going to give everyone the skills that they need. If that's the case, we need to be able to change the way we do professional learning, make sure that we have the time,
the organization, the support for teachers, just giving them or sending them to one professional learning isn't going to work. So hopefully, as you hear Miss Sharon and Doctor Addison go through our strategies, you'll see the different ways that we think that we can address this. So it
isn't just about doing professional learning. One last thing about that is when you look through all the reports that we've just shared with you, there's something like 40 hours or 100 hours of professional learning that people have asked for. Each group said they needed
professional learning for teachers, for educators, for directors, and there's no possible way to give the amount of professional learning or the amount of time that we think is needed. So we have to do things differently. And we think that how we've organized this strategic plan will help us get to be able to provide the
professional learning that we need. Next slide please. So lastly, when we go over each priority area, there are specific goals for each priority area. But our our goal is educating students. And so we
have these three overall goals that we think will help us understand if we're reaching our goals or we're not reaching our goals. So the first is at least 90% of M.C.P.S. Schools earn four stars or higher on the Maryland State report card. We will reduce proficiency disparities by at least 50% on
the Maryland School Report Card for students receiving farm services, multilingual learners, students and special education Hispanic Latino students and Black and African American students. And lastly, M.C.P.S. Annually graduates 90% 95% of grade 12 students in all
reporting categories equipped with the knowledge, skills and experiences needed to thrive in an ever changing world, there is still more will have to be able to explain to, you know, so people understand what are the knowledge, skills and experiences we think are needed, which we will explain. But these
are three overall overarching goals that we think this strategic plan will help us get to. Next slide. So before we move on to going over the details, we just wanted to stop to see if you have questions about what we've shared or
comments. Okay, I'll start this time. I do have a question. So if I'm understanding this correctly, you're using the Maryland State Report card as your barometer, right? Yeah. So.
I don't see any interim goals in here. Measurements. Is that because you're waiting for the 24 data to come out? 2324 data to come from May? So I think I think what's important to note and Doctor Addison, if you want to add anything to what I'm
saying, I think what's important to note is that we are bringing you today the framework, what we're then going to do, because we wanted your feedback first on that. Then we're going to be building out the baseline data and the interim targets, right. Yearly targets for each of
these. What's important to note is that the Maryland State Report card to covers multiple data points. It includes Mcap. It includes the access for Ells assessment. It includes climate survey data on track progress. It includes all of that. So once
we actually get to the build out phase, we'll have more information to share. Doctor Addison, I was and I want to say one of the things I heard you share, Miss Wolff, is what are those interim metrics? Because we know that the Maryland School Report card is kind of an end of
year lagging data point. So what are we going to be sharing with you all that shows that progress toward that end goal. And so we do. And we will have metrics that will allow that opportunity for you to see, well, what are we using to help, for lack of better phrasing, predict the
percent of students who may be meeting. So one of the measures we use is the Map assessment. Right. And so that assessment is highly related to the state assessment of the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program. So those will be some of the metrics that you will see as we go forward. Okay. I'll ask
my fellow board member does she have any comments at this time? I actually have a similar question. Since we're using the state report card. And one of the I mean, the first metric is 90% earning four stars or
higher. What are we at currentl? And to what Mrs. Sharon shared, that is what will be included in our baseline metrics. So you will know how many schools, what percent of schools. We can definitely get that back to you within a board member. I don't have it off the top of my head,
but we'll get that back to you because I think having that helps us to know, like, is this a good metric for us to use? I mean, if we're at 88%, which I know we're not. But my point is, if we're almost there, is this the metric we want to be using? I think having that baseline would really help us to know if
where we're headed is if these goals are truly where we want to be heading. And similarly with the graduation rate of 95% in, you know, all categories, it it feels very lengthy compared to the other categories. It doesn't
feel as data driven in a sense that how how are we measuring that they're equipped with these knowledge, with the knowledge, skills and experiences that they need needed to thrive in an ever changing world that doesn't feel as measurable as the other data
points. And I think as we go through the specific goals aligned to each priority area, that will provide some of the clarity. And I, I recognize hearing your comment that some of what we're speaking to are strategies we are going to use.
And so you're right, the strategies don't sound as measurable as say, for example, a goal might be. Thank you. Yeah. We already talked about the baseline data. So I understood that. I will just say one thing as a as a caution. You
know, we're going to if we want to vote on this in June, we have to move this to the board soon. And so we thought that we would share this document. But I think that you need to be clear in the transmittal of that to the full
board, what is not in this document just yet and why? Because all of us have been saying the same thing, that if what where is the baseline data? And so you need to make it clear that when you receive whatever you need, you're going to finish that out so that they know that
this is just a framework. Okay. Thank you. All right. So now we're going to get into and how we've kind of been describing it is we wanted to share with you the foundation. And then we're going to be we're we'll build
the rest of it out. So a couple things for you all to think about as we're going through this. This is a draft. Once our content is finalized, we're working with communications to refine refining layout and language to ensure it's accessible to our community. You
will also see, again, we're going to have the baseline and the interim data points for everybody so that you can see what our yearly benchmarks are going to be as far as what we're going to be measuring along the way to predict our performance performance. You're going to see today high level strategies and
actions. What you're not going to see are detailed action plans for each of the strategies. Once the board, for two reasons. One, we want to get feedback on where we're at right now to once the plan is adopted, then it'll be
the job of the staff to really be building out what the action plans are going to be. Because remember, this is not a one year strategic plan. This is a five year plan. So there is going to be a lot of work that will need to be done to build this out. And then again, as just a
reminder, which I know, you know, but just for our community and our public, the strategic plan is not to cover every single daily operation that occurs in the school district. It's to really focus on on what we have, what we believe are the high leverage or high yield strategies to get us where we
need to be. When we think about those three goals. So it doesn't look like I have a mouse, I was going to navigate to the oh, not a real mouse, but oops. If we
could click on the actual website because I can't click on it, the hyperlink comes. Are you able to click on the link? TV's
working on it. Oh thank you. And if you could just increase the size a little bit for our audience and for our board members. Thank you. So we gave you in and this is loaded on board docs as well. We gave you
a Google Doc version of the strategic plan so that you could read it that way. But for presentation purposes, we thought it was a little bit easier to put it in website form. So how we wanted to do this, to make sure that this we're getting the feedback that we need from from you all is
Doctor Addison and I are going to take turns going through the five priority areas. We're going to first tell you why. Why this priority area. Right. Why does this matter? Why is this a high leverage area we need to focus on? Well, then say what the strategies are. And then we're
not going to read every single action, or we will be here for much longer than 3:00. But what we're going to do is highlight some of the key critical actions we want to make sure you're aware of. We will pause after each one so that we can hear from you, your thoughts, your
thinking. We'll also be sharing the goals for that particular area, those targets that we're measuring as well, which hopefully will provide a little bit of clarity to what you were sharing earlier. All right. So communications team, thank you for being our guide. Or actually
can I0I can look at that I can scroll down. So this is just learning about the development of the plan. We said this the vision which you guys had the opportunity to do. And now we're going to talk about our first priority area. And I'm going to
turn it over to Doctor Addison. All right. So the first priority area is intentionally identified as primary or first, given our role as a public school system, we are to provide an equitable education for all students to ensure success and preparation
for the future. Now, as the world continues to evolve, we know the knowledge, skills and experiences necessary for students to thrive to be successful beyond their public school education is essential. Under this priority area, we are committed to ensuring that we
transform structures through intentional strategies such as implementing supports to close opportunity gaps, and this includes things such as examining existing structures of supports for students designed to meet college and career readiness to determine
enhancements needed. Another strategy in this area is ensuring post-secondary readiness for all students, which an example includes expanding partnerships with colleges, workforce programs and businesses to increase experiential opportunities like
work based learning, internships and apprenticeships. And so we know that with this priority area, the work comes from our intentional focus as a district. The findings from our Antiracist System audit, the findings from
the center for Applied Linguistics report that focused on our multilingual learners. And in this area, we have four draft goals that are heavily focused on the intentional supports and needs for the students. And so one of the things that you will see is that by 2030, ensuring that 90% of
our students are experiencing or engaged in advanced college and career readiness programs, that is relevant for equitable access to educational opportunities. Also, in this area, we want to ensure that our students feel
safe, physically and emotionally safe in their school buildings, valued and also included. We want to ensure that the behavioral incidents that occur in schools are decreased by 30 by 50%, sorry, by 2030. And then
finally we want to by 2030 continue to eliminate. And we talked about this earlier, eliminating the disproportionality of suspensions for our Black or African American students and our students receiving special education services through implementation of things like culturally responsive
interventions, restorative practices and systemic accountability measures. And I already highlighted some of the strategies already. And so I will pause for your reaction feedback for this first priority
area. Oh keep going. Can I actually add a couple things I just wanted to highlight for you guys that might look a little bit different than in our other strategic plans? First of all,
one of our strategies, which you may have noticed up there, is to redesign the school day. That's a pretty bold thing for us to say, to ensure that all of our students have the knowledge, skills and mindsets necessary to thrive in an ever changing world. One of the pieces of feedback that we have have heard
repeatedly is that the way our schools days are structured are not necessarily providing an opportunity or instructional model that really works for kids. So thinking about how we increase opportunities for students to take advanced courses through virtual platforms and nontraditional
pathways is something that we really want to explore as we're thinking about the fact that we want all of our students to really participate in these opportunities. One of the other things I just want to note, too, is that ensuring or ensuring post-secondary readiness for all students, we are saying that
every single kid needs to have student, excuse me, needs to have a post-secondary readiness plan that starts in sixth grade. So right now, the state of Maryland requires us to do post-secondary planning in high school. But we're moving that all the way back to sixth grade to make sure that our students
are getting what they need in order to prepare for their success. So there's just a couple of things that I just wanted to add on to what Doctor Addison said to point out to you, we also have not in the past or I'm sorry, let me. We have done it, but we haven't done it. Maybe with as much
consistency and accountability as well. And we heard this loud and clear from our community in the phase two report. But implementing some systemic supports to close opportunity gaps, we're trying to be really purposeful here. One of the things as we get to the accountability, which we just said before, right, we're kind of done changing hearts and
minds like, let's figure out how we're holding ourselves accountable. But developing targeted district wide committees that are monitoring the progress, right. That's the accountability component and success of our African American students, Hispanic students, multilingual learners and
students receiving special education services. So we have that in pieces, but it's not really cemented into our organization with clear structures. So those were just a few things I wanted just to add on to what Doctor Addison said, for you to kind of see some of
the different structures we're trying to put in place for this particular area. I think my only comment is, when are you going to do these things by, you know, I know that you're talking about adding more information to the
plan, but for me to get a sense that this might be workable, I have to know when you're going to do it by so that I know whether we're just, you know, working on building that part out this year and then we don't start measuring it to next year. And even some of them, I'm not
even sure how you measure, but I do need a date as to when it's going to be accomplished. So I will say that's going to be part of the secondary component as as Doctor Taylor works with his new cabinet, that is going to be
part of that layer of work is to determine for each of these what this is going to look like. To build out those specific timelines. We can create a high level timeline for some of that, but the specific actions will have to come with the planning of the staff. Well, I think
that's a very important thing to bring out to the full board that I know this because I've been on this committee a while, but we do have new people that this is a living document. So this document is not what we would
call final in June. So I think that when you send when, when we're ready to send it to the full board, which we actually thought would go into the bulletin this week, I'm not so sure unless you can revise the cover memo that quick, it needs to be pointed out that this is a
living document, and some of it is still going to be in progres. After the final version comes out. That's a great point, Miss Wolff. And I think that is the in fact, it goes to the quote that the National Equity Project
said is that that's one of the problems with strategic plans, is that a lot of times they go, oh great, thanks. We're going to stamp this. We're going to put it on a shelf. This is going to be iterative. And I think how the board can really use this for their governance and accountability is now they have it in black and white. What we
have committed to as a district. So this should be a North Star to say you identified X. We need an update on this. What does this look like. So this really should help guide the monitoring and accountability piece of the work. Thank you. So our next
section. Wait, wait Natalie has a question I'm sorry. No, I was going to echo Miss Wolff's point that I think we can appreciate and understand that this is really high level, but there are also like some of the links in here that lead to, like, the
data that we're using to help us track or like the research that we're using, like there are the links that are already there, maybe some of the thingshat we are already doing that that could be put in as some kind of example, some like something to ground it a little bit more. Or
if we're basing this off of another district's idea, a link there to help us inform what they're doing, I think that might help us give it a more holistic look instead of just this high level. So I just yeah, I just want Miss Zimmerman. If I could just ask a question,
clarifying question, make sure I understand. So you're saying like if we have if we identify and I'm just looking at my, my strategies, the, the district wide committees to monitor the progress and success of our different groups. You're saying let's put in some information
here as to like, well, why did we even pick that? Like what is what is it grounded in? Is that is that what I'm hearing that like, why would we do that a little bit of that. Why? I think there is some of that in the why this matters. And I think making the why this matters portion connects more closely to your
goals and strategies. I think that would help us understand. Got it. Like where the thread is, does that does that make sense? Yes. Okay. I also think that again I'll say I'm looking at the document that you sent
us. So under the strategy you have one, two, three, four, five, six things. And that's fine. But we're already doing like you said. We're already doing these things and we weren't seeing any success. So again, I'm going to say what we're going to have to stress is
what's going to be different. And I think too, I think what we have to remember and this is really going back to what Mr. Landsman said and what we actually talk about quite frequently at the board is that I'll use the example, the third bullet, under the first strategy, it says implement
evidence based intervention opportunities for all students needing literacy and math support. Would you all say in the experiences as board members that this is happening consistently across all schools? Well, I would say no, but I don't know that for sure. But what I would say is, if I'm Joe
Public and I'm looking at this, I would say, well, they've had this in their plan for the last five years and nothing happened. Right. And I think and that's where we will we need to create some clarity. But and I think that's where it gets from. This is what we're committed to doing
it. It's the how this looks in action and the accountability measures that we're putting in place that is going to make the difference. And that's why that's what's difficult about not difficult, but what's important when you read this plan is that it's not necessarily linear. So what I
mean by that is it's not like this priority area of transforming our structures comes first, then the second priority. It's actually all intertwined. So you almost have to look at it holistically to understand how all of them work together in order to improve the
achievement of our students. So maybe what would help, at least me, if I was a board member and just say, well, I received this is a little intro statement as to why you think this is going to work, even though it's been in the plan before, what's going
to be different? That's good feedback. Okay. Are you finished? That's helpful. I think that aligns with what Miss Zimmerman said too. Y All right. Great. Thank you. So our next our next priority area is around improving communication
and family engagement. And this is no surprise to the board. You you frequently mention this and talk about this in our meetings. We know that research shows that students with engaged families, regardless of their background,
are more likely to be successful. Right? We know that. It's like a it is like a three legged stool, right? We need the parents and the caregivers. We need the educators. We need the student. We all need to kind of work together. However, what we have noticed through our through consistently through our surveys
as well as our anti-racist audit, even the Cal report also did mention this as well, is that our communication and family engagement practices, while they do work for some, for many of our families and our community, they are not very effective. They say that they don't have the information that
they need to support their children's education, and that staff are not getting the diverse community input that they need to make effective decisions at the school and district level. This came up when we did our phase two work. Work session. Didn't matter what the group was. This is something
that came up across all spaces around where we need to improve. So you can see here, excuse me that the goals around here is around all district school and district communications being clear, culturally responsive and easily understood. And we're
measuring that success by at least 95% of our families across reporting groups, stating that their information is accessible and 75% reporting at least 75% reporting that they understand what they're receiving. The second goal is that all district
and school decision making processes requiring stakeholder engagement will reflect the demographics of all of our student groups, with at least 90% of participants reporting high levels of engagement. We identified that piece very strategically because we can
say, yeah, we had we had the right people in the room, but if they don't even feel that the process of engagement was one that that valued their input, then we're actually not achieving what we set out to achieve. And the next one is that 90% of families across all reporting groups are reporting
that their school's environment is welcoming, inclusive and supportive. And then the last one is that 90% of families across all of our reporting groups report receiving clear, timely and useful academic progress updates about their
child. One of the things that we we've had multiple, multiple times at our strategic planning committee meetings here is we had the very first meeting and Miss Zimmerman, this was before you joined, I believe, but we had the Black and Brown Coalition who came and talked to us about the fact that we need
to be bettering how we're communicating academic progress to, to, to families so that they can be active partners. And that actually has been a thread throughout the work that we know we need to get done. So how are we going to create the systems and structures to do this? We have and I'm just going to
scroll up so that we can see that there are three critical strategies. The first strategy is ensuring that all school and district communications are clear and accessible, and use language and formats that allow all families to understand and engage. So how are we going to
do this? And I know I haven't clicked on the on the drop down, but a couple of things I want just to point out to you is we have so much inconsistency. We know that we have inconsistency from schools, from central office. So one of the first things that we need to do is develop plain language communication guidelines to
ensure all our information is culturally responsive, clear, concise and jargon free. Those guidelines will help then drive the communication that goes out everywhere in the system. We also need to audit and revise current district materials using these new guidelines. Right. So
we actually need to go back and we need to say what are we communicating. How are we communicating it. It doesn't meet does it meet that. And then we also need to conduct annual family engagement surveys to track improvements in our communication and identify areas of continued growth under
strategy two, ensuring that input gathered on district and school decisions reflect the diversity of M.C.P.S. Student students. And this gets to that where that goal says it's not just about I have you in the room, but you actually you are reporting a high level of engagement in the process that
you feel that you're valued. One of the things we need to do is establish guidelines and a toolkit that ensures that every advisory group, decision making body and school improvement process reflects the composition and people are provided. The tools in alignment with the board's community engagement
policy. We also need to establish and implement a school improvement process that ensures engagement from the school community. We. This has been an ongoing struggle that we have kind of been working on around school improvement planning, and then we also need to partner
more effectively with our community organizations, faith based groups and civic organizations to increase participation from some of our underrepresented families. And then the last strategy says, and this is this is the one when I when I was referencing the Black
and Brown coalitions participation. And this is a lot of what we heard in our phase two work around ensuring all families have the knowledge, resources and support to actively engage with schools and advocate for their child's academic and social emotional success. This is where we really need to improve our district
coordination to create targeted, culturally responsive and multilingual resources and workshops. We have a lot of great staff that know how to do this well. We need to coordinate them in a way that brings them all on board. And we listed very specifically in the strategic plan some of the critical topics
we heard from our community that they need support on in a, in a culturally relevant way to support their child. And then that second bullet, which is really critical, is developing consistent and district wide processes to share academic
progress in a clear and accessible manner. Some of the academic reports we provide to families are confusing for them to understand. How is my child doing? Are they on track? Are they not so really working to revamp how we're communicating that progress? And I'll pause
there. Thank you. I'm going to let Natalie go first this time. I think I want to echo some of the same sentiments as as the
last bullet, especially some of these. Some of these things I feel like are also outlined in the blueprint, especially with community schools. So even making that clear to reference it to the community that, you know, this this is some of the
things we're already working on. This is part of the blueprint. And then I think that also can help with connecting where some of the funding is coming from and making that all clear. I agree with my colleague. The only thing I would say is, do we
believe that surveys are the best way to get information? Because I don't I mean, if you send me a survey, I'm going to delete it. I hate to tell you because I feel and I think you're going to find this with a lot of our parents, that they
don't feel anything is going to come of it. So I'm just wondering, is that really the best way to get information? I'm not saying I have an answer, but you know what I would like when you send this out to the groups that were handling these things,
if you would ask them that question. And that's all I have on this part. Thanks. Okay. Doctor Addison will do our next one. Hold on a second. I think she did say we have the same
concerns, but I do think communication is first and foremost with our parents. We're going to need dates when you when we come up in June. Something more, much more concrete than we might say. When you're building out academic things discussion, we're going
to need to know how we're going to communicate with the parents pretty early on, because, you know, we started that discussion. Was it strategic planning or was I on another committee about a year and a half ago, remember we were
building that out. Thank you. All right. So we know that our educators are highly skilled. And here we want to continue to support them. And delivering instructional excellence. And so this priority area is about how
we provide supports for educators as they support students. And being academically successful. More specifically, the professional learning opportunities provided to educators to engage in culturally responsive teaching in their delivery of standards aligned curriculum will support
our goal of success for all students. Some of the strategies identified in this priority area include the provision of evidence based learning opportunities that are not only culturally responsive, but also proven effective for supporting multilingual learners. Students
receiving special education services, and students who are historically marginalized. Another strategy in this priority area includes ensuring ensuring instructional materials are standards aligned. The consistency and coherence of delivery of standards aligned instructional materials will
better support our ability to know areas of strength and growth for our students. Additionally, we know that state assessments are based on content standards, which will allow us to monitor the extent to which students are attaining these
expectations. Under this priority area, we have two goals identified. One is by 2030, 100% of our pre-K to 12 educators will have access to and use culturally responsive, standards aligned instructional materials
that are aligned to Maryland State Department of Education standards. And also the second goal is by 2030, all educators will participate in professional learning that is focused on inclusive, culturally responsive, and anti-racist instructional practices, with
90% demonstrating successful implementation of learning based on evaluation rubrics. And I'll pause there for thoughts and feedback.
Yes, ma'am, I would do a discussion. So sorry. No, just any thoughts or feedback about this area. Natalie, do you want to go ahead? So just based on some of the wording, if I were
to borrow your phrase, Joe Public, I might be very alarmed to think that our current curricula is not standards aligned. Just the way that it's phrased makes me a little like, oh gosh, that's horrifying when
it can't be true. My other consideration is that especially for those of us that have been in a pre spring break march classroom, that if you're reading this right now, your first thought is, oh my gosh,
one more thing. I don't think I can handle all the things I have in front of me right now, just for us to be mindful of what what we ask our staff to do and keep that in in the forefront of what we're doing. Of course, our staff is highly committed to our
students. That's always something that we see in our educators, but making sure that they also feel valued for the work that they're doing and the ways that we communicate that as well. I only have one comment,
and that is I see in here you have evaluate and enhance all curricula to ensure the inclusion of real world and project based learning experiences. What does that mean? I mean, what are you what are you going to be doing there?
So in the conversations with the curriculum folks and in the research based best practices, particularly when we're thinking about what strategies work to enhance the achievement of all students, but particularly our
our Black and African American students. This came out very robustly in their report, is making sure that the curriculum has opportunities for that hands on learning the projects that they can do real life connections. Right. So while we do have that, as Miss Zimmerman
can definitely attest to, and that's why I wrote down what you said, I think we don't want anyone to walk away and think that none of this exists anywhere, right? And we have to work on our language to clarify that. But as you know, there is some curriculum we purchase, right? And then there's some
curriculum we develop in house and we don't we develop it at different times. Right. So one of the things that the curriculum team said that they are going to do is they're basically going to go back and audit all of their curriculum to ensure, if we know that a high leverage strategy to increase
achievement, particularly among certain groups of students, is those real life experiences and that hands on learning, project based learning, and we need to go back and we need to say, is that reflective in the curriculum that we have? Some curriculum has been updated at some points and not other points. So we need to make sure.
And this gets to the whole idea of if our teachers, just like we were saying before with the kids, if the kids don't have the tools, they need to understand the expectations. The same thing with the teachers. If we're not giving them the curriculum that they need to support the diverse
learners that they have, then we're not setting them up for success. Okay, that's a massive project to go back and evaluate curricula. So when should we expect to see that done if it's going to have impact. So I think that's something that is going
to be an ongoing thing over the next five years, and something that miss Hazel, as she takes her role as CEO, will be prioritizing, building out what that looks like. And I would add that as we do have a board policy around every five years
evaluating curricula, so we have the opportunity there to continue to do that. So some of the program evaluation studies that are coming forward have the opportunity to support in this area to see what are things that we can ensure that we're embedding some of the aspects of the strategic plan into some of those program evaluation
studies. Okay, maybe it's just me, but I hear you. I know what the policy says. I used to be on. Well, I still am on that committee, but I guess I'm wondering how you're going to get impact on this when I can't
get a sense of when this is going to happen, how this is going to happen, whether you're doing core courses first and then, you know, extracurricular, what's important here, that's that's what I'm not sensing. I
also think that when you talk about evaluating and enhancing, most people are going to say, well, we have a policy on that. Why are you doing that? So maybe you should say what the goal is to build more real life experience into what's being
implemented, not just the teacher standing there and doing whatever. Is that because I didn't quite get it. Okay, one thing, a couple of things just to point out to you too, is one of the things that I want to
note in here is one of the strategies that we had. I'm just trying to find it so that I know okay. So under strategy two where we're developing a district wide framework for professional learning with clear expectations and accountability for both teacher and paraeducator development. We've
been hearing for many years now that our Paraeducators are not receiving the level of professional learning, that they need to be able to support the classrooms that they serve. At the same time, we've also heard from our teachers, particularly our elementary school teachers, that the planning time model, as
far as just our, you know, the way that the day is, they are extremely limited. And regardless if it's directed or not directed or whatever, it's just the amount of time where they're not with children is not sufficient. So part of this, and
this is, I think a key structure here, is that if we want teachers to plan for more robust opportunities and maybe some different opportunities than how they've taught in the past, we have to create the time and the structures to do that. And again, we know we have to work
with our associations. We know that that takes time, but that is a structure that if we can get that right, we'll have a tremendous impact on what's taught in the classroom. Can I just say, when I'm reading this on on what what you have, you have clear expectations and
accountability for ongoing teacher and paraeducator development. And then you have two bullets that fit in with what you just said. But now if I'm on the outside looking in, that's not what I get from that title. That's not what I get.
What I get when I see accountability is what's going to happen when X isn't met. So maybe if your goal is learning and development here, maybe accountability is the wrong word
to put in there. I don't know, I'm just asking. And I think that's when you're sending things out to the public. That's that's something you can ask. But that's just what I'm feeling when I look at it, because of course, you know, that's been my major concern because I was just going to ask you, well, don't
you have to negotiate this with the union? If you start talking about accountability? And I think, I think that the what the intention there was and I and I definitely need to go back and think about that. But I think the intention there was to make
sure what we're trying to build in, and maybe that's not the right place for it. Maybe we got to change that word somewhere else, is trying to get to the to the point. And this gets to the goal for this area that says all educators will participate in professional learning, yada yada
yada, with 90% demonstrating successful implementation of learning. This is where we're trying to get to. And this is, I know, with the district wide professional learning group is working on right now, is, is. And what Mr. Landsman said is we give professional learning and then we have no idea it goes
poof. Did this have any impact? Are they people implementing it? You know, what is the implementation of really creating a solid structure to evaluate that? But maybe that isn't the right place to have that. You want to learn, that you want to use as opposed to
accountability. But I would also suggest that strategy two and strategy three are the same thing, that they could be merged. Okay. Can I, can I
address can I just has a can I just address that? I mean one is also going back to what Miss Zimmerman has said, the concern of educators feeling overwhelmed already and going back to what Miss Sharon just said, I think strategy two is really about creating those structures and the time for us to do the
professional learning in the way that it actually needs to be done, versus what the professional learning actually is. So those are two different things. We have to create good professional learning. But if we don't have the time to give this, if the educators don't have the time to go through it,
to implement it, to do the planning that they need, it doesn't really matter what kind of professional learning we do. And that's that's where I think we're trying to get at, is both those things are needed good professional learning. And how do we create the structures, the time, the ability for our
educators to actually engage in this work to begin with? Okay, I can appreciate that, but I don't see the difference here in that wording. So maybe it's just the way it's phrased, but I can appreciate what you just said. Thank you. Natalie had something
she wanted to. Yeah. Related to that, the similarity of strategies two and three, something else that I think we should consider as well is that just like how our students need differentiated opportunities, we
don't really offer that to our staff. Someone that has been in the classroom for 22 years has a different wealth and experience and knowledge than someone that's been in the classroom for 3 or 4 years and offering them different opportunities for
their professional development would be a really great way to honor that. People have different experiences. That's not to say that there are certainly some. There's some professional learning that everyone has to take for sure,
but I would like to see that as another effective way. It's effective for our students. It would be effective for our staff as well. Okay. That's great. Okay. Our next area okay. So enhancing and supporting school
based leaders. So before I start I want you to bring you back to the nested model of the measuring cups with the students in the middle. Then you got the families and then you got the educators. You got the leaders. One of the things that is critical is that if we're training teachers and educators,
our ground zero folks on certain things, but yet we're not building the capacity of the leaders in those same things so that they can effectively be instructional coaches and leaders in their buildings. Then there's going to be a disconnect. And I'm going to we
do do some of this, but we're trying in the strategic plan. And we'll make sure this is clear in our next iteration is we're really trying to bring this alignment into focus. As we also know, there are two the two most impactful, impactful people
in student achievement are one. The teacher first is the teacher in the classroom. Second is the principal. That's what all the research says. In addition, our most recent data shows that half almost half of M.C.P.S. Principals have less than five years of experience in their
job. That's huge. Right? So the professional learning needs and support needs of our school based leaders in 2020 5th May have may look a little different than what they were five, ten years ago based on level of experience, need, etc. So we
need to make sure that our school based leaders have the skills to equip all of our students with the with their with the knowledge that they need identify. They need to be able to identify and support culturally responsive instruction and effectively manage current and emerging challenges. Being a leader today
is very different than it was being prior to the pandemic, as we know. So we have two key goals here. One, that all leaders will participate in professional learning on inclusive, culturally responsive and anti-racist, and that there's a typo there.
Instructional and leadership practices with 90% demonstrating successful implementation of learning based on evaluation rubrics. You see, that's intentional to mirror what we said about the teachers goal, right. And by 2030, increase the percentage of school
administrators recruited and hired from underrepresented reporting groups by 50%. Okay, that that was has come out loud and clear that we need to improve the diversity of our leadership. So a couple
strategies to do this, okay. Just to highlight a couple things. First, we want to strengthen our leadership preparation and onboarding. So what does that mean. And I'm going to I'm going to try to model what I heard is the feedback. We have a leadership development program. And the leadership development program
here has done a lot of really great work, but this is an opportunity for us to evaluate, analyze, and refine our current program to ensure that it is aligned with equity centered, data informed best practices.
Also, and this gets to that time structure that we mentioned in the last one, expanding multi-year onboarding support for new principals and administrators with structured coaching and peer mentorship programs. We do have programs through our professional growth system that support our new
leaders, but we have learned over the over the years that this actually needs to be expanded more in the model to make sure that we're really addressing the needs of today's leadership. The second strategy is, again, around providing that ongoing professional learning
that's aligned to culturally responsive, evidence based instructional practices and ensure effective implementation. Again, if we're training the teachers to teach a certain way, and then we're not training the leaders to understand what the teachers are teaching. I mean, the reality is, is that many
leaders, the last time they were like teaching in the classroom, it might have looked very different. So we need to make sure that the leader's capacity to be instructional leaders is matching the learning that we're giving the teachers. And as you can see here, part of this is making sure that all of our
leaders, whether they're new or experienced, and I and I think what we need to add, based on what Miss Zimmerman just said before, is a differentiated approach so that we're honoring the experiences and expertise that folks have on those things. And we specifically identified
those areas they need to know how to observe, coach, and evaluate educators strengthening. They need to know how to strengthen teaching to be more inclusive, data informed decision making to drive school improvement, recognizing and disrupting inequitable systems, and addressing opportunity gaps.
They need to know how to do that building inclusive, safe and welcoming learning and work environments. Improving communication and engagement with their families, and navigating complex challenges that obviously will not happen all at once. But it's important to understand that that those are the skills that they need. And then the last strategy is
making sure that we're building a sustainable leadership pipeline. As you know, nationally, when we have taken a look at the pipeline of principals and administrators, it's actually decreased the number of people that are going into school leadership
positions, the desire to do that. So we need to analyze and evaluate our current recruitment practices, processes and structures to inform future development needs. And we need to expand and refine targeted leadership recruitment programs. And then lastly, expanding our partnerships with local and
national administrator organizations that serve and support our African American and black leaders. Hispanic, Latino and Asian American leadership development. And again, and this is I'm just reflecting on what you guys have already provided. We have a start to some of this, and we want to make sure that
that's inclusively referenced here as well. So thank you for that. You know, I was looking at strategy two and I was listening to you read it off and you said it won't happen all at once. But I thought it was already
happening. So again, you know, I'm saying, how is this going to be different? You're going to have to tell us what's really going to be different about this. The only thing to me that I saw that maybe I hadn't paid attention to before, was
navigating complex challenges. So all the others I circled and I said, well, we've been doing that for years. And I let me just say that we knew that the strategic plan w incorporate things that we've been doing
and, and ideas that we had before. But to put it in here again, and we haven't had success the last five years in meeting the goals that we wanted to meet. You got to tell people why this is going to be
different. Thank you. I want to echo Miss Wolf's sentiment sentiments as well, especially that navigating complex challenges. That might be a new one, but I would say that our
administrators work really hard every day. And to say, navigating complex challenges. I think just the phrasing kind of cheapens that a little bit. That work that they're doing. I would argue that most challenges are
complex, that, you know, that's that's part of the work that they're doing. Relatedly, I like I brought up before, I really think it's essential that our staff sees this as something that will enhance their work and not an addition to their already
very full plates. Similarly, Miss Sharon, you brought up the differentiated opportunities. I think that'd be a great addition here as well. Thank you. And Doctor Addison will do our last priority area. So you heard Mrs.
Sharon highlight aspects related to supporting school based leaders. And we can think of this priority area as an extension of that priority area. We know that Doctor Taylor's vision, bringing about improvements in student outcomes, is not only the
responsibility of those with closest proximity to students, meaning those in buildings. Our essential services staff are highly skilled and trained in many areas that are important to helping the district be successful, thrive and to meet the needs of all students. It is
essential that all staff are focused on the goal of student success, and this can only be achieved through intentional and focused efforts. Service to students and families is why we are here. I think we can admit that if we do not, if we did not have students to serve, we would
not be here. Central office exists because schools exist. This priority area focuses on improving systems and structures and central office to efficiently and effectively serve schools. To serve students and communities. A goal in this area and there are eight goals
in this area, so I'm only going to highlight a few includes the monitoring and evaluation of the effective deployment of cross-functional teams that are designed to support schools. Another goal in this area I will highlight includes improving service delivery and departments
and divisions with intentional identification and monitoring of things like key performance indicators. Some strategies in this area include implementing research based project management approaches to support improved efficiency and effectiveness of provision of
services. Also documenting standard operating procedures related to division or department work and services is another strategy identified, and what I can say is that a number of these processes are happening in spaces. I'll take my office,
for example. We have a number of standard operating procedures that we employ, but they're not written in a way so that when new staff come on, it's easy for them to learn that work. So the need and the opportunity to document and write that information is what we're
highlighting here in this area. Another thing that we have highlighted, another goal, I apologize in this area is by 2030, increasing the percentage of staff recruited and hired from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups by 50%. And so, again, as you look at these
goals and you connect it to the previous one, you will see that overlap. And so I'll pause here for reaction and feedback to what you have received. I don't really have anything to say other than what we've said
before. My, my I just had one question right here. Evidence based project management. Maybe I don't know what you're referring to, but, you know, when I was working in the government, project management was a 18 month course. I hope
that's not what you're thinking about. No, this is something, actually, that Doctor Taylor presented in his budget. It's actually he actually allocated some money in the budget around creating a framework, particularly for central office, so that we are managing our
projects and training everybody on how to do that effectively. So, Baldridge, that we did many, many years ago was a, in essence, a type of project management. So we're trying to norm our structures around that.
The only other comment I have is you've got a 90% staff retention rate by reporting group. So I'm assuming you mean Paris teachers, blah blah blah. But underneath that you have a recruited and hired from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. I think retention
needs to be added there because that's where we're having a big problem. Thank you. I don't have too much new to add. Just similarly, the themes that we've
brought up for previous. For previous goals and strategies. All right. So let me let me just talk you through a little bit about where we're going next. First, I just kind of and I just
just to clarify, this was first of all, it was a great discussion. Thank you so much for this feedback. This is going to be so important as we're as we're doing our next iteration. And some of the key takeaways that I took from this that I wrote down is we need to be clear about what is different. We need to be clear about what
our baseline data is and how we are tracking our measurable progress along the way. And then I kind of wrote, wrote and this is it says what's new versus what are we already doing? Because we don't want to set an expectation or a thought that none of this is happening. So we
need to be really clear about what is actually going to be different, and then tying it in to why we selected the strategies. That was sort of my key takeaways and well, some of the other stuff you said. So where do we go from here? It is
March 25th. We are actually going to be meeting this team is going to be meeting tomorrow to debrief your feedback so that we can immediately start on our revisions concurrently. We're also going to be engaging about we're going to be sending out information to the all that. We
probably engaged over 500 people throughout the first three phases. We're going to send this out to them and we're going to ask them for their feedback. We're going to add that question that Miss Wolfe had about how best to collect some of the data outside of surveys. We'll make sure that we are inclusive of
that. We'll get their feedback, and as their feedback comes in, and we just also decided, just as an FYI for you, we decided to have a separate meeting with the students that we engaged in. Through this, we thought it might be a less intimidating for students. They want to have their own audience versus with
the adults, so we're going to meet with them as well. We're going to gather all of that feedback. We have our next Strategic Planning Committee meeting on May 13th. So our goal will be to share with you all of the all of the updates, all of
the metrics. Here you for your final feedback before it then goes to the full board for approval in June, I would ask that you make sure that O'Neill is included when you meet with the students. Okay, again, like
I said, for us to meet a June date, we've got to move this to the board. They're going to raise all the questions we raised if we move this. So again you did a nice cover letter, but you're going to have to expand
it probably two more pages to include what it is that we already raised and are going to add to it so that they know not to panic just yet. Okay. We don't want anyone to panic over the strategic plan. We want to create excitement. We want to
let them know that we're aiming for a June 10th final date. So they need time to review it. But they need to know this isn't this is just the first draft. Yeah. Okay. Okay. That sounds good. Anything else for board
members? Last comments I want to thank you for the work that you have already done. I know we've, you know, added a lot of enhancements, but I don't want any of this to feel cheapened in any way that you've done a lot of really wonderful work. We appreciate that. Yeah, I
actually think it's a conceptually excellent document. Once we get all of the extra stuff that we have in, because it's really a new way of looking at it. I also like the idea of using the Maryland State Report card, because then we don't have
to duplicate and create something else. So that's really good. I'll be sure to let them know that that's going to be where you're getting your baseline from. So is there anything else? No. Just thank you guys so much. Your feedback wa spot on and we're looking
forward to making the enhancements. All right. Well thank you very much. Thanks. Bye
bye. We didn't know we needed a motion to adjourn. We've never actually done it formally. I
just needed to close to close us out. Well, we are adjourned.