Thread by @CognitaVagabond

HAPPENING NOW: @RoundRockISD's BoT student outcomes workshop. Watch live here: roundrockisd.org/about-rrisd/bo…
#rrisd1family

Coach Marsha is a badass at managing the room. Kudos to her bc it ain't an easy one... And in an an ultimate pot-meet-kettle moment, Danielle just lectured President Weir about using "rhetoric" for saying the goals should support % growth without breaking individual students.

Reading Academies is only required by state for K-3 and #RRISD is (thankfully) implementing it for K-5. Not all schools have been through the training yet. Amy suggests adding 10% points for groups that need most focus. @ryansmithblog will update goals based on new assumption.

Mary Bone points out that the BoT might be totally different next year bc elections. Wants them just to be focused on next year. Amber says they need to focus on 5 year goals per Lonestar Governance. The whole point in measuring is not to have targets move based on political BS.

Then Mary tells Marsha that TEA and lonestar governance might be totally different because of elections because new legislature might not choose to continue focusing on student outcomes anymore anyway. 🤔 Mary reminds Marsha that #s represent children after hyperfucusing on %s.

Ryan wants board to use constraints to keep standars high re student well-being etc. rather than Board goals. (Generally seem underutilized because they're more difficult to think about) He's giving examples. "Shall not" statements force double negatives.

Constraints come with target monitoring. They're not generally as in depth data-wise. But important for keeping district on track as they progress through goals. I.e mental health impacts. Goals monitored 4Xs per year; constraints 1X (Marsha suggests monitoring 2x per year).

Cory not happy with suggestions. She thinks they need goal like "85% students feel well supported (re mental health)..." based on community feedback (difficult to monitor with data. I get monitoring with constraints and also why it's difficult to reimagine in those terms).

Marsha explains how the constraints are better to use for managing district behavior around this. (Students feeling supported is subjective; data works differently, etc...) Danielle is making this about her now. 🙄 Cory interrupts her (this is about to go off the rails, y'all)

Danielle thinks goals should reflect attitudes of community but acknowledges mental health challenges. Thinks this can be accomplished through constraint per Marsha. Cory thinks staff need resources to manage student health (yes, & constraints can be used for this).

President Weir agrees with Danielle (reluctantly so do I). Academics work better for district goals. She's making excellent point about how district measures this. I.e. early SPED ID and support. (YES, Prez! YES!) Build with feedback from counselors and staff.

Amber disagrees 🤔 because community wants this for goals. (With all due respect. We weren't given clear understanding of how constraints function, likely b/c Trustees don't seem to understand how to use them either).

Amber admits this isn't her area of expertise. She thinks asking for community feedback and then ignoring it is disingenuous. (Sure, but community feedback re "student goals" should inform both domains to maximize the best result based on our priorities)

I stopped paying attention because I was lost in my thought... Danielle is soal searching. Danielle admits that she doesn't want this to be a goal because she doesn't want to spend $ on mental health instead of science (?). Amber is calling her out the way only a counselor could.

Danielle thinks if we teach kids to read on our campuses that good mental health will naturally follow without spending money and resources on that. (Sweet baby Jesus... I may need to stop before I start throwing things. It's Saturday, y'all)

Cory thinks she could get behind constraint if it's worded differently. Wants to think about restructuring so it makes sense to community. Needs wordsmithing. Marsha thinks for expl: how counselors' manage time could support an unstated goal around mental health.

Amber wants a goal around this right now so that district's budget supports (Bluebonnet Trails budget 🤫) student mental health. Mary Bone doesn't understand why the hell she's hear right now. Amber now agrees with Mary.

Ryan wishes he were anywhere else but here right now as Cory talks about baking a cake and health insurance. (Dear reader, my attention span is waning. I'm a little rusty at this).

(I never want to be on the BoT. Please hold me accountable. I have one good hour in me at a time for this at best) Ryan is looking at financial literacy TEKs. (How about we don't have Credit Unions on our HS campuses if we're actually serious about this, b/c holy shit, y'all!)

Marsha says they can measure financial literacy at end of course. Mary and Cory point out that it's not just financial literacy. Community also requested more life skills and civics at all levels. They want the measures to be around practical life skills.

Dr. Xiao thinks offering enrichment around life skills is also important and tightly connected to academics more so than measuring through assessment (building, fixing, gardening, playing board games(?))

Danielle is telling us a personal story about her high school experience touring farms, police departments, etc. One time she went to a court house to watch the jury selection process. (Super boring)

Ryan thinks this is where local campuses can have some autonomy over what's offered based on parents, teachers and principals. The constraints could measure this per Ryan. Mary wants kids to know how to plan meals and buy a car... This should be baseline knowledge.

Mary says if we focus on how we measure and what we measure that we miss the points. She says we need to give community what they said they wanted for goals & constraints etc. Amy says some of this is where parents come in and may not be worth measuring through assessment.

Mary wants to know how you measure application. (Yes, that's why goals might not work for some of this). Not enough to understand compound interest if you don't knows what it applies to. Ryan says yes, but if you actually teach it, it wld likely be in the context of application.

(Need.. more.. coffee.. ) Apparently we're going to a winter festival now. Amber wants Dr. Az to weigh in on constraint language and concerned they've dropped goal re DAEP/discipline data and restorative practice. Also thinks BoT isn't focusing ebough on board constraints.

Mary is back to talking about civics and real world living. Wants to talk about life themes (random thought: emotional IQ is important part of life skill application). Cory says that civics and financial literacy were top two. Can't really measure critical thinking as a goal...

They'll be back at 11 after they finish gathering clothing and food for community. Amber wants us to know that they aren't actually going to a party and there won't be drinking involved.

They're back... Marsha points out that some of the parents might not realize that district already teaches compound interest etc. because their kids aren't at that point in school yet.

Amber wants to keep in mind discipline data and also wants to see constraint around SPED and wants to hear from board around this. Now she doesn't want us to call them SPED students because 1st person language BS. (🙄I have #SPED kids, y'all. Likely a convo for a different day)

Marsha's asking for ideas about constraints around SPED. Mary thinks level 3 greivances and due process. (Nope! that ain't it. This would only measure level of privilege and access to knowledge of parents for navigating the process).

Amber thinks closing the knowledge gap for parents of students receiving special education services (SPED students). Marsha wants an umbrella over "special populations" (Grrr...)

Per Marsha, you can have a goal for special education outcomes and then constraints around special population measures. Amber struggles to add a goal that aligns measures around standardized test for (SPED students) because they aren't standardized students.

Mary Gonzalez is here now to suggest sped stuff. Suggests goals around PD (fucking A! And STAFF, EA access and pay, etc.) She says providing training for teachers is imperative. She also thinks early id through training and feel empowered to get those students help early.

We're also coming out of a time where the default is not providing testing and support access and now we're entering an era where the opposite is true. We need training and support for staff to shift understanding and thinking.

Danielle comes barreling in like an idiot abt breaking down SPED pop by subgrp by diag & something abt a 3 legged stool. Amber says early id & chang'g adult behaviors is needed. "Supt will not allow students rec'g sped services to..." w/ tagline & reports provided each quarter.

They're crafting constraints around discipline data, life skills, special education etc. Danielle is completely lost right now (likely because she's been so distracted by suing the school district, managing her website and talking to Steve Bannon et. al. on various podcasts etc.)

Mary Bone doesn't want SPED training for all educators because not all teacher has sped kids & doesn't want more PD. Only provide training for the specific needs of students currently in classroom (😳kill me! someone explain how least restrictive environment works to her.)

Now Danielle is upset about spending money on PD. She doesn't want to take away from career and tech. She wants to talk about this instead now. (She got bored talking about SPED students and doge ate her SPED homework...)

Cory talking about growth... 7th grade math numbers per Danielle. Amber asked Dr. Mutscher for opinion on this. 7th grade is tricky year for Math because of different programming for MS math.

(My daughter is text bombing me about spending another night at her friend's house right now... Me: Did you finish your math homework? Our district's 7th grade math numbers need improvement. She's all like: Wut?)

They need to do and monitor board goals. Marsha wants them to study their Lonestar Governance manual over the holidays. They're looking at their manual and their coach is giving them home work. They will meet again after the January meeting.

Danielle doesn't want to spend 55% of mt'g time monitoring goals and constraints during board meetings (b/c she'd rather put 55 things on the agenda that only matter to her and the people on her candidate email list).

Danielle's ranting about all the things she wants to discuss and how she won't be able to do that unless she doesn't have to spend too much time thinking about student impact and outcomes.

Marsha is tired. She needs a nap. She's thanking everyone and trying to get them to leave. Danielle says some people are just assholes & it's normal to disagree with them (her). Mary is sorry that she didn't come to the meeting more prepared by doing her homework.

The end!

Pst... @YungTiffanie! I tweeted the meeting for you! 😘 you should probably still watch it, tho. Some liberties were taken and I'm sure I missed a few things.

Lol, *soul

Sweet, Pixie Stix: *Marie Gonzales. Sorry, @RRISDGonzales! 😬