##VIDEO ID:YyS1fvfLJ4g## Ladi good evening this work session of ISD 279 School Board is being held in the Forum room of Educational Service Center at 11200 93rd Avenue North in Maple Grove on Tuesday December 10th 2024 the work session is being audio recorded the recording will be made available on the district website within two business days after the work work session has ended with regard to the audio recording our communication staff has asked ask that we share a friendly reminder that side conversations during the work session are picked up by the reporter and can affect sound quality also conversations during transitions between agenda items are on the recording as well the intent of the Schoolboard work session is to allow for school board discussion of topics work sessions do not include an opportunity for audience members to address the board to acknowledge attendance this evening I'll ask that all presents at the table State their name starting the Jackie MOS Jones School Board member Thomas Brook School Board member Brian seers Hall executive director of human engagement Steve assistant superintendent for the elementary schools Kelly parpart assistant superintendent for the secondary schools ran B assistant superintendent for equ w Sanders teer Mentor Laura wman academic coach at CR Elementary Amanda walner secondary sdas Katie lifebrook secondary sdas Sarah prer tag teacher at Garden City Valerie dozan District lobbyist John Moret Executive Director of Finance and operations K executive director of community relation Sarah Mitchell Schoolboard member Anthony pis executive director of Technology Heather Douglas Schoolboard member Tamara Grady she her her school board member Kim superintendent and I ATT Prince Schoolboard member and president the purpose of the Schoolboard work sessions was to build trust and teamwork to exchange information and when applicable to provide Direction in order to facilitate efficient and effective decision making at regular board meetings Dr can you share thank you my shair prince so welcome everyone this evening we're excited about our guest that'll be sharing uh their information today and we're going to start out with our legislative platform and John introduce the one and only valer thank you Dr Hy uh yes so uh introducing Valerie dosland who is the uh District's lobbyist um and working for E with Ewald what else is E just ewal Consulting thank you um Valerie's been serving this role for a number of years for us um and also does similar roles for other um major educational organizations throughout the state so she's here to help kind of provide an update of what to expect with the upcoming legislative session and then we will talk about the platform that we have a draft of in your packet for you today great thank you and thank you uh Schoolboard nice to be here tonight I'm going before I go into kind of a session up date I'm going to just give a little overview of the work that I do for the school district just as a recap uh so as John said I've been with the district for some time uh the key primary things that I work with the district Dom is one is I help with the platform and priorities development I do uh obviously monitoring of the legislative session and committee hearings and things like that and then I work uh with the district with John and the superintendent and others as appropriate to build relationships with the area delegation and then just serve as the contact at the legisl if a area delegation member has a question they know they can come to me and I'll make sure they get uh connected on issues as it relates to the legislature and then lastly also just continue to find Opportunities For The District to have their voice heard in the legislative process whether it's through public testimony or contacting your delegation members directly on issues that come up during session a quick uh overview of kind of what we're expecting this next legislative session is I think uh with the election outcome it is going to be a the word I came up with today is a little bit of a sticky Wicked uh with the election there's no change in the Senate uh the Senate Democrats will continue to keep the majority but it is a very slim majority by one on the house side uh it's a very different outcome uh they currently have a 6767 tie uh in the house which has not happened since 1978 uh there are two contested elections that are going to a court hearing and depending on the outcome of those Court hearings there could be a special election that could then change the makeup of of that 6767 uh tie um but for now we're operating that it is continues to be 6767 as I've said it hasn't happened since 19 this 1978 election so we're not really sure how things are going to unfold uh the legislative leaders that have recently been chosen by their respective caucus representative Melissa Hortman from uh this area and representative Lisa dth from the Cold Spring area they have been chosen by the Democratic and respective and Republican caucuses to be their leaders how they are going to govern and who is going to be the speaker of the house and kind of manage the business of the body is UN is unresolved at this point they have agreed to uh committee chairs and committee structure and the makeup of the committee uh they will have equal number of members on each of their committees and the Committees will be chaired by by a Republican and a Democrat how that will work we don't know yet so will they agree to the agenda and the bills that they will take up we don't know yet or will they one chair get one day and another chair get another we don't know yet um we do know there will be equal members from each caucus serving on the committee those committee appointments have not been named yet hopefully they will be named uh later this week uh the other thing you know we're not exactly sure is how the house will operate and determ mining how to move forward with uh putting together a budget um so that will just remain to be seen um I do think with the makeup of the legislature as it is I think we'll see a lot of different ideas that haven't really gotten a lot of traction over the last several years you know the uh House Republicans have power now that they did not have and they have expressed a interest in looking at things about such as re-evaluating Paid Family Leave re-evaluate in safe and sick time and then who knows uh what other policies they might want to have at the Forefront so we will just have to wait to be wait uh to see how that unfolds the 2025 session begins on January 14th they do have to pass a two-year state budget if they don't have one implemented by the end of the fiscal year on June 30th that we would go into government shutdown uh I'm not I'm not sure we're at that point yet it's much too early to predict but I do think kind of the slim margin in the Senate and this tie in the house is going to make for a little more slow goinging uh than what we've experienced the last several years all right thank you so based on that information we have put together um this is just the first draft of our legislative platform um Cel and her team normally make this look really pretty and put a bunch of other fun stuff with it we're just at text right now so so as soon as we kind of hash this out and make sure that it's it's the direction the board would like us to go we'll turn it back over to K and she'll make it look good um so the the typically the the our legislative priorities start with ensuring Equitable scholar achievement and enhancing safety through stable predictable funding it's been fairly consistent using that term the last couple years so you have the little um paragraph that just kind of explains what that means for us and then we'll talk about each of the the main areas so stable predictor funding um starting with increase our first request is the increase of general education formula by an additional 2% for fy2 which is actually the current year and FY 26 um and then also the increase the inflation range to 2 to 4% to a 2 to 4% increase annually today it is a 2 to 3% increase under state law so they look at the Consumer Price Index and if it's below two we' get two anywhere in the range of two to three we'll get that and anything above three will'll get three so expanding that range would be a goal um next item is fully funding the summer unemployment insurance mandate we do know this is already going to come up and is on um a lot of priority lists of a lot of legislators to at least address or or take a look at um hold our compensatory funding at the district level harmless um at the for the 2025 levels going forward um what is built into the the compens atory level and this is really money set aside for um the students that have the highest needs that that we need to be able to to give extra support to um there's currently uh the the next year the 2026 year brings a new formula where in the past it was always calculated by adding together any direct certified students and any um educational benefit applicants that that were approved um it is now just direct certified students but there is a floor so there's a minimum amount that has to be spent for compensatory each year to give you an idea where we're at um for this year uh Statewide we're going to spend about I think the estimate from the other day is $875 million on compensatory the floor for the next year is $838 million so it's about a 4% decrease um so as it's trending today we expect a a 4% decrease in compensatory and what they do is you take your direct Certification Number and use that as to kind of say okay this is your percentage and if we haven't if everybody's direct certification numbers for every District across the state they have to have that first before they can even do a calculation once they have that they go okay you're getting this percentage oio we haven't hit our number we still need to spend another hundred million we'll just get our percentage of the pot and they'll push it all the way up till they hit their number and that floor goes up each year with the same inflationary index that the general formula goes up so we know it will increase over time um it's just a matter of trying to hold the current year which is is our high at about our school gets 25.25 million this year um so trying to hold to that number not necessarily go backwards that was a long version but there's a lot too compensatory now the next item is the local optional Revenue to increase to 974 $4 per pupil uh it is currently at 724 but has never moved with inflation so this basically catches it up for inflation and then would link it the other request is that we have a number of our categorical items um on the next line that are linked to the same inflationary index that the general fund moves at and finally fully fund the special education and English language learner cross subsidies today those are funded at partial rates um I believe the the special ed one is moving up in 27 fiscal 27 it moves up to 50% and I believe the um English language we've never really had one and it's now moving to 25% and has some steps involved so it'll continue to move but again uh be nice to be able to have those fully funded so as we move into the school safety and mental health section increasing safe schools funding to $18 per pupil to support the needs of Scholars and staff this again is a uh today I think it's about $36 per pupil um has not moved in a n large number of years um we've even struggl to go back and find how far how far it's been at that fixed rate so so we've lost a lot of buying power to inflation um also to expand the uses of long-term facility maintenance funding to include cyber security and Technology infrastructure Hardware um and to be able to modify our buildings to enhance Safety and Security to add those two features we we routinely see Safety and Security as a top need for our families when we're surveying so we want to make sure we're addressing that in our legislative platform um the workforce shortage category expand programs and incentives to continue to attract develop and retain teachers of color and remove barriers and provide incentives to address shortages of teachers Education Service professionals and other staff continues to be a need we we're moving in the right direction but uh I feel like the programs that have been put in place have had a positive result but we need to kind of continue and and strengthen those a little bit more and then finally um we pretty regularly have the reduced mandates line and it's either fully funded or repeal existing unfunded mandates and ref refrain from adding any new unfunded mandates um just to try to control um the workload typically the the mandates are what what tends to bring additional workload to schools uh across the state because it's something new that we haven't had to do before that someone in the system is going to have to either pick up via additional responsibility reporting in some form so it tends to just add to the workload um and I think it's safe to say that staff across schools feel that that workload has increased dramatically in the last number of years and we need some relief so that's that's really what we're trying to address here um happy to open it up for any questions or turn it back to Dr H questions or feedback or input um yeah I just have a a question um mostly for anybody listening or who isn't really involved in in this but can you explain the difference between educational benefits and certified benefits sure so so I um thank you the educational benefits there's an application you could fill out and it's based on your family's income um and so they're going to take a look and there certain levels to qualify and typically what you hear this referred to as either free or reduced um you get that qualification um and it just depends on education levels but it's either it's either you receive a free benefit or a reduced benefit or nothing those are your only options so 100% about 50% off or zero um the difference is if you're direct certified it means the state through Medicaid has certified that your family has a need and and so that's what direct certification is as as the other piece so there are people that fall in between that today actually a fair amount I want to say our number was something in the about 60% of our total total number are direct certified and the other 40 are from an application for educational benefits those benefits aren't only food related even though free reduced is the common term used for it it's what drives our Title One and tit all of our title funding um it has a doesn't have an e rate impact so all of e rate funding is based off of those educational benefit funds which we receive good portion of money for technology yeah so there's a lot of components that need that information and the cons conc ER is if you take away the need for that people won't fill out the form and we actually lose money in other places so whether it's federally through the title programs or eate or those other pieces so they they're trying to find a different formula to weigh it because a lot weighs on will people fill out the form or not we saw with Co the answer was no when we said here's free meals the forms went weigh down um we're we've done a really good job educating people of of that those forms are more than a meal same thing if you if you have a student who wants to be in activity the free reduced still applies there you know same thing if you wanted a yearbook or anything like those if there's a fee associated with the school and you have a benefit you're going to get the benefit on any any one of those fees so so it's knowing that that that piece has more weight than just a meal especially now that we have Universal free meal and so that knowing that is what we're trying to convey to the legislature that that is an important piece of our compensatory refunding yeah well they want they changed the formula which is that's that's absolutely fine to change the formula but we still need that other piece because it funds so many other things and they're also trying to figure out okay if we go to Just direct certification I believe that they feel like they're going to come underneath today's minimum for compensatory and so they're going to have to give more to get up to the minimum and it's I appreciate that they put a minimum in because if they didn't we would see a dramatic decrease to give you an idea I mentioned the 25 million we're at this today uh just a couple years ago in the middle of Co we went down to 8 million so that for the district that's a massive amount of of money not going into programs for students who really need all that additional support and it's dependent upon people applying for dep on that information Medica correct which they may not be if they have fully funded health insurance through their parents employer also so it could we're talking about like a significant reduction that other as effect is eliminated yeah if they didn't do the I think we figured out and thanks to the dtl team who did the math on this but I think we figured out that without that floor we would lose about $1 million next year so that would be a substantial change and and to put it in perspective you know you 11 million sounds like a big number assume about nine teaching staff per million right you know so 11 is a lot of people to get rid of um because because we'd have to cut back and I I don't not picking on teachers it's it's our biggest population and it's what we need the most of is that educator that's on that contract so it's it's typically the it's it's the dollar that we use to measure things by so right and it's true that a lot of our buildings use compensatory funding to buy up additional FTE for staff correct yeah absolutely they buy additional support they make class sizes smaller um additional interventionists all those pieces that help support the individual needs of that particular building we have to BU law spend 80% of our compensatory it's earned by building right so 80% of the amount earned at that building has to be spent at that building okay thank you so um just FYI board members you can go to the msba site and see what their legislative platform is it's still in development for 24 25 23 24 is 31 pages and it has a number of items in there one thing that I was looking at and noticed is under our reduced mandates we have um we speak to unfunded mandates when msba and maybe in some of our past documents I don't know how many years ago we did have some potentially some language about reducing mandates not just unfunded mandates because there's been an expansion of the state directing us um and removing our local control there's various local control um platform items in there there that might be of interest of board members to consider adding in before we finalize this if you go look at that document and see some of the things that are in there um because like for example adding new cours workk courses of study um that reduces our ability to have flexibility for our students and I don't remember if the personal finance one pass but the ethnic studies one and not that those are bad things but it does reduce our ability to have flexibility for our students and what they want to pursue so I have interest in um having language that speaks specifically either to programmatic and curricular mandates or removes unfunded mandates or expands that because it's I don't I think it's beyond unfunded mandates in my perspective other comment thoughts or inter string distinction between um different types of mandates I would actually argue to get rid of that word because it's been polarized and politicized in ways that you know one person's mandate is another person's opportunity for our schools and so there's a lot of value judgments behind what we call mandates um but beyond that I was wondering if you wanted to add the um roof maintenance to ltfm as a part of your um platform um I would we like to I think we would certainly support it um but but there's just kind of limits to what I'm not sure I guess as I look at the categories I'm not sure where the roof fits in where the other one is really focused on Safety and Security not that that isn't I just I'm not sure what we the right helping a district out financially that's for sure yep absolutely it is it is arguably one of our biggest ongoing year-to-year ltfm expenses we have as group replacement we are really close last time okay so and then um you know I you and I have talked about um the grants for gender gender neutral bathrooms that was funded at $4 million for two years and so would you also want to put that on your platform while the schools are being redesigned design to add more grant opportunities for you yeah we can look that um one more thing I was thinking about is third party public data request we just looked at that policy um I think there's some discussion about um I know I would like to know who's making the data request in terms of full transparency as so there's that piece of it and then there's also the piece about um the data requests costing the district money and that might be something else to advocate for to make things more work a little bit more smoothly financially for the district right now state law doesn't it it does not require people to disclose their identity in data request is that correct recollection yes I believe so you find a lot of them hidden mind corporations I'm not in favor of advocating for disclosure people's identities oration I think transparency is really important on those issues as it on many other things other board members this is the time to provide input because they're going to draft it and add in what you say oh I would also say amsd has they did they publish it was Friday they they have the final draft okay yeah so that's also available on amsd website I have a separate question you guys uh so the only question that I really had was really on the first bullet point um the inflationary um increased from 2 to 3% to 2 to 4% um I'm just wondering it seems like 2% is the sort of the standard minimum uh but wondering with recent um inflationary rates if we should be asking for move um I think do I think that's a good idea yes do I think we'll get it probably not um so so I think we I guess I'm I think when we were originally discussing we were thinking about baby steps to get there that we might just have to push it up in a couple increments but to at least start the conversation um the schools the you know organizations like masbo amsd msba have been pushing for that inflationary index forever and got really excited when we got it until they went and we'll squeeze it to this to this that was kind of like an addition at the end to say oh yeah here you go um but we're going to limit it it's interesting because uh our voter approved operating referendum has an inflationary index but there is no no parameters to it so when we have a big inflationary push it goes up quite a bit more comes down too so if inflation would go negative for any reason it would go down um I don't know if that's possible or not but I know we see that on on Tech levies a lot where the value of the district as it goes up and we our Capital project is based on a percent of that it can go down and that will bring that number down so there is that ability um but yeah just trying to get you know the concern is are do I expect we're going to see 7% inflation again no but do I expect that 2% or under two is the norm probably not I feel like it's going to be more in that 2 to four range as is that's a little more typical and so we want to make sure again that we're trying to be able to capture that with the goal of not having to cut in the future you know it's it's it's not to we're in a very healthy position today um and that will help us sustain not having to cut but we are also deficit spending for the foreseeable future so we want to make sure that those those little things help us kind of smooth out that that decline so but yeah I I agree with you and with that first bullet point that 2% is on top is after the the inflationary increase so technically if it's let's say 22% inflationary plus 2% we're asking for a 4 and a half% for the year and based on what we know with the um forecast that just came out so so there was a substantial decline in where they thought our revenues as a state would be went down by $1.1 billion so they're still forecasting a surplus in the 600 million range but 616 616 y um I have had a few conversations with leadership at mde and one of their recommendations as they were talking with us about platforms is they said I think you will find the legislature much more um open to one-time money requests versus ongoing where where we know right now not the bay any we're talking about but the next one is looking at somewhere between a three and a half and a55 billion deficit so they're trying to address that as well and so we're trying to balance so it may be a yep we want you to move that inflationary thing in the future or it may be hey if you could just for this year give us an additional 2% you know that's where we can say that that works as a onetime as well still fits within our platform but could fit that mold that Anthony's talking about too so my um my question is again for the child and teacher here um do we feel like we have enough gpk spots to service our community and do we want to advocate for more I mean I'm universal PR would you it be easier for you guys to answer that well we certainly we've picked up more slots in the last couple of years so we're you know we yeah 100 yeah about 125 spots so we're doing you know compared to 8 years ago right we exponentially higher than we were um so I would say you know last year we probably had is it 45 slots when unused total um typically boy probably 80 to 85% of those in the afternoon yeah half day section the the morning sections are much more popular with families with young kids in the afternoon traditionally um but that being said you know we're compared to gosh you know no VPK 8 years ago we've been doing a good job of filling slots as we get them you know one of the things that we've experienced is certainly it takes at least not in every site but a lot of times it takes a year for families to know what's actually available and then once it gets well know that it's available they fill up it takes a little more than a year probably yeah and when I say we have it depends on what you're talking about for or you ask specifically for VPK didn't you check because we have a lot of early chat we have multiple four-year-old programming we do even when I say we have 45 slots open we do have schools that have weight lists to get into bpk as well so I guess if you if you took the weight list and subtracted unused you're probably pretty even because we're not able to meet the need uh for some folks who say no if I can't get into morning at Rice Lake I don't want to go into afternoon at Elm Creek sure right so even when we offer it uh that's how they stay open Sometimes some people really want to be at their school that their child's going to go to kindergarten at cuz we're not at every single School others say nope I want my child to have a volun fre experience no matter where it's at in the district and then I'll go on to kindergarten so I didn't mean to give you every option that happens but that's kind of a that's a synopsis of kind of how it plays itself out throughout the course of the year so it's a good question though so we tend to fill I would say we fill the spots as they come in but you've get when you when you've got 15 sites it doesn't take but more than onesie twosies to make it 45 unfill right so overall we're filling it and we do we do still have have um some slots that we could utilize for Early Childhood special ed so we work closely with CSE is we have designated slots available for young people identified early childood special ed particip yeah in every section yep yeah so I hope that helps you a little bit but that's kind of that's kind of how it plays itself out I would say just a related question do we have dpk in all elementary buildings that um get compensatory think well almost I think every building get some compensatory but not every building has VPK the the highest needs um generally outlined highest need schools absolutely have v um I just um would say that we should probably exercise caution in adding too much to this um our goal is to actually get some of these hopefully some of them probably not all of them right met um so really push forward those ones that our highest needs um with the most likely with the guidance of Valerie um and her infinite knowledge um to actually have a success of being passed um I think that's where we should focus our energy also um you know I think that we hear over and over again from our staff that a lot of their um prep time is being compromised from actually being able to prep for teaching um to do paperwork that is mandated and so I would really encourage um keeping the language around repealing existing unfunded mandates um and I would actually say refrain from adding not just new unfunded mandates but we just need to stop with the mandates for a little while um we have a lot of things that we are trying to work on and get get good at doing um and when we keep having every year a new mandate that we have to manage like you had said it takes up a lot of hours and time and people um it takes away from our students and so I would really encourage that we keep the language that we have um or revise it to include no additional mandates um especially related to teaching so that's uh my two cents on that second's comments can I ask a question on that that I'm wondering would it rather than saying don't add any more mandates would it make sense to request um that the legislator look at some programs that might not be effective any longer and remove them 100% and maybe word it that way so you're not necessarily using the I know the Mandate it is a hot button get that I love that idea because there are a lot of things that I think are not effective or hindering but still allowing you know in respect to the legislature to say you if if you feel this is a program that doesn't need to be done right can we take it off yeah that's good so yeah so didn't we in our past one of our past legislative um ask for reduction in paperwork for special end teachers I I don't think we've gotten that quite yet no so do we add that back in I know we don't want to add more but I think that's a really important one yes that's a valid thing that is probably being discussed is looking overall at paperwork because it's not just special ed it's a lot of government entities over time thatass a lot of P so over the years the leg last several years the legislature has made progress in reducing special ed paperwork and for the in talking with special ed directors because that is also another organization I work with my understanding is the lack for better for lack of a better definition I think the lwh hanging fruit that everyone can agree to that wasn't controversial that paperwork reduction um proposals have passed and we actually just passed one again last SE last session I think there's a couple key pieces I can't tell you off the top of my head what they are but a couple pieces of paperwork that there's just not alignment with the advocacy organizations who have a lot of um influence at the legislature and so those haven't Advanced I think also there was a working group that was made up of special ed directors Advocates and special ed teachers and the Education Minnesota that really looked at this and the where it kind of landed was that there's a sense that there's a lot of paperwork that districts do because of uh fear about lawsuits and compliance and that it may not be because of anything that's specific to statute or Rule and so my sense in talking with the Minnesota administrators for special head is some of those things um really probably aren't the the what's left might not move now having said that given kind of the change with the election and the budget news there there may be some appetite to look at where does Minnesota go beyond the federal law for services but again that is really difficult because uh parents have concerns about moving changes in that way so I I would be surprised if that advances but that was something that I was reminded of today in another meeting I attended I don't advocate for L services but not get enough will there be any more work sessions on this or is this our final work session before it comes to board apart from I know this is typically the final work session because it will come back to you next week so what we'll try to do is turn it around immediately and at least push it via email this is what we think the final is so you get one more chance to say guess you know a little tweak um but we'll want to do that and take this like I'll try to get that out to you probably tomorrow so you at least have some time with it because we'll need it back to be able to turn it probably by like we will only be able to give you a day or so and then we'll have to turn it over CU we also got to get to Sherry to go into the packet do you need any more input on the ideas that were thrown out for you to complete a draft thanks so appreciate it thanks than you John all right we're gonna move on to our next one and we're going toing Ma curriculum and um tag update and have Dr introduce please all right thank you good evening chairman scada Jones Vice chair Prince uh board members superintendent H cabinet community members and we do have some uh special special guests out in the audience too fellow tag teachers thank you for joining in on uh tonight's presentation supporting your colleagues um uh tonight presenting here I'll start with uh how they appear um to you all over there um Sarah frer she is a tag teacher at Garden City uh Katie light Brook she is a staff development assessment specialist supporting Brooklyn Middle secondary math and visual arts uh then we have Amanda Wall ER staff development assessment specialist supporting norw Middle School Park Center Senior High and secondary math next we have Laura Wagman she is a as she said earlier an academic coach at Crestview she is also the president-elect of the Minnesota Council of teachers of mathematics just saying just and then we have next to me here W Sanders new teacher Mentor serving Elementary uh new teachers so tonight we will highlight key advancements in our pre through Algebra 2 math curriculum will share student achievement data and provide insights into the evolving tag programming and tag stands for talent development academic Challenge and gifted support these up these updates illustrate our shared dedication to creating Pathways that Inspire student achievement increase proficiency and Elevate Elevate potential for every scholar the significance of tonight's presentation cannot be over stated mathematics and talent development are foundational to equipping students with critical thinking problem solving and analytical skills that are essential for their Futures by combining evidence-based practices Innovative instruction and personalized enrichment opportunities we are transforming classrooms into Dynamic spaces where all students Thrive so without further Ado I'll turn it over to our presenters and first up uh when Sanders will be presenting I already um introduced the outcome so will jump right into uh the math piece all right here we go thank you you're welcome good evening Dr H Schoolboard members thank you for having me here today I have the opportunity to share with you some of the history um behind our math adoption process so thinking about the process to adopt a new curriculum this goes through the programed improvement process um this is a multi-year process that involves classroom teachers um multilingual teachers the department of multilingual um also special education as well as Administration um we also um included in this process is also the um Department of equity of educational Equity as well as learning and achievement um the program improvement process involves examining current research as well as analyzing our results um the our systems and structures and P piloting the curriculum to help teachers make informed recommendations about curricular resources um for both the elementary and the secondary math adoption the program improvement process team use the research that was done by the National Council of teachers of mathematics um and uh this included their work with principles to actions and what you see on the graphic here here are the eight practices that are align with evidence-based um practice research principles to actions stresses that students should deeply grasp mathematical Concepts before focusing solely on procedural skills ensuring that Scholars can apply knowledge flexibly to different problems to different um situations this essentially is stating that prioritizing understanding deeply understanding the why um behind mathematical operations over just memorizing steps additional Additionally the teams leaned into the work of Dr John Hade who is an educational psychologist um he identifies the influences that most impact students student achievement and those influences focused on during the program Improvement were the classroom teacher and curriculum and lastly the teams lean on the work of Dr Joe bowler she stresses the importance of student agency representation and importance of mindset in learning mathematics so all of this research and the year-long pilot um of four programs two at the elementary level and two at the secondary secondary level that teams of teachers to adopt um the following two curricular resources that we're going to to share with you and I and I forgot to add um our director of learning achievement Dr K and her two assistant uh directors uh Sarah Luby and Dr Chong or not Dr Chong Yang are in Colorado for the learning the National Conference uh learning forward so otherwise um they would be here as well but I just wanted to make sure um I acknowledge them and they were part of helping put this presentation together so all right so in 2018 we um pilot or we implemented Bridges and Mathematics for prek to fifth grade um and as way had talked about bridges and Mathematics promotes deep conceptual understanding as well as problem solving and multiple strategies there are three components the first one you can see up on the screen which is number corner and back when I started teaching we had calendar this is not that this is exponentially more difficult and more fun actually um this is a daily routin routine in which students are finding patterns they're reinforcing and extending their learning with visual models and strategies there's lots of discussion and problem solving in this third grade classroom um the students are actually taking over and leading it because we want our students to be leaders and really deeply understand what they're learning about the second component was our problems and investigations which is our main lesson and as the name implies um students I have explorate go through some problems um with guided exploration and investigation and this time they're cognitively demanding tasks sometimes even the teachers have to go look at the answer key um because they're giving students new novel ways of solving problems um that aren't just procedural it it encompasses all three parts of rigorous math understanding and in this time students persevere and they encounter complex and novel problems in the left picture that is a second grader who was learning about rows and columns really the conceptual foundation for multiplication and she caught on and so she was showing them multiple ways to make 12 and in the picture on the right that are for those are fourth graders who are multiplying fractions um a skill that is in our standards in grade six and they're talking through the problem showing each other why something works not just the answer the final component for brid and Mathematics we call workplaces at my school we call it differentiated support time because not only is this a time for kids to get extra help but it's also enrichment um workplaces when you walk into the room it's very Lively kids are playing games that are um connected to what they've been learning these kindergarteners were learning how to um add to 10 and playing it in a really fun way helping each other out um but you'll also see concept quests and for many of you I got to speak about concept across at my school last spring um it's something is super exciting it's aligns with our program but it's really a challenging opportunity for kids every single day to get enrichment in mathematics so that takes us to secondary math so after a year of piloting um in March 2020 the secondary pilot teachers chose to adopt CPM which is college preparatory mathematics and that date Probably sounds familiar because that coincides with the beginning of Co so this also meant that we did not actually begin full implementation until 2122 although we had some teachers um trying to use it earlier to learn more about it so CPM has three pillars as the foundation of its program the first is problem-based learning and students learn by tackling challenging real world problems that require them to analyze strategize and apply mathematical Concepts to find Solutions the second pillar is Collaborative Learning and and that's when students are working together to discuss within their groups or their teams to share ideas and also build upon each other's understanding while solving problems and the last pillar is mixed spaced practice that means concepts are Revisited periodically throughout the whole school year over time and they have varied practice problems to help reinforce that learning so these are some images of some secondary math in action and what that looks like so us being in schools every day we're able to get into into many math classrooms and watch students and teachers engage in math learning one of the main components of CPM is Collaborative Learning many teachers have found that when students are working together on collaborative surfaces like you can see in the first two pictures um students are more engaged and willing to make mistakes together because they can easily erase and CPM provides 40 teaching strategies to help students learn how to problem solve and work together so an example of one of those strategies would be the student who's holding the marker is the one who is just writing what other team members are discussing but they're not writing down their own ideas and teachers are really purposeful about using these strategies to make sure that all students have a chance to have a role they all have a chance to share their voice and they're all contributing to the team in the third picture you'll see a team of four students sitting together but what you can't really tell in this picture is that students are actually working in pairs so while the role of collaboration is important there are still many different roles of collaboration and modes that are built into that curriculum So within one lesson you'll often see students working independently as well as collaboratively like in Partners or in teams of four or three these various modes of learning help students to solve problems by investigating questioning and constructing arguments and then they further justify their thinking with mathematical evidence we love getting to hear the conversations that students are having about their math learning every day and we see a huge increase in engagement in classrooms I'm going to walk through uh some data now um so this graph on the slide represents our math proficiency compared to the state for the 2324 school year so the purple bars are the oio and the yellow bars are the state average at elementary we are 1% below the state average at the middle school or 1% above State average at the middle school we are 3% below State average and at the high school we are 4% below the state average this graph represents our math proficiency scores for all student groups over the past four administrations of our MCAS this graph paints an interesting story first of all our data is nowhere near where we'd like it to be we will talk shortly about how we continue to partner with leaders and teachers to continue to improve these scores secondly if we look at just the purple bars in 2021 and then the blue bars of 2024 each student group's scores have increased since 2021 multi-racial and American Indian students grew by over 5% and white students by 6% and lastly if we look at the yellow bars for which represent 2023 and the blue bars that represent 2024 we'll see that proficiency scores increased anywhere from 3% to 3% this graph is a continuation of what we just when we look at the purple bars and the blue bars all groups except our special education students have an increase in their proficiency scores special education students decreased by .1% from 2021 to 2024 when we look at the yellow bars for 2023 and compared to the blue bars of 2024 all student groups except MLL had an increase in proficiency scores MLL students decreased by 2% and then this graph is showing um the distance we are from the state goal of 85% over the past 2 years so we can see that we're continuing to make in incremental progress towards our goal the data we see in this chart are the MCA results of all our tested students in grades 3 through 5 and 11 grade over the last 3 years compared with the same groups of students in like districts like districts are those that are similar to oio in size and demographic um the bright yellow bar on this graph is oio and the purple bar at the far right is the state for the 20 23 24 school year we were 1% below State average in the previous 2 years we were 3% below we consistently are third in scores amongst our comparison districts with only an NOA in Ms view scoring better so for our continued math work we are always partnering with leaders and with teachers at sites and departments at the district office to keep working on improving our math scores the first thing that we do is supporting teachers in the practice of developing student academic language in the area of math academic language is the vocabulary of that subject area so it would maybe be words like quadrilateral or fraction or exponent within math we may think of math tests as only involving numbers but by doing this we'd be missing the parts of the math test that get at real world problem solving improving student reading skills will also benefit them in math the next thing we do is partner with multilingual department on the implementation of the weda standards these are standards for the English language development and the partnership is helping teachers understand the importance of language development and its role in Mastery of content special education hired a staff development assessment specialist to help support special education teachers in the delivery and the differentiation of Core Curriculum we partner with the SD to support the modifications and accommodations in the resource classroom as well as in our co- teing settings we have also used adsis funding which stands for alternative delivery of specialized instructional services to provide math interventions for students in grades K through 8 each middle school has a full-time math interventionist each of these teachers uses evidence-based interventions and monitors progress for students to ensure that they are all working towards Mastery of the math standards we continue to provide ongoing professional learning to teachers research tells us that it takes about 40 hours of intense job embedded professional learning for changes in practice to take hold so in our system that would be like 2 years of professional learning on a single topic despite competing demands for time like the react professional learning we continue to offer sessions on math implementation many sites use their Title One funding to support this work at the elementary level and at the secondary level we have two staff development assessment Specialists who support teachers on a daily basis at our system profession learning days we continue to offer sessions on math that deepen teachers ped pedagogical knowledge and skill we also have the professional learning team that teachers do as a part of their work to improve student achievement this is where most of our potential lies teachers are analyzing current student data on formative assessments and sharing it with their colleagues to make informed decisions on the next best instructional move to ensure that all of their students are learning and lastly we've begun the process of analyzing the new math standards from mde which must be fully implemented in 2728 school year these new standards would mean that we are re-entering the program improvement process that year thank you Dr H and cabinet members and Schoolboard members I will be speaking with you about the T program Dr we're done proba the board ask oh pause for oh okay okay excuse me S you good thank you okay board members um questions comments um oh before we do that in the the there were a balanced assessment pages in here did you want to speak to that anymore Dr K elected to remove those two slides before before the slides were presented to us is there somebody who can explain those slides since they're in our packet we talking about pleas the two B assessment sites I think Dr K would be the person to speak about those absolutely um and we can provide uh in the Dr H's board update we can provide information that explains those two charts we had we had some discrep she I had a conversation about those yeah so I'm surprised they're in there based on the conversation we had it it would drive some conversation I think okay definitely I have a lot of questions okay okay I can speak what we do for the Middle School with this if that's do you want us to refrain from asking questions about it since we don't have Dr kind here that would be my preference okay we able to do that okay y yep okay all right other questions or comments on what was presented yeah I just had a couple questions I sent most of mine in advance uh but one of the concerns I was hearing is about the students that are proficient in math at grade level coming in teachers were asking how are we addressing you know with grow being the goal how are we demonstrating that those highly proficient students still are growing um that's one of the questions I sent in advance and just wondering with this Bridges program you know how how are we um demonstrating that me to take that um we have concept class for Bridges and Mathematics which aligns with our program um and these are those challenging math Tex T that I had referred to um and every student has access we have a tag teacher comes in once a week to support and give feedback but they're accessible to students in grades 2 through five every single day um and so those are some of the things we have there's excursions and Adventures the excursions are adding another layer of context and then um we also have the adventures so there's excusions allowing them to apply the mathematical Concepts that they're working on the adventures are hard we thankfully have um a key for them CU even the adults we need to do some backwards design in them um because it takes it into another level really applying in novel ways um similar to what we've done in the old Problem Solver of years ago and at the secondary level um we have options for acceleration based on um families having conversations with their counselors this going to happen at 6th 7th 8th 9th or 10th grade um and we've created multiple Pathways for students that show interest and want to have that growth from the secondary level okay and is there any data kind of demonstrating just giving us that assurance that those highly proficient students are are growing do have we do have a slide that's coming up in uh the tag portion of the presentation that shows some growth data and some comparison data between students who are participating in acceleration um versus students who are not participating so it's coming up okay specific to math right okay well to where to where students are experiencing this growth yeah yeah the question I had sent in advance was just some teachers were having that question is the bridges program for students that come in highly proficient you know are we seeing growth with growth being the goal for all students since we're specifically talking about um math and my question was about the highly proficient students um of all the students who are identified as being low or very low risk on the fall a math assessment 95.8 2% were at the very low risk in the spring um and then teachers are also monitoring the data of their students to ensure that these students are growing did that answer the question um I mean not exactly I mean I had asked an advance just to see you know some maybe if it's in the next um program that would be helpful if they're low risk that means they're high achieving yeah right and so they moved up a different level so that shows the girls yeah they either stayed at the very low or they moved from that low to the very low which is the best okay um and then just the other question with so concept Quest um is that considered optional is that considered part of tag or that's considered part of math Bridges both both it's really a tier one so for it's accessible for all students okay um it is an option so I know our teachers at crvw make sure parents know that that is an option cuz sometimes parents have a better um way of getting kids to do it because sometimes our highest performing students like my child is one of not the one that's going to take it um and so that's a lot of conversation we have at conferences parent calls we have this as an option um I know our te teacher ensures that our students are taking them home to show a parent to to see the kind of work that they're doing and explain it so but it is an option okay um can I just jump in with the question yeah of course um I really appreciate you sharing that cuz that kind of is my question is what about the kids who aren't opting in and parents who aren't engaged in the process um or caregivers or whatever um may be um where are those kids falling if they're not having you know like before we had the we had evaluations within the classro that said well this student is scoring at this rate and should be receiving intervention for um so how is that playing out if someone isn't opting in on their own just a second if I'm not understanding I think we're blending math and tag so a lot of these questions are answered in a tag update correct some of okay yeah then I will see we'll when we get to that we'll go through that then we'll come back if they're not answer okay just to clarify we have one SD for special education for the whole District no no there's multiple uh special education sdss we partner with one who was hired for secondary level um and so she Partners we meet monthly with her and uh collaborate to provide that professional learning for our special education teachers so one for the secondary yep and then there's one for elementary for math for math yeah just curious I had a question on elementary math um on the workes are those all individual student head or is there instruction is there instruction or are they just independently all working the teachers teach the games and then students have opportunity to practice the teacher could be working with a group of students or could be working with kids so I think some context for our interest in the math topic certainly is what happened with reading and the fact that we're find ourselves in the place that we have less so our district since we're ahead of the game um and I think seeing scores where only 30% of our high schoolers are proficient 37% middle school before really I think is making most Schoolboard members across the state wonder if math is the next reading um and I think the type of conversations are to ensure that we're confident that we're not going to enter that case and um so that's I think why just some context why lots of interest in math by parents by community members um by me as a board member is I don't looking at our math scores and looking at the change in how we're teaching math are we really on the right course is I think what's on people's minds and so it's really good to have this um presentation so that we can see what the math instruction is so that we can know um whether those concerns are Justified or not right um with that being said um one of the main issues um has been become around direct instruction so how much direct instruction is um being provided if you were to say a percent of time in the classroom at each level are you able do you know how much what percent of time is direct instruction in math curriculum that's a really great question and it's really hard because I think every day is different it depends on where students are in the learning progression it depends on the topic if we're doing rounding we are going to use more direct instruction than something they've had more experience with so it really depends on the topic um percentage wise in a day I'm lucky thinking of like Hattie's work when he said that ultimate would be to have direct instruction along with guided exploration would be our highest effect size which I would say is probably that that would be your day and so to pull them together I I I don't know 6 I'm I'm ballparking 65% would be more guided exploration in a week I don't I feel like I don't even I can't even say because it depends on what the kids are learning in the week and so it depends on what they're doing and I think in CPM based on their model of how they structure the majority of their lessons and this again is really hard to answer um but the majority I would say when a teacher launches the lesson it's very direct instruction that would be about 15 to 20% of each lesson um but then when students are doing that guided exploration there's the ability for the teacher to go back to direct instruction if needed or small groups or do all of those things so students are definitely exploring those Concepts together but a lot of that individual practice and learning still happening with direct instruction I think one thing to add too is it depends on the class too um I can be in a classroom with students who are show a lot of knowledge and I know that they know this so I give them the opportunity to work on their own whereas if I do an exile tip or something and the students don't have it I might need to lean lean on Direct instruction so really the capacity of our teachers to know their students and be able to Monitor and just is really important that's why I'm really struggling to answer your question because it depends on the day the students the topic yeah and I have heard anecdotally that um for example students in high school who are used to this approach as middle schoolers they've grown into it they understand it they know how to interact in it whereas let's say a student comes into the district and hasn't been taught in this way it it's a learning curve even for students to learn how to be students in this instructional method because it is different focusing on um the the why and the strategy versus the process for because so many years was the process so not only is it teachers needing to learn a new way but also students to learn and chapter one of CPM for every every secondary course of CPM chapter one is all about trying to build that Foundation of how CPM teaches getting kids to collaborate learn how some of those teaching models and practices happen um and so that happens in every course while they're still learning math they're also CPM structures that that they kind of learn that how CPM is having the teachers instruct are you seeing parents be able to articulate that they're they understand how to support their student in this because I know that was was probably a large source of Fe here is um I don't I don't I can't help my student at home but the that was also earlier on right too so do you feel like what what are you hearing what is the consensus of what is being heard from parents from the teacher perspectives you for CPM we did a lot of work as you said early on it was a a topic of a lot of teachers would come to us and they'd say hey we have families reaching out how can you help us support them and so CPM has teacher guides so for every single chapter in CPM there are teacher guides that go along with it which it really gives that overview of the skill that they're learning within the chapter and then lots of different problems that the kids can practice at home with the answer keys provided um as well as we've created some parent handouts for parents to understand how cpm's um those three pillars that mentioned um CPM also has uh homework help is a way of going through step by step of each of their homework problems but a lot of the homework problems are either previewing future learning or reviewing a current concept and so having parents being able to and caregiver access that as a way to help students kind of check in for their understanding has been really helpful so to answer your question we did hear feedback we've created a lot of resources and I don't think we've heard as much recently of that I think teachers feel supported enough to know how to support parents and I feel like we would be hearing that a lot more frequently if that were the case other questions or feedback um can I just get a little bit of clarity around what when we're talking about like what it looks like in the classroom for direct instruction um and please correct me if I'm way off B but my interpretation of what you're describing is like let's say on Monday we introduced con a specific concept and so there's a lot more direct instruction then and then throughout the week we're building the foundation so there's less direct instruction is that an appropriate interpretation of what you're describing potentially okay it really depends on the topic okay um but yes I mean essentially it's not as rigid when you think about literacy it's not as rigid as the I do we do you do but there's components of it within a yeah it really depends on the topic but yes okay thank you and I would say for CPM it it is each lesson is more structured there aren't really days that are super heavy on Direct instruction it's more that CPM really pushes the teacher Judgment of depending on how your students are doing these are the strategies you can rely on in these cases so like if the first lesson for every chapter for example is still going to have that same structure of they launch the lesson which is like the 20% of the lesson so I would say there's at least that 20% of direct instruction every day if not more depending on what the teacher feels is needed and I say another big thing CPM is that mix based practice so in chapter 4 they're going to see something again from chapter 2 so we're continuing to build things in um instead of in our previous practice we'd cover it in Chapter 2 and then never touch it again the rest of the year and so then okay we get it to in chapter 4 now I don't need to put as much direct instruction because the kids are familiar with that portion of chapter 4 um so I guess to further if a student or I shouldn't say a student if a group of students or the majority of students are not fully grasping a concept does the teacher have the ability to slow down and stay in that concept longer before moving forward or is there specific like we have to get to this by this time period for secondary we have suggested scope and sequence but we always tell our teachers you know your students best and if you need to slow down and meet their needs slow down and meet their needs we've also outlined where do some of these Concepts happen again so for example something that's introduced in Chapter 2 we really really try and make sure teachers understand when that comes back again in chapter 5 that's where the majority of that time is spent right now we're just trying to get students to understand the general concept and explore it and wonder and being in classrooms it's amazing to hear those conversations that students have where they do have a lot more confidence just around talking about something that they don't know where like I was actually one of the pilot teachers and I remember having my students when I was much more direct instru were afraid to talk about something if it meant they might be perceived as somebody who is a knowledgeable about math if they get it wrong so that that's all built in and I feel like we're seeing a lot of Engagement around students being able to advocate for themselves and what they need to and that group setting really helps students to explore those before it's more cemented later on okay thank you am I correct in thinking that you might be actually doing some direct instruction with a smaller group as other because that group needs a little more direct instruction I mean that's how I work I just and CPM they call it the three pass promise so they talk about once you get group started you're walking around three times and that first time you really is everybody on task that second time now I'm starting to listen and then that third time I'm addressing those small groups that me need me to dive in and do some of that more direct instruction with them now if everyone needs help then I'm going to pull everybody back but it might be where I'm targeting some small groups yeah what do you need from us to be successful if you is there a need do you have a need what do you want us to know about what you need to continue to accelerate results and ensure that our students get up to 85% from 30% today you don't have to answer it right now that's a big question this board is highly supportive of ensuring that whatever is needed will be provided this is really critical where we're at today in terms of proficiency I was on the um Team to write the new standards for 2022 and there's a lot of similarities and there's a lot of difference they're going to need a lot of support with the new Pathways and things that are happening in high school it looks very different Elementary looks pretty nice it feels nice I think we have a program that pretty well aligns with what we're what we're doing um and a lot of our standards it does entail that students are explaining their thinking justifying it's written into our standards so I think having an opportunity for kids to be able to talk to justify to share their thinking which we know is best for adults too um really is going to be supportive of how we move forward and looking at those standards well keep it in mind that whatever support is needed I think you'll find that the board wants to provide that that means more professional development if that means more instructional C is I would like to see that come forward up through our processes to the board yeah definitely awesome thank you so much thank you great T round two students are challenged and engaged through differentiated learning experiences offered through the take programming students deserve and need challenging learning opportunities to help them discover their unique interests and strengths tag PR programming is designed to meet the needs of all students including those who have demonstrated high performance or show the potential for high performance relative to others of their age experience or environment we have three no you're good back to where you were is good thank you sorry we have three levels of programming the first is talent development which all of our students in our schools get academic challenge is for some of our students and gifted support is for a fewer number of students programming is available to students across the districts in grades three through five funded by our gifted education dollars and we use Title One funding to provide tag program programming from kindergarten to second grade at our Title One sites the purpose of tag programming is to strengthen interests extend grade level content and apply skills and concept in authentic ways we're fortunate in Minnesota um to have the horel foundation gifted and talented simposium here each year this conference provides opportunities for our teachers and coordinator to learn about best practices between the hormell Symposium and the MD support provided we have access to the most upto-date research and best practices in the field Dr Eric Calbert from the center for talent development has been a keynote speaker at the Symposium and helped As We examined our assessment practices and equity for students receiving Tag Services our framework recog recognizes that ability is malleable and that potential reveals itself in different ways at different times in different contexts identification and assessment become ongoing and dynamic processes to identify students for Tag Services teachers use realtime data and observations to ensure that students have access to programming even though many aspects of the program are self- select teachers work hard to encourage students and push students when they see that a student could use an additional challenge we are currently serving nearly 3,000 students in our reading and math programming depending on the SK the schedules at sites tag teachers may push into a classroom to serve students or to pull students out of multiple classrooms lastly is agency or the notion that students get control and ownership over their learning this shows up when students self- select for academic challenge what they do in Talent Development and how gifted support is individualized for the student we're going to now look at each of the elements of our tag programming let's look at Talent Development first vigorous opportunities are provided for all students these opportunities include classroom lessons focused on creative thinking skills analogies growth mindset mindfulness among others in addition to classroom lessons schoolwide enrichment activities occur at each site differentiation support is provided by the tag Specialists to classroom teachers in order to support all students with challenging learning opportunities that help them discover their unique interests and strengths you'll see a video from parkbrook and it features a student talking about the opportunities for building in their talent development time build stuff and all that we we could build whatever we want and it's and if you come in here most most kids want to come in here and you just build whatever you want out of like cardboard paper and you can also use some other materials to make stuff and I think that's probably about it you use like anything in here to build but you have to think about what you want to build first you think about what you want to build and then you build uh what you want to build and you have to keep thinking about it until you have like it stuck in your mind and then you got a super and then when you make it you get what you want that's it he continue to work right on through that yeah was in our next video students at Oakview have coded music kind of no you're good students at Oakview have coded music in a program and connected conductors to paper so that when they play the notes the music will play okay I know he he me play [Music] [Applause] okay as you can tell talent development is often energetic and exciting places to be next academic challenge for ELA English language arts is aligned with our grade level State Standards this is an example of our Ela academic challenge these students have been working on preparing for a debate regarding PL water bottles bottles other okay you guys get one more chance to to give a final final argument and I'm going to nin there you go Arlo did you can say something to if you want you are you are you are advocating for the ban of the sale of plastic water bottles so the idea of B if you ban sale if you look at this what you just said about the glass the reason it's only 3% is cuz we know that 50 billion there's no way that 50 billion plastic water bottles could be put into that little size and only be 3% so that means a lot more of it is getting dumped in the ocean and how much regularly do you see a water bottle on the ground it is so easy just to drop it it is a very easy argument and if you look at the calculated 8850 bottles a day for 14 for 13,00 for $1,460 inflation going up that already got Times by three cuz when I buy water bottle it's like $150 already use the document size times that by three but if you want to look at it deeper the way that inflation's going it's just going to keep going up and then the Sal is going to keep going up and just going to get more glass is not a good idea because of glass the thing about glass is that it doesn't take up that much space plas and water Botts take up space weight okay rightt those other okay you guys academic challenge for math is concept quest which you've heard a little bit about it's aligned to our bridges math curriculum students self- select into concept quests and each unit has two types of quests which Laura had already talked about but excursions apply and deepen students understanding of essential unit Concepts and the adventures which are much longer they extend students understanding by engage encouraging them to make important mathematical connections to other grid level content or interesting context or to think about and apply generalizations here we have an example of an Excursion in concept quest for second grade students are asked to determine five different ways to box the books and which types of boxes are needed for each solution another short video for you this shows how might used toell dishes okay in the video you'll see students reading their concept Quest and then collaborating on a solution so investigate how might be used to dishes andion problems or fashion finish finish to give and take away strategy and solv problem oranges and then we got [Music] doat I no this one is this one is small students are encouraged to work together and collaborate during their for gifted support which is the G for tag students are identif identified through various data points including summatives preassessments and observations then the class CL room teacher works with the tag teacher to develop an individualized plan for that student the plan might be implemented in the general education classroom or by the tag teacher it just depends on the student and the plan so who is participating in tag programming this year we have about 2,923 students who have participated in tag this chart represents that number of students students from student groups disaggregated by race and this is continuation of that previous chart showing other student groups by gender students receiving multilingual services and then students receiving special education services and finally the Minnesota statute for gift gifted education also requires distri districts to have an early entrance to kindergarten process and a process for grade acceleration both of these are detailed on the district website but here's a brief overview early entrance to kindergarten is an application process managed by the enrollment center the process involves both an observation of students in a simulated kindergarten environment and then is either recommended for the next step which is additional cognitive assessment or evaluation or not they'll continue on um with their regular year grade acceleration involves a family's request for full grade acceleration via an application either through the site tag specialist the district tag coordinator or on the website this begins a process of identifying a team collecting data including additional test testing reviewing the data making decisions for either full grade acceleration or maintaining that current grade level with increased differentiation for the student thank you uh board members do you have any questions or comments um on the participation Slide the numbers I'm wondering how those compared to the percentage of the overall demographics of the students in our district because it's deceiving to look at here and say that there's only yeah 11 American Indian when that's not a huge population a very important population yeah Dr Bass can you speak to that I I know that we talked a little bit how about how these um how well they match to our district should we refer that one to Dr kind yeah I mean we can we can do um analysis that that shows um how proportional this is to the percentage of that population that our system yeah yeah that that makes sense to me just to make sure we not on that same slide I was also wondering if we can get a breakdown of uh the different subjects that students are accessing services for um cuz obviously this is encompassing anything they come to you for so reading or math yeah y so I think breaking that down really would help us understand to the question around proficiency be able to see some um some correlation to the number of students we have in high very high proficiency according to our um test scores with um the percentage of students participating would be of interest I know it doesn't necessarily mean one to one um but that I feel like would gives some context which skill do you want to use the asbridge ETC or MCA MCA unless there's a different recommendation but I kind of want to correlate the data of standardized testing to um services see if that this directionally sense okay would you potentially want that paired then so if they're in math tag huge reest we can talk about it like like don't run and do something crazy like help me understand and um I was hoping I had sent a couple questions in advance just um collecting questions from you know staff and um families just for the overall perception there's been a lot of changes from families that have been in the district a long time so just kind of understanding the history um so my question was if you could provide a brief history of the tag program along with feedback collected from the focus groups teachers parents community members when the changes were made from the past um model instructure of the tag program and kind of along with that I know many teachers found the co Kat is that what it's called Kat testing to be helpful um and there were you know many students and families that benefited from that former model so just if you know just if we could have some understanding and explanation why that was eliminated and just understand that current criteria a little bit more I yeah in collaboration with Dr kind and Dr B I do have some information that I can give you on that that great so in the past oio area schools Talent Development academic Challenge and gifted support delivery model consisted of this the three parts Talent Development previously all students were expl um exposed to three whole class lessons using creative thinking skills additional opportunities might have been available to all students um but it differed by site so it really depended on where students were the academic challenge students were used um were identify using the local Norms at each of the individual Elementary sites the cognitive abilities test the coat that you had referenced and fastbridge a reading at a math assessments were used along with teacher recommendation um to identify students each fall students identified as high achieving in verbal quantitative and non-verbal areas were pulled out for an 8-week session so they only got in that one area so if they qualified in the coat for math they would be in an 8-week seminar for math and that potentially could be their only time of service if that makes sense um in the past gifted support was provided for students whose academic performance was discrepant from their peers and whose needs could not be met through differentiation in the core classroom um it might have included independent study projects early entrance to kindergarten whole class grel whole grade acceleration sorry and participation in advanced cours workk through the university Partners or other agencies for the sa past several years our current model of take programming has been examined time was spent learning about Trends in supporting High achieving students involved in this process were stakeholders families classroom teachers principals and tag teachers and the change in tag program pramming was made at the request of superintendent Cory McIntyre it was discovered that our academic challenge portion of tag was in most need of revision the family principal and classroom teacher stakeholder groups all indicated that they would like to see weekly support that was connected to learning in the classroom and Minnesota State Standards so after so does that make that was history before after examining the stakeholder input and researching educational Trend oh sorry Mill would through that history um with that change um by superintendent McIntyre that was not brought to the board for board approval just as a point of history that was under the operational decision making the superintendent okay okay thank you so after examining the stakeholder input and researching educational trends the following model changes were selected Talent devel Development um leadership teams at each site will select the best way to develop talents for their students it may include whole class enrichment lesson M maker space activities pullout seminars match to students strengths and interests academic challenge support would be provided the entire year in the areas of reading and math and then in reading a flex ible group of students will be identified for additional support based on progress towards those Minnesota Ela standards observation and formative assessments math as we talked about before with Concept Quest um compilation of challenging mathematical tasks which are directly aligned to Bridges and Mathematics provide an opportunity for all students to be mathematically challenged every single day students will self- select these tasks when a challenge is desired weekly opportunities to discuss their work with peers and or their take teacher will be offered to students gifted support no no changes were made in that area and is the a reading can you help me understand the a what's the a reading assessment versus fastbridge how because I've heard that some schools are using the a reading to identify the students but some are not so just to understand kind of the consistency there do you so fast for J a reading the same thing yeah okay essentially right yeah fast just the company and then they have a rating and a okay okay so that is they are using that tool to assess okay and then on gifted support is there a limit then to the number of students who qualify for that I mean just as far as you know what a teacher is available to to the tag teachers per class per grade level how is that at the elementary level so there's not necessarily a certain number that we service it just depends on the site and the students if there is that discrepant need for additional um differentiation for that student then the tag teacher is there to support the teacher um in the implementation of that differentiation for that student specifically in reading math we have the concept question that um when they get to the adventures those take longer and are much more in depth um not many of my students get to that that far because they're still working on the excursions okay yeah does that kind of answer your yeah yeah and it's I'm just processing you know I have um two students I have three students and two out of three had benefited from the program and then you know they're 16 and 20 so it's changed a lot and so my goal in this presentation like I should with Dr h i I like to promote the district and I have you know parents that come to me and they want the real academic rigor and I want to be able to ensure them of that so I just don't want there to be any you know confusion in just having the data and having the information is helpful because that's my goal to be able to ensure them that their student can have the same opportunity that mine that are in college or that you know get to take those more advanced classes in high school have so and S we do have the questions you ask to give you in print and if it's okay with you give it to the board as well sure sure sorry are you good y okay um would you say that you're you are now with this revamping of the tag program serving more students across the district or is it about the same and then second of that are you serving those students more deeply than we were before so even for example even my curiosity are we serving more special education students than we would have in the past can't we write that down Dr WR all the question great because I can I can't speak to that specifically I'm sorry because and I I don't want to State The Narrative because I would assume from using the past way that we were doing it that they would have been a significant amount of spiritual students who would have not been able to get some those Services absolutely so generally speaking I've had three concerns with a tag program one is that you know the immediate problem which I think is what superintendent McIntyre was working on addressing was that because of the ways giftedness is defined and the test taking skills that it really becomes a place that doesn't allow each and every student regardless of their diversity to sh to shine and Thrive and so much of that has to do with history of giftedness and how it was defined through your Stanford studies M so that's that's problem number one problem number two that that I personally had was that the tag program was not inclusive of twice and Thrice exceptional students and so there wasn't there was a very simplistic look at what gifted kids were based on you know those early models versus the diversity of students that come with really at times asynchronous development which is really when you know that you've got a gifted kid because you know they're smart as hell and you can't get them to do anything and that's all a lot of kids but it's a special problem with k kids and then the last part that I had issue with and this this is a question for you guys is and in my former advocacy work with gifted kids is that it seemed like the pullout model was the least effective for gifted kids so while we have opened up this program and you know as a kid I love the P pull out programs those were the best um you know it's great for every kid but if a pullout program is the least effective me method for a gifted kid how do you balance the joy and the positivity of those pullout programs versus the sort of whole child instructional model where um that kid is is not just gifted in the pull out class but also differentiated and had a deeper dive um as an individualized students and I think you kind of touched on it but I'm just really wondering how you balance opening it up for everybody so everybody can explore their Brilliance but also making making sure that gifted kids who can be real pains in the butt if their if their needs are not being addressed are also getting the learning and instruction that they need yeah um honestly you're speaking to my heart right like how and this is personal local immediate um how do we I I give Goosebumps seriously how do we identify kids that um how do we help them reach their full potential um how do we give them access an opportunity when they don't take a test well or whatever so I love about our program is that we get a chance to talk with teachers about what they're seeing in a classroom um what what are your kids doing that um might shine uh for example there's a student who is nonverbal um who is participating in his and he's not in his regular education classroom the entire time but through advocacy from myself got that student into his regular classroom so he can participate in those moments because um there's Brilliance in there he just needs to use his device to to express it um so access opportunity conversation with our teachers um the addition of talent development getting a variety of um activities and um opportunities to students so that they might find something that they um can develop later on into a passion um as well I think that's the beauty of talent development um because we can bring in coding um maker space um word play with poetry things that we can do that our regular classroom teachers can't do um drawing art um stop motion animation things like that that allow all of our students to shine in in various ways um also the in my personal opinion leaving the coat behind allows us to look at the the data as it comes so as our classroom teachers are um going through their their units of study in math and in Reading where kids are taking off or shining in one area we can add them in um if they have a verbal strength with our dbq's document-based question curriculum um if they've got a verbal skill but maybe not maybe reading isn't their their strongest subject but dang get them a chance to talk and they convince you um to buy this tiny botle of water for five bucks right um that's an opportunity where we can pull those kids in and give them something that maybe their classroom teachers don't have that opportunity to well and thank you for that and I've long thought that um that tag programming the best thing that it has to offer education at large is that intense effort on um building curiosity and and getting in and digging in that little mind and really finding how to extract the Brilliance from that um my other than question is because it says you you said you're really a relying on teachers for identifying students have teachers gotten improved training on how to identify giftedness and gifted difference in students that is um broader in its understanding of cultural competency and gender and how those things how identity intersects with those things so we're not just looking for you know those tournaments like perfect little you know blonde boys that did really well in school but we're looking for extracting Talent from all from all types of dis diversity as a tag Department we've asked for that kind of training but with new curriculum and new standards and um uh switch to structured literacy um those opportunities haven't necessarily been formally available to our classroom teachers with that being said it doesn't mean that we don't have advocates in our school for those types of situations thinking about our students at our our staff servicing our students at specifically Garden City we have teachers in um not in classroom positions that have that lens especially through our Equity work that we have been participating in um so not formal a want for the tag department but no definitely something that we can yeah okay just plug for that really good because like one kid's Quirk looks cute to one teacher who knows better and to another teacher it looks really irritating and so like being able to identify that properly I think is really important thank you thank you thoughts and questions I just want to say I was a gifted child growing up and loving math ma major in college um I wish that I had had this the pull out was everybody looked at me I it was it was not it was not good um and to be able to be engaged during class time instead of sitting there going the answer is five the answer is 3x you know what I mean so I think it's I think it's amazing and I I'm really excited about this have been since I heard about this change so thank you thank you just a really good question what year did you say it changed or did you mention a year and I didn't I'm not sure of the Year 2022 yeah 2022 um I had a couple of questions um the other statutory requirements those are required but how well or not well are they utilized for early entrance and great acceleration yeah I was just looking at the state statute on that because I think a lot of parents especially when they're advocating for their gifted students are looking at the language around acceleration what matching curriculum to their students needs and a lot of what we heard tonight I think was maybe more focused on the talent development but there was a lot of students opt in students opt in and I think especially because there was a change there's a lot of parents who have a different picture of what meeting that need looks like but we do look at scores you it with a teacher and if they need that additional help yeah so I can speak specifically to um the work around math challenge not acceleration if there're students that are not necessarily self- selecting then we can encourage them um call home let them know um as far as grade acceleration I don't have any students that I've ever grade accelerated or kindergarten early enrolled so I can't speak to that so yeah and the State statue doesn't say grade acceleration it says accelerated paths yeah um so kind of to director Mitchell's example like it might be easy to see that an8 week seminar that's at anel accelerated level that matches maybe the mindset and again we're changing mindsets we're looking at because gifted and talented isn't just um reading and math or science right I think we have consensus on that broadly um so there might be some what does how do we Define what accelerated Pathways look like for students as So based oning State Statute that assessment and that um curriculum matching how can we better sort of I don't want to say package because it's not about I think we just have to help parents know like what is available and what is being done that meets the acceleration standards and then all of the other things that we're doing that's um maybe even more breadth and depth um as director Grady was saying on what gifted and talented means sorry that was more statements than questions let me go back to your original question yeah I'm just wondering like how how many students are applying to and moving into kindergarten early through the early entrance program and um how many students are uh utilizing the great acceleration uh pathway um and I'm particularly interested in this because as a parent of gifted children um I had those questions and was behemi discouraged from pursuing them um for various different reasons but um it makes me wonder um do we you know so often you're told that early kindergarten isn't even an option even though it is um although I mean personally from my perspective the the recommendations that I was given to not pursue that um were valid right um but that doesn't mean that it is for every kid and so I'm just curious like are those being utilized and how are we um supporting families through that process um I know myself I was not supported I was very much discouraged um and rightfully so for my particular child but um same thing with great acceleration what does that look like is it beneficial for kids and do we use it are our kids using it um but I do know I I don't have that history here I'm sorry um that even uh in other districts it's not even just if you can cognitively pass a test but there's a whole analysis social wi as well too so they may be slowing things down as well but you know well I think that kind of speaks to exactly what dark saying is that you know kids show up in different ways so they might be very gifted and talented in a particular area but their social skills may not be and that's what it was for my kid right social skills were lagging by several years whereas the academics were far beyond um right so and and I'm just brainstorming with you because I I do know sometime that it needs to reflection of when we're looking at gifted yeah um is it truly gifted or we're Advanced Learner in here of reading or math right um so really defining that gifted because gifted you don't a whole lot of gifted I'm just putting that up there um they could be very knowledgeable tell me if I'm WR you can be knowledgeable or highly knowledgeable in MA highly knowledgeable in Reading um so um yeah just ensuring that yeah yeah so anyways I was curious about that aspect of it and then also um uh how are we supporting parents who have a student who is reluctant to participate in an additional um what is it the challenge portion right um however they have the skills and ability and probably the need to participate in those how are we balancing the students desire and the apparent need for those Services yeah I was s here parents are called and a parent has to do because we can't force a child to do it right right so I know that for me personally I have worked with the classroom teacher to try to encourage the student to join um I get to know the kid um better relationship often times is key um I might attend conferences or do a joint call with the teacher home I might encourage the student hey let's give it a go for you know give me four weeks and then we can check in um I think it just kind of depends on the tag teacher the classroom teacher and the student um I sat in on several conferences this fall where um I was introduced and um the teacher is like would love for your student to continue to or to begin working with and often times the the family was yeah let's do it and the kid was like all right I'm on board couple cases it's like I'm not quite so sure um so that let's give it a go and check in had been successful for those couple of kids um but leaning on the classroom teacher which has a better like often times a more solid relationship with the family uh would be where I would lean towards I don't even know if I answered your question kind of I think what ultimately what I feel like um is becoming a parent is that parents want a prescribed process and that isn't necessarily the need of the student right a parent wants to know if my kid does XYZ they will do this they'll Pro participate in that um and it's really easy to want that for your kids um and to to feel that um drive but also that isn't necessarily how it plays out in the classroom setting especially with this new model which um you know I I remember having these conversations with Dr Mcintyre about it and um there was a lot of the same kind of dynamic where um there's the concern that will will my kid get gifted Services um and needing to open up for students who don't test well who are clearly did right um and expanding those opportunities to be more than just the um three times a year for the general classroom type situations um and so it's really hard to balance that the need for some flexibility um as well as the prescriptive type if my child meets these standards they're going to do these things um perspective of the parent especially because like you know the history that director Grady was talking about this has been with us since we were kids right and so um I think it's hard to shift your mindset and I'm wondering if there's a way that we can um I I remember being a part of when your child did the Kat well there was like a big seminar where all the parents came into the cafeteria where they said okay your kid met these standards and so these are the opportunities and I think we had to opt in or something I don't even remember it was so long ago it was like I I want to tell you how long ago it was but it was a long time ago um but something maybe like where we're giving some sort of parent education at the beginning of the school year like this is these are the opportunities that your child would be presented with please encourage them to participate or if you you know want your child to participate then please connect with your teacher things things like that where there's a little bit more like I think so much has educ changed like that parent education need because there's so many now like even because of the self opt in the working on the Chromebooks I have like no idea what my child is doing on their own at school or not unless like I'm communicating with teacher because they come home like what you do nothing how's good so it's just it's much harder as a parent to really know like what's happening and it's not it's it's good that they're doing more variation um more individualized Pathways but it I don't think we've adjusted yet I don't think understand yet the parent Community yeah S at the I know you mentioned conferences but at the open houses do you sometimes do some information or share some information with families about what's available so one of the things that we started last year is to increase our communication with families around tag so we as a team with um Tammy provart last year and then this year Carrie vreth we have a communication that goes out to families each um trimester potentially letting them know about the programs the three categories of our program um and that's become solid for each of our elementary schools each however they communicate whether it's via email um sent from the school secretary or classrooms send it out via talking points that differs but the communication is sent out initially in the fall and then this year it might it'll look a little bit different we're still working on that communication piece about how um as students enter our Ela groups then those additional families will get additional communication um but that initial communication went home to all 3 through five buildings and then K through two k through additionally K through two for our title sites okay by like I September 20th we needed to send it out that initial one so yes can I ask just a question this is kind of a bigger question but brought to mind in the spirit of brainstorming my kids think that's my favorite word brainstorming but I'm thinking I think we're all in this room because we think all kids are gifted right like my mom always says you have other gifts if you have certain gifts so I'm wondering in the bigger scheme of things um other districts that are successful because my concern tonight I want to be able as a board member as a parent be confident to say we have the academic rigor for our grade level and high you know proficient and those students growing is there other successful districts that are doing this is there another terminology that that is being used um other than because it is kind of interesting just the conversation and questions um I just would love to hear in the spirit of collaboration because I think we're trying to grow in these work sessions where we're not just giving a presentation and leaving but we're collaborating and I'd love to hear from you know you guys are the experts here is there is there a different way to address it just so that we're not missing that our you know High achieving students are thriving in this District but they're all gifted right I think we I think just to take that like one step further is like one thing that I don't know if you've heard this too but I've heard is well tag is gone right there's this like perception that it doesn't exist anymore and it just doesn't exist in the form that it was anyway so just to like with that yeah so right now this is outside of s PR PID grades yeah so Sarah you're killing it this evening look into that director okay okay but you haven't heard any other ways that it's labeled in other districts anyone well well so I'll say in Richfield because we went through this and did a push in model where we changed this this was now 10 years ago where we changed and moved towards this model and it was part of mtss structure cuz that's what it is so you've got mtss that moves towards how do you put in interventions and structures for students who need additional support to get them to grade level and you have the mtss model that also provides the additional Spectrum for students that advance and need additional services and support to challenge them so it really falls into the larger Minnesota mtss framework that all kind of comes together now yeah I the director Mitchell you're kind of getting at you here for parents are like well this District does this big we do nothing so how do we better understand a way to articulate what we're doing um when we hear those kind of things and assure parents that we're as competitive in this space um as other districts I was just going to say to going way back to a question Heather that you asked a bit ago um it's been probably six years since the question came across my desk but about one in 17 families who actually apply for early entrance in our school district get accepted and that's the families who actually after learning about what they all need to do go for it right so now that might be different in the last five years um but I'd have to look into it and see where we're at but that's I know the last time that I looked into that about six years ago that was the number that I was given at the enrollment center so I just wanted to give you a context if I don't quote me that that's it today but that's what it was the last time I think that's a fair assessment though like to to know that it's not hundreds no right no it's it's a I wouldn't call it rare but it's uncommon right for the people who actually vote through it okay thank you any other questions well thank you so much um for putting these presentations together I know this was a request um these agenda topics were a request by the board and it took time um out of your existing schedules and days to get this put together for us so thank you so much for that it really helps us thank you thank you very much so um okay just follow up on um just our calendar we're looking at our calendar they starting um in January so we have uh for the board members that will be here we have our board meeting on um the 7th of January and then we have our work session this time we were um looking of course at an enrollment update but we will be adding as well um uh um crvw repurpose update we'll be talking about that as well uh recently we were going to go over we still May depending on how much time that is um a draft of the vision card and getting input from um the board on where we're at and some of your inputs so that may be moved to uh February depending on if um we have time we should have time uh we have a PD on the 14th and that's just uh um School Board professional development around uh for um on boarding and professional development for us coming together as a team and then in February you can see here for our work session it has the med year budget update it has the vision card overview that we'll go in more detail and we will be adding on there 279 online update in February as well so I'll be um Sher to update this and we'll get that out and as you all as you all know as well there's something else that we need to delve further into so we have taken uh quite a few notes of what to get out before you go Sarah we can give you a copy of the questions we'll email the rest of the board the questions um I do want to give a shout out so if you ever have something that you do want to know ahead of time um SAR helped us out sufficiently thank you I can't remember today all my days together that you had a set of questions we were able to look at that and we be able to give you those as well SE H is the 14th the PD is that here at is the location it's going to be at Northwest Suburban okay know no but oh okay well have been there it's been a while okay it's close it's very it's like kind of by my house okay yes I canice even know you know off yeah it's right come back yeah okay um no other business so this work session is adjourned at 8:06 p.m. thanks everybody