Thread by @TracyNovick

The #MAEdu Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meets at 9; the agenda is here: doe.mass.edu/bese/docs/fy20…

Livetweeting thread starts here.

If you'd like to join me in hitting "refresh" on the video, you can do that here: livestream.com/accounts/22459…

#MAedu

finally broke down and bought myself yogurt raisins, though still sad that CVS appears to no longer have yogurt cranberries. I'm blaming the pandemic for that.

ok, are we going to keep sound now? Maybe? #MAedu

public testimony on ACCESS testimony:
requesting suspension of ACCESS and MCAS
#MAedu

"poor allocation of our resources"
"I really have no sensible answer" for why you're doing this now #MAEdu

John Cabral, superintendent of Taunton Public Schools speaking on regional vocational admission #MAEdu

notes that admission once denied generally is not allowed later, whereas vocational students can transfer back #MAEdu

should not be a one time decision by a 13 year old in 8th grade #MAEdu

leaves comprehensive high schools at the mercy of regional vocational schools #MAEdu

unfortunately missed some of that student commentary; sound still going in and out #MAEdu

NAACP: Juan Cofield now speaking #MAEdu

education has been a central concern of NAACP "almost from its inception"
"in support of a change in admission policy of the voke schools" for equal access of these schools to students in the Commonwealth #MAEdu

"dramatic underrepresentation" of students of color in regional voke schools
"there must be an open enrollment policy for voke schools"
#MAEdu

Constitution of the Commonwealth; 14th amendment on equal access

"should be a function of capacity" rather than the chance of the students getting in

"currently exclusionary admission policy practice is just simply illegal and it discrimates against protected classes...it is blatant race-based discrimination"

#MAeud

should require a lottery system for admission for 21-22 school year

#MAEdu

and this is Kevin Murray, I know, but we can't hear him again...#MAEdu

"has turned these schools into another form of selective admission schools"
Commissioner has attempted to encourage voluntary changes, with no results so far #MAEdu

(and he's speaking of some proposed changes but I don't know what those are or what group he's talking about)
#MAEdu

speaker: have been a substitute, general curriculum MTEL is all that stands before her
Has taken the MTEL over 20 times and have spent over $1000 on books and prep material
#MAEdu

have been to public schools with teachers who never took the exam
"make a necessary change in public education"
lack of diversity in teaching

#MAEdu

Chair Katherine Craven: thank Board for participation in anti-racism training
will follow up with second round in spring #MAEdu

Amanda Fernández on teacher diversity: (...except she can't hear the meeting...ok, back now) #MAEdu

committee met last month and will continue to meet quarterly
Updates on current work
new potential areas of work; financial support for college students, other opportunities #MAEdu

Secretary Peyser: (who I think is talking about finance but is fading in and out)
"vast majority of" federal resources still available "has not been drawn down"
"suggests our schools and districts are going to be going into FY22 in pretty good shape"

references Globe article on reading: incumbent on schools to provide interventions
"the early years are critical for building reading skills"
bostonglobe.com/2021/01/19/mag…

"very hard to recover" if students don't build reading skills early #MAEdu

(note that all of the preceding is still being predicated on the same 'gotta read to learn' limited perspective we seem trapped in)

on to Riley's updates
"continued to inform districts of new development in COVID-19" and state action

(are they informing us of new developments in COVID?) #MAEdu

modify testing this spring: sampling approach and reducing time administering
accountability relief: no new underperforming and chronically underperforming schools this year #MAEdu

air purifiers: purchased by DESE, shipped to districts; 2 to 3 air exchanges
pool testing in process of being set up
six weeks of kits, support, and results for no cost to districts
rapid antigen test program as well for symptomatic individuals #MAEdu

request for flexibility around certain federal requirements
US Ed: defer requirement to ID comprehensive and targeted support
await more information #MAEdu

$800M in federal aid; $733M to districts directly, needs based
10% under DESE's control to ID needs throughout system
$5.6M to all districts and charters receiving some under formula grant #MAEdu

(that last to be sure that every district and charter gets some; since this is Title I based, some would not have) #MAEdu

SOA plans were finally really due (no mention that there was no actual money, though) #MAedu

Hills: federal flexibility: "there was nothing having to do with MCAS in Massachusetts"
Riley: awaiting any movement from the federal government
Hills: "trust me, I'm not looking for it"
#MAEdu

Fernández: reasonable cause to revisit EL requirements
#MAEdu

questions around not knowing how many children will show up; possible high numbers not
results might be incomplete or invalid #MAedu

reluctance for families to send children into buildings
also relief on low participation #MAedu

other options for determination of competency as is being done for seniors and MCAS
matters of practicality: some real challenges with transportation, technology, and staffing issues
recommend they be taken seriously #MAEdu

Riley: awaiting ground rules at federal and state level (state level?)
more coming #MAedu

Lombos: want to fully support Fernández says
have made their cases; I don't think we have to rehash those points
want to revisit MCAS and ACCESS requirement #MAEdu

and on to the competency determination for class for 2021 #MAEdu

Curtin: last spring, graduates of '20, and science through class of 2023 modified
plan had been for administration of 2021 in ELA and math in January #MAedu

waiting to see what trajectory of virus was coming out of winter break "primarily from a safety concern"
announcement was made "to postpone" as it is the Board's decision on competency determination (aka if the Board votes 'no' they need another option) #MAedu

"we are not providing these students with a diploma" as that is a local determination
the competency determination is the piece that is the state's part #MAedu

note this is not automatic: last year, only about 2/3rds of seniors earned it
"it is not a given" #MAEdu

Hills: based on history, what percent of students would have ended up passing ordinarily?
Curtin: "it is not high"
[fading in and out]
over 92% of students have earned it; "need to offer an alternative pathway, given that we will not be offering" the test

Hills: the broader MCAS issue "for me" has nothing to do with this issue #MAEdu

Motion, second

#MAEdu

Moriarty: "these loosening of standards always concern me a great deal" don't think it helps students
"always feel this is taking away from them" #MAEdu

lessens diploma
do more for these students who aren't taking and passing MCAS #MAEdu

"I hate anything that loosens this system; I don't think it's already strong enough to begin with" #MAedu

"I am going to vote for this, but I am deeply sorry to do this; I did not come here to lower standards."
#MAEdu

and passes #MAEdu

ACCESS testing: (back to Curtin)
deadline extended out to May 20: hope is there will be more students coming to school
"our intention around the use of the data this year is for diagnostic value" #MAEdu

ACCESS at core is diagnostic test: have looked for federal government about accountability
intent is to not use it in bulk, but to use it as a diagnostic test #MAEdu

"it is a federally required test"
"unless that changes, that federal requirement exists" #MAEdu

get data into hands of educators so they can think about programming
test is also required for a student to exit English learning programs #MAEdu

and there is a PowerPoint that I hope someone posts online #MAEdu

Colleges:

doe.mass.edu/bese/docs/fy20… #MAEdu

in a given year, about 70% of graduates attend college; for some groups, it's much lower
pandemic fall of 2020: zoom in state university system
11.6% drop in community college; 7.7% drop in state universities #MAEdu

data on gap years; "enrolling immediately matters"
those who enroll immediately earn much more money in their 30's than those who postpone or who never enroll #MAEdu

what about this year's seniors?
90% of students who fill out FAFSA by March 15 eventually attend college
gaps, but still, "timely completion of the FAFSA matters" #MAEdu

And here’s this year’s graph: #MAEdu

Allows students and families to keep options on a the table
"we know that we have a little time here"
"we're not on fire yet"
applications for college are down as well
March 1 to 15 is the critical time #MAEdu

community college remains an option; still time to work on this
"very little direct work to complete FAFSA" done by the department
"trying to rev people up to get out to their kids" #MAEdu

(gotta say though; the FAFSA is a PAIN to fill out) #MAEdu

"most of those kids, if you don't complete FAFSA, there's no college at the end of it" #MAEdu

enrollments are down: "that's not a gap year; that's a gap decade" #MAEdu

Hills: some high schools are "doing much much better work in setting up their graduates for financial success" than others

#MAEdu

Coughlin: definitely something the student advisory council willing to take up
maybe a PSA from the Department going out to families and students #MAEdu

Peyser: think there were 121 views of individual student FAFSA reports, with fewer than last year (from EDWIN) #MAEdu

"if you don't have the data, if you don't know which ones filled it out and which ones haven't completed, you can't do the work to get this done"
previously, there was an urgent sense of data being needed #MAEdu

Next up with educator diversity initiatives, once they sort out whose camera is on and how we're hearing things doe.mass.edu/bese/docs/fy20…