Good evening. Barbara McQueen, school board member one here. Yeah. For representing district one. Yes. Thank you. Here. Christine Tibs representing district 2. Present.
Rachel Fber representing district three. Where is she? Present. present. Sorry, that's Christine. Was that Christine? Yes, that was me. Christine.
No, that was Christine. Okay. Nathan Collins here. Dr. Holly Seinfeld, District 5. Laura Felman, District 6, present.
Charmaine Postal, she she has a excused absence. Um, she had a conflict of schedule with PTA meeting tonight. Latoria Hiller, Coalition for Black Student Achievement, present.
Regginald Dwandis are a Randy. Did you say Regginal Durandis? You present. Randy Gabriel, present.
ESC Advisor Committee. Sheila Scott Luben, Palm Beach State College. Margarita Pinkos, Hispanic Education Coalition for Palm Beach County. We have eight members. We have a quorum. I've got to remember to unmute myself
each time. I before staff introduces themselves, which I think would be helpful to um anybody who might be a guest, I also want to welcome a new member who will be officially on the Wednesday night school board agenda, Mr.
James Waldrin, who has been appointed by school board member Edwin Ferguson. And Mr. Waldron, are you on camera? He was, but he just left, it said. Okay, there we go. All right, he's joined
again. So, welcome. And um let's see. I think so, we have All right, I think that's it. Um I believe that all the committee members have received minutes of the August meeting. Are there any corrections that we need to make to the
minutes? Ah, hearing none. And thank you. I believe um I I I I I think it's Mr. Marco who's doing them, but thank you so much for very concise um comprehensive minutes. I appreciate we all appreciate that. Um it's uh so hearing no
corrections. None. Okay. Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the minutes of the August August uh academic advisory committee meeting? I'll move to approve the minutes. Miss Laura,
thank you. A second. Second. I think that was Mr. Collins. Right. And you I The reason I'm doing this virtually, people, is because I actually find it easier when we're doing both for Families First of Palm Beach County. I
do it virtually. And it actually is a little easier than than doing both in person and virtually, but I'll do whatever the group wants in the future. Although the weather was so bad, I'm kind of glad for this. Anyway, versus not being able to see everyone's hands,
is there anyone opposed to approving the minutes? Hearing none, minutes unanimously approved. And I think now we are ready to see if we have any um members of the public. Do
we have any comments from the public? All right. Hearing none. May we please have staff introduce yourselves so that anyone who is relatively new can see who you are. In particular, Mr. Waldron who has not been at our meetings.
Good evening. Um I'm Maria Bishop, chief academic officer. It's very nice to be here with you this evening. Is that it? at the time. I know we're going to have um two more speakers, right? Okay, that's great. Thank you, Miss Gonna join us later. Yes.
And so we are now ready for Oh, um Mr. Waldron. Yes. Should I introduce myself or can that wait till later? Why don't you go ahead and do that since we do have a since we do have a forum? Thanks.
I appreciate it. Um so for you all that don't know me, I'm James Walden III. Uh I was asked to be a part of this by Mr. Ferguson and I quickly said sure absolutely because um my mother was part of the school system for many years. So
was my father, so was my grandfather and so was my grandmother. So even though I did spend over two decades in the military, I did teach a lot of individuals who now work for CIA, FBI, and SI. And I did not plan it that way.
That's just the way they wanted it to go. I figured that maybe I can contribute in some small way. Thank you very much. We have no doubt that you're going to be a great contribution and I always like to share this with people don't know who don't know Mr. Ferguson, school board
member Ferguson was my student at Sun Coast. So that's how far we go back. So we we welcome you. All right, Miss Bishop, our chief academic officer, you ready? Oh, I'm sorry. Miss Branch has her hand up. I just want to introduce myself. I'm
Gloria Branch, school board member for district five. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Okay, Miss Bishop. All right. Good evening again. I just
have a few updates since I think we only met a couple weeks ago. It seems like it was a short time ago. Um, so just to kind of let you know where we are right now, we'd like to start off by, uh, speaking about our enrollment. Um, you may have read in the papers that we we
are at a decline at this moment. There's we're significantly below the number of students we had last year, about 5,500 students, down from last year. Um, that is about a projected loss of revenue of $45 million.
We're going to save some money um because due to reduction of staffing. So that's about a $20 million savings. So the total projected shortfall is about $25 million. So it is very significant.
We just had our our 11-day count. Those are the numbers we have. Uh right now what we have is a district-wide hiring hold. Um, we do believe that after we conclude the 11th day count adjustments, we're going to be okay,
meaning we're not going to have to lay off any staff. Uh, we believe that we have enough vacancies and that we will be able to um make adjustments. You know, teachers will go to different schools and so forth so that we end up not losing any staff member.
So, we're really working right now to remind our families that Palm Beach District is your best choice, that we do have excellent education. Um, we are a safe place and principles and staff are really working on u marketing our
schools, marketing our amazing programs so that our families know that this is their best choice. Also right now we we've got the year going on strong. We started we are in the midst of some assessments. Progress
monitoring one which is all of our STAR fast assessments that all of our students are taking right now. And that is for ELA, for math, for science. For the first time in a few years, we have a
diagnostic assessment so that we know how our students are doing right now. We also have other assessments during this time. The I Ready, I'm just naming a few of the more popular ones that you're going to hear. Our I Ready Diagnostics taking place right now. Our FAW, our
Florida alternative assessment starting now, the first data collection period. Uh we also have for our middle school students a MAP growth assessment which is what we're utilizing to ascertain the
where our students are when with the read 180 program. So we are working on all of these assessments so that we know where we are during this time at the conclusion of PM1. We will then utilize this data to kind
of see where we are as a district in terms of our goals. Last month we to we went over the data from FY25. Um Oh, I think we have a hand. We do, Miss Felman.
Sorry to interrupt. Just um going back to uh taking a look at the you had mentioned that the principles are working on um basically sales essentially of of the
the benefits of a Palm Beach County school district's education. Um, I was wondering whether or not there have been made any plans to reach out to families who have previously had their students
at a Palm Beach County School District traditional school um, and are no longer uh, utilizing our services, so to speak. if anyone's reached out to those families. Um, have we been putting together some
information to help understand some of the details as to why people have been leaving so that we can then take a look at not all of those reasons that they're leaving are ones we'd want to change or address, but perhaps there might be something in there that could benefit us
for future plans. Yes, absolutely. Uh we have an excellent communications department who's really working with the schools to provide list of students you know in our our cyst department or demograph demographic I can't even say that word demographers as
well and they have provided schools with list of students that live within their sac area so they can do some outreaching. Um we've also been looking at um you know possible reasons for what's going on. So we do have some of
that going on as well as some research. It's charter schools are also enroll their in enrollment has also decreased. So we are taking a look at everything to see. We know we're looking at vouchers. We're looking at also u some of our students that are affected by the
immigration um policies and all of that. But schools are out there just really reaching out to the communities um telling their story, right? Telling them about the schools because like you said, parents and families that have been outside of our district for a little bit
may not be aware of all that is taking place and all that our schools are offering their students. So, we do have a very robust marketing plan and outreach program. That's great. Maybe we can add um information about that to a future
topic. Just I think it would be interesting to learn about as well as perhaps help each of us on this committee do our little part of help promotion. Yeah. Of whatever it may be. Definitely. Absolutely. And we can um
we're always we talked about making sure that you have ability to provide us feedback as well. This is a great topic for feedback. Thank you. Sure. Um what else was I talking about? Oh, we were also I already the map
growth assessment. So as when once we return we get all this data this helps helps us understand where we are right now because all the data we presented at the previous meeting was where we ended last year at the end in May. Right? So now we need to
know who are our students that are with us right now. where are they academically? What are their strengths? What are their areas of need? And so we look at that across our schools. Um we look at our students so that we can then
come up with our goals. So each school has targets that they're working towards. So this information will let us know where are they in relation to the targets and what is the work that needs to happen for them to reach their their targets. This is where schools are, you
know, finalizing their school improvement plans and we are working with our teachers to again put together those plans for the students they have sitting in their classrooms right now. Um so we will you know our amazing
performance accountability department creates all this puts together reports of all this data so that we can analyze it and we can determine what our next steps are and we can also let our families know where their students are
at this time and um really come up with those plans to help each individual student as well as the schools meet their goals. That is what that data will be used for. And oops, we are running way early right now. Um, oh, besides that, oh, does
anyone have any questions about what I just said? All right. In addition to that, I do want to say that um we have a couple of home housekeeping kind of things to go over as well. So our board docs is
migrating to diligent community. It's a different platform right Elma software and I'm going to bring you that information at the next meeting. There's like a 10-minute um presentation about that that we all need to be aware of as members of the
AAC. You are required to um receive that presentation and understand the system. So we're going to do that. Um, also we are ending the phone bridge for public use. We will no longer be using that platform.
So any public speakers will either have to come in person to provide their comments or submit their questions or comments online before the meeting or during the meeting too.
They'll have to do that. That is what we have for that. So, we will be going over that information the next meeting. And while we're waiting, because we're going to have um Dr. Paul Hchins come and speak with
us about our student performance data, you did request that data broken down by subgroup and by region. So, we will have that to present to you here in a few minutes. um he will be bringing that forth. I do
want to maybe while we wait for him, unless he's on here, I did want to just talk a little bit about the topics. I'll go to that. We took notes last time about all the topics that you recommended. And what I did is I sort of
put them in buckets so that we could group them that way for presentations over the next several months. And of course, we can always add more to it. And I'm also working with other departments in the district that would be able to present some of this. So,
what I have for us is where I put it here. One that we usually bring to you is the instructional review report. Every year, um, the deputy superintendent and myself, Mrs. Wyatt and myself will bring to the board the instructional review
that we will be presenting um I believe it's in October. And so I'd like to bring that next month and kind of talk to you about what we're going to be presenting because that usually gives us a synopsis of where we are right now in relation to our goals and what our
academic plan is. So I think that would be good to bring to you next time. You also asked about academic programs and what we're doing. So, we can have our FY26 academic plan and programs and what we're we're doing as it relates to our
academics and as it relates to the data. Obviously, when we look take a look at data, we're going to see some areas of strength and we're also going to see some opportunities and that's what we're going to address. There was also a request for like student attendance discipline data. um
behaviors. So, we're going to look at trends, concerns, and what we're doing about that as well. That's another little bucket. Um I also we also had safety and wellness updates. So, we'll see what we can bring to you that way. So, I've um reached out with these
topics to the other departments and see what they can bring us as far as presentations. Mr. Sorry to interrupt, but it seems the appropriate time. So, um, when we're talking about discipline and, um, I can't remember the second thing you just
said, but I'm going to say attendance. Attendance. Our committee is, um, looking specifically at those in terms of how they impact academic achievement. Correct. Correct. Okay. Thanks. Yep. Because our committee does focus on
academic achievement. So it's all here how how those that attendance and what research shows the impact that it has on on our academics on our students learning um as well as well as discipline. So
um and also like and again this next topic we have to see because it's about how it impacts our academics. So you wanted to see uh policy changes related to diversity, equity and inclusion. Um, with that I thought I could bring back
to you the updates on required instruction. We just had a presentation for our principles in our last September last week actually September leadership academy which has to do with or the leadership summit which has to do with the changes in legis by the legislation
updates and statutes requirements and so we have a presentation there I thought would be important as it relates to this topic. Um, and that is what I have there. And anything else that comes up our way
too. Are we still on the meeting topics? Yes. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. So, any questions? Any comments? I don't have any on that, but I'd like to go back um to the agenda where it
says board docs is migrating to diligent community. I don't what is that? You see? Yep. We'll have Miss DeMarco tell us about that. that that is a new software
that is being introduced um to be able to uh upload information to the public and that is what Mrs. Bishop was just talking about. We don't have it much about it. We're going to
we're going to have an introductory meeting next month and it's it's going to be about 15 minutes introductory meeting presentation I will say. Thank you. You're welcome. Turning it back to Miss Bishop.
Okay, I guess we are running quick here tonight. We are ahead of the game. Um, let me see if we can chat Mr. H Dr. Hkins and see if you can hop on a little bit earlier. We also do have, and I believe he's not
on here yet either, is Mr. Nolan Rowel. Oh, he's here. I'm here. Oh, perfect. How about we're going to switch the agenda around a little bit because you're here. Um, and we wanted to hear a quick library media services
update. All right. So, it's going to be very fast. Uh so I would just wanted to say thank you guys uh for the the feedback we've been receiving. Uh Chairperson McMahon, you've been amazing. Uh thank you so much. Uh and so as you guys are getting those uh emails, just uh reach
out to us if you have any questions. Uh and then send us a little note saying, "Hey, this looks fine." Or, you know, if you if you do have those questions, just just send them. We're happy to to answer and we'll reach out to the school and see if we can find out some more information for you and provide that back for you. Other than that, uh, keep
up the good work. I have a question. Yeah, all of you now, you all know that I'm totally retired, so I try to make this a priority. And so what I've been doing is when I review the list, I'm going to be very honest. I except for the one question
about the one school that's not district one because I am um representing school board member Matt Lane, I focus on district one schools. So if any of you are struggling, that's just a suggestion about what I do. So that I I look at my
school board members, district schools, and focus on those. And then I just fill out the feedback form and I, you know, but I want um Mr. world to know that when I question I I frequently say um is
this particular book appropriate for this grade level and what I don't know so I'm just for the group I I hope that this is um helpful discussion for the group there I'm I'm gonna be real frank
if I come across a title that I'm going to give an example who's afraid of Virginia Wolf um I'm old enough that I know that that could possibly raise some red flags, but I just Google are there any concerns or
is there any controversy around this particular title if something just jumps at me? And often artificial intelligence will tell me nope, not at all. So I do nothing. But if there if there are so that in this particular book it says
that we have um sexual abuse con, you know, that kind of thing. I send it. So here's my question to you. So I send that on my feedback form and I simply say, "Are these topics appropriate for this grade level?" Then I'm hoping that that's it for me that those of you on
district staff are handling that from there. Okay. Yes. Yeah. So what we do is um as soon as soon as something gets flagged, then we do uh some more research on it ourselves. Uh, and then we also do reach out to the school to see if there's a specific reason why they're they're
wanting to use that book. Um, or how it's being used in particular. Uh, so and sometimes it's for advanced courses. Uh, so like where they're doing college level work. Um, so we just always we want to double check that. So anytime you see something like that, it definitely helps us out and helps make
sure that we're we're getting appropriate material materials to appropriate places. Thanks. Anybody else have comments or questions about that before he leaves us? Well, thank you for joining us. That was easy for you tonight.
For sure. Thank you guys. Thank you, Mr. Ro. Um and and again, I just want to reiterate the importance of this process. You are as um academic advisory count committee members, you are very critical to this process. And I
know that it could be quite a bit, but if you could, and I think that's an excellent tip, Mrs. McQuinn, to focus on your district schools and um and just give us some input. It's very, very important. Um Mr. Waldin,
yes, you have to excuse my ignorance with me um just coming into this process a little late, but for example, if I'm, you know, I'm not a part yet because the board hasn't said I'm a part. This is just a question until I become a part if if I do become a part of your committee
and I do um how would I find out what books are going to be in my district for example district 7 and then how would I go about researching that? M I'm gonna let you answer. Oh there you go Mr. Roll still I'm I'm still here. I wasn't jumping off
that fast. Uh so uh it's a great question. Uh so what happens is anytime a a district school is ordering uh any materials that are going in front of students uh it gets posted to the actu active order website. Uh and so it's a
it's a list that has you can imagine a lot of lot of different orders going on there. Um so we send you an email daily if there is an up if there have been any orders placed uh you'll be added to a mailing list and then you'll get get an email that says hey someone ordered
something. uh please take a moment and check it out. Uh so then you'll be able to see the titles on the the list. It's usually uh to make it as easy as possible for the schools. Um we ask that they send us a quote or a book list. Um and that's usually what's being uploaded. Uh it's a PDF, so you'll be
able to click on it from the active book orderer site. Uh and so from there, um if you go like Miss McCone was saying to to Google and you Google the title, a lot of times it'll give you a a quick review. Um, another kind of a good place to go is Common Sense Media. Um, there's
a lot of book reviews there, but but generally just a quick Google review will give you a good idea uh of what's what's there. Um, and then you'll just you can there's a form that gets sent out um on that email. So, you just respond to that form or if you have
questions, just respond back to the email um and then we'll be able to answer those questions for you. Thank you so much. And I hope I'm not out of order. No, not at all. You are not at all out of order and just consider yourself right now public comment. But we appreciate your
questions. Thank you. And those lists are long, but I'm assuming it's because we're still kind of toward the beginning of the school year. And Miss Felman, um just a note that if you're not
appointed by district staff, then you have the opportunity to read the uh give the approval from any area. Even if you are appointed by the someone by a school board member from a particular district, you have that also
that opportunity where you can double check any of the books that you want to um give that feedback on. but that we do have a number of people on the committee that are not assigned um via the schoolboard member.
Thank you for that clarification. And I will let you all know that my husband of course listens to the schoolboard meetings and he told me that I did not make it clear enough that I I explained about the process but
I didn't make it clear that the um feedback from stakeholders comes primarily through this committee. So it is very very important. Okay, Miss um Miss Bishop, I think we're back to you.
Yes, back to me. Um yes, thank you so much for explaining that. And it is the beginning of the year, so that's right. We have a long list. Um just keeping in mind that this list is about any it's for all nonadopted district materials
and books that schools wish to purchase that have to go through this process. So it can be quite extensive. So we appreciate that. All right, I believe that Dr. Hchins is on right now. He has joined us. Thank you so much for being
flexible and we are running a little bit ahead of schedule. So we appreciate you being here and no problem. All right, let me get your presentation here for you. Do you want me to share my screen so I can sl so I can drive?
Sure, that works. And this was a request after Mrs. Wyatt shared the data last meeting which was a couple weeks ago. You wanted us to take it a little you wanted to dig a little bit deeper into the data and so that's
why we're here tonight. Okay. Um, good evening everyone. Thanks for having me. Um, as Miss Bishop said, uh, you know, some of this was presented earlier. Uh, we drilled in a little bit more with some regional information as well as a subgroup and we'll just go
through it and, uh, if you have any questions, just stop me or we can discuss them at the end. Um, so, uh, yeah. No, generally speaking, last year was a was a pretty good year. Um we've got a lot of places we still want to grow and you know there's room for work.
there's always room for work. But um just you know starting with the the district and the regions overall as you can see from here you know across ELA math science and social studies um you know up you know more than three or more
than two uh percentage points in pretty much each of the areas overall. Um each of the subject areas overall and uh across regions. um a lot of good grow excuse me, excuse me, a lot of good growth in the Glades um um last year uh
over the over the prior year. Um you know, as y'all are aware, we're we're only a couple years into the new fast test and um you know, the schools are really hitting their stride and and and moving the numbers. So, uh we're we're happy to see that.
Um looking by subgroup again similarly pretty much uh up um everywhere we want to be up. Uh you can see it's again more than uh two percentage points pretty much across the board. Uh the only exception there being uh white uh white students in algebra where it was just
pretty flat but it was one of the higher performing subgroups in algebra to begin with. So you know it's some gap closure happening here. Um again, you know, just using ELA as an example, you're looking at, you know, three to nearly six points
u of growth from uh FY24 to FY25. Um you know, across the subgroups um science, uh social studies, you know, not not quite as large a jump in science. Um, you know, you can see it's
still growth across the board, but uh, you know, overall for black, for FRL, for S SWD, still not over that twopoint jump that we like. You know, when we when we're looking at these data, if we're if we're moving two percentage points or more in the positive direction, we we really do consider that
to be substantial growth. Um, you know, uh, anything between zero and two is good. you know, we're still moving in the right direction, not not declining, but uh we we like to see those two points. Um you can see biology, there was a pretty big jump uh again across
the board. Civics and then US history and I believe uh Miss Bishop, correct me if I'm wrong, I think we've we've spoken to the group about some of the the changes that are coming in US history on that front or if we haven't, it's coming soon. Um in terms of discussions
um so going from the performance on the assessments to the the access to accelerated performance um we were looking at the u we got asked to look at the accelerated performance in math for our students who are essentially testing above grade level.
So, you know, we have accelerated uh coursework in every grade level, but you know, these particularly the students actually take the test that's the next grade level up. So, for example, our students in AMP four, they're taking a fifth grade test. The students in AMP
five taking the sixth grade test. The students in seventh grade accelerated are taking the eighth grade test. And the students taking algebra in middle school, they're testing, you know, they're taking algebra one to two years earlier than the the normal trajectory
towards. Uh but you can see here um pretty much consistently across the board. These students are performing, you know, pretty well, pretty highly. Um you know, again, the the the transition from FSA
to fast is 22 to 23. So that might be speak that that would speak to some of the the the shifts downward there. But again upward trajectories from there. Um for seventh grade accelerated uh there's a big push to open up access to that
course because it is the gatekeeper for algebra by 8th grade. So you know there's a bit of a slip in that performance but again the access to that course is also opening up quite a bit year-over-year. graduation rates by subgroup. Uh again
going back the last five years before you make so that as we go back to the um accelerated math um love that we're um looking for greater
access or increased access. What kind of support is there additional support being offered? Uh there is quite a bit. uh Miss Bishop would be able to speak a little bit better to the specifics of it since it's through instruction, but I know a lot of
our our schools are are, you know, pairing with um just some additional like supplemental instructional materials. Um some of our schools are doing a bit of double blocking. I don't think that a ton of them are. Miss Bishop, you have anything you want to
jump in with that one? No. Um you're correct everything that you've said so forth. Um but yes, just really closely monitoring the students and providing support as needed. Um you know, teachers, tutorials,
um additional resources and things like that for our students. And um and we're doing that across all of our programs too because we want to make sure that we are while we're widening the access that we provide we do provide the support to
those those students and also making sure that the students in the early on grades also get all the the basic math foundations too. So we don't accelerate too quickly. Make sure they have a robust foundation so that then they can
tackle these more difficult courses. And I'm going to just throw in there. Thank you for your patience, Dr. H. Um, I can't even say it now, Hensins. Um, in the really old old days when I was teaching algebra,
um, we know it's always been a gatekeeper class. And I don't remember what we called the course, so I'm not ever suggesting that we do anything that is not within what we're allowed to do legally. But I can
tell you that one thing that we did in the old days was we had a class. So for example, let's I was teaching an algebra one honors class. Um but for the students who needed extra support, they actually were scheduled
into an elective class where what we did was do their homework together. So that number one, regardless of their home situation or they just needed help to get through the homework, rather than getting home that night and they couldn't do it, we did it together and
we had um really good growth. So I'm just throwing that in there. Thank you very much. Yes, ma'am. Um I think um not specifically just for homework but I think of the schools that are double blocking less so for this accelerated
seventh but and but more so for the algebra they're you know we've got some schools that are doing the pre-alggebra eighth grade pre-alggebra course and algebra at the same time and again while I don't know that they're doing homework in that second course it is intended to
provide that additional supplemental support um I apologize I don't know LF's name. So, I'm just It's Miss Felman. Thank Laura. Laura Felman. Um, okay. So, we
have new students coming into the program at each of these levels of grade four, grade five, grade seven, and algebra or primarily just grade four and grade seven. When you say new students, can you give
me a little new students into the accelerated math performance? Like do you in order to be in the ex taking algebra prior to 9th grade, do you have to have taken the
grade seven accelerated course? No, ma'am. Um the the two primary entry points for acceleration and math are third grade and sixth grade. um those are just not on here because those students are taking the same test at the end of the year as the the the regular
instruction students. Um you know, we were kind of looking the the way the request came through for this is for the above grade level testing specifically, but students are actually entering at any point in time. You know, we've got some students who might not get the accelerated third grade because maybe
they came from a school that didn't offer it or they came from out of county or whatever. um that's not being used as really a gatekeeper if the student is capable of doing the work. Um and it's the same throughout. You know, we've got students that go into algebra without
middle without the seventh grade accelerated course. Um you know, we don't necessarily advise it if they're with us through the whole track just simply because at any point if you're coming in from a regular and jumping up, you're missing some kind of content if you haven't gone
through the full. But our schools all have Excuse me. I apologize for that. Okay. Um the uh the the students can come in and and and the schools have support systems around for them um if they're
coming in off the normal trajectory, but we do try to to the extent possible have the students follow the the full trajectory so that there's not any content missed. it's, you know, better option to compact content and instead of skip it, um, is kind of where the the
thought process goes on that. But again, if a student comes in without access to that course beforehand, they can still get into the accelerated pathway, for lack of a better word, at other points than the two primary entries,
which are third and sixth. Okay. So, I guess where the question is leading um, one you answered. So, thank you. And the other one is if we take a look at
the students in grade four in 2021 and see that they did well also in because presumably the majority of the students that were in grade four AMP also shifted to grade
five amp and you could see how they did in 2022 following them timewise. But then you've got this dip in grade seven. So the question I have is what percentage of those students in 2023
in grade seven were students who have been in AMP since at least grade four. Understood. Um actually the the students who are coming that that call it dark blue bar of the 2022 fifth graders um
would have been taking the sixth grade test in 23 and then when they were in seventh grade and 24 that's when they would have taken the the so that would be the trajectory there 21 for fourth grade amp 22 for
fifth grade amp 24 for seventh grade accelerated because we're Again, we skipped over the year where they were taking the onra. Um, and so, you know, they're basically going from 91 in 21 to
98 in 22 to 86 in um 24. But again, like I say, the there we've been opening up that seventh grade accelerated. So the the pot of students that are in that seventh grade accelerated is um and I don't have a number for you
off the top of my head but it is a bigger pot of students than the the students who are doing the fourth and fifth grading. So, and right that's why I was asking what the because you can see how the the performance dipped but if it's because the students are newer to the program I
could understand that there's some dip but um that's why I was curious about the the percentage there but then I have another question so in third grade they're covering third grade and half of fourth grade work correct
yes ma'am so then in fourth grade they're doing half of fourth grade in half a fifth. So, they're taking the fourth grade test, taking the fifth grade test in uh in fourth grade. They're taking the sixth grade test in fifth grade.
Then, if they're following the full trajectory, they would actually take the seventh grade accelerate. They would take the eighth grade test in sixth grade, okay? And then algebra in seventh grade if they're successful through the whole stretch of math trae or math acceleration. and don't slow down at
all. Um because the students who are successful at AMP from beginning to end actually get to geometry by eighth grade. Okay. I think it's also it's puzzling to not see grade six on here since that is one of the years taken into consideration.
Yeah. Um yeah, the like I say it's the the the way the question was asked, we were it was it came down um about above grade level testers more so than those. But it's it's not something we it's something we can do is bring three through algebra with the
the students who are on the advanced track. It's just you know we'd have to go back and redo you know add those two grade levels. And what percentage of the students in the AMP program are also in the gifted program? I would have to go back and look. I don't know off the top of my head.
Okay. And one final question. Has the participation in the AMP program, have we noticed a increase in students applying, for example, to be in the Sunost program? Because in Sun Coast you have to have if
I unless this has changed I believe you needed algebra one geometry and algebra 2 in order to get into their programs. I don't have that information off the top of my head but it's something we can ask. Right. Because also it's great that this
is preparing the students to get all the way up through geometry, but why aren't we making efforts to have our students be as wellprepared as one of our top programs requires them to be?
I I think a lot of that conversation is around getting to the point where we're cont compacting curriculum too much for some of our students. I hear that. It is said Sunost requires that in order to get into their program.
So why would Miss Bishop well and also you know we have a limited number of seats available at Sunost also but our other schools we also have um our IB programs you know we have other rigorous programs that are offered at other high schools that they can still
take those courses. So, no, I I agree that there are plenty of opportunities, but I always have heard the praises of Sun Coast's program and it's
clear that they're expecting students within our communities, at least some of them, to have to have learned that information before starting in their program. But the way our system is set up, the only way that students
can do that is if they're taking a course over a summer, they're doing something online. They they they the student has to make we're not making it easy for anyone to achieve that. And it's not that it should be easy to achieve, but it should just, I think, be
more available because whether or not that student decides to go to Sun Coast and whether or not they're able to get into Sun Coast could be a whole other discussion. But that knowledge is something that student can take with them anywhere they go in any of our high schools and will well prepare them for
their future. So I would think if we require it on one side, we should have it mapped out so that we enable our students to achieve exactly what's required and I don't want to belabor the Sun Coast issue because I know staff is not
prepared to talk about that but right having you know so that was my first assistant principal job was to market the Sun Coast programs. the geometry requirement was for math, science, engineering and so um I but I think that
whole Sun Coast discussion is something that maybe we we could get information on but I don't think the geometry requirement is for all IB programs right that could have changed but but thank you but I'm happy to talk about it another
time but just to to see where this is going to you know let's prepare all our give for our students the opportunity to be prepared for our top programs. That's it. Y and we'll and we can look at where else these courses are offered because I
know that many of our schools do um because we know that not all students are going to go to Sun Coast, but we do offer it in other schools. So, we can look at that and bring that back as well. Thank you. We ready for graduation?
We are ready. All righty. Um so graduation rates um over the past five years um again short story is we're we're we're up across subgroups some pretty decent gap closures.
um you know the the 21 the 20 and 21 school years you know you'll notice for black, Hispanic, ELLL uh free and reduced um they were all higher in 20 and 21 recall um there was a a COVID
waiver of the test requirements in those two years. Um, so you can see that, you know, once that waiver was, um, taken away, uh, you know, a lot of those rates kind of fell back to where they had been previously. But as you can
see, across all of the subgroups, we're actually currently higher without the waiver than we were the two years we had the waiver across across subgroups. So, we're we're really happy about that. Um
now there are some increases in graduation requirements concordance score size side um coming down the pike um won't impact this year's graduates. This year's graduates can still use both sets of scores. You know the the newer
realigned um essentially the old concordance scores were aligned to the FSA expectation. the new concordance scores. The state has finished their study and uh over the summer and released the the updated scores. Um the
the two takeaways from that is um you know they did add some additional assessments. Um you can use PSAT uh in 10th grade or national merit now for both reading and algebra. Used to be
just algebra. um they added the PSAT equivalent of the CLT, but uh so there's some more test options out there that are available uh for students. Um but particularly with the SAT and and CLT, they did actually raise
scores. So so the expectation is higher in those two areas. Um looking at the impact data from that, uh not a huge impact because ACT stayed the same. um just the the the the the concordance
study showed that the ACT scores were you know the expectation on a alignment ACT stayed the same across. So since not all of the scores went up most of our students are are still look like they'll probably be able to to to to reach that
via the ACT. uh chronic absenteeism. You can see um over the last five years uh 2021 not really a comparable year. If you'll recall, that's our blended learning year. And uh so when students could
attend online, there were just less less absenteeism when they when they when they didn't have to come to school some of those days. Um but you can see it's been pretty stable, down a little bit. Um you know, so we've sh seen some improvements. Um, but any of y'all that
follow the national research, absenteeism had postcoid has it it's a national issue that, you know, everyone's trying to to resolve. Um, but you know, as you can see across most subgroups, it's down not a ton. Uh, we
define chronic absenteeism as 11 or more days absent uh in a given school year. Uh, you can see SWD um came down in 23 but has been crawling back up a little bit. Uh but that's that's our chronic absenteeism
and that is my last slide. Any uh any additional questions, Miss Bishop? Anything that needs uh any additional coverage? I think we covered what was on that request. Any other questions?
Did want to you know, after if we have no additional questions, I did want to go over a little bit just speak to um some things that we we attribute some of the success to and then and just some things that we're working on for this upcoming year.
I I did have questions about the performance of gifted students last time as I recall. Okay. So, I'm hoping we can bring that information back. I will I don't know if I sent if I included that. I may have
left it out. But gifted students and Miss Felman, would you um Laura, would you be very specific so that they bring back it what you're looking for? Um it was to take a look at their
performance and their growth. You pupil progress kind of information. here like understanding it was it was I had asked the question um I don't remember my exact phrasing um but I had
asked the question and then I think Charmaine had followed up with uh asking about the AMP program so if you're looking back in the minutes it's it's right before the AMP was requested but it's to take a look at the um annual
growth for students And with understanding that sometimes if you get a perfect score and then you miss one then it's going to drop. But we still get an understanding especially that knowing there are gifted students
who need that gifted education but who for whatever the reason may be are not getting those perfect scores and still need their needs still need to be met. And are we taking a look at that? And that's what I'm And I have a question um to ask you if
allow me since I have the mic here. Um so we know that many students in high school don't we talked about gifted strategies because they're taking advanced placement etc. rather than so they're gifted gifted class is not
offered. But um I guess so I think what I'm interested in in let's uh in an advanced placement class. So, let's say advanced placement. Well, let's just go for AP calculus. In
that AP calculus class, do we have students who previously, let's say middle school or elementary school, had IEPs for gifted or had been classified gifted? Just focusing on one course like that might be helpful. Maybe not. Thank
you. No, I think that's a a good point and it was something part of what you kind of touched on was the fact that we don't offer uh a gifted an active gifted program in high schools and I understand
that many feel that the needs are met via the those advanced coursework but there are still differences and um I saw that in high school for my kids personally um that there were times when the teacher
and it ended up working out where but the um the teachers could benefit from understanding the differences and needs and approaches in order to help those gifted students achieve and be engaged
and um that's a whole different topic. Okay, thank you. Are there any other questions while we still have Dr. pouchins. Hey, hope your dog is happy. Mine's been begging here for a while. She's just
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With my with the rain. Um I'm sure I'm going to have an interesting evening. Neither of my dogs like storms. Okay. So, on the So, thank you so very much for putting that information together. And I think we are at the um
and we're doing very well. Don't It's not bad. Um, Miss Bishop, to be running ahead of time. So, we are to the seven. Well, we're to the 7:00 part of the agenda in terms of
um good of the order. Is there anybody who has anything to do with our committee that you have questions about or answers to or just comments for good of the order? Okay, this is like an easy one. Um, I
have to ask I am not going to be in town for the October meeting. So, will um our vice chair, Miss Feldman, be available to chair the meeting in October? Could Could you remind me of the date of it?
Sure. Um, uh, I could have, um, what's the date of our October meeting? I will look at it. Was on here in a moment ago. Let me just see it. I know it was. And then, yeah, October 15th. 13th. October 13th. Monday, October 13th.
Monday the 13th. Um, I should be able to do it. Okay. Thank you. And um and so we'll if you cannot we'll make sure that we're in touch with Miss Bishop and um um Miss Scott Luben your hand is up.
Yes. I just wanted to make sure that you counted me because I was in the car so it might have showed up as a different number. Wonderful. And so uh Mr. Marco, you have her as present? Yes, I do.
Wonderful. Anybody else speak now or forever hold your peace or at least until the October meeting. It's been great being together and as Miss Bishop said, it hasn't been that long, but next time will have been four weeks. Uh yes. Yes, ma'am.
No. Oh, she's just waving goodbye. All right. Well, then the meeting um hearing no objections. Uh, we are adjourning at 6:48 p.m. Everyone have a great month. Bye. Thank you.
Thank you. You too.