It is 10 o'clock central time, September the 5th, and I call this meeting of the English Language Arts ELA standards recommendation committee to order. Vice Chair Hillyard, please call the role to determine a quorum.
The appropriate response here is here or present. Miss Baird, present. Miss Dockery present. Mr. Hillyard present.
Miss now. Miss now I see her in the meeting. Are you able to come up? Did she acknowledge? I can see her speaking. But try your audio again. Miss now. If you are present now, miss now, would
you please raise your hand? Okay, I I think that's enough indication and we can take care of that technology here in a minute. Miss Singleary, present. Dr. Stout,
present. Miss Winters, present. And Chair Carus here. Chair Carnegus, you have a quorum. Thank you, Vice Chair Hillyard. At this comm, as this committee is meeting
virtually, we have prepared a statement of necessity. Miss Summers, please read that statement. Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Tennessee State Board of Education English Language Arts, ELA, Standards Recommendation Committee, SRC,
called an electronic meeting at 10:00 a.m. Central time today, Friday, September 5th, 2025. This meeting is called to onboard committee members in preparation for their working meetings next week. Due to the time-sensitive
nature of these items on the committee's agenda and that members are assembled from across the state, it was determined that a physical quorum of the members could not be assembled in Nashville for the purposes of this meeting. As such, this meeting will be conducted
electronically. Notice of this meeting was posted on the state board's website along with the agenda and instructions for accessing the meeting. Thank you, Miss Summers. TCA 844108 requires all votes taken during
electronic meetings of the board to be taken by call of the role. As this is a virtual meeting that's being recorded, I move that the recording serves as the minutes of the meeting. Do I have a second?
I second. Vice Chair Hillyard, please call the rule. Appropriate response is I or no. Miss Baird. Hi Miss Dockery. I
Mr. Hillyard. I Miss now. Miss Singleary. I Dr. Stout. I Miss Winters I
and Chair Carus I. Chair Carnegus, you have eight I votes and zero no votes. Thank you, Vice Chair Hillyard. The motion passes. This meeting is a committee of the whole which allows the body to hear presentations to inform our
work days next week. The agenda which is available on the state board website will proceed as follows. A welcome from Michael Derline of the state board. A presentation from educator advisory team
chairs to update members on their work thus far. A presentation from Scandron and measure learning to share the public feedback survey. There's two results. and approximately 30 minute break for lunch, bathroom, etc. A presentation
from the Tennessee Department of Education on their feedback thus far. A presentation from the state board on member logistics and guidance. Members, presenters, or staff, are there any questions about our agenda?
Okay, hearing none, I would like to do this. Before we begin our presentation, discussions, deliberations, I would ask that we all take just a moment of silence to reflect on our sacred mission to help establish rigorous and relevant
learning standards in reading, writing, speaking, and listening for over a million Tennessee students for the next eight years. Thank you. Members, presenters, and staff, please use the raise hand function. If you don't have it, we're going to raise our
hand like this out loud to be recognized, unless I call on you. Since we're meeting virtually, I ask that all speakers identify themselves before addressing the group. For the benefit of all Tennessans, please avoid
the overuse of jargon and acronyms where possible and define any acronyms that are used. I now ask Mr. Derline to welcome the committee. Mr. Derline. Good morning.
The million Tennessee students. Uh when you put it that way, Larry, it really kind of puts things into perspective. So, no pressure to this group. uh did have just a few uh opening remarks I wanted to make. I'm Michael Durland, deputy executive director of policy and research with the state board. Uh first
of all, thank you for your willingness to serve. Um I'm personally incredibly proud of this work. I've been with the board for three years now and I started uh basically right around the time that standards were being reviewed for social studies and I was learning at that
point. I got a chance to kind of just sit in and be an observer more or less. Um and I have been um really impressed by how this process is truly driven by educators and the public. Um I personally believe that we have one of
the most transparent uh standards review uh processes in the country. I think it's one of the most comprehensive uh standards review process. Uh and I also believe that everyone that has been involved in this process has the best interest of students in mind. So, I
would just encourage you throughout the week next week to continue to kind of make sure that that you're thinking about the student. I don't really need to say that because I know you all do, but just to kind of name that. I think it's important. Uh, as a parent, I get oddly excited when I can tell my own
children that I play a small role in the creation of standards. Um, whether they like that or not is a different question. Uh, but I I am proud to be just a small part of this process. There is a significant amount of work that goes into setting up these convenings. So I do want to thank and
call out Josh Walton and others that you will hear from today and and next week possibly and you will interact with. Um please please please if you find yourself in a position where you need anything at all, we are an open door.
Please or if you're having any challenges or concerns um we are here for you. So, please uh feel free to reach out to us. With that, I'll be quiet and thank you again. Look forward to interacting with you all next week. Um, sorry for the disturbance. Okay. Uh,
I think we're ready now for our presentation from the chairs. We can start now. Who's first? I'm first. I'm just I'm Nicole Moore. I'm just waiting for the presentation to pop up.
I am getting it started right now. Thank you. Can you see it? I do. Thank you very much. All right. So, good morning everyone and welcome. I'm Nicole Moore, a sixth grade ELA teacher and one of your ELA EAT
chairs. It's an honor to be here with you all today. Whether you've been part of the development process from the beginning or you're stepping in as we approach finalization, your perspective is important. This next week is more than reviewing standards. It's about ensuring clarity, coherence, and
alignment across the state. We are here to sharpen what's working, identify any final adjustments, and ensure that our standards serve every student in every corner of Tennessee. Can we just say next or? Yeah, that would be good. Okay,
hang on. Okay, there we go. All right. So our our three guiding goals today are to explain how the EAT analyzed the standards and practice, how the SDC developed revisions, and why vertical alignment is essential for student growth from year to year. This
process has been both rigorous and rewarding. The educator advisor team, what we call the EAT, brought firstirhand classroom insight to the table. They examine how standards actually show up in instruction, what works and what's unclear, and where
students struggle. From there, the standards development committee, the SDC, took those insights and worked collaboratively to revise the standards. Every change was grounded on research, classroom practice, and public feedback. And finally, vertical alignment. This is the piece that
ensures students aren't just relearning the same thing year after year. Instead, they're building knowledge and skills in a logical progression, so growth is steady and intentional from grade to grade. Today's presentation is a culmination culmination of that work.
You're not just here as an audience. You're the final voice in confirming that these standards truly reflect what the Tennessee teachers and students need. Okay. So, we're going to meet our ELA support team. Um, this week you will be
supported by passionate leaders across all the grade bands. You'll see representation from K5, middle grades, and high school, including electives. We educators bring classroom insight to every discussion. You'll hear more from
us throughout today and next week. So, like I said before, my name is Nicole Moore and I am a middle school I'm going to be your middle school guru. That means I know all things slang, the latest technology, and how to keep middle schoolers engaged. I currently
teach in East Tennessee and I get the privilege of teaching ELA and social studies. Um, and I am passionate about making learning relevant, meaningful, and fun. And I can't wait to work with you all next week. Um, we'll just take a minute to let Miss Leanne Potter
introduce herself and then we'll pass it to Miss Tammy. Hi, my name is Leanne Potter and I served as the K5 grade band chair. I currently serve as the K2 ELA content lead for Hamilton County Schools in
Chattanooga. I am passionate about the K2 foundational skills and ensuring that all students become effective readers and writers. Um, please feel free to ask me about the K2 standards, the 35 standards, the thinking behind the
layout of the foundational literacy standards, and the reading rope. I'm going to now pass it over to Tammy Marlo. Hi. Sorry, I just got unmuted. Uh, I am Tammy Marlo. I am in my 23rd year
teaching English to high school. I teach 9th grade, 11th grade, and 12th grade in Middle Tennessee. Um, I enjoy finding new ways to help students improve their skills and open doors for future opportunities. And you can ask me about
the high school standards, electives, vertical alignment. Just don't ask me about elementary. That's Leanne. Okay. So, here's our plan for the session. We'll begin with why ELA is foundational, move into recent shifts in instruction, then explore the structure
and rationale of the revised standards. Finally, we'll break down the changes by gradeband, including electives, and leave time for questions and answers. Sounds good. Let's proceed. So being asked to um being tasked with the revision of the Tennessee ELA
standards was not taken lightly. It is vital that we get this right. An ELA isn't just about reading books or articles or writing essays. It's about building skills that all students will need in order to succeed in school,
work, and in life. Reading helps us understand the world. Writing helps us express our ideas and solve problems. And speaking and listening helps us communicate clearly with others and think critically. It's also important to
note that the ELA is the foundation for learning in all of our content areas. If students can't read and understand directions, solve word problems, or explain their thinking, they will struggle not just in their English
classes, but in science, history, and math. Also, as we began reviewing the Tennessee ELA standards and the survey results from the field, we knew we needed to align Tennessee with the research on how the
brain learns to read. For years, schools used many different approaches to teaching reading and some of which were more on the traditional than on tradition rather than on research.
The science of reading has been a major shift and because now we are focused on what decades of brain science and research have shown us about how kids actually learn to read. This visual is
Scar Bro's reading rope and it illustrates the components of language comprehension and word recognition that all students must master and weave together in order to become a skilled reader. It is important that our state
ELA standards align to this research to provide all students the opportunity to access grade level skills and knowledge needed to become successful readers and writers. So here we have our four key takeaways
from the science of reading that we kept in mind as we analyzed each standard strand and grade level to ensure that we had coherence and clarity across all grade levels K12. First off, reading does not come
naturally. It must be taught systematically. Children need explicit instruction. in things like phonics, how the letters make the sounds, phmic awareness, hearing sounds in words, vocabulary,
fluency, comprehension. When we teach reading based on how the brain learns, we help all students, including those with learning differences like dyslexia. They can become confident readers.
We also build content knowledge and by doing that we allow students to make sense of new information, think critically and apply their learning in meaningful ways. The revised Tennessee standards for ELA
are closely aligned to the research of the science of reading. We have ensured that all of the key takeaways were addressed. so that we meet the needs of every student in Tennessee schools. Here are some examples of the alignment that
we tried to make sure we had. In the readingformational standards, we aligned for our science and social studies standards to support students in building content knowledge. This aligns to the top part of the Scar Bro's reading rope for the language
comprehension. The foundational literacy standards are very explicit to follow a systematic approach for K2. This aligns to the bottom part of the Scarbo's reading rope for word recognition.
When we look at this slide, we know that it is imperative that we get the standards right. The Tennessee State standards drive what is happening in the classroom with our curriculum, with our units and
lessons, and with our assessments. All of these, what we teach, how we teach, and how well students are learning all need to align to these standards. So, it's really important
that we the standards is the core. That's the the main thing and we need to make sure that we have those explicit and teachers know exactly what each grade level needs to learn that they're coherent and they are consistent
throughout. So when we know better, we do better. So this shift is about equity and opportunity. Every child deserves to learn to read well. Because reading is a gateway to everything else. When we get better, get
reading right, we can change the lives of our children. Our standards align to the research. Our curriculum, our units, our lessons align to our standards. Our assessments, the ones in the curriculum,
the ones from the state align to our standards. The standards must be evident to everything we teach. or assess. Again, we have to get this right. It's a
very important work. Hang on. Turn it over to Tammy. Le in. I don't know if it's just me, but there's a a reading mode. Okay. Go away. Okay. No, that looks great now. Okay. Sorry. Thank you.
I don't know what happened. Tammy, you there. Tammy is there. Um, I'm not able to unmute her, but she is here and and muted. Josh, are you able to unmute her? Uh, yes, but it's not working.
You want me to read her? If you feel comfortable, I can maybe work to let you know. I've got her notes. I can't elaborate, but I can read her notes. be helpful just for the proced for the
process to keep the meeting going here. Yeah, I can read her notes for you. Um, so in addition to the main standard strands of ELA standards, related elective standards that can be taught under the ELA umbrella were evaluated
and updated as necessary. So we cover the four main strands foundational literacy and language, reading, literature andformational text, speaking and listening, and writing. So how they're coded, uh, the ELA
standards are the foundation of learning in all subjects. These standards help you develop critical communication skills. Um, oh, hang on. For some reason, I'm not
There we go. Um, so they're coded with grade level, title of strand, category within strand, and the number of the strand. So, if needed, there may be a letter at the end for a subcategory.
So for an example, sixth grade reading informational craft and structure and then the standard number one. So um and you might see a subgroup if the one had an A after there may be some
substandards within that that standard. So there are different categories um for each strand. For example, reading literature, you have key ideas um and details, craft and structure.
Writing has text types and research. um foundational literacy. There's print concepts, funological awareness, phonics and word recognition, word composition, fluency, sentence
composition, vocabulary. Each of those have um the the first letters of each word are the middle. So you would have the the grade level one and then PC for print concepts or FL and then PC for
print concepts. So, foundational literacy, print concepts, and then the standard number. And now Nicole is going to talk to us about the cornerstones. Okay, so next up is what are cornerstones? Cornerstones represent the
end result of the instruction, the essential skill and understanding we want students to carry with them beyond a single grade level. Think of them like a capstone on a building or a final stone in an arch. They hold the structure together and show that the learning is complete and stable. These
aren't one-time outcomes. They're benchmarks that all standards across state level should build towards. When we think vertically, we start with the cornerstone and ask, how does each grade contribute to getting students there? As teachers, this helps us make intentional
decisions about what we teach, how we teach it, and how we check for understanding along the way. Each lesson, each assessment, each skill we reinforce is like placing a brick carefully to support the larger structure. Cornerstones guide our planning and instruction so that we're
not just covering the standards, but we're building a deep lasting mastery that prepares students for success beyond our classroom. Next up is vertical alignment. So, just like cornerstones represent the end goal of instruction, the skills and
understandings we want students to carry with them, vertical alignment is the blueprint that shows us how to get there. It ensures that students aren't taught in isolation or siloed. Instead, it maps the path from the first introduction of the skill to its
reinforcement and eventually mastery. For example, a skill introduced in grade three is reinforced in grade four, deepened in grade 5, and ultimately mastered by high school. This kind of coherence isn't just important in ELA, but it supports learning across all
subjects. If a student struggles with summarizing in grade 8, vertical alignment helps us trace back to where that skill was first introduced and reinforced. And then we plan on how to accelerate and provide enrichment for that child. It gives teachers a clear sense of what
came before, what is expected now and what is up, what is going to come next. So instruction is per purposeful and builds a solid foundation towards cornerstones. Okay. So next in the glossery, appendix and introduction in the past it almost
felt like it was a separate piece that didn't really connect to the standards document. Now that we've been now that they've been created to flow as a whole, something that will benefit teachers directly, not something that they'll skip over. And yes, I'm guilty of sometimes skipping over them. The
glossery makes sure that terms like theme, summary, and point of view are defined consistently across classrooms and districts. Previously, those terms could mean slightly different things depending on a teacher, school, or district, which interfered with curriculum creation, test questions, and
most importantly, how these skills were taught taught across the state. Now, by having a shared set of definitions, we're ensuring clarity, consistency, and equity for both teachers and students. The appendix provides practical tools,
forms, scaffolds, and planning aids that help teachers move from the written standards to the real instructional practice. And the introduction gives important context both for the overall development of the standards and for each individual section. They're not
they not only set the stage, but they also explain why each section is being taught, making it clear how that part of standards contribute to the bigger picture of the students learning. As teachers move towards as teachers move through the standards, they'll be
alerted with a reference when it connects back to one of these sess sections. Again, these aren't just extras. They're part of a comprehensive support system that helps us understand the standards more deeply and apply them more effectively to our
daily instruction. Okay. So now we're going to talk about some of the changes that we made. Some of the main changes that we made. The suggested changes to the standards were made based on research, data, public
feedback, and teacher experience and expertise. A particular focus was placed on the improving coherence, clarity, and consistency throughout the standards. So when we think about the K12 ELA
standards, we wanted them to reflect cohesion, consistency, and clarity. So in cohesion in writing standards 1, 2, and three have been reordered to more clearly delineate the progression of
skills. K12, K5, setting the foundation. 68 digging deeper and 912 preparing for college and career. In foundational literacy, we address the need of
cohesion and clarity in the K2 trajectory of foundational skills with more specific skills named for each grade level. In creative writing standards were updated to better align with the ELA
standards. Um in consistency speaking and listening uh the current speaking and listening two and three have been combined to form new standard
for for standard two. A new standard was created for speaking and listening three that will focus on listening and notetaking as these skills are needed for postsecary learning in
college and career and it also provides an opportunity to build note takingaking skills. Um and speaking and listening standard five had been rewarded to address the use of multimedia
components. Um just because our our kids are using more and more of the technology with the consistency in our foundational literacy. We really looked at the science of reading and brain research were the major focus of consideration
and we looked at foundational literacy standards and they've been evaluated and rewritten and arranged to more clearly represent current research and developmental appropriateness. And then for clarity in reading in an
effort to differentiate reading literature and readingformational for from the language for the cornerstone and standard have been rewarded to focus on the impact of word choices rather
than definitions of the words used. And then standard um reading literature 10 has been rewe rewritten to place an emphasis on the inclusion of student choice and providing the opportunity to
read the text in its entirety which would enhance student motivation. Standard nine has been developed to allow for crosscurricular integration utilizingformational text and fictional text. And then
writing for clarity we um took the current standard 4 uh we removed it to eliminate redundancy. And the current standards five and six were combined for a new standard 4. and
the current standards 7 through 9 have been combined to form a new standard five. K through 5 and 6 through 8, we increase the specific and clarity language for writing length.
So when we think about examples or uh specific examples in K5, um we smooth the progression to be more clear and have consistent rigorous expectations. Um particularly across K3.
Um educators added more specific language to clearly show the K2 foundational skills trajectory. We were very specific in what each grade level needed to learn across that trajectory based on the um brain research standards
three and four shifted to explicitly focus on decoding and encoding. Uh the structure of the layout of these standards we adjusted and put them side by side to reinforce that these two
skills are reciprocal. Um and then in grades K through five, we introduce crosscurricular interduction of social studies and science and to really u be specific and evident withformational text selections.
Okay, now we're going to move to grade bands 6 through 8. Um, in grades six through eight, we work to create more intentional skill progression. For example, figurative language is now grade specific, ensuring students encounter increasingly complex forms
over time. What students learn in sixth grade, like similes and metaphor, they don't disappear, but we continue to use and strengthen those skills while building on them in seventh grade with elements such as personification, hyperboles, and imagery. And by 8th grade, they're ready to work with more
sophisticated forms like symbolism, irony, illusion. Additionally, key terms such as theme versus central idea and point of view versus perspective were clarified to eliminate confusion. We also emphasize full text reading and
opportunities for student choice, which we all know that this directly impacts engagement and comprehension. Listening and note-taking were elevated for importance with explicit standards that prepare students for the demands of high school, college, and the workplace. This
alignment helps teachers plan with precision and ensure students leave middle school with a strong foundation for advanced literacy skills. Also in middle school for our writing standards, um the middle grade writing
standards were refined to make a more practical approach for teachers and students. Instead of trying to give equal weight to all three types of writing every year, each grade now has one main focus. Narrative in sixth grade, informative in seventh, and
argumentative in eth. That doesn't mean that students only write in one mode. We still practice all three, but it gives us space to go deeper into the craft and really develop those skills. This change definitely was not made lightly. It's grounded in research on writing
development, shaped by teacher feedback, and influenced by real classroom experience. We heard it loud and clear that trying to do all three equally every year spread students too thin and left less room for true growth. For example, in seventh grade, where the
primary focus is informative writing, students move beyond just summarizing sources. They'll get to practice pulling key evidence, organizing it clearly, and explaining why it matters. Then, when they're in eighth grade, when the focus shifts to argument, they've already have
the foundation and can actually now dig into how to create a real claim, something that actually supports their reasoning. The revisions also emphasize what we know works. We know that citing evidence effectively, using technology and
multimedia when it fits, and helping students adjust their style for audience and purpose. By the time they leave 8th grade, they should be able to write. They should be able to write with clarity, confidence, and adaptability. Skills that will serve them way beyond
high school and beyond. Hopefully. Is Tammy here? I'm here. Hopefully, it's all going to hold together. Sorry about that, guys. That's okay. Um, specific examples in the 9 10 11 12
bands. Before we even get into those, I think one of the things we need to discuss is the unique structure of standards in 1911 12 um with everything else kindergarten standards are just kindergarten but 910 has a band. When
this was first done the way it was explained to me was that in ninth grade standards got introduced. By 10th grade you were supposed to have mastered them. 11th grade standards were introduced. 12th grade you were supposed to have
mastered them. So they are not just for one grade and I think sometimes with the general public that gets lost in the translation. um under speaking and listening in a 9 10 11 12 bands, the team suggested
moving um from using the 910 terminology to using English one, English 2 and 112 to using English 3, English 4 because sometimes the students in the class are not in the grade indicated and it just
um it seems to flow a little bit better than saying 9, 10 or English one, English two. some standards in speaking and listening were removed and if they were removed they weren't just done away with they were incorporated into other standards.
Um for example um standard three we incorporated that into um we made it more accurate to demonstrate the expectation of the skill. In the five and both 9 10 and 112, we made a
change for clarity and conciseness. The standard now expects students to make more purposeful and effective use of digital and digital and visual resources. Before it just said, hey, just use them. Now we expect there to be a reason to use it and to use it
effectively and it should enhance interest and it should enhance understanding of the content and not just the use of technology to all levels. We suggested that we add a new standard three that focused on notetaking.
If this was truly supposed to be the speaking and listening band, then we needed to also address not just speaking standards, but listening and what that looked like when you actually listening to a speech, listening to a podcast, and
having to rely on it to take notes. Okay, you can go to the next one. Okay. Underwriting. Um the types of writing across all the grade bands were restructured. We have mentioned that so that we could show the better progression of the writing skills.
The writing standards were rewritten to place an emphasis on the inclusion of student choice in some of the topics and to provide the student the opportunity for the student choice. K5 focuses on foundation. 68's diving deeper. You've
already heard both of those. When they come to us, we have to provide them sophistication in high school and we have to get them for college, career, give get them ready for college, career, and life.
W4 was eliminated or has been suggested to be eliminated because it's redundant. It simply says to produce clear and coherent writing. Your writing should always be clear and coherent. We shouldn't have to have that as a separate standard. And then we combined
five and six into one that was a little bit stronger that dealt with improving and developing strong writing. And then seven and nine we combined to make it short and long research. And uh this kind of reduces the number
of standards we have to hit but still gets all the content we need to hit. Okay. Under language we suggested that we remove I think I typed in it's my fault VA3 and it should
not be that it should be KL3. It should be removed throughout to reduce the number of standards because we're already doing it in another standard. We tried to eliminate the redundancy or the potential for misunderstanding
between VAU4 and RL and RIS4. VAU4 we made more vocabulary based what the real meaning is. And the I'm sorry the CS4 we try to use it more for figurative
more for content. Um we worked on separating the idea of the concepts of central idea and theme even more clarified. Central ideas usually informational text theme and literature.
We tried to make the summary be a little more separated from just the central idea and try to make it a more feasible thing to do. We looked at point of view and perspective trying to make it more clearly defined. And then in standard 10,
we tried to rewrite it to really place an emphasis on the inclusion of student choice because what you want to do is develop lifelong readers. To do that, they have to have a small say in something they want to read. We also wanted students to read the
entirety of a text and not just live in a world of excerpts. Okay. Where electives this became um
parts of the electives became an interesting conversation because you had to keep it ELA based and not go too far. Under creative writing and advanced creative writing, we looked at the
language and the standards and we updated it using more specific verbs, more specific and precise language and we tried to align the standards with ELA and to make sure that they mirrored each other and represented each other well
with the Bible standards. Not going to um hedge on these. That's probably some of the most um intense ones we had. I'm sorry. Um we really took a look at the Bible
standards and focused on the idea that we wanted to make it a straight literature class and keep all and any reference to religion out of it. And our idea was if we could build this
one well enough, you could take any religious text and use the same overlay and build a literature class on that. So we looked at um figurative language, we looked at plot contents, we looked at
the influence on culture, the influence on other literature and the changes to the standards address the requirements of the law which dictates that the class should be taught in a non-devotional manner. But we also
try to use cohesive language with other ELA standards. With etmology and linguistics, we separated those and tried to update the standards so that they were more clearly aligned to their purpose. We separated the
etmology, animology standards to etmology and linguistics to linguistics so that they would mimic ELA standards more. whenever you're ready. Genre literature and more and mythology.
We gave more potential examples to be used in these. Uh, one of the ones we added that would really we believed would really attract some students and get them reading was um
the Marvel comics, the DC comics, the anime. All of those build their own literature and their own culture around it. So the student may get more motivated to read. And if they're more motivated to read, then maybe we can
address the standards with them more. We also try to ensure that we address the diversity of Tennessee student population and that their interests were reflected. In journalism 1 through 4, we updated the language of the
standards. we use more specific verbs, more precise language. Often with that class, you will have students enrolled in one through four at the same time period in like a newspaper class. And this allows
the teacher an opportunity to allow his older students to also teach their their expertise to the younger students. And it lets them progress what's expected of them each year. speech and communication. We tried to
use our magic ball and predict what might be out there in 2030 and what might be expected in 2030 and try to open our standards up to that. Same thing with visual literacy. The things that we're seeing now, we didn't see 10 years ago. The things we see in
2030 are not the things we're going to be seeing now. So, we try to keep the standards open enough that they're not outdated when those years get here. Whenever you're ready. Yep.
Okay. So, I will stop share and we will open it up for Q and Becky. Yeah. Before anybody asks questions, I just have to compliment you on the
terrific work that you've done and uh the presentation that really has narrowed it down to the essence of the changes. So that certainly is going to help us uh as we review these. Thank you so much.
Now questions from the SRC members. Annie, you look like you're ready to ask a question. I have a I have quite a few questions. Um, but I'm the question person, so I think I'll question away. Ask one and then let some other people
talk. Um, okay. So looking at um the questions I have are mostly about places where I kind of saw um a bit of a disconnect between the current proposed standards and um survey feedback or feedback from the Tennessee Department
of Education. Um so I just want to get some clarity on your your thinking process and uh I love research so um information about that as well. Um, so one of the things I noticed is some changes um some things taking taken out
um in the six through eight um grammar standards and I want to hear your all's thinking about those choices um and some rearranging of the punctuation standards. Okay. Do you have any like specific examples? I just I have not read any of
the feedback like the recent feedback of the um latest survey. Yes. Um so um in eighth grade um some aspects of verbs were taken out and I
believe it was sixth grade where prepos not prepositions pronouns um some elements of pronouns were taken out. Um and then I believe the if I'm remembering correctly the punctuation standards before were very frustratingly vague for
6 through 8. Um, and then you all were more specific about um, what went where and I want to kind of hear your all's thinking about how you decided um, why to put semicolons here or dashes here, etc. Does that help clarify?
Yeah, a little bit. And ladies, feel free to jump in. Um, so I know pronouns was a big discussion and um it was one of those discussions that if you go back to a fourth grade standard I believe and again I don't have any notes on this so I'm I will be able to answer these
questions better for you on Monday but um as far as the pronouns I know it's touched in fourth grade I believe and so we just felt that I'm going be honest with you with the time I don't know pronouns was a very difficult one for us to cover so Um,
we, yes, we just felt like it was covered in fourth grade and we didn't get rid of it alto together. It was just more of a broad sense of pronouns, I guess, essentially. I know that's probably not answering it all the way, but I promise I will research your question and I will give you a direct answer on Monday. Um,
as far as just the rest of it, it just was so broad that, you know, as a sixth grade teacher, whenever I look at the standard and I see dashes and I see semicolons and I see commas and I see all these different things and then I'm supposed to teach all these other things.
I just want to know directly what I'm supposed to teach. Like in sixth grade, I want to know that I need to teach commas and dashes. That doesn't mean we don't talk about those things, but that means by the end of sixth grade, they're going to mastered that. So that way whenever they go to seventh grade, and
again, I'm just talking general. I don't have the exact notes in front of me, but in seventh grade, they will have mastered where to put a comma. Hopefully, you would think they've mastered it by sixth grade, but they have not. But at least then the seventh grade teacher will be say, "Okay, you
should have already learned this. You should have mastered this. I know in sixth grade this was the only skill that you were required to master. So now let's add to that. Now let's reinforce the comma and let's add the semicolon or let's add the dash or let's add something like that. Because when you
have a dash and you have a comma, I mean they're used almost the exact same way and then you throw a test in front of a kid and it's like, okay, which one am I supposed to use? because you just taught me both of them that they can almost be used simultaneous simultaneously and I
don't know which one to use. Um so I feel like with all of the grammar content we were just trying to be very specific um with grade specific so it's not so broad. And I I think too it's
going to be really important when we do trainings for the new standards to really emphasize with teachers that we were very specific in the clarity of what is taught at each grade level and
what is taught at one grade level. Everything below that is expected. So it's not, you know, you you're mastering what's at your grade level and then the next grade level builds. So it's really
important that yes, they need to know pronouns 100%. But they had pronouns. They have them starting in kindergarten all the way up through elementary. So when is that mastered and when do we
hold them accountable to that? And then when do we assess and see okay where are the gaps and we need to teach the gaps but we also there's a trajectory of when it's appropriate for it to be and when is it appropriate for it to be
introduced and taught and when is it appropriate to be held accountable to. And so I think that's something that we need to think about too um and not list every single thing at every single grade. Um, so I think that was kind of
our thinking and when is it appropriate to introduce to reinforce and when should it be mastered? Yeah, I agree with you and I agree like almost all of the standards I feel like I I did read some of the feedback and it
was like well you're taking away the rigor. You're taking away the rigor. No, we're not. We're we're actually allowing teachers now instead of just saying oh today we're gonna learn about a common the next day we're learn about the next one. The next one next one. next one. We're we're we're letting them master it before we move to the next skill.
Because right now, I'm be honest with you, I'm not, you know, there's it says teach them figurative language. Okay, there are 10 pieces of figurative language. I don't have 10 days to teach each one. So, now that I know that in sixth grade I'm going to teach a simile and a
metaphor, you better believe my kids are going to be able to tell you what those are when they leave my classroom. And I believe that was the same idea with our grammar. Um, we just wanted to be very specific with it. I kind of feel with K5 we were more rigorous because we did get very
specific and we we said by this grade level you need to know this. Yeah, I know. And teachers know exactly what we need them to leave knowing. Um, so I kind of felt like we were we had a lot of
clarity. Um, I felt like the standards there were some gray areas. there was some cohesion that wasn't there across especially from K3 to four five. Um, and we really worked hard to try to find
that cohesion and really make it clear of what do they need to know and we need to start holding them accountable. Quick note from my end this is Brianna Summers with the state board of education. Nicole um I remember
discussions 68 group and I is it accurate to say that the version in front of SRC members is that it was less about identifying pronouns and more about using them accurately and proficiently. Yes. Or was that in the previous version?
No. I mean I believe that they know how to identify pronouns by the time they're in sixth grade. they they know how to respond to someone with she or he or however that person wants to be respond to as um it was more so we felt like they already knew that coming into sixth
grade. We didn't have to review that. That that was the biggest thing. Um yeah, I appreciate any other question. Okay, there you are. There's a raised hand. Come on.
I Lucas, you want I'll go first and then Britney. Yeah. Okay. Um my question was um um in the writing specifically in the middle school um for instance like writing an informative um response um an
informative essay. It was more um in sixth grade and seventh grade that I'm looking at. it was specifically said that the response would be at least two paragraphs whereas in fifth grade it says multiparagraph.
So I teach fifth grade and I guess that's why I'm specifically looking like um like define and that's what I struggle with. I try to teach a five paragraph essay fourth grade, you know, and then I go then in middle school then
they're just going to have to write two paragraphs. So like I just as like what expectations in fifth grade should I focus on? I guess that's my kind of question. and um and like fourth grade and third grade what are you know like specifically instead of multi-paragraph
like how many should we really be focusing on because that's given in the middle school but it's not in the elementary so Liam before you respond I I will give my little thing okay the writing in middle school was a big a big big discussion like big discussion so I
understand your concern and it was definitely brought up like if you you as a fifth grade teacher are teaching five paragraphs and then they come up to me and it's like I'm only teaching them two. It's not that I'm just teaching them two. It's not that I'm taking two of your paragraphs that you taught them.
I'm now teaching them how to pull two pieces of relevant information into the informative two paragraphs. I'm also in teaching them how to site text evidence. I'm I'm going deeper with that paragraph than just brushing the surface. And
trust me, I teach sixth grade. You fifth grade teachers are wonderful and what they're coming to me with is wonderful, but now I need to go deeper with that. Um, but like in fifth grade, we are um we're also pulling evidence and citing
evidence and we're using two texts. Yeah. No, I to I totally understand. I mean, the whole reason for us wanting to focus on one was just so we did not brush the surface of each one of them. I mean, you understand that, you know, it's like
nine weeks of nine weeks of I've Yeah. I wish that I wish narrative was taken away from us because I feel like in middle school, I feel like it's more because I have two middle schoolers. So, I feel like they really
that's really a lot of the focus, too, is the narrative and that type of thing. Whereas I feel like in fifth grade it's more and the in the early it's more pushed for the opinion or the informative. So it is hard to teach all
the modes and do them well. Yeah. And and I agree and that's why I think it's this kind of goes along with it. I don't teach narrative very much in sixth grade but you just said at your middle school it is focused on highly and it is not at my middle school. I do not. I brush the surface. I'm like, "Oh,
kids can write narratives." Like, "Yeah, that's easy." So, I'm like, I focus on the other ones because I they need more help with that one. Um, I think if I knew as a sixth grade teacher, hey, this is what your primary focus is on, that
would be great for not just my school, but for all the schools. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Um you want to respond to that Lan about? Yeah, we we also had um a big conversation around writing for K5. Um
more so for 35 K2 we all pretty much agreed they needed all. Um we went back and forth but we did land on all three genres for for K5 I mean for 35. Um,
I can go back and pull all my notes. I know we talked about doing one or two or whatnot. I'll have all that for you next week. I just feel like multiparagraph is vague. Like we did talk about being very specific.
Um, I'm not sure. I thought we did. So now I've got to go back and look at my notes why we didn't. So I'm going to go and think about that. Look at that. And I'll have that for you next week. Okay. Thank you. Katherine, did you have something? Uh, you have a question? I did, but I think Vice Chair Hiller was
before me, so I want to respect the order. Okay, Vice Chair Hillyard, thank you. And I and I definitely want Dr. Stout to have a chance to speak as well. Um, this question is is pertinent to the question we're we're discussing right now. Um, because I I wanted to ask about the 68 writing. Just a I have
quick kind of clarification question and then I just wanted to kind of know the theory behind some of the choices made. Um, first was just just to clarify. So the distinction between uh the the focus writing task in each grade is is the language of essay versus response. Is that correct?
Yes. Okay. Um, and then I know it's hard not to notice that in several ways the 68 standards are quite distinct from both the 912. I'm a high school teacher so I'm thinking in those terms and the the
35 standards now. and just like in in the specificity of 68 um the specific numbers of pieces of evidence and paragraphs and um whereas like 912 does not have that degree of specificity um and and like we were discussing earlier with this conversation about multi
paragraph there seems to be a slight less speer specificity and then even just in formatting um I noticed that there are um like substandards for 68 writing seem to have like subtitles um now that kind of clarify and direct
attention um whereas that doesn't um occur at the other levels. I just wanted to know theoretic before we get into the conversations about what to be what's to be done with all that um I just wanted to know was that an an intentional choice being made and if so what was the the the thought process behind that?
Yes. act. Um, so the bullet points underneath each one if that what I'm going to focus on right here is because it's a shorter response instead of an essay. Right now 6th through 8th grade writing rubric is exactly the same. It is exactly the same. Um
and we didn't want and essenti so essentially narrative writing for sixth through 8th grade as a teacher all we are teaching is read the story and finish it like continue on to the story because we know that is the prompt they are going to get that is the only prompt that they get for narrative and we do
not feel like that is really setting up our students for proper narrative writing. I'm just using that as an example. So now in eighth grade students are going to be able to write a personal narrative. they're going to be able to write a narrative using different aspects of writing, not just continue
the story because we know that that's what's going to happen. So, we're not taking away just because it's not an essay doesn't mean we're taking away. We're actually building to it. We're requiring more of these essays. We're requiring more,
especially for narrative. I mean, right now, your sixth grade essay and your eighth grade narrative are going to be almost identical. But with our new proposed standards, it's not. It's going to introduce a lot more things to their writing. Um, that's why the bullet points are on there. It's just so that
the teacher can see this is what we were are requiring. It's not just a smaller essay. It's not just two paragraphs, but now in those two paragraphs, you better have X, Y, and Z. Does that make sense? Probably not. I feel I'm so nervous doing this.
Notes in front of me. Sorry. It does. Yes. Um, yes. Thank you. Uh, Chair Kas, do you mind if I make one point of clarification for the committee? Please do. Um, thank you and thank you, Dr. Stop. Just real quick on this. Um, just want
to clarify that Nicole spoke to the writing rubrics. While obviously the rubrics, um, you know, live in our greater world of ELA, those are under the division of the Department of Education. and we've had conversations about potential changes to the rubrics, but that would not be in the scope of
this committee. So, um, we'll have to operate under the assumption that there could be no changes or there could be changes. But that's certainly something that the EAT committee has recommended and that's something certainly that the SRC committee could carry over, but know that um, you know, the 100page document of the standards is is within our locus
of control. Thank you for that, Brianna. I appreciate that. Now, uh, if I can just intervene, Katherine, before you get in, um, you said there was extensive conversation about this, and we've already had our our first extensive
conversation here. Is was this a collaborative uh answer or was there a distinct minority opinion? And do we have access to those minority opinions? Um, so there definitely was debate. I
mean we we met as a sixth through eighth grade team essentially for about a week and then on the last day we kind of met together um as kindergarten through 12th grade and yes there was a lot of debate just like these questions we're having now and we had to go back into the standards that we originally proposed
during that week and make changes based off of what 9th through 12th grade suggested and K through five and a lot of your concerns that you're asking right now were similar to those questions um and again I think it might be the way that we present them or if
you've been in the classroom. I believe our fifth grade teacher here is understanding what I'm saying. Um, as far as just being overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that we're given and expected to teach, if we had clarity, if
we knew as teachers this is what we are supposed to be teaching, then the kids would actually master it. Because right now, as you can tell by our Tennessee TCAP data, we're not mastering it. Our writing is below 40%.
And we looked at a lot of data as far as that goes, and what we're doing right now is not working. Okay. Thank you uh for that clarification. Dr. Stout, please come in now. Uh wonderful. First of all, I just want
to say I'm in nerd heaven. Uh like this is this is my wheelhouse. Um, I've been an English teacher, but also write for a living. I've been looking at standards and curriculum probably since I was 12 years old. Um, so like this is
like paradise for me. So, thank you so much for the conversation. I want to point out a couple things that I really uh love that you guys have done. I love the focus on the science of reading. I know that that has been a big push across the state. Uh I'm a baby of the
80s and so I am in that generation where the we shifted away from the science of reading and I have some unpublished essays about what that meant for me um and how I had to retach myself how to read when I got into college. And so
thank you for that and I'm glad we're aligning with this bigger movement uh nationwide and also what we're doing across the state. Um, I also love the focus on student choice in reading because that is so important. So, thank you for paying attention to that and the
focus on reading full text. I think I am in my 24th year of school as I work on my masters in divinity and the emphasis on excerpts and how we're losing the
ability to focus and go deep into full text I think is a problem in our bigger curriculum from K to graduate school. So I love the emphasis on reading full text. So kudos to that. Uh I find this discussion on
middle school narrative informative and argumentative sixth seventh and eighth really really interesting and I'm going to sit and spend some time and sit with that. I think I like it. I do think I like it but I want to like instinctively I'm like I I see where they're going
with the deeper dive and having the opportunity to master each mode. I want to spend some time to sit with what is lost. if we do that and is there a place to make up what is lost if we do that.
But my instinct says this feels good and this feels right but I want to sit with it a little bit more. Um and then finally this the final two things is focus on specificity versus openness. I want to uplift what uh Miss Singleary
said about the specificity of the middle school um standards versus some of the more openness um that we are finding in the high school and I was a high school English teacher. So I she was focusing on middle I was focused on high school.
Um, I do think this is kind of like a rhetorical discussion of which one do teachers want, the specificity or the openness. And so I love to have that conversation a little bit more. Uh, and
I also want to uplift what Miss Singleary said about length anxiety. I do think there is length anxiety of how much is this student supposed to be writing in each grade. As someone who
chaired a high school um by this time history department, we had rigorous discussions on should ninth graders be writing five pages or should they be writing two pages and what is going to set them up for college and career
readiness and what happens if they graduate from 12th grade and they've only written a five-page paper and they get to college and they're asked to write a 20page paper, right? Um, and so I would like to talk a little bit more about
the standards or recommendations for length of writing, especially in those high school grades, knowing that no, every child is not going to go to college, but even in our career readiness programs, you know, we have to
set them up to write full page memos or to write uhformational reports if they're in a tech area. And so I think talking about link and do we want to make that a spec specificity in the standards um I think is an important
conversation. So kudos to all of the teachers across the state for the work that you have done and thank you for setting us up so beautifully. Thank you Dr. Stout. Now, I want to ask Brianna, uh, we've had a chance to get in deep here. Uh, and I wondered how
we're doing in terms of our, uh, schedule. Uh, do we need to proceed or do we got time for more questions here? I know there's several presentations that we got to go through here. Chair Canas, that is music to my ears. Um, I'm so excited you asked that
question. We have about three more minutes of these wonderful ladies time um before we officially need to transition, but if we've got a couple extra, we're not doing we're not doing so bad. Um I do want to try and preserve as much of the break as possible. Okay, great. Let's see. Let's do some
quickies. Who's got some more questions? Raise your hand to be recognized. Uh the chair recognizes Annie. Okay. Sorry, I have like 50 questions. But um so one one quick one I have is it possible for you all to send out some of
that research you were looking at with uh about the dividing up the writing and the writing length just so we can review that. Yes. Um definitely. Um I can send it to Brianna and she can share it or I can definitely bring it on Monday. Um yeah,
definitely. I wanted to ask too I'm I'm sorry to interrupt here. Uh I I I loved your entire presentation. Is there a way that we have access to those presentations, Brianna? Another great question, Chair. Can I guess all of these presentations are in
your draft folder under stakeholder presentations, I believe, including mine on Monday for your review. I am taking lots of notes on all the questions being asked and all the follow-ups and all the requests. And as far as I can tell, all the answers to the questions are yes. So yes, Amy will get you the research in
your drive folder. Um, your EAT chairs will be there every step of the way for any questions at Hawk. Um, wrote down Dr. Stout's note about specificity. Chair Kagas wrote down your note about minority opinion. So, thank all happen.
All right. Uh, more questions? Any more? All right. Hearing none, let's move on to our next presentation. I believe that's me, right, Brianna? Absolutely. Thanks, Jackie. Hi, Jackie Phillips. Thanks for coming
in. Thank you. Thank you for having me. All right, let me just get you all set up on my computer. Everyone can hear me okay and see my screen. Perfect. Um, well
everyone, my name is Jackie Phillips. Um, I am a manager of psychometrics at Measure Learning. Also on the call, but his audio is not working, is Chuck Wagner. He's the client program manager at Scantron. Um, who actually administered the survey um, and I did
the analysis portion. I do have to warn you before I begin that I am nine months pregnant and if you see me wse in pain and or look like I'm out of breath that is why I am okay. I promise. All right. It it's beautiful to think about that
we're think we're preparing the standards for the person who might be coming in a in a couple of weeks. So thank you actually for that. It's true. Um so today I'll be giving you kind of a brief introduction to the survey uh
process, the goals, how we analyze the results um and then and summarize them in the report. So from what I understand, you all have copies of these reports um throughout this meeting. Feel free to stop me and ask me questions or tell me
to slow down or speed up. Um, it sounds like you guys are all kind of data centric people, so I don't think I have to go too slow. Um, but sometimes people tend to zone me out and need me to slow down when it comes to, um, to talking
about data. So, feel free to do that. So, um, starting in August of last year, as you guys are aware, the board of education sponsored a survey to collect public feedback from the ELA standards. Uh, these results were used to revise
the standards as we discussed previously and once revised, a second round um was collected starting in March of this year. Um, so today we will evaluate the outcomes of that survey. um and highlight the top recommendations that
we saw um based off the feedback. The survey was hosted online by Scantron um with a web link and it was started on March 3rd and ran until March 31st, so a total of 28 days. survey participants um which I also call
respondents throughout this presentation um could click the survey link and then they could go in and select the specific grade or elective that were of interest to them um and then they could provide feedback as well open-ended comments for
the specific feedback um to the standards they were asked to rate the standards as something that could be kept as is moved the standard to a higher or lower grade, change the standard or remove the standard.
Each standard um also included an open response field. So when they could provide their feedback of move, change or remove, they could provide additional information as far as like which area should be changed, which uh where should
the standard move as far as higher or lower and things like that. A key feature of this survey is that it had flexible navigation. So respondents or participants could come in and go to their specific area that they're interested in and basically submit their
survey response and be done. Um but then they could also go and you know navigate to different grade levels um throughout. So they did not have to complete the survey um the all of the standards or evaluate all the standards at once.
Uh lastly, they were required to indicate whether they were a Tennessee resident and whether they um were one of I believe 12 public roles. So that would be whether they were a teacher, a
parent, community member, and so on. Any questions on that? Yes, I have a question. Where did this get distributed? I believe it was hosted on the Go ahead, Brianna. Happy to answer. Uh, Cher Kigas, great
question. I can share the exact list with you, but I would need to double check this exact number, but we shared it with over 300 organizations. Anyone from the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce to teachers unions to literacy groups. Um, we also shared it with all 297
applicants who applied to be on the EAT. The committee chairs you just spoke to, they went through an application process. So, we shared it with all of those folks. We shared it with all of our superintendent, principles. I'm happy to share that full list, but it is upwards of 300 and closer to 400 uh
groups, not including the individuals. There were like, like I said, 297 teachers alone applied for this opportunity previously. Were those persons or organizations uh encouraged to share that with their members? Exactly. So, for example, we sent it to
the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendent TOSS that folks may be familiar with and the ask there was to please distribute to all superintendents and my understanding is that they did send the email and we've gotten some some great feedback and great applicants as a result of it.
Thank you. Okay, Jackie. Thank you. um to analyze the survey data, we looked at the overall responses to the survey as far as how many surveys were returned and then how many total responses we received. So when I say the number of
surveys returned, that indicates the number of individual respondents or participants that answered the survey. Um, and then when you hear me say responses, that refers to the individual ratings, which may be greater than the number of surveys returned since
participants could go in um more than once and respond to different um different standards and different grade levels. Um and and I can repeat that throughout this presentation. Um, we also looked at the results by each grade
band um and grade level as well as the responses by the different demographic variables. In this case, that would be the public roles. Um, and then lastly, we highlighted the standards that that received the highest um percentage or
number of responses for moving, changing, or removing the standards by each grade. Um and then lastly, we identified any of those key trends or common themes um that we noticed um from the survey. Now, just keep in mind that
the people that were analyzing these results were not we're psychometricians. We are not teachers. So, we have to have it from that lens. We're very objective and um and don't know the background of the standards and things like that.
So within each report that you guys have copies of um you will see different sections about eight different sections. The first section of each report includes the overall results across all K12 um including the number of individual
surveys returned um as well as the responses. Um you'll also see within the introduction the common themes that were identified um within each report as well. The second section includes the results for each specific grade band um
such as the K5 report 68 or 912 along with the elective. So that is the report dependent section. The third section highlights the areas or the standards with the highest um move, change or remove responses by each
grade or um nine uh grade 92 elective. The fourth section includes the total responses for each grade or elective by um the role and recommended action. The fifth section includes all of the
aggregate response data for each standard. So a summary of all of the keep change move responses. The sixth section includes all of the qualitative suggestions for additional standards.
Section seven includes um all of that feedback um by grade. And then lastly, appendix A includes all of the comments that were provided for each standard and separated by grade.
Any questions on the reports and this layout? They're quite lengthy. So, I think it's always um interesting to kind of summarize what the round one results presented. Um so, overall from
round one, which was done in August of last year, we had teachers represent the majority of all of the respondents. So, 55% of the responses overall were from teachers. Um the standards for kindergarten, grades 3, 4, and 9 through 10 received
the most responses and comments with kindergarten receiving the highest overall. So, changes were made after round one and then we did round two. Um, changes were made in what? I'm sorry, what? Changes were made in what?
Changes to the standards after round one that were discussed in the previous by the previous group. Okay. And then those standards were um sent out for public opinion again. And now we're looking at round two.
So for round two, the um similar to round one, it's teachers represent the majority of the respondents. 74% of the responses overall are from teachers. So keep that in mind as you review the results. The standards for kindergarten
grades 1 2 3 8 and 9 through 10 receive the most responses and comments um and comments overall with kindergarten receiving the highest similar to round one. In the report you'll see um duplicate
comments kind of highlighted with an X or a star. If we see common um comments being made, we kind of summarize and truncate it down to um just one comment and then we put a star next to it. So if you see that, that's what that means.
All right, this slide shows the number of total comments that were made. Um so any open text responses that were provided. Uh the blue bars in the graph show the number of total comments that
were given by grade and then um um 9 through 12 elective. These could be um a general comment or more specific details to explain the recommended action of keep, change, move or remove.
And as you can see by this blue bar, um grade 8 received the most comments with over 500 kindergarten and grade three um also received several comments with over 300
comments and then no comments were provided for creative writing um journalism 2 three and four and you can see that in this column here and only one comment was provided for
ethmology and linguistics and literature. The orange bar, um, let me back up. Participants could also make recommendations for additional standards that should be included that are not, and that represents by the orange bar, even though it's very tiny here. Um,
kindergarten again received the most comments suggesting additional standards be included, followed by grade eight. This slide shows the number of responses or the total number of individual ratings of keep, change, move or remove
um by grade or course. As you can see in the graph again, kindergarten received the most responses overall um with over 3,000.
grades 1, 2, 3, and 8, and 9 through 10 uh were close with over 2,000 responses overall. And then, similar to the lack of comments that were provided, journalism
um two, three, and four didn't receive any responses. This slide uh summarizes the number of surveys that were returned by county. Shelby County received the highest number of survey returns
with 79 surveys being returned or 11% of the total. Um followed by Rutherford and Hamilton at 8 and 6% of the total. There were 62 counties that received
less than 15 returns. Um, while I didn't display them on this slide, you can reference um those in the report. I believe they're on page 5 through seven. Any surprises here?
Shelby was also the most represented in round one. All right. This table shows the number of surveys returned overall um by roll. There were a total of 696
total surveys. 389 were returned uh from K5, 166 from 68 and then 141 from grades 9 through 12. As mentioned, teachers represent the large majority of respondents
representing 74% of the total responses. 288 represent um were represented in K through 5, 134 return for 6 through 8 and 96 for 9 through 12. Uh, parents and guardians represent 6%
and then community members represented 5%. Any concerns or questions on that? All right. Now, I'll summarize like the overall responses um for K12. This slide summarizes the number of responses to
the standards overall as far as keep, change, move or remove. So in the graph you'll see that there was a total of 23,358 total responses. Of those 82%
um were ratings of keep. So they represented um the standard should be kept as is. 8% um selected a standard to the standard should be changed. 5% um rep
selected that the standard should be moved as well as 5% selected the standard should be removed. The table below summarizes the number of total responses for each grade band. Out of the total responses, 60%
uh were given through K5, 24, 6 through 8, and 17 through 9 through 12, which is not surprising because we said kindergarten received the most responses. This slide shows the same information, but it's broken down by RO as well as the different rating options, keep,
change, move, or remove. No surprises here that 76% of the total responses came from teachers followed by parents and guardians and community members. Other roles like uh post-secary
administrator and nonprofit individuals were um the least representing less than 1% of the total responses. All right. Now, we'll get into the specific grade bands and the feedback that was provided.
So, overall, um, as you'll see in this graph, grades K through five received close to 14,000 total responses, as represented by that gray bar. 82% of which um thought the standard should be
kept as is. 6% thought the standard should be changed. 7% of the responses uh selected the standard should be moved to a higher or lower grade and 4% thought the standard should be removed. The table below uh the graph shows the
number of recommended actions of keep, change, move or remove by the different roles. As again, no surprise here, 75% of the responses were from teachers, um 6% from community members and 5% from
parent or guardians. State employee as well as post-secary educator represented um in K through five the least less than 1%. So when we analyze kind of the common
themes um and again this was not by a group of teachers this was a group of psychometricians that analyzed it we we noticed a few um areas that we would like to point out overall and this was mentioned several times kindergarten
and grade three received the most feedback overall while grades two and five received the least. uh respondents reported that some standards could be made simpler and more clearly um defined by removing some of the various parts of the standards. So
in this case it would be like the ones where it was like parts A through D um for example. And then they pointed out that foundational literacy standards in grades 2 and four um could be simple
simplified. Um there were comments made regarding clarifying the paragraph expectations and I know this was mentioned briefly in the previous discussion. Um but whether there should be a specific number of paragraphs expected
at each grade level um that should be clarified specifically in the writing standards for grade four. It's mentioned quite a bit. Um there was also emphasis on how certain standards may be better aligned to different grade levels. um and should be moved to upper grades
as appropriate. And um this wasn't really specific to any grade, but I listed some examples where it was um mentioned the most. And then respondents suggested um adding phrases like with prompting and support
or with guidance and support um to the K1 standards when it's appropriate. And then lastly, they did emphasize um um foundational phonics instruction um
being included before grade three and then providing a high frequency word list for each grade level. Any surprises or questions on this before I go to grade six through eight?
Um no s no questions. Uh, I am surprised by grade three, but when I think about um the um legislation about students in grade three possibly being held back um in all of all of that discussion, I think it
makes sense and so it's interesting just to see that kind of reflected then in the surveys. Thank you. All right, I'll do the same thing now for grades six through eight. Uh as displayed in the graph, we have
5,491 total responses for the grade 6 through8 standards. Uh 79% selected um the standard should be kept as is. 11% selected the standard should
be changed. 3% should be moved and then 77% of the responses suggested the standard uh standard should be removed. No surprise here again 80% of the total responses came from teachers followed by parent or guardian and
community members. Similar to the K through five, we identified common themes. Um these are also in your report in the introduction section. But overall the standards for grades eight received the most um comments and feedback overall while grades six and seven had fewer. but
similar number of um with similar amounts for comments. Um some standards were described as too vague and too um directive from um a teacher's perspective rather than student focused
learning goals um which was a was mentioned across all three grades. However, I highlighted specific um standards that it was mentioned. Uh respondents reported that grade 8 reading information, informational text
standards may need to be simplified and they make references to how multimedia um should be evaluated for age appropriateness um particularly in reading literature. Uh they also mentioned how certain
standards may be better suited for higher grade levels such as those involving um argument argumentative writing, speaking and listening and analysis of author's choices.
And there were several comments um that per that recommended providing a list of appropriate roots and affixes for each grade level to support consistent vocabulary development. And then lastly, um when specifying the
number of paragraphs required, again, similar to K5, um those expectations should be clearly defined and then consistent across grade levels. Any comments or questions on these themes?
All right, same thing for grades 9 through 12. We received um just under 4,000 responses. 83% uh selected keep for these um standards. 7%
of the responses selected change, 2% move, 8% remove. Again, 71% represent um came from teachers. little bit different than the previous groups. We had 6% come from district
administrators and 5% come from parent or guardian and then there was 7% from post-secary educators. The common themes um similar to the other reports, the standards for grades 9 through 10 received the largest number
of comments and feedback while creative writing and entomology and linguistics received the limit received limited input. Um some standards um should be realigned to more appropriate grade levels. Um, in
particular, they mentioned word choice analysis and research writing or move to lower grades such as English conventions and narrative writing. They flagged several standards as being too vague or unclear with recommendations to either revise or
split them up for clarity. And I identified the areas in um for those standards. And then respondents also emphasized the need for stronger um writing and research standards especially in argument argumentative and analytical
writing. And then they had um they emphasized the need for clear vertical progression from grades 9 through 12 to ensure grower complexity and rigor in reading in particular.
Any questions on that? I don't have a question on 912 specifically. I've got a question on whether or not that the these survey results were shared with the groups who just reported to us while they were in
the process of doing their revisions. Hi Chair, can I guess I can jump in if that's appropriate? Yep. Yes, please. Um, I believe I sent them upon request I might have sent to be perfectly transparent. I believe I sent them a draft before Jackie and her team had a
chance to finalize it, but I can double check on that. I don't know. Tammy, are you still on the call? I think they might have jumped to confirm that. Or or any of you chairs, uh, do you recall using the information contained in this
survey as part of your deliberations? Oh, great question, Chair Grena. So they did get um so the way the flow of standards review um generally goes is that public survey one occurs and then the EAT met which you just heard from
the chairs earlier today. They absolutely use survey one um and that was part of their prep work similar to y'all. Um in terms of public survey 2, I believe they received a draft of it. Um but I will double check that they received a draft and confirm if they received the final, but it was not um
required as part of prep for their presentation. But a great question. Thank you. So the public has public public has had ample opportunity for their input. Derek Rene, I guess if I can chime in. Um just to clarify too on on what you're
seeing now, this is public feedback that is in response to what that educator advisory team produced. Okay. Thank you. Great point, Michael. I have a clarify. Sorry. I'll just I'll add one more thing
to that. So, just to kind of thread that needle. So, this is really for for you all to to determine whether uh you want to do anything with it, I suppose, or I shouldn't say if, determine what you would like to to do with it.
Okay. So, uh, yeah, I thought that this was and it was in my in my own head that it was the commentary based upon the existing standards, not on the revisions
that that came from the ELA. That was the first survey. So, the the beginning of this presentation focused on that what you just described. this uh now focuses on the public responses um
or feedback on the draft standards. Okay, I've got to straighten my head. I hope I didn't uh interrupt. I'll tell you what, it number one, it's confusing. Number two, we get a ton of public feedback, so it's you know, it is it can be confusing.
Okay, thank you. Vice Chair Hillyard, did you have a question? Yes, I just had a quick clarifying question about the final bullet point on this slide. Um, when it says clear vertical progression from grades 910 uh 912, does that mean progression from the
910 standards to the 1112 standards or does that mean progression from the 68 standards to the 912 standards? I think this one was within the 912. Are there any further questions? Okay, Jackie, do you have any more to your presentation?
No, I just wanted to say thank you and yeah, thank you for having me and on behalf of Chuck, thanks as well or if he's here. Let me know if any questions come up. Okay, we thank you Jackie for your presentation
uh and Chuck and it was very revealing. So, uh it was good to see how this process works throughout the state of Tennessee. I think it's time now we take a little break and uh if we're if we're
good on time uh I think it would be good to reconvene at like 12:15. What do you say there uh Brianna that would give us a half an hour? She gives us thumbs up. So let's all get back at 12:15. Uh I
think we got to keep ourselves on. We may want to turn the camera off if we got to cook or something. But, uh, we'll all get back and if you're if anybody's on early, we could, uh, have a chorus or something. Uh, and we'll be ready to
rock at 12:15. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Kas. Quick note, the live stream is active and running, so you know, if Cher Canus, if you'd like to pull out the banjo, now's the time. No, I'm kidding. Um, just know that if your camera's on, your audio is on, the
the friends at home can hear you. So, I will turn my camera off and my audio off, but you're welcome to call me if you need anything members or staff. Thank you. Okay, it is now 12:15. Uh, do we have to recall for uh our
quorum or are we just reconvening? Okay, so we're going to reconvene and we're going to hear from the Department of Education. take it away. Thank you. Good afternoon. Uh my name is Christy Wall. I serve the department um
out of the office of academics as the assistant commissioner. Um wanted to welcome you all to this afternoon's session. You see several friendly faces on this call supporting uh the work of the standards revision uh committee and
um you'll hear from several of them this afternoon to try and support this process. Just wanted to give a quick introduction and overview before they jump into the content to share across this committee. uh really the standards revision and and the support that we're
providing is fundamental uh to the work that impacts all students across the state of Tennessee. So really the standards are what drives um and initiates the cycle for instructional materials to be considered when they're reviewed at the state level and then
also further considered at local levels for uh adoption. Also, it the standards that you all are working on revising and making recommendations to also tie very closely into our statewide assessment and accountability system. And so just
want to um acknowledge the hard work that this committee has put into the review process and recommendations and considering all of the different aspects and perspectives represented um on this call and as a part of this work because
it is crucially uh important to our continued success uh that we're seeing across the state in literacy. And so we're anxious to uh provide some support and context um from the department's uh side and perspective across our uh two
literacy teams. We have uh Michael Bradburn who is on the call uh that will lead um you all through a bit of information um from the secondary literacy landscape and then we also have Donna Shopee who is a senior director over early literacy focusing more so in
the grade space of uh K through five. So, with that, um, I'll transition, uh, the slide deck and the content and information to be shared over to Michael and Donna. Thank you, Christie. Thank you for being here. Uh, and we just want to say thank
you to Stateboard for giving us an opportunity to talk to you all uh, doing this really important work. And so, um, as Christie shared, Donna and I are going to get a chance to talk with you for for just a bit, but then also each of the members, uh, from our teams are going to get an opportunity to talk
about their specific grade bands and just share a little bit of information that we've collected and we're going to talk about how that information was collected with you all as we go throughout our presentation. We are also going to leave time at the end. I don't think we'll need the entire 45 minutes for our slides and so we should have
some additional time besides the 15 minutes set aside. So if you have questions you're more than welcome to write those down or put them into the chat and we will you know take care of them as we can or at the very end when we get the opportunity to do that. I'll also share that each of the members of our team they can just introduce
themselves and the specific uh grades that they support as they are sharing their different sections. So, we are going to walk through um a few things. First, there is an AI tool disclaimer that we do not allow those to be utilized. Um and so you you may have
already seen that before. Um and then for our agenda, I'm going to get a chance to talk with you a little bit about collective feedback that we've received from our stakeholders and and define what a stakeholder is and how we collected that information just to give you that overview. And then Donna is going to get an opportunity to talk
about the ELA standards sort of in a holistic approach. I talk to you just about some of those overarching goals of the standards and then you're going to get to hear from each of the specific managers of the grade bands and they're going to share some information that we collected. Um, and then also just talk
to you about that supporting document because all of the information that they're sharing on these slides or additional information that was collected is in your u it's in the content that you were supplied by state board. So you can have that and access that during your work next week. then
we're going to have an opportunity for those questions like we had spoken about. So that's going to get us through the 45 minutes or so. Um but what we wanted to share with you is that you know when we get feedback this feedback is from a lot of different places. And so as Christie mentioned the department
supports state board through this revision process you know as as requested and needed. And so, you know, we are always thankful for the opportunity to get to talk about standards with a group of people who care about standards uh because they are listening and they they know how these impact students. And so, we are thankful
for the opportunity to get to work alongside of state board and you all as we are doing this. But then we're also here for any content specific questions that the committee may have. And so, as you all are working next week, we are going to you have two members of our team there almost every single day. Yay.
So, so that way Yeah. Great. So that way you have someone there, you know, on the ground. They, and again, they are specific to a gradeban, but they have, you know, direct access to the individuals on our team. And so we will be there to support you all as questions come up in terms of that content
specific um information that you would like to get um as you're thinking about all of the standards and the revisions. Um and then the another important piece of the puzzle is once these standards are approved, our work is to help with the implementation of those. And so that, you know, comes with the
development of resources. We already have standards guides that will need to be updated. Um, and then the other tools that teachers will really use to be able to benefit students in the classroom. And so that partnership is what we are looking at through this process, but also as the standards are approved, how
they're going to be implemented and utilized through those resources. Um, and so then when we're thinking about what this how we collected this feedback, so as we are thinking about the information that we're going to share, this is just a summary of all the feedback that we've received from teachers, district leaders,
stakeholders, and then other invested individuals um that are looking at the instruction across the state. And so, you know, the the feedback that we've received, we've collected, we've created that document that you're going to utilize next week as you are making the decisions about the revisions. And then
also you have that opportunity if you have any questions about that um about that specific feedback. So when we're thinking about stakeholders and who is involved you know who who reached out to us and so you know the stakeholders are anyone that has interest in this process or in you know Tennessee instructions
instruction in Tennessee. And so we know that we get outreach from lots of people. So we we get emails we get calls um and then we are fortunate enough to be in schools through learning walks or also you know we have convenings across the state. And so a lot of time during those you know people just share
information with us. And so when they share with us we try to collect that especially when a process like this is happening. And so you know the obvious stakeholders that we would work alongside would be those directors of schools the instructional supervisors leaders within the buildings teachers and instructional coaches. And so as
we've got feedback again thinking about that the whole group of stakeholders all of that has been collected in that summary sheet like I mentioned before. So hopefully you'll notice that there are different perspectives. Um, and you know, we wanted to make sure that you had that uh there. And so, one of the
things that we also did was we've sort of themed out, if you will, the information that we've collected. And so, what we've noticed from those stakeholder groups that we were mentioning is we've seen some themes there. And so, when we are talking with educators um that are invested in this process, we
we hear three things really. The first thing that we hear would be that they would like to see more clarity in the standards. And so hopefully as you're going throughout the process, you'll be able to see where the suggested revisions were and how that would be helpful. We also um have questions and
get feedback on the progression of the standard specifically as they progress from K12 and also as they progress within a grade band for that cohesion. So we're thinking about the cohesion across grades across grades but also within a grade as they're progressing in
skills. when we're thinking about the collective feedback from our parents and students, um I think one of the biggest things that we hear is like we just want to know what our students need and what are they required to learn. So again, I think that speaks to that clarity point.
Um and so that's what they want to know is, you know, what do the the students need to know and what are they going to be able to do at the end of each grade level. Um and then the last piece of the puzzle from that stakeholder group in a summary is that community member feedback is this. They often ask a lot of questions about why students are
required to learn specific things at specific times, which I think goes back to that progression piece that we've spoken about. So, when you're looking through the document and when our content managers share information, you'll notice that some of those words are called out because the feedback that
we've received fits under one of those buckets. So, that was just a general kind of topic about how we've collected that feedback and about that document that you've shared. And so I'm going to turn it over to Donna now and she's going to talk to you a little bit about our ELA standards.
Chris said I'm Donna. Donna, we can't hear you now. Yeah. Can uh do you have a It's quiet. Yeah. Do you have a uh Okay. Cherniggas, if I'm Is that better? Don, Donnie, you're still pretty quiet
on my end, although I'm in my AirPods. You might already know this, but one thing I found that is helpful on when you see the mute button to the right of it, there's a carrot and I know that sometimes like I have it accidentally connected to my laptop or all that. Yes.
Okay, I found the volume button. There we go. Amazing. There we go. Well, good afternoon, guys. Um, I'm Donna Shopee, senior director of early literacy. Really happy to be here today to partner with you guys um about the ELA standards. Um, so I'm just going
to give a quick overview. It's maybe things that you already know just so that we can set the groundwork in what what was previously done before. So currently all the ELA standards from K12 are placed in one document with a table
of contents at the beginning. The introduction provides important information about the standards design and there's also information there about coding and terms that are listed throughout. So before each section of standards, there's also an introduction
with important information about that particular set of standards. That might include research or background information and those are helpful for educators to know and understand about each area of instruction. So by presenting the standards in a vertical
format rather than by grade, the document emphasizes how skills for reading, writing, speaking and listening and language all spiral together through the grade levels and how each grade level is a progression of learning all leading to postsecary and workforce
ready students. So grades K through five really lay that solid foundation for strong readers and writers. And then 6 through 8 really solidifies that foundation and then increases the complexity of text and tasks. And then
grades 9 through 12 focus on all of those things and sophistication and style. So with the progressional layout of the standards, it encourages educators to review the standards of the grade level before and the grade level
after to better understand how their grade level fits into the overall standard development. The standard guides and other resources are also meant to clarify and provide educators with implementation support with the standards.
Okay. Yeah, there you go. We're going to talk a little bit about the instructional shifts. So, the overall goal that we have for ELA standards is for students to become proficient readers and writers. That's what we all want. The instructional shifts focus on
the key components to build those strong readers and writers. So regular practice with complex text and academic vocabulary, reading and writing grounded in evidence from literary and informational text, and then the opportunity for students to build
knowledge through those texts. So the instructional shifts are intended to ensure that post-secary and workforce readiness for all students once they graduate. And there's a real strong emphasis on the skills necessary for reading, writing, speaking and listening
and language. And all of those spiral together throughout the grade levels. And then the cornerstone standards are really the foundation for being postsecary and workforce ready. So the standards are really carefully constructed to ensure that there's a progression of skills and expectations
that all stem from that cornerstone standard with all of the grade levels. you can go. Thank you. So based on the feedback that we get, like Michael said, most of the revisions are going to fit into three categories. Clarification, progression,
and coherence. So for clarification, you may want to review the standards to ensure that they reflect the intended learning outcome and then ensure that the language within those standards are clear and concise. For a progression, it might be helpful to review the standards
to ensure there are no gaps in learning or any duplicate learning that could be combined throughout grade levels. And then for coherence, it might be important to review the standards to ensure that they reflect developmentally appropriate expectations and that that
progression of learning that I spoke about earlier is clear. I will note here we do get some feedback from educators that standards are too rigorous for some students. So in this case, we often recommend they lean in on their high-quality instructional materials,
use their access points and scaffold techniques to create an individualized learning opportunity for students um who struggle with those grade level standards. Good to go to the next one.
Um, there should be one more. Can you go back to slide 12? Yeah. Yeah, you might have been on that standard, I'm sorry. Or on that slide, sorry. Um, so while reviewing, it might be helpful to consider some questions
just to guide your thinking as you think through them. So, in these three buckets of clarification, progression, and coherence, um you may want to ask for clarification. Can the standard be understood by all teachers? If you're a new teacher, if you've been teaching for
a while, can everyone understand what it's trying to convey? Um, or should you adjust the language a bit so that it can be more clear? For progression, you might want to ask if the standard supports the development of standards
for future learning. Like, is this truly a progression of standards that all build upon each other? And then for coherence, you might want to ask if the standard builds upon the learning of that grade level. If the standards for that grade level are taught, do the standards create a real coherent
learning experience for the student as as he or she goes to the next grade level? So the department created standards guides to help in these areas um due to some feedback that we got um misunderstanding in about the standards. So while the standards guides can always
be useful to norm on any standards and will be revised with new standards as we go um these questions might be useful in guiding the revision process now to eliminate any misunderstanding or misalignment with implementing the standards during instruction.
And I think I'm gonna kick it off to the rest of the team. Thank you guys. Thank you, Donna. Hi everyone. My name is Gabernell Banks and I also support the um early literacy team. And so I'm just going to talk today about uh some of the K through
five well K2 um feedback that we have received. And um one thing is to consider the phrases and vocabulary used within the standard. really asking um is the language clear? Does uh this reflect the intended skill or concept? So
looking at are there some opportunities to revise the entire standard like like for example substituting vague or inconsistent phrases uh with more precise language or replacing words or uh verbs that are there um so that the
uh standard can be sharpened and the expectations are better communicated. Um, also pay close attention to verb choice. Um, specific verbs help clarify what students are expected to do and they support um consistent um
interpretation of those standards across classrooms in different schools, different um buildings, different districts. So looking at that and when you think about um vertical alignment um that just means ensuring that the content and skills build across from one
grade level to the next. And so consider how wording and vocabulary uh changes or stays the same across grade bands. And really thinking about um are consistent terms being used um as they as those standards grow in complexity and even
thinking about do phrases reflect um the increasing depth of student progress? And so here is some specific feedback that um has been received for the K2 um standards. And so um those include clarity of word choice again vertical
alignment and more clarity of word choice. And so even looking at specific standards um for a um reading literature standard. Um, one of some of the feedback says, uh, just wanted to flag that we will still have the retail for
grades K through one versus recount grades two through three um, language in place. Is this clear enough for teachers to understand the difference? Um, one um, statement says, flagging that grades K through 5, 6 through 8, and 912 all
have formulations of this standard but are not well aligned. Please consider tighter vertical alignment for K through 12. And then again, word choice. Is the wording of the revised standard clear enough? Is the student supposed to identify the main idea of the text and
the focus of specific paragraphs in the text? If so, consider making the wording a bit clearer. In its current form, it seems as if students are doing one thing in one type of text and another thing in a multiparagraph text.
And I'm Kim Resnichek. I'm the senior manager of early literacy on Donna's team as well. And I'll be talking through the third through fifth grade um band examples. And so this first one, the cornerstone revision, it's a little bit long, a little bit tricky. So I'll talk through it. Um it's now the SL2
cornerstone, but it had been SL2 and SL3 and it was combined. um through that combination it now limits the students task and um the feedback is asking to potentially separate it to consider separating it. So SL3 was about oral
arguments um SL2 was dealing withformational text and now that it's combined it's only dealing with arguments and it kind of left out theformational text. So that's why the feedback is to consider separating it with that second row. that's really about capturing the intent of the
standard and that's for fourth and fifth grade. Um so the revised wording changes the intent from adapting speech to different context to only using English grammar and so um some of the feedback was to consider adding a qualifier and
the wording in that example is speak in a manner appropriate to audience and purpose and when indicated or appropriate that's the qualifier use academic English grammar. That way, it's not saying only use academic English grammar. And then finally, that third row,
clarity of word choice. Um, just like we've seen in some other examples, it says, "Please consider changing the word perspective to point of view since it concerns narration." And so, point of view would be more appropriate in that case. So, those are some examples for third through fifth, and now we'll move on to 6 through 12.
Hi everyone, I'm Banks Lions. I'm the manager for grades 9 through 12 ELA. I will actually be with you in person next week um at the Tennessee Tower. So definitely looking forward to that. As far as the kind of summarizing the feedback for grades 6 through 12, you'll
definitely see some similarities to what Gabernell and Kim talked about in K5 in terms of broadly speaking like buckets of feedback. And the first piece of that would again to be really focusing on that vertical alignment piece because
especially when you get up into grades six through 12, it is very critical that the wording of the standard and like you know individual phrasing and so forth really does align very well with what is happening in K through five because obviously we don't want a student doing
one thing in the lower grades with a given standard and then once they get into the upper grades there's some misalignment, right? or or or confusion etc. And so it's just really paying attention to the wording, phrasing, nuances, etc. Um and then again very
similarly that second bucket there where it talks about considering the phrases and the vocabulary within the progression. Um it's very much it it can come down to you know the substitution of a given word or a given phrase or um whatever phrase might have been added in
the proposed standard revision may cause a little more confusion. So maybe it needs tweaking or something like that. So all of those things are things to consider um you know when looking at um when looking at the revisions and so forth and that's part of the uh feedback
that we're getting. And then finally there that final bucket that to consider how some proposed revisions may lead to ambiguity or confusion there. It's one of those things where you know uh when you're trying to make something clearer sometimes you can not anticipate that you created a a new problem. It's a
little bit of a whack-a-mole kind of thing, right? You might fix one thing, but there might be a new confusion that comes up that needs to be considered um when looking at the proposed revision. So, uh those are the big buckets. I'm going to uh move it over to my colleague
Lena Thomas for uh grades 6 through 8 and then I'll come back and talk about 9 through 12. Good afternoon everyone. I'm Lena Thomas. I um primarily work with grades 5 through 8. Um but I'm always happy to assist with any grade level. Um so this
is some of the six through eight um grade band examples. Um some of the summary feedback around reframing the standards to be more clearly focused on instruction. So these stand the writing standards in particular these standards seem to be written as if they are geared
towards TCAP assessment instead of instruction. Consider that students should not always be writing to a prompt or only writing two paragraphs. That significantly lowers the rigor and changes the nature of whatformational writing is about. Consider aligning
language with K5 and 912 um as otherwise students will not be prepared for high school or postsecary rigor. And that really speaks to um what Donna was saying earlier about having students be prepared for um post-secary
opportunities andor the workforce. Um vertical alignment in content and skills across gray bands. The revisions to this standard um change the intent of the original standard. Um, please consider that the standard originally
pertained to figurative languages figurative language, excuse me, and nuances in word meaning. Specifically, students were um to be able to explain the function of them and use them correctly and and effectively. Um, the revision changes the standard to be
essentially the same as the new um vocabulary standard. Determine the meaning of unknown and multiple meaning word phrases. Um, please consider that it would be helpful for those standards to be clearly distinguishable and support vertical alignment with grades 9
through 12. And then lastly, the revision of phrases and vocabulary within individual standards to provide clarity and vertical pro progression. Um, consider reining the words the wording to analyze how the placement of
of a particular sentence, paragraph, or stanza fits into the overall structure and contributes to the development of theme or plot. Adding the phrase the placement of helps to clarify the difference between this standard and
reading um literature standard 3. Adding the phrase and contributes to the development of theme of or plot highlights the why piece. Students are analyzing the relationship of structure to the text meaning
I pass it back over to Banks. So the first example in grades 9 through 12 actually is not unique to grades 9 through 12. applies to the cornerstone standard uh for reading standard five. Right? So uh the cornerstone is the
umbrella standard that really captures the heart or the essence of a given standard and then you have the individual steps that a student needs to do with that standard in each grade level. So for K through 12, this particular piece of feedback here is
saying to consider um revising the wording of the cornerstone standard in grades 6 through 12 to look like it does in K through 5, which it it really has to, right? The cornerstone needs to have the same wording for K through 12. It's just currently the proposed revisions
have one wording for K5 and 6 through 12. And this particular feedback is saying, hey, maybe the feed uh maybe the wording of K5 is better and uh or they preferred that over the 6 through 12. And to kind of analyze and negotiate um
those differences. And then the second uh type of feedback here is the clarity of phrasing within individual standards. So this is reading literature standard 9 uh in grades 9 through 12. when the feedback is to cons to consider changing the wording of the standard to analyze
thematically related texts in order to compare the approaches each author takes and then to evaluate the significance of each each approach. And the feedback specifically there is that this is closer to the intent of the cornerstone standard which is to compare the
approach each author of each uh text that the student is looking at takes. And then the final um example of feedback would be to um to provide clarity between overlapping standards. So kind of a famous uh overlap at least
as far as ELA goes is readingformational standard 3 and readingformational standard 5. And so the feedback provided here is to consider changing the wording of uh or the wording of uh readingformational standard 32. The the
following phrasing analyze how an author's choices regarding the introduction and development of ideas and connections among ideas impact overall meaning or support author's purpose. And so the the feedback there is to remove the phrase the ordering of ideas and events because that'll help
clarify the difference between this particular standard and the overlapping standard of readingformational standard 5. So these just provide some examples that as you can see that once it gets up into those upper grades, uh the complexity of kind of parsing out some
of those wording and phrases and overlaps and that sort of thing is really crucial to help support teachers in understanding um exactly what they need to get students to be able to do. So that's it.
Thank you all for sharing. Um and so I'm trying to There we go. So now that that's we just gave you a lot of information about a lot of things and so it is and I'm sure that you have a lot of things to think about. Um but you know we we just wanted to take this
opportunity to be able to talk with you about where this feedback came from from those different stakeholders. Give a little bit of the overarching understanding of the the components of the standards. I think most everyone on the call is familiar with the standards and implementing them or using them in
your uh current or previous um roles. Um and then each of our grade level managers, you know, took the time to be able to talk through some of the specific examples. I will flag that those examples along with several others are on that document that we had referenced previously from the
department where we just tried to collect any information that we've received from those stakeholders in order to give you another resource as you are making the decisions about the revisions to the standards. So in terms of content that is all that we have to
share with you all now. So, if it's okay, we will move directly into sort of the Q&A portion. Um, and then our team will help provide any clarity that we can. Thank you, Michael. Uh, I I would like
to ask a question. Um would uh was the uh survey or the feedback based upon reactions to the original standards or to revisions that have been made by this group that just talked to us?
Yeah, I will I will start and if anybody wants to chime in that would that would be helpful. So th this feedback was on based on the the revised standards that were given for public feedback again. So not on the current set of standards but
the proposed revisions that the the educator advisory team completed and then that public feedback. So we we got that feedback and then we also heard from stakeholders about that as well. So this feedback would be specifically around the current revised version that
you're looking at. Okay. So, they want us to make even more changes. Well, based on that feedback, they definitely have some questions about um some of the specific revisions that were proposed. Okay. Thank you, Michael. Chair Giggus.
Yes, Miss Brianna. Um Michael Brown is absolutely correct. Um one thing just if it's helpful for context to look under the hood, we ordered these presentations in such a way that they're in chronological order. So, the EAT and STC presented to you first this morning. so
you could see the work that they've done thus far. Then chronologically, we held a public survey that Jackie spoke to to get feedback on the revisions that were made thus far. And the reason why um TDO so briefly went second to last is because, you know, they took both
components into consideration. Thank you. All right. So, this is a Q&A uh portion. Who else has questions? Yes. Uh, co-chair Billyard.
Thank you. Um, a couple questions. First of all, just wanted to start off by thanking you. Um, I spent a lot of time the last few days looking over the the TOE TDOE um, written feedback. It's very extensive. It's very detailed. Um, and very focused on on specific uh, edits and and I appreciate that. It's it's
very helpful in guiding the work that we do. Um I I noticed there's a particular focus on the standards language themselves. Um there is some response to the supporting uh language. Um but it
seems a little less um frequent. Um is does that represent that the supporting language is largely met with with support? Um or is that the result of of just a focus on the the language of the standards themselves?
like to address that. So I I just want to make sure that I understand your your question. Can you tell me a little bit more about So in a lot of the feedback that we were receiving is around, you know, ensuring that teachers know with specificity
what they're supposed to be doing, you know, to teach their students, right? Because the standards drive that. so they can understand what they need to teach them. And so when you're saying supporting standards, will you tell me a little bit more about clarify not supporting standards? Uh the supporting language around the standards. So like
the introduction to the document, the the glossery, those other materials. There's certainly feedback present there, especially in the glossery and a decent amount of feedback. Um but I did notice there were pretty substantial changes to some of the introductory language and I didn't see quite as much like line editing on that as I did on
the standards themselves. I just wanted to get a sense if that was the result of of an emphasis on the standards pri prioritized over the supporting language or if that was just because the supporting language was met with support by your team.
Thank you for clarifying that. That was that was really helpful. I think you probably saw all of our heads being like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah." Um and so I could start the conversation and then I think if anyone else wants to pick up, I think that would be really helpful. And so I think that it really depends on the role within the district where um
the the the questions if you will around th those other supplementary kind of conversations within the documents are. Um we have found that you know a lot of times leaders and administrators um and coaches use some of that introductory language or some of those other pieces
of the puzzle the research or the glossery or things like that as they are supporting teachers within the classroom because I think that teachers oftentimes you know get the standards look at the standards we're ready to teach the standards let's jump in and and do that and so a lot of that other information
um that that support as you will um helps identify or clarify as they are digging into that understanding. Anybody want to jump into that? Michael, I'm happy just to contribute a bit uh further context to the
conversation. Um Mr. Hillyard, when um our team engaged with the EAT committee, there was a lot of discussion um around um the essential functions of the supporting information that's included in those standard documents. um for our
more uh tenured and experienced teachers that were uh represented across that um committee. They felt that you know some of that explanation and some of the framing and the context that was provided in those supporting tools was a lot which created a a much longer
standards document um and a lot more content to work through. However, in some pretty thorough deliberation and explanations around, you know, why some of those pieces are are critical and essential for all of our educators to access the standards um and be able to
internalize and interpret those in a in a common manner, particularly for our newer and more novice teachers um that are brand new to the field that um you know may be coming into a school setting and a system you know um well into an
implement mentation phase. Um we felt like that information was really important to keep intact. And so therefore, you know, with collaboration and communication in those areas, it seemed as though, you know, that committee wanted to spend um quite a bit
more time working on the red lines of the standards and the recommendations on this the standards and the language um with specificity to word choice um and phrasing and context rather than the supporting documentation and kind of
explanations that embody um the standards within those documents. So, I'm hopeful that that information and context is helpful in terms of the prior discussions and and conversations and collaborations that have happened.
Thank you, Christie. Uh that uh the comments on that particular section rang true with me uh as trying to prepare young teachers right now at MTSU. Uh but
is that part of our Bailey Wick? are our responsibility to do these introductory areas. I thought we were supposed to just review the standards. Maybe you can clarify that Rihanna. What is the extent of our responsibility here? Thank you, Chair Kagas. I'm happy to
help. Um I would say the you know, last I checked on the current standards like 100 plus page document is the the scope and the focus of this committee, right? We know that our um department experts play an incredible role with professional development, coaching, um standards, guides, all of those things.
But your charge is anything in those 100 pages. Okay? Um and you're welcome, you know, to to weigh the evidence from the different sources that you've heard from today and your personal experience on what you think is best for educators. Thank you. Are there any more questions for TDOE?
Well, hearing none, then uh we thank you for your participation and look forward to your continuing participation next week with us. We're going to need to hold your hand through all of this. And now we'd like to hear from Mrs. Summers. Would you go through your
presentation, please? Thank you, Chair Kagas, and thank you, Department of Education. Um they have been incredible partners walking alongside us each and every step. Um, Banks, Kim, Michael, Donna, the whole the whole gang is well loved by our previous committee. So, we're lucky to
get to work with them. Okay, I'm going to share the screen. See, I'm going to swap. Okay. Can you see the just regular slides, not in presenter mode, Chair Carnegus?
Yes. Okay. Wonderful. So again, thank you to our presenters for coming and sharing their expertise today. Um, for those who are tuning in live who don't know me, I'm Brianna Summers. I'm the director of policy and academics here at this Tennessee State Board of Education. Members, I
appreciate your engagement. I know not one, not two, not three, but four presentations. Um, so I appreciate you you sticking with us and thank you in advance for all the hard work that you're going to do next week to make sure that our standards are high quality and rigorous for the next generation of
Tennessans. Uh, I think Dr. Stout said it best when she said she was nerding out. I just want to say this morning I was blown away by the depth and quality of questions that committee members were asking. I am going to sleep very soundly tonight knowing that our standards are in good hands. Members, we've mentioned
this briefly, but all of your resources from today, particularly the ones that um, Michael Bradburn spoke to, they're all in your drive folder. If there's anything you're you're hunting down, you can't find it, you let me know. Um, and members, I put this in the chat. I didn't want to disturb the committee meeting any more than I already have.
But please send me any questions that you have via chat, email, phone, text, whatever you need. Send them to me. Um I have, like I said, a whole list running and I will send them to the appropriate expert, whether it's the department or the eat chairs, etc. Um both, you know,
in advance of the meeting if you'd like an answer, you know, Monday morning, Monday midday, that kind of thing. And also at any point you can, you know, like Michael mentioned, Banks and Kim will be there on site for any questions you have for the department and all three of your EAT chairs will be there
um on site to answer any questions you have. Know that they might need, you know, a few minutes to to collect a response, but they are there and at the ready for you the entire week. Scantron is available by email. They live in Minnesota, so we didn't want to drag them all the way down to Nashville, but they are available for any questions you
have. Okay. So, um we have an hour set aside, but we are doing great on time, so you'll bug me at any point if you have questions. But, um the three things I'd like to get done before we say goodbye before Monday. One, a schedule overview. Part
of your prep work was to review the logistics memo, but please let me know if you have any questions. I'm happy to get on the phone and go line by line if that's helpful. Two, go over some workday guidance, just some some nuts and bolts on how this is going to work next week. And then finally, as always, both during and
after, we'll have question and answer. Okay, schedule overview. So, essentially for the next couple slides, what I've done is go through your logistics memo and pull out individual items that we'll tackle. And my goal here for these next couple slides is to sort of give you an
idea of what to expect and how it's going to go. But you're in very good hands with chairus and vice chair Hillard. Okay. So the social studies um eat committees, your your predecessor predecessors gave feedback when I first started this job to, you know, give some
reflection periods um throughout our work days to make sure that we're we're staying on track. So each morning before um Cher Canus calls us to order and and does all of our fancy things. Um we'll have just some reflection time and those questions are on the logistics memo ready to go. We will also handle
housekeeping, things like that, group photos, reimbursements, etc. from different state board staff. Um, we'll go through those questions and ask for your engagement. I know it'll be at 8:30 in the morning, but you know, this was in response to feedback from your predecessors.
After that, I stop talking thankfully and I sit in the corner in case you need anything, but um, Chair Kigus and Vice Chair Hillard will will lead us fearlessly. But I am in the room and on call if you need literally anything. I mean down down down to an advil. I'm here for you. Um
from there your leadership team which or chairus and vice chair Hillard they will set your breaks right so if you have gone through a tough period and need to take a break that's at the discretion of the leadership team they will facilitate your pacing guide just as chairus has
done today. Uh and they will make any changes to the schedule as needed. But you know if particularly after member priority reflections we find that you know we want to spend two more hours on foundational literacy great that's at the discretion of the chair. If you're not sure who to direct your
question to at any point please come to me I will triage and do whatever we need to do to to get your question answered. Okay. Next. You've already begun voting and I'm very impressed. Um, but I will say more about voting on a future slide.
In terms of public comment, we have not currently had any folks sign up for public comment that I'm aware of since this meeting started. Um, and Rachel Sup, our general counsel, spoke to, you know, what it entails substantively, but operationally, it will be led by a member of the legal team, either Todd or
Rachel. And depending on who or if anyone signs up, that will determine how long the session is. It won't go over 45 minutes. I've tried to make sure that we have ample time, but in the event we don't need the full 45 minutes, your chair and vice chair will with feedback from the committee sort of determine
what's the best use of and highest use of that 45 minutes or a portion of it. Please know that just like folks are tuning in on our live stream, we got a couple friends here with us right now. Know that members of the public may be in person next week and we have had a
couple of folks RSVP. So, please be um ready for them. I just ask that you conduct your business professionally and as normally, just as you have on this call. Um, and if you have any questions or concerns, please come to me. Does that mean I have to wear a tie? Business casual.
Okay, good. You know, the the no tie look is more and more popular these days on, but yeah, everything you've done on this call is perfect. Just know that they'll be there. Let's see. Okay. Next, your leadership team will lead you through a team
building activity. We've found that, you know, communities who really take this seriously do do bond and become best friends. Just ask Kim and Banks, they know. Um, so your leadership team will lead you through that. It'll be a surprise. Oh. Oh, very. I don't even know what it
is. Members, I'm excited. Um, then Cher Krengus will facilitate our member priority sharing. I've gotten lots of good questions via email about it. But essentially, your doc is due today, sometime before you go to bed tonight, and you will share at least
three minute or no more than three minutes, excuse me, of a summary to share with your committee members. And just as you've done so beautifully today, be prepared to ask and answer questions. And like I said, it's fair game. Anything you've heard today that did or did not resonate, steal it. That was the
purpose of these presentations. Okay, this is where the real work begins. I promise I'll I'll quit bunding with logistics soon enough. It'll be about Monday at 11. But essentially this committee will go by strand as you saw in your logistics memo and cornerstone that you've heard a lot about today and
look at that K12 trajectory and ultimately any revisions need to be documented by vice chair Hillyard and I will speak to that in more depth in a future slide. Um, as we mentioned, there are section
introductions. Each strand and elective course has that introduction. I, you know, as Dr. Wall and Mr. Bradburn spoke, I, you know, make sure you take a look at it. Um, and I've set it in the agenda at the end so that, you know, let's say you look through foundational literacy. After
that would be a great time to look at the introduction while those standards are fresh on your mind. But you do have flex time on your agenda, which I'll get into in just a moment, where you could circle back just to make sure you know length is roughly consistent, voice is roughly consistent, all of that good stuff.
But please know your section will um be finalized by your leadership team. Okay. Next, we have flex time. And there's a block on Thursday, there's a large block on Friday. And that's just, you know, like I said, if we need to really dig into foundational literacy,
great. Let's do it. You know, you can move things or use flex time. Either one, depending on sort of the nature of the conversation. Hold on one second. I don't know. I don't think me one second. Yeah. Okay. Just like one moment
members, I'm sorry. Sorry friends, we are live in the office and people working. Okay, I appreciate your patience. Well, who do I need to write to for you to get the top floor corner office? You know, Dr. St. I would love to know, but if you figure it out, you let me know because I'm I'm just out here. You
know, I tell my co-workers. I'm just a busy bee. Um, but I appreciate you. Okay, where were we? Flex time. block on Thursday, block on Friday. Um, I recommend you go you, we'll talk about this in a moment, but you have something called a parking lot. And that's just, you know, again, if you're like, let's
put a pen in that, we're not sure. We want to sleep on it. We want to check on it later. You'll have a, you know, a to-do list, if you will, to circle back on those items. Let's see. Okay. Then you will go over um as we've mentioned the sort of
supporting language that vice chair Hillyard spoke to. You'll have multiple hours to look at the introduction, the appendix, the glossery and the references for any feedback that you have. Uh and we will do this via track changes and I will explain exactly what that
entails tomorrow and I'm available or later and I'm available for any questions. Okay. The last item, which is entirely optional and up to this committee, some of your predecessors in social studies and other subjects have drafted an
executive summary to sort of share their intent. Maybe to the general assembly who will review your standards, maybe to the state board who will vote on your standards, maybe to the public or educators. And I have provided an example in your drive folder of this last one we did for
social studies. Like I said, it's completely optional. Uh, but I do have some time set aside on the agenda to tackle that if that is of the interest of the committee. And again, you're noticing a theme, your LT will double check everything, cross the tees, dot the eyes, and and make
sure it's ready to go. Okay. Next piece. And um the Department of Education spoke to this beautifully as well, but and I will have this in your binders on at your seats when you see me on Monday, but these are some of the questions I recommend both asking yourself and asking other committee
members as we look through standards. And I think I've told most of you this. I do my very best not to share my personal opinion because I'm not an ELA expert and I'm a facilitator, but I just ask that you, you know, do what's best for Tennessee students. Uh and these questions could be helpful in in getting
to that end goal. So, first one, does the standard meaningfully prepare students for post-secary career and life in 2029? And shout out to some of our members during our onboarding calls. They immediately were like, AI, what are we going to do?
It was fantastic. I loved it. Um, and as you can tell in your prep work, there was an AI memo for your consideration. Next question. Does this standard rigorously prepare students for post-secary career and life in 2029?
You know, our responsibility at the state is to set the bar. And it's a hard job and it it's not always a fun job, but but that is sort of the state and you as a committee member of the state bear that responsibility as well. And I'm happy to talk through what that looks like.
Next, does the standard fit vertically? I.e. grade level and cornerstone. You've heard lots of feedback about vertical alignments. probably our biggest question in ELA and I, you know, just ask you to review. It's their smooth and increasing rigor from kindergarten to 12th grade, right? We're not asking
kindergarters to write essays and we're not asking 12th graders to learn how to read and and vice versa. Other thing I will point out in vertical progression, your predecessors have looked at this, but it's one thing that would be particularly helpful for this committee is to check the grades 56 sort
of continuum and the 89 continuum. And I know I have not one, not two, but maybe three folks on this call who currently or have taught fifth, 6th, 8th, or 9th grade. So, I'm very excited for y'all to lean in. But the idea there is just to make sure that when folks were in those subcommittees, we really just took a
look at that K12. Okay. Does the standard fit well horizontally? Folks have spoken to sort of moving things around within the different strands, and some of it's of course obvious, right? writing and essays and writing, but some of it's complicated
and your predecessors have made important decisions about potentially moving things across strains. So, I encourage you to look what would be most helpful and logical for teachers and students. Okay. Does the standard have the proper
level of detail for most educators to understand? And I believe was it Dr. Stout or someone asked this question about, you know, what's what's too much and what's not enough. And it's a hard question and I I trust you with this important decision. It's one of perhaps the most important that you'll make at this committee, but you know, I think
everyone on this call knows that you wouldn't want a standard to say, you know, read Tequila Mockingbird and reenact the play. So that you know, we know that's curriculum. We know that's instructional materials. That that feels obvious, right? Um my only advice that I would give is just know that all
educators have to use this document, right? Um, and we know that this document, like I said, this is in our locus of control. We trust our partners at the department deeply to work on rubrics and professional development and all of those things, but really focus on our 100page document. What's in our
locus of control? And what do most educators need to be successful? Okay. If in fact an answer to one of those questions were was no when you were looking at it, uh, you can always make a revision. Right? That's that's the whole goal of this committee. After
revising, some questions you can think about and these will be in your folder as well. Does this standard change meaningfully impact student learning and standards quality? Because ultimately that's our task. You know, we of course want to catch any
and all errors. Okay. Check. Can you still hear me? I can very well. What's up, Doc? You sound like you're having a good time there. Chair, can I just Can you hear me now? I can.
No. Hold on. How about now? Yes. Okay. I can't hear you. Oh, here we go. One more time. Cheeris. Yes. Yes. Perfect. Amazing. The AirPods died. We love it. Okay, so catching errors is
really important, right? We know our ELA educators are not going to take us seriously if we've got commas and periods and all things over the all over the place. But we also want to make sure that the changes we make are meaningful, right? There sometimes, you know, spending an hour discussing a word is meaningful and sometimes it might not be
our highest use of this committee. So I just ask you to think critically about when that is or when it isn't. Next, right, we know this is a 100 plus page document. I ask you to reflect on whether the sum of all of these changes are reasonable and feasible for
educators to implement. We of course wouldn't want to ask English teachers next year to, you know, write all of their essays upside down. Wouldn't be good for student quanting and and would be way too big of a change, right? We want to think about the zone of proximal
development for these educators and know that standards review is gradual and iterative. I don't expect you know us to get it right perfectly this time and know in 8 years it is a long time away but we you know this is not our last shot at getting this right.
Okay. From there, I recommend once you look at that standard change, double check horizontal alignment, double check vertical alignment, and double check supporting language. You'll probably notice that in some of the resources, they reference a specific standards
code. Some of your predecessors change to standards code, right? So, if you make that change, there's a waterfall effect. And I will help with that and your leadership team will help with it. But the more we can be thinking about that strategically, the more seamless and high quality our standards can be.
Last piece is around subject areas. We know our students are not just writers, they are historians, they are scientists and and the decisions that you make will impact, as Chair Carnegus spoke to nearly 1 million of Tennessee students and all of their subject areas and post-secary and career in life.
Okay, I'm going to pause for any questions. What questions do we have members? Uh I have a couple questions. The first was about mistakes. Uh I guess this is the formal journalist in me. Uh will the doc be professionally copy edited before
final publication or are we expected to do that work? Uh that's my first first question. And then the second one is about schedule. Are we gonna focus on like a specific set of standards per day like Monday is just K through three and
then Friday is just electives or something like that? Um so that we can spend the evening before taking a deep dive into a certain section. Love both of those questions. So the first answer is it's iterative across the process. What I ask is that y'all
take a look and do your best spelling and grammar and then your leadership team will take a look and then I will take a look and then our comm's officer Josh Walton who's on the call will take a look and hopefully we've captured everything. Um if the department of education wants to jump in on copy editing, you know, I will not say no. Um
for my copy editors and folks who like grammar as much as I do, but the hope is that we will have a multi-step process, but we are certainly not perfect. Um, for your second question, yes, on the logistics memo, there's a pacing guide. And so, for example, just so you can
think over the weekend, we will first tackle language and then we will tackle foundational literacy on Monday. So, if you really want to keep something fresh in your mind, those are the two I would recommend. And then from there, basically, we need to get two strands done a day is is the long and the short of it with some, you know, of course,
the supporting language. What other questions do we have members? Hi. Um, so I have a question about um, I guess our limitations and abilities as far as sharing information. Um, I'm definitely someone I guess I'm more of a
slow thinker than an on my feet thinker. So I like to marinate on things. Um, so four days has kind of um but I was wondering um are we able to to share notes between each other between each other at this point, ideas
that we have and are we able to see each other's priorities uh document ahead of time or is that all um private until Monday? Great questions, Annie. Our our general counsel is, you know, singing your praises as you speak right now for being in compliance. So, um, your second
question I'll answer first and remind me if I don't get back to your first one, but your second one is members, your priority reflection document is due before you go to bed tonight. Uh, and the idea there is that members could, if you want to, I, you know, I know I've given you plenty of reading, so I will not assign any more reading at this
time, but if you wanted to peek in the folder, you know, you could certainly peek in the folder. Chair Kaggus has already turned his as of last night. Um, so his is there and ready for you. So, I would say start there. In terms of notes, uh, I will say I hope you can read it.
It was good. I liked it. Um, so in terms of sharing resources, if there's something specific, Annie, like your wonderful document that I'm considering printing out because it's that good. Um, I can put stuff in a folder. Just two things. Know that it's public record and
know that it can't be deliberative. So if there's anything you want in the folder before Monday, just let me know. One piece of advice I will give from previous committees is feel free to use resources and other documents and I'll make folders and do all the things, but at the end of the day, Vice Chair
Hillyard will have the full and official record. And so everything needs to be in that one document so that I have one source of truth to copy edit and implement your feedback. So there is such a thing as too many documents is what we've learned short of it.
I have a follow-up question then. So I'm just going to give an example. So, like I said, I'm more of a marinator. So, um I went ahead on my on my document, my personal document, I wrote what the standard would look like as suggested by the Tennessee Department of Education.
And then next to that, I put what it would look like implementing the Tennessee Department of Education plus some survey feedback and a little bit of my own ideas. Are we able to share that or would that be considered deliberative? Do you mean over the weekend or during the meeting? over the weekend if
somebody wanted to. I am willing to make a folder of any resources and you send them to me and I will put it in the resource folder. I just ask that folks do not like so for example sharing that document I think would be okay. I can double check with our general counsel. What I'm pretty confident would not be okay is if like
you know Miss Wyers commented and was like actually I think we should make this decision as a result because then point A to point B would be deliberation. But I can that's a great question that I'd want to double check with our legal counsel on. Thank you. But once we're in the meeting and it's
all live, I mean that's that's that's what we're doing here. So, and I would also encourage you, Annie, uh the parking lot, which I'll speak to in a moment. If you want to marinate, you know, I encourage you to voice that need, advocate for yourself to the leadership team and say, "Hey, love this discussion. I need some time. Can we put
this on the parking lot?" That's what it's there for. Okay, let me keep us trucking, but we're doing great on time, so y'all stop me. Um, I much rather answer questions than hear myself talk. Okay, so as I mentioned, Vice Hillyard has the very
important task of recording all decisions and I'm talking with him. He's going to do great. I'm I'm very confident he will he will lead us thoughtfully here. Please, as we're having discussion, you know, of course, get into the nitty-gritty detail, but I just ask, you know, once you've reached a decision, please be clear, concise,
and patient because if you notice the spreadsheet, he's, you know, he is recording the official record of our meetings and what that standard will look like. You'll have access to the spreadsheet in your folder to follow along. and Busher Hillard, I don't want to totally speak for you, but I think he specifically would like you to follow
along at some point to sort of make sure that he's representing and and fully coalesing around all the ideas there. I just want to speak to that really fast. Um, yeah, I definitely um I I I'm taking this responsibility seriously and I want to make sure that what gets up
gets on this document is the representation of all of us, not just my interpretation of of what is being said. Um, so I I definitely want eyes on on what ends up in this document. Perfect. Thank you, Asher Hillard. So with that being said, I will have during
our welcome logistics reflection questions, one of them is please check the spreadsheet and let Lucas know if you have any thoughts. Again, I just ask that you know as much as possible, it's in our meetings live for the public to view. So in the event that it's deliberative, if that makes sense.
Okay, the parking lot. I keep calling it. Last group called it parking garage. up in a parking garage. Also, um this is the parking lot. It's it's a little empty, right? This is just the example because y'all are going to put things in it. Um but the screenshot before you Oh, one thing I want to say back here. Um so
what Vice Hillyard will be working on primarily are these columns. One is a suggested change like you know we want to change Xword to Yword so that it's very clear what we're doing. Then doing the standard. If you change X word to Y word, what would it look like to Annie's
point implemented there? Then it's the Y which vice chair Hillyard just spoke to, you know, um, Cher Kaggus is going to represent you in front of all the state board members just as the EAT chairs have this morning, sort of defend your work. So, you know, the more detailed and specific we can be, I'm sure he
might be grateful for that when he gives a presentation and, you know, 3 to six months down the road and things aren't fresh on your head. Okay, back to the parking lot. Same document, different tab of the spreadsheet. All this is is a to-do list, if you will, to use as helpful or
not. And all I ask is that um we put the standard code so that we're all clear on what needs to get done, what we're sort of debating, deciding, marinating on. This is the big question, you know, are you thinking about something that's just in reading or are you thinking about a change that's, you know, every single page of this document and any notes that
we need? And so during flex time, your chair and your vice chair will sort of guide you back here and say, "Okay, is there anything we need to handle here?" Or let's say, you know, you make a change in writing that impacts reading. Before you leave that second section, circle back and say, "Oh, now it's time
to deal with that." You know, as it makes sense for the group. But I will say your parking lot is is due by the time you walk out of the door Thursday afternoon. because I can tell you from our predecessors, you don't want to sit on this too long because then you forget sort of what you were thinking about and we'll have to
meet online and all that good stuff. So, this is part of your your exit ticket, if you will. Okay, you all have been killing parliamentary procedure. By the way, I have no concerns, but just so we're all on the same page, this is a record, a screenshot of a vote you actually took
on August 25th before you know we really got into it. Um and so this is what vice chair Hillyard is working from when he is taking the role and what um Chair Krenggas is when he's working on motions and things like that. So there's sort of two types of votes to be aware of. One is a roll call vote. That's all you've
done so far because we've been online and obviously it'd be very hard for all of us to sort of sing in unison present. That wouldn't be very helpful, right? So our online meetings are all roll call. Attendance is always roll call. And it's exactly what you've been doing. Great.
going forward when we're in person and you can see mouths moving and people talking and all the things we'll do something called a voice vote which just means we can all vote in unison on something very very low level you know like for example on Monday uh your leadership team will lead you through a vote on using the recording as minutes
again so that they don't have to take second by second minutes like we do for our board meetings and that will be a voice vote so you'll all just say I or no or whatever at the same time you've probably noticed that all motions require or all votes require a motion
and a second. So you'll see on this vote, Mr. Krenics made the motion and Miss Singleary made the second. And it's as simple as that. If you agree with the proposal or you'd like to move forward and just hear the discussion, you can motion or second. And it's as simple as
what I've kind of been doing. Like chair Kaggus, this is Britney Singleary. I second. Great. We're good. If the group reaches an impass, which you all seem like a collaborative bunch, but it may happen, you're welcome. Any member can propose voting to take an
action. There's a couple requirements. It does need to be a clear yes or no question. We couldn't say like, how do we want to revise the writing standards? We would want to say, we want to revi, you know, there's a proposal on the table to revise the writing standards as such. And I'm not saying you need like
every word and every comma, but it needs to be a clear research question, if you will. Uh, all you need is a simple majority to pass. So, you need five members and that's if anyone gets sick, that's if anyone, you know, falls off a cliff, five members. You go to the bathroom, five members. Um, all of that good
stuff. And your chair and your vice chair and I are here to answer any questions you have about parliamentary procedure. If you want to do something and you're not sure how, that's what we're here for. But this is exactly what, you know, the general assembly uses. That's exactly what the state board of education uses.
So, sort of a look behind the hood for for my government nerds. Okay. So, I mentioned the supporting documents um are going to require some massaging and some editing and this is exactly what your predecessors did. And in fact, this is a screenshot of actual work that your
predecessors did prior to sending this your way. But, uh for anything like our introductions, glossery, references, you know, it just doesn't fit in a spreadsheet, right? Because we're writing in long form. So, we will use Google Drive, Google Documents to do this. And I'm happy to go as in detail
as you would like if you've never used Google Docs before or not. I did put some resources in your folder like just very basic like how to Google Drive, how to Google Doc, how to Google Sheets, but essentially, you know, on what is it Thursday morning, I'm going to give you
a document and it's the glossery and folks will, you know, and I'm sure many of you have done this with writing writer workshops in your classrooms. This is probably old news, but you'll have the document open. Everyone will be there concurrently. We'll do a an online deliberation if you will. You're welcome to talk, of course, and you know, pause
and all of that good stuff. But the idea there is that you are, as it shows on the screen, you are in suggestion mode and you are literally rewriting what it might look like. So, for example, vice chair Mith Watkins, who's very lovely, she was on one of our previous committees, she looks like, you know,
maybe proposed to get rid of this glossy term because it wasn't needed. And she proposed adding this glossery term back. And I just ask that if you have any edit beyond grammar, spelling, you know, the basics, any substantive decision, you give me a quick comment of what it is
and why. And I'll tell you, the clearer you are, the the less copy editing we need to do to Dr. Stout's point. And also, Cher Kaneas can represent you well and I can implement your feedback because I will physically take this document and have the other document open. And I will say I very seriously
take implementing your feedback, good, good, bad or otherwise, right? Beyond, you know, fixing grammar, commas, I take, you know, this committee is charged with making the decision. So, I do my very best to not make any decisions on behalf of you. So, if your comments are not clear, I might have to
call and bug you. You know, Brianna, what did you mean by this? Michael, what did you mean by that? what's going on here. Okay, so you'll be in a Google doc. You'll be all there together. You'll comment. You'll track change. You'll discuss and your leadership team and I
will finalize sort of the the sum total of the comments. And of course, you know, if member A disagrees with member B, we'll need to for the most part sort all of that out before sending it off to your leadership team. Okay. All of those again, shocker, all
of those documents will be in your folder for you to use primarily Thursday. But also remember, so like if we look at the language standards on Monday and then you need to go into the introduction, we will go into a Google doc and start looking at the introduction. Almost done. We got two more slides. One
of them is questions. Okay, last slide. So just as a reminder, um all of your prep work was due this morning. That includes reading the logistics memo. I don't expect you to have it memorized, but just, you know, make sure you feel good with it. Your readings and your member reflection
doc, which is perhaps most important. Your member reflection doc, you can, like I said, text me, email me, call me, beat me, reach me, all the things. Just please get it to me before you go to bed tonight so that to Annie's point, members can look at it over the weekend if they would like to. And I will take a look at them over the weekend to make
sure scheduling is doing what it needs to do schedule-wise. You know, if all of you tell me that you're, you know, we need to blow up language standards, great. We're going to need to make changes to Monday schedule. Um, let's see. Okay. Please arrive for work days between 8 and 8:30. We are starting
promptly at 8:30. Members of the public may be there. So, rain or shine, we are starting. There are directions hopefully helpful turnbyturn directions. The building, I'm not going to lie, is confusing. It takes me a solid 20 minutes to get from the door to my chair
when I have to go there for meetings. So feel free to call Vicki. She will be there doing security and support getting lost all the things. Feel free to call me, Michael Derline, etc. They're all in your logistics memo, our phones, and our emails. Okay. And with that, those are all my
questions or those are all my slides. What questions do we have? members, presenters, staff, anybody have questions? Thank you, Miss Summers, for your presentation. Of course, I appreciate Oh, bearing with the AirPods. They just they don't
behave. They don't listen. Well, with no further business of the committee, I will adjourn this meeting and suggest that you spend the weekend easing your brain because it will
squeeze your brain next week. I look forward to working with you all. Meeting is adjourned.