Boston School Committee

Good evening and welcome to this meeting of the Boston School Committee. I'm Chairperson Jerry Robinson. We'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance.

and to the Republic for which it stands.

I want to welcome everyone who is joining us tonight in person on Boston City TV and on Zoom. I'm going to ask everyone here in the chamber to please turn off the volume on your laptops or other devices so it does not interfere with the audio for tonight's meeting. Thank you for your cooperation. Tonight's meeting documents are posted on the committee's webpage bostonpublicschools.org slash schoolcommittee under the October 8th meeting link. For those joining us in person, you can access the meeting documents by scanning the QR code that's posted by the doors. The meeting documents have been translated into all of the major BPS languages. Any translations that are not ready prior to the start of the meeting will be posted as soon as they are finalized. The meeting will be rebroadcast on Boston City TV and posted on the school committee's webpage and on YouTube. The committee is pleased to offer live simultaneous interpretation virtually. and Spanish, Haitian Creole, Capovariano, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese and American Sign Language. The Zoom interpretation feature has been activated. Zoom participants should click the globe icon at the bottom of your screen to select your language preference. I'd like to remind everyone to speak at a slower pace We'll begin the meeting with the approval of minutes. I will now entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the September 25th meeting. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Thank you. Is there a second? Thank you. Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent? Hearing none, the minutes are approved. To celebrate College and Career Month, we're bringing back a tradition. Everyone on the dais is displaying their alma mater, honoring the paths that led us here. This morning, I joined the superintendent Mayor Michelle Wu, school leaders and city officials for the ribbon cutting ceremony at Sarah Roberts Elementary School. It was a very emotional and impactful moment. What makes this occasion even more powerful is its full circle nature. It was the Boston Primary School Committee that once voted to deny Sarah Roberts a seat at a nearby school. and today we stood there as part of a working body reshaping that legacy committed to ensuring that every child is represented and has access to a high quality inclusive education. We will not have a superintendent report tonight. We will continue with a discussion item, the exam school admission policy recommendation data follow up. During the last school committee meeting, we requested on the 50% MAP assessment and 50% GPA ratio to assess its impact on the recommended exam school admissions policy. Superintendent, I invite you to provide some introductory remarks.

Thank you, Chair. Good evening to everyone in the audience, remotely and in person. Chair Robinson said tonight we'll provide some additional data as a follow-up to the September 25th presentation of our recommended changes to the exam school admissions policy. As we said at the last meeting, we are not recommending changes to the criteria students must meet to be eligible for consideration for an exam school seat. Consistent with the current policy, students will need a grade point average or GPA of B or higher, rank at least one exam school on their school choice list, and have a valid score on the MAP Growth Assessment Test. Currently, a student's composite score is based on 30% of their MAP Growth Score and 70% of their GPA, consistent with the current policy. At the last meeting, we were asked to run simulations based on 50% math growth score and 50% GPA scenario. As a follow up to this request, you have received a memo summarizing this data. This is an opportunity to discuss the results. As you will hear tonight, the simulations showed there was no significant change to invitation status by changing the ratio of test scores to GPA. Monica Hogan, Chief of Data, Information, and Systems Improvement is here tonight to give a brief overview of the memo and answer any clarifying questions that you may have. So at this time, Chair, I'll turn it back to you for the discussion.

I'll now open it up to any questions from members. Anybody?

Monica, if you want to just give the brief overview and then...

Good evening, everyone. So as the superintendent shared, in your folder is the memo that is a follow-up to some questions that were asked during the September 25th. School Committee Meeting. The memo outlines the results that explored the weighting of the assessment and GPA within the composite score at a 50% assessment and 50% GPA ratio. That current ratio is 30% assessment and 70% GPA. So there's four different sort of sets of data in that memo. The first set of the data is the results from the policy that was in place in the year of that applicant pool so you can see sort of what the actual results were that year. The second column in each of the tables is a simulation of the current policy, so the policy that was in place for the 25-26. admissions year applied to the 23, 24, and 24, 25 applicant pools as well. The third column is the newly recommended policy from the September 25th meeting. which uses the 30% assessment, 70% GPA split. And the fourth column is that newly recommended policy, but instead of the 30-70, it's a 50-50 assessment GPA split. So as the superintendent shared, the big takeaway from the memo is that shifting from the 30-70 to a 50-50 split. does not have large changes in who receives an application under the recommended policy. So for example, when comparing The policy recommendation with the 30-70 split to the policy recommendation with the 50-50 split. 91% of applicants in school year 24-25 and 92% of applicants in school year 25-26. would have received the same invitation or would have continued to not receive an invitation. Additionally outlined in the memo are the simulation results disaggregated by student groups, by race, by school type and by neighborhood. Happy to answer questions.

Thank you Ms. Hogan. I know that simulations are a lot of work and that this was a request of the committee at the last meeting and especially as there have been some Speculation around why there may be changes in different student body student groups from year to year I think it really bore exploration to see this as a potential I just had two questions. Looking at some of the simulations, the current policy Average score for Boston Latin School this year was a 99, if I'm reading it correctly, and for last year was 101 average score. And I'm wondering if you could explain what would be required of a student to have a 99 composite score. Just from a grade and or map perspective, like how that algorithm transfers to become something as high as a 99 because it just struck me as a very high average.

Yes, so under the current policy, 70% of the score is grades. And so if you have a perfect GPA, which Under the policy that was passed in 2021, part of that policy was to treat an A-plus the same as an A. So a perfect GPA in this case is all As. or A pluses, A's or A pluses in all subject areas. And so a perfect GPA in that case would get you a full 70 points and then, The test score is worth 30 points. That's 15 points for math and 15 points for reading. And the way that we calculate the test score is using The percentile that the student has earned on the test that percentile compares their RIT score to the national norms of data from students across the United States. and so a student with a composite score of 99 is most likely scoring in the you know 98th 99th percentile on that test I don't have the exact numbers in front of me but

And so that's a very high standard, right? Basically, it's straight A's and almost a 99 percentile score. Is the average for the last two years so high in large part because of additional points, or are there really that many students with that kind of algorithm in the absence of points?

The composite score in your materials does include additional points. I can say that I believe, don't remember the exact percentage of students, applicants who are now receiving points under the current policy, but that percentage has grown over the last four admission cycles. Additional points are likely a factor, but I don't have a definitive answer in front of me to that question.

Thank you. And then my last question is, we'd heard in public comment that there was a concern around grade conversion being different by school type. Can you speak on that at all? Are grades treated, converted the same way by school type or is there a difference?

So for BPS schools, we are consistent with how we convert the one through four grade scale in elementary schools. For non-BPS schools, because we are not an expert in how they do their grading schools, grading scales, excuse me, We ask the non-BPS schools to submit the grades to us on a 100-point or A to F scale. So the non-BPS schools do that grade conversion and submit that to us. We do not do the standards-based grading conversion for non-BPS schools. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Superintendent. Thank you.

Looking at the data, I have a question.

When the policy was modified, La política de las escuelas de examinación.

The policy related to the schools.

Yeah, the exam school. Quiero preguntarle ya que ustedes hicieron toda la investigación y la data.

I would like to ask you since you researched and collected that data. So far, ¿cómo fueron los resultados? What were the results? Did they increase?

La participación de estudiantes de poder estar en una escuela de examinación.

Did the participation increase to be part of a school that is related to exams?

¿Se logró una mayor participación de estudiantes diversos que pudieran estar dentro de la escuela de examinación?

What I mean is with this, I'm sorry. I wanna try in English.

I'm sorry. So sorry. When the exam school changes en pandemic, ¿cómo fue? El aumento, cómo aumentó, si aumentó o disminuyó la participación de estudiantes diversos.

How was the result? Did it increase or decrease the students, the diverse students?

Esa primera pregunta, ¿qué pasó? ¿Qué cambios hubo? ¿Cuántos estudiantes? ¿Cómo fue el acceso en ese momento cuando hubo ese gran cambio?

How was the access? How was that change? How it was when that change was made?

Yeah, so the changes that have been made since the pandemic with the interim policy and then this permanent policy that was passed in 2021, I think has changed the diversity of students who receive an invitation to be more similar to the broader demographics of the city. than they were previously and I think we can the June presentation that Colin and I gave sort of dove into some of that data deeper over the last five years.

Es decir, que definitivamente pudimos notar un cambio donde tuvimos más acceso de estudiantes que antes no tenían el acceso a poder tener la invitación a una escuela de examinación, ¿verdad?

So we definitely notice a change from those students that didn't have access to have access to participate on that kind of schools.

So with the changes that are being proposed, how are we going to ensure How can we make sure that this population of students can have real access?

I think one of the things we've seen in the data is that as the policy has changed the applicant pool has also shifted so I don't know that we can guarantee Any particular results going forward because we don't know how a policy change may impact individual student decisions to apply or not.

I would like to bring that question because we know that we want the best for our students. y yo creo que definitivamente nuestros estudiantes no solo enfocarnos en las escuelas de examen, sino proveer a los estudiantes de escuelas

And I think we have to provide students with good schools and I know that here in Boston we have many great schools.

We do have excellent teachers. Leaders with a vision that we can support these schools so that they can have better programs

and put our our attention to other students even though that they are not in a examination school That they can have access to one.

This is just a question related to sort of what we talked about a few weeks ago around how applicants have different are graded on different forms of semesters. Have you been able to look at any of that data? I don't imagine that too much would shake out from it. Have you looked at that at all to see any differences in acceptance rates at all? And that doesn't have to be in the memo or anything, but just curious.

In terms of students graded on a trimester versus quarters? I don't have that specific analysis in front of me I don't know superintendent if you have any No, it hasn't been a comparison that we've done.

I think it's more a difficulty with collection of the data, to be honest with you, in terms of the timing. of waiting the full two quarter terms versus the trimester. But because we're dealing with schools inside the BPS and outside of the BPS, that's likely just something that's always going to need to be.

Okay, thank you. The committee will take action on the exam school admission positives. Recommendations of the November 18th. Thank you so much. Thank you. We'll now move on to general public comment. Ms. Parvax.

Thank you, Chair. The public comment period is an opportunity for individuals to address the school committee on school-related issues. Questions on specific school matters are referred to the superintendent. Questions on policy matter may be discussed by the committee later. The meeting will feature two public comment periods, with the first comment period limited to one hour. After one hour, anyone who hasn't testified will have the opportunity to do so at the end of the meeting. We have 21 speakers this evening. Each person will have two minutes to speak and I would remind you when you have 30 seconds remaining. Please feel free to email your comments for distribution to the committee. Speakers may not reassign their time to others. The time that an interpreter uses for English interpretation will not be deducted from a speaker's allotted time. Please direct your comments to the chair and refrain from addressing individual school committee members or district staff. Please note the comments of any public speaker do not represent the Boston Public Schools or Boston School Committee. Please state your name, affiliation, and where you live before you begin. If you're on Zoom, please sign in using the name you registered with for public comment and be ready to unmute and turn on your camera when it's your turn to speak. and please raise your virtual hand when I call your name. To support interpretation please speak slowly and clearly. Start with our in-person group. Rosanne Tang, Travis Marshall, Dan French, Deidre Manning, and John Mudd. Rosanne Tang.

Hi, I'm Roseanne Tung. I served on the 2021 Task Force and have conducted research on this topic. Today I want to share two suggestions on how BPS shares its simulations and three considerations about testing. The first suggestion is to review simulations on the 2020-21 applicant pool because without bonus points, the applicant pool will shift back to pre-pandemic numbers. Second suggestion is to review simulations that change one variable at a time so we know each change's contribution to the backslide. Changing two or three variables is overkill. We can fix the street fairness problem without changing multiple variables that we know move representation in the wrong direction. Three considerations about tests. The task force had a presentation by past president of the National Council for Measurement and Education, Professor Lori Shepard. She summarized much research. Tests correlate with family income, measure opportunities, and have greater disparate impact than grades alone. In other words, tests cement opportunity. Second, grades are better predictors of outcomes because they're cumulative. Third, if you do use a test, you should set a criterion and then use lottery. Without true public engagement, without time to review the most relevant simulations, with a new variable just added, why would we rush the process? You all have less than a month before the vote. Why would we risk creating greater disparities than already exist? Rather than give in to the current climate of intimidation and fear, rather than ratify a compromise that reduces opportunity for the majority of BPS students, Boston has a chance to continue making history, to be a leader in this national conversation. Let's slow down, be courageous, and take a chance.

Next speaker is Travis Marshall.

My name is Travis Marshall. I live in Roslindale. I'm the proud parent of students at the English High School and the Bates Elementary School. The exam school policy adopted in July 2021, four years ago for those counting, not five, was the product of a robust public process. A task force met for months of open meetings with public feedback on many proposals. In comparison, BPS announced this premature revision last June when families were focused on summer jobs, camps, and childcare. Over the summer, BPS sent out a Google form that garnered just over 300 responses in a district that serves around 45,000 students. 300 responses. is less than one third of the number of students invited to exam schools each year. It is a ridiculous number to claim as representative of Boston families, and it's even more absurd to cite as some sort of mandate for change. The two webinars were pro forma affairs with pre-screened Q&A and no discussion of any kind. Why the rush to change the policy again before the five-year mark? Why the rush to push through multiple significant changes with solo feedback? This rush is exemplified by the perfunctory promise to study how this policy blocks students with disabilities and multilingual learners from exam schools while pledging not to touch the policy for three years. Suggestions for a 50-50 MAP and GPA split reinforce the problem that MAP is only offered in English. BPS claims it's unfair to offer it in Spanish even while a plurality of BPS students identify as Hispanic or Latine. The proposal essentially states that we've done enough for underrepresented student groups that we overcorrected and have not chosen the right students for elite schools. It's natural for us all to worry about how decisions impact the kids we know best in our lives, but this is about what's best for all BPS kids. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker is Dan French.

My name is Dan French. I live in JP. I'm a parent of a BPS alum, and I co-lead a state network of districts focused on student achievement. I'm speaking on the vote to change the exam school selection process. At the prior school committee meeting, the committee discussed increasing the standardized test score weight in relation to grades with the rationale it was a more objective measure. Nothing is further from the truth. Research tells us the strongest correlate to standardized test scores is parental income. Why? Students from affluent families have greater access to tutoring and other academic resources. For Black and Latin A students, stereotype threat and cultural bias. can result in lower scores. Students with disabilities suffer from lack of accommodations and opportunity to present what they know in diverse ways. Multilingual learners score lower due to lack of English proficiency. I know of no credible research study that finds standardized tests are a fair measure of student achievement across race, income, disability, and language. Consider MCAS. In 2025, on the English test for BPS students, the gaps by income, race, disability, and language ranged from 29 to 42 percentage points. For math, the gaps ranged from 23 to 48 percentage points, increasing the standardized test score, weight, and exam school selection will increase the current unacceptable gaps in invitations across race, income, language, and disability. Why is the school committee considering multiple changes to the exam school selection process all at once? Doing so could result in a move backwards that goes beyond some Tier 4 students with high composite scores not having been invited to Boston Latin School. I urge the school committee to stick to the current weight for grades and test scores, not make policy changes without ample public engagement and make one change at a time. Thank you.

Next speaker is Deidre Manning.

Good evening. My name is Deirdre Manning. I'm a Dorchester resident and single parent of two public school students. I'd like to remind school committee members and the district that METCO charter and parochial school students are members of our community. and currently they are being disadvantaged by the testing conditions and grade conversions. If you're looking to get more black and brown and Latinx students I'd like to also point out If you look in the tier map, this is 39 Union Park. It's a home in the South End that sold last May for $10.2 million. This is in a tier one neighborhood. I'd like you to look at a home. and Dorchester that is in a Tier 4 neighborhood. I'd also like you to look at another property in Dorchester that vacillates between a Tier 3 and a Tier 4 neighborhood. If you adopt the recommendation, you will be suppressing enrollment in tiers three and four. Every applicant in every neighborhood should have an equal chance of admission. I would also like people to understand that students at the Murphy, at the Sarah Roberts, at the Curley, at the Orenberger, at the Quincy, these students have in the past four years very easily have gotten into exam schools. That will change. if you do not adjust the number of seats in each tier based on the number of applicants. And I do want to speak just briefly to a point brought up by Member Skerritt. You have non-BPS students using a special process to convert their grades when they have standard-based grades. You're not allowing that for charter school students. I know from personal experience that I've shared with the district that suppressed an applicant's score by four composite points. That is unfair.

Thank you. Next speaker is John Munn.

My name is John Mudd. I'm a resident of Cambridge, the grandfather of a student at the John F. Kenney Elementary School. Tonight you're going to get a lot of numbers on MCAS. I want to highlight a few of the results, particularly for multilingual learners. MCAS is an imperfect measure for multilingual learners, but it does reveal a harsh reality. For multilingual learners in grades 3-8 English Language Arts, only 4% meet or exceed grade-level content expectations in MCAS 2025. In math, the percentage is 7%. Since 2019, multilingual learners have lost the most and have gained back the least and achievement gaps have increased the most for this group. Inclusive education for ML students is not working. There is research that shows that all bilingual education programs that are based on the use of home language and instruction produce better outcomes than placing these students in general education classes with ESL. Now is a propitious time to make changes. There's a vacancy in the deputy for academics. There is a new state commissioner. who is aware and said at his first meeting that he had never seen multilingual learner scores as low as these in Massachusetts in 20 years as a professional. BPS could join with the Commissioner of Education in working to develop a model to turn around multilingual education. One, develop a long term plan to expand bilingual programs. Two, create a long term plan to recruit and develop bilingual teachers. Three, encourage parents to use home language with their children at home. And four, implement professional development for monolingual teachers on how to support their youth. Don't lose the opportunity. Thank you for hearing me.

Our next group of speakers is Julia Morales, Julie Santos, James Noonan, and Sharon Hinton. Julia Morales.

Good evening, my name is Julia. I live in Dorchester and currently I'm the Youth Development Specialist for the Youth Community Organizing Program at Sociedad Latina. A lot of our youth are here today. We are an out of school time youth development organization that works with high school age youth located in Roxbury. I'm here today to discuss the recent AI guidelines Boston Public Schools produced to foster responsible and effective integration of AI within Boston Public Schools. All of last year, Sociedad Latina's youth leaders testified before this body requesting that the district develop an AI policy alongside an educational component for both teachers and students on the appropriate and safe use of AI. Although we agree that these guidelines are a step in the right direction, we are extremely disappointed that this effort was not in collaboration with students, families, the greater BPS communities, as was requested by Sociedad Latina's youth leaders. We are requesting that the guidelines be reviewed at a broader community level so that students, families, teachers, and stakeholders can provide feedback and better understand it. The youth community organized at Sociedad Latina will be examining this policy themselves, and we are asking that BPS be open to feedback and recommendations from Sociedad Latina as well as other community members. Our youth organizers will be attending a future school committee meeting to share our opinions and recommendations on the policies that you all laid out in the guidelines. As well, we are still requesting that the district have specific online training and certification programs for high school students, as education without ethical training or practice will make these guidelines quickly defunct as these technologies rapidly develop. Please don't forget to include those whose policies most impact in the conversation. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Julie Santos.

Good evening, I'm Julie Santos testifying on behalf of Citizens for Juvenile Justice in opposition to the superintendent's recommendations for the exam school's admission policy. The recommendations, the proposed recommendations will reverse the racial and economic diversity achieved by the current policy. The data tells us that the 2021 policy was effective at increasing invitations to black, Latina, low-income, multilingual students and students with disabilities Simulation B shows that with the new recommendations, the highest socioeconomic tier would receive about 70 more seats than the lowest tier, and there would be a drop in invitations for Black and Latina students. The Superintendent and Chief of Data claim that the data collected and presented was inconclusive in indicating the impact of the previous policy and that the variance in the data can be chalked up to difference in the applicant pools. By that logic, the simulations would also be inconclusive. So why are recommendations being issued despite having no evidence and no reliable projections? And why were these data and simulations presented to the community for consideration without the caveat that they supposedly aren't indicative of anything? BPS's failure to be transparent with families about this dataset's insufficiency is a bad faith bid for community feedback. If the district wants to have reliable data, then it should keep the current policy as it is instead of making changes that will have a resegregating effect on our exam schools. It's notable that diversity is not included anywhere in the stated goals as it was five years ago, which shows serious doubts about the district's commitment to this principle. If the policy must be changed, equity and accessibility must be central goals of the revised recommendations, which must be determined by robust and legitimate discussion with families and students. These inequitable policy recommendations are devised from misguided goals, unreliable data, and disingenuous community engagement. We urge you not to vote them through. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you. Our next speaker is James Noonan.

Good evening. My name is James Noonan. I'm an associate professor of education at Salem State. But I'm speaking tonight as a resident of Roxbury and parent of two students at the Nathan Hale School. I'd like to make two brief points about the proposed policy changes to the exam school admissions policy, one about public engagement and the second about impact. On public engagement, in 2021, this committee adopted a change to the admissions policy for the restricted access high schools in BPS with the intention of expanding the applicant pool, maintaining rigor, and ensuring a more representative student body. This change came after an extensive and transparent process. The exam school's admissions task force held four listening sessions, 20 open meetings, each of which had an opportunity for public comment. By contrast, public engagement for the current proposal has been meager. Indeed, two webinars with no public comment, one online survey. There are, as another speaker pointed out, over 46,000 students in BPS. The survey had 326 responses. The response rate to the survey represents less than 1% of students, and I suspect it's not a racially Economically or geographically representative sample. Compared to 2021, the current process has suffered from a severe lack of public engagement. I urge you not to vote on any changes without a concerted effort to gather a broad range of perspectives across communities. On impact, as the five-year impact report showed, the revised policy has been effective at making student bodies more representative. However, the proposed changes, eliminating the school base points and especially adding a citywide round, are all but assured to halt and reverse this progress. Social science research is clear. Students benefit from ethno-racially and economically diverse schools, both academically and socially. Any policy making these schools more exclusive and less diverse will have negative impacts on students. I strongly urge you to hold fast to the goals you set five years ago. Thank you so much.

Our last in-person speaker is Sharon Hinton. I don't see Sharon Hinton in the meeting, so we will transition to Zoom speakers. Our first speaker is Keandre MacLean. Hi, Keondre, you can start.

Hi, I'm Keondre Keough-McClay. I serve as the executive director of the Boston Education Justice Alliance, BEJA. We are a coalition of parents, students, educators, and community leaders fighting for every day to make sure Boston Public Schools lives up to the promise of equity and justice. Exam school admissions have always been a flashpoint for inequity in the district. Any changes to this policy must be judged by one standard, access. Who gets access, who is left out, and whether the policy moves us closer to or further away from racial and economic justice. From the superintendent's proposal, we see an attempt to simplify the system by removing school-based points and reducing housing-related points. But let's be clear, simplicity means nothing if it comes at the expense of justice. This proposal is projected to decrease invitations for black and brown students, and the fact that this impact was not even named in the public presentation is unacceptable. Silencing or minimizing the racial consequences of this policy is not neutrality, it is harm. A policy that knowingly reduces access for Black and Latin students is not just inequitable, is a step backward in the same patterns of exclusion and gatekeeping that exam schools have always represented. Boston cannot claim equity on paper while enacting policies that close the doors on the very students who have been historically denied opportunity. and the continued reliance on the MAP test only deepens the injustice. This is not just a technical adjustment, it is a structural equity issue. Matt was not designed to reflect the brilliance, resilience, or full potential of our young people, especially English learners and students with disabilities. Locking in a policy for three years that was already known disadvantages students is an act of systemic exclusion. This committee must stop treating inequality Sorry, this committee must stop treating inequity in testing and grading as data points to adjust. There are racial justice and disability justice issues.

Thank you, Mr. McKay, your time is up.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Julie Gallor.

You can start. All right, great, thank you. Hello, my name is Julie Galore. I live in Jamaica Plain, and I have a fifth grader and ninth grader in BPS. I would like to ask the school committee to consider not having school on the Jewish high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur which fall in September or October. I know that religious observance is an excused absence, but year after year Jewish families in BPS face the same struggles and stress. These two holidays are not private rituals that can be observed outside of school or business hours. They are centered on communal gathering at a specific time and missing school to observe them comes with a very real consequences for students. For the purposes of this testimony, I will share my family's experience from this current school year and the impacts. But please note that this is not the first time this has been an issue in my decade as a BPS parent. My ninth grader had quizzes and assessments in two-thirds of their classes on the Jewish holidays. Even though we knew legally the absence was excused and they would be able to make up all of their summative assignments for full credit, The thought of falling behind, especially in subjects like biology, where each lesson built on the last, was overwhelming. In the end, our family agreed that our child could skip parts of the holiday with our family and community so they could keep up with schoolwork. This is not a real choice for a teenager. It is a painful compromise between education and identity. At the elementary school level, the pressure looks different but is just as real. Missing work is not the main challenge. It is missing key community events that makes 30 seconds. This year, my fifth-grader school scheduled the back-to-school barbecue for Rosh Hashanah with the rain date as Yom Kippur. These examples do not impact academic performance. They are essential pieces of building strong community, and when they are scheduled in advance on days that Jewish students cannot attend, it sends the message that their participation of the Jewish students is less important. Furthermore, these are values and skills that align deeply with what schools try to teach, revising essays, analyzing scientific results, and learning from...

Thank you. Your time is up. Our next speaker is Cheryl Buckman.

Good evening. My name is Cheryl Bachman. I'm a parent to a seventh grader at the Ruth Batson Academy. I'm the lead for the Dever and a resident of South Boston. I'm here to address an email that was sent to the RBA community this week. Firstly, I want to acknowledge the potential value of the failed house project. and what it could ultimately bring to the neighborhood. But as construction continues, just steps away from our school, I believe it's critical that we ask for the greater transparency and stronger safeguards especially now that hazardous materials including asbestos have been identified on site. What we've been told that the air quality will be monitored daily but families and staff need real-time access to data. Not just a general assurance. We also need clear and immediate communication if air quality readings exceed safe limits. Those notifications must go outright, right away, not hours and not days later. I'm also concerned about the noise impact, truck traffic and dust, especially for our youngest learners and for students with respiratory conditions or sensory sensitivities. What specific supports are being provided for these students during the school day? Finally, I'm asking BPS to commit to an independent oversight of all safety protocols related to this project. That includes air quality monitoring, asbestos handling, and post construction. 30 seconds. Our community deserves full transparency. and active involvement in protecting the health and safety of our students and staff. We shouldn't have to wait until there's a problem to be informed. And thank you for your time and for making safety a priority, not just in words but in action. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next group of speakers is Hawal Abdulrahman, Bernie Wilkinson, Tarisha Green-Williams, and Enid Bazil. Hawal Abdulrahman.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you. You can start.

Okay, thank you very much. Good evening, my name is Haval Abdurrahman. I'm a parent of two students in Deaver Elementary School, sixth grade and fourth grade. I'm a resident of Dorchester since 2004. I live in Harbor Point, apartments company. Just across of Devers School and across of the Fieldhouse Project. My testimony tonight is about the asbestos hazardous materials have been identified on site of the Fieldhouse Project. The existing land of the proposed field house project is leased from BPS to collaborative proponents of Boys and Girls Clubs of Dorchester and Martin Richard Foundation. The project consists of construction of indoor athletic center located just steps away from both Denver Elementary School and Ruth Boston Academy School. Therefore, hazardous materials exposure during the construction of field house projects will directly affect both schools. For your kind attention, the foundation work and earthwork started more than three months ago or more. But unfortunately, we were just informed this week about the hazardous materials, including asbestos, have been identified on site. I respectfully suggest the following steps please. The contractor should have a pre-construction hazardous material surveys and share reports on request. Asbestos records must be available and parents should be notified. Air quality control and air quality tests shall be done every day during excavation and earthwork. Dust control process shall be utilized every day. The contractor shall schedule any work related to his materials to be after the schools. We want to assure that the safety of our students and staff is our highest priority. We want to assure that all procedures are being carried out under the supervision of certified hazardous materials specialists and no exposure risks have been reported. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Renee Wilkinson. Please accept the prompt.

Good evening.

Good evening. You can start.

My name is Vernee Wilkinson. I'm with School Facts Boston. We have ongoing and significant concerns relative to the BPS data that indicates that there has been a 7% decrease in exam school invitations to black students. During the last school committee meeting and also during the recent city council hearing, VPS staff members reported that the decrease in invitations might be connected to a recorded drop in grades for Black BPS students. This is alarming information that committee members noted might be connected to bias The district needs to conduct research and report out to the community why There is a decrease, a 7% decrease in exam school invitations for black students as well as why grades are decreasing for black students. if grades have decreased for black students applying to exam schools this is a subset of students and it leads to the possibility that there could also be a district-wide issue for grades as it relates to black students do not Do not let this data be hidden away while exam school policy continues to be the central topic. Also, as BPS reevaluates its exam school admission policy, The inclusion of parent and student voices have been minimal at best. BPS has hosted just two meetings in webinar mode which we all have lived through enough Zoom meetings to know that this is not authentic and thoughtful community engagement. More feedback needs to be gathered from families and students ahead of the school committee vote for the proposed exam school admissions. BPS students and families deserve more quality engagement. The cycle of poor quality engagement needs to stop. And in this moment, the district and city leaders need to audit grading practices to better ensure Equity and Grades for Black Students. Thank you.

Tarisha Green-Williams is not in the meeting, so we will continue with Edith Bazil.

Sorry about that. The exam school's data tell a devastating truth. Black students make up 29% of enrollment but received only 15% of exam school admissions this year. Just a few years ago, the number was 21. That is a 29% decline in access for Black students. Meanwhile, invitations for white and Asian students more than doubled. The district's explanation, quote, falling grades. But grades and scores are not neutral. They reflect resources and tell the story of systemic inequities. Unstable staffing, lack of high quality literacy, lack of reading specialists, biased grading, Segregation and harsh discipline that removes black students from classrooms instead of supporting them. These are not student failures. These are systems failures. They show how grades become the gatekeeper and inequity becomes policy. The narrative that, quote, fewer black students got in because their grades dropped, end of quote, is misleading and harmful. It blames students for systemic neglect, conceals policy choices, and school assignment algorithms that cluster black students into chronically failing schools. The real story is this. Exam school access reflects not merit, but access to opportunity. White and Asian students are overrepresented because their schools have stability, enrichment, and grading systems that reward them. Black and Latino students are underrepresented because their schools are underfunded, understaffed, and undervalued. The story of regression that the district tells is one that it created, and BPS has an obligation to correct the damage to taxpayers whose children are excluded from opportunity. This evening, I'm here to declare that BPS must reconstruct a system that provides equitable access that has been historically denied to black students because when black students rise, the whole district rises with them. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speakers are Maria Elena Pereira Bolon, Kaira Amador, Eugenia Corvo, Betsy Yoshimura, and then Sharon Hinton, who joined virtually. I don't see any of the two Spanish speakers so thank you very much Mr. Bernal. We will continue with Eugenia Corbo. Wait, just a second. Mr. Bernal, actually we have our Spanish, María Elena Pérez in the meeting.

Sí.

I apologize for that. Buenas tardes.

Buenas tardes, señora Marina.

Adelante. Yes, can you start?

Puede comenzar. Va pausando para que se le pueda interpretar.

Gracias. My name is Maria Elena. I represent the Dorcheste community. I am the mother of a girl who is a student at the

My name is Mario Elena. I represent the community of Dorchester, and I am a mother of a girl. She's going to... ¿Qué escuela? ¿A qué escuela va su hija? and she's going to a charter school.

Continue and pause, please. I want to represent my concern for the changes proposed in the exam school policy.

I would like to express my dissatisfaction with the opinions shared regarding the exam school different policies. I would like to express the dissatisfaction that I do have.

So making decisions and making decisions based in

Not the opinions of the families that are being affected, that is very risky to do.

La familia y los jóvenes debemos ser parte de procesos porque somos quienes vivimos directamente la consecuencia de esas decisiones.

Because the families and the youth that are part of our population, we have to be involved in any decision making because we are the ones suffering the consequences of decision making based on these policies.

A mí como madre me duele ver la diferencia en los privilegios que aún existe entre los estudiantes blancos y estudiantes hispanos de color.

So as a mother, it's very difficult to see the differences that arise, particularly with some populations, the black student population and the Spanish-speaking population. It is very difficult and hard to see the differences in these populations.

La educación es un derecho por ley y a todos nuestros hijos merecen la misma oportunidad para aprender y crecer y tener éxito.

Education, it is a right. It is a right by law, and every kid and every child deserves to have a good opportunity to be able to have a chance of being successful.

That is why I do not support drastic changes that can affect the most vulnerable community.

That is precisely why I do not support any abrupt changes that will impact the vulnerable communities that we do have that are impacted by vulnerable that these abrupt changes.

Pido que se escuche nuestra voz, que se tomen en cuenta las opiniones de las familias y de nuestras comunidades antes de decidir.

So it is very important before making any decision, our voices have to be heard. The communities have to be heard. We have to be heard as a collective body before any decision making takes place.

Les pedimos que mantengan la política actual, al menos que no se apresuren a tomar...

Our request is not to hurry in terms of implementing these policies. My advice to you is to keep the current policy. Take your time. Do not rush the process. As I said before, it is critical that we involve the most affected families and communities. Thank you very much for hearing my opinions.

Mr. Bernal, can you please stay? We have our second speaker who needs Spanish support.

Kaira Amador. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon, members of the school committee. Adelante.

My name is Kyra Amador, I live in Dorchester, and I am the mother of a student of the system of the Boston Public Schools.

So my name is Kyle Amador. I do live in Dorchester. I'm a resident of Dorchester and I am a mom of one child that goes to the BPS schools, Boston Public Schools. Adelante.

So one of my nephews, he goes to a Trotter Elementary School, and my daughter, she goes to a Hennigan School. Estoy aquí para expresar mi desacuerdo con los cambios propuestos en la política de exámenes.

The reason I'm here tonight is to express my disappointment to all the changes that have been implemented that are related to

I think these changes can affect the quality of education and limit the opportunities of many students in Boston.

I firmly believe that these changes could significantly impact the quality of the education of the children here in Boston and limit itself the opportunities that they could have as well.

Students who have the potential and the academic preparation to pass, but who would be harmed by these new rules.

So you have to consider the potential that some of the students do have, the opportunities that they could have, but they could be impacted by this particular policies, even though there's a huge potential there.

Les pedimos que no se apresuren en tomar una decisión. Es importante involucrar a las familias más afectadas and share clear and complete information so that we can understand the true impact of this change.

So it is very critical to not to hurry in the process. It is very critical to involve all the families and the communities. It is very important to have clear communication channels to be able not to impact this particular Communities, so decision making could be clear as well.

We ask you to maintain current policies, as changes can favor the most privileged and harm those who also deserve and need an opportunity.

So our advice, our request is that the current policies are kept. Because if not, if that is not the case, that could have a significant impact. It could favor the privileged populations as well. And we all deserve an equal opportunity.

30 seconds.

Como madre, quiero que mis hijos estén preparados para competir, crecer, alcanzar su máximo potencial. No quiero que se les quite el reto, sino que les den las herramientas para superarlo. Gracias.

So we cannot remove the challenges. We have to provide every student with the tools that are necessary to be able to be successful. I would like my kids to be competitive, to be able to develop their full potential to achieve what they're capable of. Thank you very much.

Gracias. Our next speaker is Eugenia Corbo. And thank you very much, Mr. Bernal. Eugenia Corbo. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Thank you.

Good evening, superintendents and members of the school committee. I'm the proud parent of two Latino students, one at the Humana Academy in Boston and one at BLS. It was said at the last meeting that the admissions process created by the task force would be reviewed after five years. I wanted to mention, as Travis Marshall did earlier, that it's only been four years, so why the rush? The process the Task Force designed involved broad community engagement. These proposed changes are being rushed without the same care or input. At a recent BLS event, actually this past Saturday, someone said, we are close to being A true cross-section of Boston, end quote. While showing data that clearly did not represent that, it showed, for instance, 17% Latino incoming seventh graders when it says that our district is up to 44% Latino. So we're still very far from reflecting the city's demographics and after some progress, all the simulations presented move us back in the wrong direction. And the written version of my testimony has a lot more about these. The data shared so far only shows simulations that change two variables at a time. So where is the data isolating the effect of each individual change? Where is the breakdown by exam school? Without good data, we cannot know who benefits and who loses. Are the big losers sending schools with more high-needs kids? Are the small changes in the simulations much bigger if we just look at CLS data? We keep hearing that we don't have good data because the policy keeps changing. So let's not do another change with a clear equity risk. and try to rush it through and lock it in for three years. As Roseanne Tang mentioned before, there is a very high risk that the applicant pool may change, so we could be cementing a more inequitable process. So I urge you to pause any vote until there is meaningful community engagement and complete data.

Thank you, Ms. Carwell, your time is up.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Our two next speakers are not in the meeting, so we will, Emily Riggs and Betsy Yoshimura, so we will go with Sharon Hinton.

Good evening, my name is Sharon Eaton Hinton. I'm an educator with 40 plus years of experience in public, private, charter, independent schools, colleges, and universities, and a doctoral candidate of education at Northeast University. also a former BPS student and mother of a BPS graduate and I served as president of school psych, parent psych councils, various other BPS positions over the years. And that being said, I'm calling for a pause in the voting. of the Boston School Committee on the attempt to revise the exam school admissions process before we drag our students, parents, and teachers back to the way things used to be, which was never designed for and never fully worked for Black, Brown, Special Ed, or ELL students. I'm also requesting a broader focus on all of BPS and not just the elite exam schools. I'm against the Boston School Committee voting on BPS based on the last hearing of the City Council where Superintendent Skipper said that for the last five years, the last four years, the formula was tweaked Every single year, so we don't have consistent data. In addition, there were only webinars that didn't include the large majority of parent engagement, and those were held at two different times that it was impossible at the end of the summer when parents are not around and also on election day when parents could not be engaged with competing interests. Based on the Commonwealth's recent op-ed in the Commonwealth Magazine, WBUR articles, the recent City Council hearing regarding exam school policies,

30 seconds.

We can see that the data shows that black and brown students are not graduating at grade level. We need to focus on all of the black schools, all of the black students and black teachers and Latinos. We need to focus on the lack of black teachers. We need to focus on all of the schools with a special impotence, importance rather, on vocational educational schools. We need to keep the original policy for at least the next three years to see how that actually works and get the data.

Thank you, Ms. Hinton.

Your time is up.

Thank you very much. Chair that concludes public comment.

Thank you very much and thank you to all of you who spoke this evening. Your testimony is very important to us. We're going to take a few minutes recess. We have some unfinished business that. The committee needs to do, we need to take a photo that we couldn't take earlier in the meeting. So we're going to take it now so that our photographer can go home for the evening and then we will come right back into our meeting. So thank you. Okay, we're coming back. Our only action item this evening is the grants for approval totaling $3,894,646. Now I'd like to turn it over to the superintendent for any final comments.

Great, thank you, Chair. So as Chair indicated, there are eight grants, nearly $3.9 million for your consideration this evening. The largest of these grants is the new two-year Bloomberg Philanthropies BPS Vision Care Initiative grant, totaling $3 million that will serve 46,000 students district-wide. This grant will expand access to screenings and comprehensive eye exams for students prioritizing high-need schools using the Opportunity Index. Every BPS student will receive vision screenings during the school year 25-26. Students who fail the screening will receive free in-school eye exams and free prescription glasses. The funding will also support the hiring of support staff and equipment to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the vision screenings. The remaining funds totaling nearly $900,000 will support a variety of other initiatives. There's also nearly $420,000 in funding from school-based bridge program grants, which will go to each of the three exam schools to provide intensive clinical and academic support for students returning to school After an extended medical related absence. The majority of whom are returning after a mental health related hospitalization. This is a continuation of the funding that you approved last year. The funds will pay the salary of a full-time academic coordinator among other services. The new $230,000 Massachusetts Life Sciences Center STEM Equipment and Professional Development Program grant will support 2,200 students at the Bradley, Otis, and P.J. Kennedy Elementary Schools The Elliott K-8 Innovation School and Warren Prescott K-8 School and East Boston High School. This grant will fund teacher professional development in the purchase of the equipment, materials, supplies, and technology needed to support new or expanded curriculum. The remaining grants include a $150,000 Play Ball Foundation continuing grant to support athletics for 1,000 students across 20 middle schools. and nearly $88,000 in increases to the district's continuing federal IDEA grants or Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funding. These two increases will ensure that 46,000 students across the district, including eligible three-, four-, and five-year-olds, receive developmentally appropriate special education services. And we have David Bloom and Marcella Michela in the audience as well to answer any questions that the committee may have relative to the grants. Thank you.

I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee.

I have a question. On the grant that's serving young folks who are returning to school after... Apologies, there is a microphone. On the grant that is... I'm looking for it right here.

The Bridge Grant.

Yes, that is serving young folks who are returning to school after a hospitalization. What's the increase in those hospitalizations we've seen? I guess year over year are we noticing a trend that's following the national trend of more young people being hospitalized for mental health issues?

So for the exam schools in particular, I couldn't say that specifically, but I could say overall post-pandemic, we definitely have seen an uptick in hospitalizations, calls that we have to make for A&T support. For students in psychological crisis.

And for, just one more question, for students who are returning, who are not at the exam schools, who return after a crisis like that, what is the infrastructure in place?

So we work with our student support and Chief McCarthy along with our social workers, school sites, clinicians. to develop plans for the student when they're returning. If the student needs bridge time, they will often attend Succeed Boston or do home and hospital services until they're ready to come back full time. This is actually something we're looking to develop out relative to Community Academy in terms of a suite of services and at Mel King as well. so that there would be better transition support for students after a lengthy hospital stay.

Just a quick question about the Vision Care Initiative, which I find extremely interesting and exciting and worthwhile and necessary. It says in the chart that it's for fiscal year, and Mr. Bloom, you ought to be the perfect for this, it says it's fiscal year 26. In the write-up it says it's actually to cover services for two years. So is that three million per year or is that three million at a million and a half per year? And does that allow us to cover? The full district for each of the two years. And is this, because I do know, as Mr. Bloom is coming up, thank you, I do know we've had some vision programs, particularly some of our hub schools already.

We do. We have the vision van. And then, you know, we do internal screenings. But this is meant to really marry it with the prescription glasses. So it's all at one time.

Yeah, so it's the total grant is $3 million over the two years. Over the two years. It's all being awarded this year. At once. So we don't have to reapply for the second year. So that's sort of why we organize it that way.

So it's $3 million, but we'll spend it out at $1.5 million per year, in effect.

Yes, right, on average. Not promising that exact breakdown.

Of course, roughly right. But this allows us to cover all of our schools. In addition to the programs you already had?

It does. Right now, the way the van works is certain schools get priority on the van. This would enable us to be able to do all schools.

Well, this is great because it's a need for so many of our students. It impacts their ability to learn. Many times they're not even aware of it themselves. So I'm very thrilled by this and thankful to Bloomberg Philanthropies. Thank you.

Is there any other questions? Comments? Thank you all. There's no further discussion. I'll now entertain a motion. To approve the grants as presented, is there a motion? So moved. Thank you. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you. Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Is there any objection to approving the grants by unanimous consent? Hearing none, the grants are approved. Now we will transition to the reports. Our first report tonight is on the secondary schools policy update. Let's aim to keep the presentation within 10 minutes and I'd like to remind Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for the reminder on slow because I go too fast. So tonight we're presenting two DESE policies related to Chapter 74, Career and Technical Education, or CTE programs. First policy is an admissions policy for entrance into Chapter 74 CTE programs at five schools. Madison Park Vocational Technical High School, English High School, Boston Arts Academy, Boston Green Academy, and the Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers, or what we call EMK. The second policy is in the middle school career exploration policy. regarding the ways in which the district supports career exploration and awareness about Chapter 74 CTE programs at the middle school level. This also includes training more of our middle school teams in the implementation of MICAP, Boston's Career and Post-Secondary Development Framework. We are also sharing a revised competency determination or CD policy with you tonight. As a reminder, BPS's competency determination was approved by the school committee in June of 2025. Over the summer, DESE released updated CD requirements. The policy has been updated to meet those requirements. We will return to ask for your vote on these changes on November 5th. And at this point, I will turn the meeting over to Brett Dickens, who you haven't formally met, who is our new secondary superintendent for college, career, and life readiness, returning from Providence to us in BPS. She was a longtime principal. in multiple places here, and Dr. Angela Headley-Mitchell, who you do know, Interim Chief of Teaching and Learning, so that they can give you a short presentation.

Thank you superintendent and good evening. I am here to present the policies as the superintendent outlined. We have two policies related to CTE and we have one related an updated policy for competency determination. All three of these policies are in response to regulation amendments that were passed by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in May. I want to clarify before I go into the CTE policies that these policies are specific to programs that are Chapter 74 DESE approved programs. that is a subset of all the programs and pathways that we offer throughout our high schools. The regulatory change has three components to it. Any school with a CTE-approved Chapter 74 program must use either a weighted or unweighted lottery system and have standardized criteria for that lottery system for admission into the school or program. Schools are allowed under these policies to require students to indicate interest in vocational education in order to apply for seats in these programs and schools. And this policy requires all districts to provide middle school students the opportunity to receive information about Chapter 74 programs within the district. As the superintendent said, we have five schools that have Chapter 74 programs. Two of them are Horace Mann charters. Those two schools will be submitting their policies directly to their governing board and then through the governing board to the Department of Education. But I do want to make you aware that we aligned our policies with the Horace Mann Charter so that they are similar and the experience for a student and family will be similar. The timelines are aligned. We only have one school that has a school level admission policy and that is Madison Park. It is the only school in our district that is a wall-to-wall CTE school. And then the other four schools, as the superintendent mentioned, English High, Boston Arts, Boston Green, and EMK have a subset of their students in Chapter 74 programs. and therefore the admissions takes place at the program level. For school level admissions policy, the policy at Madison Park will supersede the policy that was approved by this committee in 2024. It will be a similar policy, but the lottery system applies. A weighted lottery system was the choice of Madison Park in implementing this policy. So at the school level, Madison Park will have an application deadline of February 13th, 2026, and they did choose the weighted lottery. The weighted lottery in their model will have four potential entries per student. Every student that applies automatically gets one weight. Students that have fewer than 27 unexcused absences in the prior year and a half will get an additional weight. Students without serious disciplinary infractions under 37H and 37H and a half get an additional weight. and students will get an additional weight for demonstrating interest either by visiting the school or participating in online opportunities if they are unable to visit the school. I want to be clear that in these four entries there is no scoring of students. There's no scoring of any of the criteria above. It is one weight or not. I also want to clarify that all families will receive the weights before the lottery is run. All families will be notified 10 days before the lottery is run how many weights their student has so that if there are any Thank you. At the program level, the four schools will run their school level admissions as they do in the present. There is no change to the admission policy for English, BAA, BGA, or EMK under this policy. Once students are admitted into the school, they have the opportunity to apply to a CTE exploratory program. and if the interest in that exploratory program exceeds the number of seats that are available, they will run an unweighted straight lottery for admission into the CTE exploratory program. At all of all five schools, once students go through the exploratory program, there is a matching process for individual CTE programs and a lottery can be run again if the interest in a program exceeds the number of seats that are available. We also have a brand new middle school pathway exploration policy and this is a policy to ensure that all eighth grade students regardless of where they attend school in the city of Boston have the opportunity to learn about Chapter 74 programs at these five schools. It is important, as the superintendent pointed out, is important to note that we will be using the MICAP framework to work with all of our students throughout middle schools. The MICAP is a framework that brings students through a series of activities of career exploration, personal exploration, and so forth. We will be offering grade appropriate activities at each grade level to help them develop their personalized plan. And we will exceed the requirements of this policy. Each school that has Chapter 74 numerous open houses, assemblies at schools, tours, webinars, videos on their website. And then as you'll see in the blue box on the right, we have district-wide opportunities for families to learn about our pathways Most notably, next Saturday, we have our College Career and STEM Fair, and we will have a pathway aisle at that event. And we have our annual school showcase in December. I'm going to move on to the revision of the competency determination. And just to clarify, competency determination is one of three components for BPS graduation. Competency Determination, as you know, replaces the MCAS. We also have mass core subject and course requirements for every single student. And then physical education is required by the state as well. With regards to competency determination, this is the timeline which began in November of 2024 when question two passed, removing MCAS as a graduation requirement. Shortly after that time, we formed a CD task force to look at the class of 2025 and review the CD requirement and prepare students for graduation. Then this spring we worked on a policy for the class of 2026 which you approved in June. Over the summer DESE released additional requirements. The task force continued to meet and the policy that is in front of you is a revision which is updated to reflect all of the changes that DESE required in that policy. So the current policy that is in place has the component of the coursework requirements for competency determination for the class of 2026. This new policy includes the measures and the metrics for determining mastery. and specific language for consideration of students with disabilities, multilingual learners, late enrolling students, students with exceptional circumstances and students that may require It also notes that there is an additional course requirement for the class of 2027 and beyond in U.S. history. These are the measures that the CD Task Force proposes to determine mastery for the class of 2026. There are five courses required. There is a passing grade of a D minus. The task force is looking at CD mastery requirements that are more rigorous, but we could not make a mid-course adjustment because this class of 2026 already took all five courses before this policy was put in place. As we move forward into 2027, 2028 and beyond, We will be looking to raise the bar for the passing grade or the grade that represents mastery and additional metrics to demonstrate student mastery. Our next step is to present these policies to you, answer any questions that you have tonight, and hope for your vote in the November 5th meeting. So we will take any questions that you have about any of the three policies.

This is a pretty quick question. On page 10, the competency determination timeline. The last line is to be determined, recommendation from the Governor's Council. Is this body going to be required to wait for the Governor's Council recommendations before we make a vote, or how does that work?

No, we are required to submit a new policy before December, but we do anticipate that the Governor's Council on graduation requirements over upcoming months may make modifications or may make recommendations. We will probably have an annual review of this policy as that council continues to revise graduation requirements across the state.

And we would imagine that whatever the recommendations are will be forward-looking and not applying to the class that's about to graduate.

I see.

Thank you for the presentation. I think it might be worth bearing repeating the distinction between competency, determination, and mass core. And I'd like to try to distinguish If I can, from my understanding, and then you can confirm, MassCore is the set of courses that we have adopted that are graduation requirements that students must complete to earn their diploma. In the absence of there being a statewide test for accountability and competency determination, we now have to come up with an alternative of that. At this time, there is no different test from the MCAS, and so this competency determination recommendation is really a subset of the same courses that students need for MassCore. Is that right?

Correct. So for competency determination, you're meeting a threshold of what a student would take in ninth and 10th grade in ELA, math, and science. And then that's those five courses. And then The state is looking to adding U.S. history to that for the next graduating class of 2027. Mass Corps is a framework to look at A set of recommendations that the school department has looked at to say this is what makes a student post-secondary ready or workplace ready. So that is encompassing more classes which extends to world language requirements, extends to arts. and extends to five additional electives that students can take.

So for that reason, it makes sense that the five current recommended courses are the courses that students would have needed to take at the time of MCAS. There was a science high school MCAS. and ELA and a Math. For that reason, I do think it is a little strange that the state is proposing history to add to the competency determination when there was not a history MCAS. It seems like that would go under Mass Corps, but I understand that's a recommendation coming from elsewhere.

Yes, the MCAS history right now is the eighth grade.

Eighth, exactly.

Not at the high school level.

Okay. Another question I had was looking at the class of 2029 and beyond, I definitely understand the desire to raise the bar but would just articulate some concern about creating a different grade report card grade threshold for competency determination from passing a course. I think it could create a challenge if a student does not meet that competency C-, do we then put them in the course again that they've passed? I think it could compromise credit capture, so I just wanted to name that as a concern. On the CTE courses, I think this list is so exciting. There's an appendix here with just an amazing number of pathways that students could pursue. and I'm just really eager for more parents and students to know about this. So I think we're all excited about the middle school exploration and would just love to know when and how parents are being involved and some of that exposure because for many eighth graders it's still going to fall in their parents hands to make the decision about where they enroll.

So we will be sending specific information home to every eighth grade family about the Chapter 74 programs. and highlighting the uniqueness of those programs, not at the expense of other pathways and opportunities, but to highlight that when a program is Chapter 74 approved, there are some substantial differences in the number of contact hours The industry alignment direct into work and the fact that all of the instructors in those programs are industry professionals must have industry experience before teaching in those programs. And so the initial campaign is broad to let all families know that these opportunities exist in the schools. and then at the opportunities that I identified for example at the college career fair and STEM fair we will be highlighting industry clusters and making sure that people are thinking more about and many more. and then the third sort of leg of that stool is to make sure that all of the personnel at our schools that have middle school students in them, whether that's family liaisons, that's counselors, that's front office, everybody is aware of the nature of these programs so that when they are meeting with families in different contexts, when they are seeing what the students are saying in their career inventory surveys on MICAP and the kinds of interests that are surfacing, that there's a broad knowledge across the district about the program offering so that students can be referred into tours or other opportunities to learn about the programs.

And I know that the deadline is coming up for Madison Park quickly and this year we don't have kind of the full year to think about that as we will in the future. But I'd also encourage as we think about making sure that students are aware of Chapter 74 that we do treat all of the options in totality. I'm wondering if we can just go back and look at when students have to rank their choices During, for instance, the exam school process and the different rounds can families have all of the information and the blurbs and the explanation and the brochure all at the same time so that they understand like our portfolio is one of our biggest strengths and I'm worried that the information about all the different types of schools are coming at different times.

We are working cross-functionally between our team and the Office of Family Engagement, all the teams in BPS on the presentation of that. You know, digitally and in print. So we do have collateral that exposes families to all of the options. It's an abundance of choice and we are trying to as much as we can with enrollment and align those deadlines so that families can apply at the same time.

And it's also, it's a really interesting point, because traditionally before, other than the exam schools, parents were, and students were making decisions as they were rising eighth graders. Now they make those decisions, rising sixth graders, rising seventh graders, rising eighth graders, as there's multiple points of entry into the high schools. And so, like, in this particular group of schools, you have in BGA and English a seventh grade entry point, and then you have Madison and BAA, ninth grade entry. And so this really means that we have to continually educate and support parents and students no matter when in that journey they're making their choice. So it's going to require deeper thought, particularly as we see that seventh grade is now orienting to become the major transition grade in the BPS. We've reached that tipping point.

which suggests as we get deeper into this process that even at sixth grade, knowing about all of the options, even the ones that start in ninth are important so that you can make those decisions. So yeah, that's a good point.

mm-hmm

You ready? Yeah. Two, one, thank you for the presentation. I am looking at the last slide, just the current data predictions as of 9-16, and we're showing that only 41% of the Class of 2026 is on track to graduate with Mass Corps. Hearing Member Skerritt's question and really trying to differentiate our graduation requirement versus the competency determination, but also recognizing that there's a dramatic overlay. What is our plan to move this or accelerate this progress? Are you concerned about it? And I guess Because we still don't know the graduation numbers from last year, it's hard to place where we fit in in terms of young people being able to complete Mass Corps requirements and then graduate.

Right, so certainly the three of us, in addition to Dr. Wisdom-Freedom, we all talk about this. Some of this is working literally school by school around schedule, the way things are coded. And so that 41% has come up from what was even lower as we work school by school to identify the students. It's also, if you remember, that you passed a waiver policy relative to our multilingual learners and our special education students. It's applying that as well. So this is something that the committee meets literally weekly on as we look at the data. And so the 41 isn't reflective necessarily of the students, the percent of students who will graduate. It's at the moment those that on paper in code have met the threshold. But our committee hears me say we should not be facing anything less than what our typical graduation rate is for a cohort. in a given year because of that change. So that is sort of the marching orders that we're all operating under to look at and to make sure that we work with expediency to get that coding correct. And there may be students who also are dragging legitimate credit and need that opportunity, which is why we put such here in the presentation later this evening. Historic number of credit recovery opportunities for students. We did that again this fall and we'll do that again throughout the spring.

And totally related and at the same time unrelated, do we still not have a graduation rate for last year?

So the graduation rate gets actually produced by DESE and it's a four-year cohort data rate. So that is not an internal number that we keep because they look at the cohort over time. What we know is that this past June and throughout the summer, we had a historic number of graduates because of our emphasis on really pushing our students and giving them multiple opportunities to be able to get their credits. So that we do know, and so we would anticipate that our number would be higher than last year, but we will not see that number until somewhere between January and March. That's when it comes out from DESE. And Monica Hogan is a relevant expert in this area, so she can of course correct me if needed.

And so no other city or town in Massachusetts report, this is me not, I guess, being born and raised here, no other city or town in Massachusetts reports a graduation rate for the previous year till January?

Yeah, it's a lagging indicator, so.

That's wild. Second, that is like bureaucracy at its...

It used to be in January that we would get the draft results or the...

We have AI. You could plug a spreadsheet in. This should be done like that. This is nuts.

Monica, is there anything you'd like to add?

I mean, we could take our current seniors and say how many seniors graduated. It's just a different number from the mass DESE. cohort, because it counts kids who transferred in and out. But if we could look at our enrolled seniors as 12th graders.

We're running about 350 students over what we did last year. So that's a very healthy increase. But to answer your question, Member Cardet-Hernandez, that detail comes out to us from DESE. It used to come out in January, and of recent, it's come out as late as March, right?

and we don't have any history. I guess when I was in New York, we had a similar process, but we would still report on our graduation rate and then have like a second announcement as we'd have. I don't think it took us till January, but we don't share that information publicly, any number publicly till January.

We haven't historically reported graduation rates. Part of the delay is that through the October state reporting process that we do, that's how the state captures anyone who graduated over the summer. and then they it takes them some time to reconcile that data across the entire state to report out the final four-year cohort rates.

I think and then we'll get back to my actual question sorry this is a bit of a tangent I do think We should have some sort of internal indicator of how many of our kids graduated.

We can tell you from the senior class what that looks like. We can absolutely do that, but the graduation rate is a four-year cohort rate. That is what DESE calculates. So we can do that. We were actually looking at it earlier tonight, which is how I know it was around 350 students over. But we can calculate that and bring that back to you.

I think it would just be helpful, particularly as we adopted Mass Corps, to have something grounding us in progress on it. and the ability for students to complete it even with the waivers we were able to offer. But like, you know, we don't know if it was 60 or 90%. Now back to the presentation, sorry, my final question. The, I guess with the, I hear Member Skirrett's question as well around thinking about Cs and what that means for for credits and then course repeating. I guess the same time I am holding a question that aligns to a trend we're having across other presentations. How are we calibrating across schools the grading process? It is becoming more and more important now for graduation, for exam schools. Have we created a plan for an audit or... You know, monitoring processes that already exist. Is there a training around mastery-based grading? What is a D minus? What does that mean? How do you get it? How do we norm around that? And how do we not create Inequities based on you know just sort of teacher behavior instead of real standards.

Yeah, I mean, I think when it comes to grading in the BPS, that is a long overdue research project for sure to be able to see across all of our schools how that's done. It's also that we have schools that are trimester, quarter, capstone, portfolio, traditional, And then within that, a certain percentage are quiz and tests, a certain percentage are homework. So there really is no... Strong consistency across the schools. That is quite an undertaking. It's one that we've talked about internally that we need to now begin to look at. I think the other thing that we would like to see is what will come of the Graduation Advisory Council and their recommendations. because there may be some things in there that we can use or point toward. But, you know, I definitely, I do think that this is something when we look, and Angela, you may want to add to this, but We see grades done in wildly different ways across BPS.

There is recommendation from the teaching and learning department in looking at commonalities in regards to not letting behavior be part of a grade. So there are some statutes in regards to that. Absenteeism. like what's the threshold like looking solely at students product of work in regards to grading them and having systems in place but there is not like a universal grading across There's quite a bit of autonomy that our individual schools have.

Uniform is a great example where that's elected by the school site council. But I think the starting point that we want to undertake is sort of to capture the universe of what is being done to then make a decision about.

We lost translation.

Oh.

Mr. Bernardo?

So yeah, to finish that, yes, that is something that we've started to have those internal conversations about.

It's helpful. I'll end here, but I do think if we are making... There was an elegance, despite the debate, of the MCAS because there was a standard that was being held with a very clear floor and a very clear ceiling. If we are now moving more and more towards grades as admissions policies and graduation requirements, I think we have to really build, if we have to vote on a policy that uses, that says competency is determined by a grade from a teacher, we probably need a pretty Thank you. Thank you. That we can stand behind, that a D minus means something. I can't believe I'm saying this. But like that a D minus actually has... I would look for that in order to vote for this moving forward, at least some sort of future thinking around it.

And in the interim, as that landscape is assessed, if there is some sort of alternate way for students to show competency, if the grade isn't reached, that could be at least a temporary potential workaround for the future. I did see in the policy at this point that MCAS is an option still in some cases In exceptional circumstances it can be used

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the presentation.

It is very exciting to have the schools to offer this technical professional opportunities to our students.

We have to consider as well that many of our students do not go to college, cannot get to college. so they can take great advantage of this particular program offered by the schools.

So I do believe that it is very important to punctuality that the students go there. It is a critical factor, a critical variable, and I think we have talked about this. The students .

Attendance is very important.

Attendance is very important. We have talked about this before as well.

Que no serán tomado en cuenta aquellos estudiantes que tengan ausentismo crónico.

So those students that have a chronic absentism might not be included or taken in consideration.

Pero ahí estamos ahora mismo atravesando, si se quiere decir, una crisis con los estudiantes que tienen issues de migración.

We can say we're going through a crisis, particularly with these immigrant students that do not have proper documentation. We live in a current crisis because of this.

Hay un temor generalizado y me gustaría saber qué han pensado, qué plan han pensado para estos estudiantes y que esta situación For this reason, they may be disqualified for not having adequate assistance.

So we have to consider that this particular populations of immigrants could be impacted by absenteeism because of the fear that exists. currently already. So my question to you is what plan do we have in place to consider that as a factor that is impacting attendance?

That's a great question. And the reason that we are sending the weights out to families in advance of running the lottery is so that if there are exceptional circumstances that were not documented by the school There is a chance for a student, a family, a counselor to let us know that there were some interruptions in attendance related to those circumstances. And then that student would be awarded their weight. So that's one of the reasons that we do send out the weights in advance of the lottery. I would say once the students are in school, we are lucky that we have many online options for career and technical instruction. and other ways to deliver instruction. That's one of the things that we've learned. So those alternatives exist. But I think the larger point to think about with attendance and chronic absenteeism is that nationally, The Association of Career and Technical Education does report that students that are in career and technical education programs and pathways have higher attendance. They have a higher level of engagement. The game changer for a student that may have had poor attendance for other reasons. But if those reasons are documented, you know, and there are exceptional circumstances, those will absolutely be considered admissions. So thank you for that question.

The other part I would add is that, because it's a great question, Member Polanco-Garcia, is that in the weights that have been chosen or being suggested, is that there's multiple ways for a student to have a weight. And so while the attendance is one, and to Brett's point that That communication with the school can make a difference in terms of the explanation. The student can also earn that weight through no expulsion or long-term suspension, as well as by showing an interest in vocation. So there's just a number of ways that students would be able to express it.

Thank you.

Yes, I have a couple of questions just really bouncing around actually. So just to start back with what you were saying in terms of notifications of the waits for families. I think you noted a period of 10 days. I think is that generally long enough for families to understand and then actually submit any type of Questions that they might have, is that something that needs to be opened up or earlier?

It may be. I mean, we have that tension of trying to keep the application deadline open long enough so that families can apply. But to earlier points, we also want to run that lottery in time for families to consider all of their options. And we know that other schools have deadlines. We think 10 days is adequate. We hope that all students come in with four waits and that we don't have a lot of appeals, but I think in you know exceptional circumstances after the lottery is run there would be consideration there's going to be a wait list not every student that is admitted to a program or a school is going to accept that seat So if someone came in after the deadline with a circumstance, I think that we could adjust, we would reflect that in the wait list seat for that student.

No, thank you. My second question is actually related to just the general tracking and use of MICAP. Is that a new, is that not particularly, okay. So wondering like how much families are actually using it or are we looking at that just to know that if it is a worthwhile resource that's... That's of use for families.

Right now, we are using Naviance to enter data around MICAP. In this room, this week, we trained over 100 educators in the MICAP system. We want to make sure that this is not just sitting in the counselor's office, that there is a school-wide team of teachers and other professionals that are involved in this work. and that when students are exploring their career interests, their passions, looking at their post-secondary plans, that multiple people are able to have a lens into what that student's dreams are. you bring up a good point about parents and you know making sure that parents being parents do have access to that information but as we train more staff we want to push this out into the parents so the parents are aware and that from fourth, fifth, sixth grade, their students are involved in sequential grade-appropriate activities, and then they're starting to shape their career goals. You know, we're starting with school teams that are broad based and moving it out into the parent communities at each school.

And my last question is actually more of a I guess tied back to member Skerritt's question and also member Cardet-Hernandez's question around and I think this is more of a A philosophy question of, in the district, what do we determine as mastery for our students? And I think about that, I'm imagining the The class of 2029 is the starting point because we'll have our first, what, four years under this new competency determination. But then also I'm wondering how that ties to our full implementation of HQIM across all schools, how this ties to the rollout of inclusion at all schools. So before we start having this conversation about changing standards, we have to also make sure that across all of our schools, all of the programs that you've started with are actually rolled out I mean, you can walk and chew gum at the same time, but it seems something that would be very important.

So yes, so I think that within a couple of months, the hope is to be able to see from the graduation committee what they're going to recommend. So for instance, if they were to recommend multiple pathways, like in New York you have exit exam, right? You have end of year course kinds of exams. Maybe that will be what they recommend is one. Another could be a portfolio. Much like for our special education students with MCAS Alt, there's a portfolio of demonstration of work. That might be a potential another. A third could be taking a test like the MCAS, right, to show it. We just don't know. And so I think the first step we want is to sort of see what the base is that they are going to recommend. So that we can then build from there and sort of say, is there something else we want to be able to implement? Are we going to implement in full what they recommend, etc. ? I think the Mass Corps you've already taken action on, right? And that's not the case in most districts throughout Massachusetts. So that is, we feel pretty far ahead when it comes to that because we feel like that's maybe a baseline of what other districts would choose to do. But I do think the next couple of months will, as it unfolds for the future classes, we'll start to see which direction we do need to go toward to define what mastery is going to look like. For instance, now if a student does not get a meets or exceeds on MCAS, then they have to actually demonstrate. that they've taken the equivalent of that for CD purpose with a course. That was already in existence as an alternative to MCAS. It's not too unlikely that we'll see something like that as an opportunity that's offered through the Graduation Requirement Committee or the Graduation Advisory Committee. but it'll take the next couple of months for that to become clearer for us. I'm not as concerned with us being in the process of rolling out inclusion and the equitable high quality instructional materials simply because we're pretty much complete with the high quality instructional materials. It's the usage of those materials on a consistent basis with students doing the task piece of it. That is our focus. I think in inclusion, we'll be pretty close to the finality of the rollout, but even so, whether students in an included class or not, they're still required from a graduation standpoint to complete the courses that are at hand relative to MassCore. I think whatever changes we need to make or alterations will be back before you. But the next step for us is to really see, I think, where the graduation requirement committee goes. And just thinking a bit more about Member Cardet-Hernandez's specific question, I think I think what Angela was saying with the grades is that we have what I would call guardrails, but they're very loose guardrails, to be clear. They're guardrails. The end course in New York is the definitive kind of you either know the material or you don't and you can either get a particular Number of questions correct or not. In most, at least at the secondary level, in most cases, there's some kind of end of course that's aligned to those standards that's being taken. So that in and of itself would potentially show the mastery of the content. That's not the final grade because the grade includes other things. but that in and of itself could be used as a marker for the mastery part were we to go down that direction. Elementary, I think, is different.

Just very quick question, two quick questions. One on the CTE Chapter 74 program level admissions. I'm looking in particular at Not Madison Park, but like English BAA, BGA, and EMK. So as an example at BAA, you're saying students are admitted by BAA's typical admission process. and then they start as a student and then at some point they're applying for one of the Chapter 74 programs and you have in the listing about six programs that There are many more programs at BAA. I'm just using this as one example, right? So is the lottery then only for students that are already within BAA for those specific programs?

That's correct. That's correct. So the lottery is actually to take the exploratory, which is for those CTE Chapter 74 programs. As you pointed out, there are many other pathways at BAA that this policy would not apply to.

Okay. Good, I just want to understand that if other students could be applying for that lottery for those programs, so it's the ones that are already in each of these schools, English BAA, BGA, and EMK.

That's correct. There can be upper grade transfer students in grade 10 and 11 if there are seats available, and then there could be a lottery system. as those seats become available. So if there is a 10th grade program and there are students that apply in 10th grade and there's more, students that meet then then or there's more interest than seats then BAA could run a lottery as that student comes into the school.

Great, thank you. And then flipping to a topic other members have been talking about tonight, which you talked about at the end, which is, so my understanding is we voluntarily As a body, decide to have Mass Corps as a graduation requirement. It's not required by the state at this point. And we've been working towards getting there. And one of the big stumbling blocks over the years, as you alluded to, Superintendent, was the scheduling. particularly if you have seven blocks or eight blocks when you talk to the individual schools I think a lot of our Innovation and Horace Mann Schools have been working with us to get there. But I think Phys Ed has been the big stumbling block as well, right? And we see it in the, not the participation figure, but 59% versus the others. If we are voluntarily deciding to do a mass corps, do we have flexibility to look at different ways to meet that requirement or?

Well, phys ed is actually a separate requirement from mass core. It's its own requirement and the ideal implementation is 0.25 credits per year. and it is challenging. You have students that are going off campus for early college or dual enrollment opportunities and not everything fits into their schedule. We are looking at best practices within the district at schools that are able to figure out ways to implement phys ed given the complexity of their schedule. So that is a challenge. One thing I just want to add is I did talk about the number of contact hours for career and tech programs. students there with regards to mass core are exempted from a few of the subject requirements in order to allow for additional time for career and tech ed. But physical education is challenging for schools and they are all looking at ways to Put that into the schedule without students having to choose between off campus or even in school opportunities that are available to them.

Thank you.

Our hope is that when we see the graduation requirements recommendations that we see some flexibility that's provided to districts in areas like this. Similarly with world language. Considering all the multilingual learners that we have in BPS who know a language other than English, and the amount of ESL that they are required to take, we would like ways to be able to count that language as their first language as is very viable. and asset-based. So I think our hope is in the next couple of months is this becomes a little bit clearer. We can come back to you and say this is the direction we're taking. But in the meantime, Brett, can you just once more just summarize for the November 5th vote what you need from the committee?

And Angela. So we want a vote on the CTE admissions policy at both levels, at the school and the program level that are outlined in the policy. Approval of the middle school CTE exploration policy. and approval of the updates to the competency determination policy as it applies to the class of 26 and 27.

And these are all necessary because of changes that have happened at the state level. I have a quick question for you.

Could you explain the difference between a weighted lottery and a regular lottery? How do the weights impact how the lottery is run?

So in the weighted lottery, I think of it like a silent auction when you buy your tickets and you put them in the bag. So in a weighted lottery, A student can have up to four entries for a seat in a school or a program. based on those four criteria and then the unweighted lottery is literally a number generator when when the number of applicants exceeds the number of seats so in in In certain cases, we may not need to run a lottery, but when there is an excess of applicants to the number of seats, those are the two ways to run the lottery. and Madison, I think, chose the weighted lottery primarily on the interest front. They want to make sure that students visit the school, that they look at the website, that they see the videos, that they really understand The opportunity that they are applying for and so that is the reason that they chose that weighted lottery system

Okay, and just listening to this tonight and then knowing we have our other conversation about exam schools, et cetera, the issues around trying to figure out, for a district that's got 32 high schools, how many different, Are we trying to help parents to understand? And, you know, why can't there be One set of ways of getting through the front door no matter what kind of school you wanted to go to. I mean because I'm thinking this lottery system is pretty sophisticated yet for another set of schools we don't want to do a lottery system and you know we could do a weighted for those things we have The equivalent of whites when we're talking about points and other kinds of things. But I just feel like as a district, how do we All parents and all students can understand this wide variety of options but not have to have a PhD to figure out How to manipulate or figure out what they want to do. I mean in the towns where there's one high school, you go to that high school and then maybe there are lotteries or other ways of getting into programs. But it just feels like in a district with as many opportunities as we have that it's overcomplicated. and sometimes I think frightening for period. So I don't know what we do. I mean, because I know we haven't talked about all the other options of others. You don't have to, I don't know. interview or audition or whatever so we've got all of those things but you know are they really working to the best interest of our families and students so I'm looking for something that

I agree that that is the work, especially this year is making sure that our families as they approach transitions, particularly at seventh and ninth grade, Really do see the full portfolio of I mean the opportunities for families are amazing But it is complicated and we do need to simplify and streamline for our families. I

Thank you. So we look forward to taking votes on this in our next meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we will continue with the Summer Learning Report. Let's aim to keep the presentation under 15 minutes. Superintendent, I invite you to give introductory remarks. It's gonna be a long evening. because we are already at 823 and we still have to report so just making everybody mindful.

all right uh so tonight the team is here to provide highlights and participation data from summer of 2025 what we call next level summer The presentation will include an overview of core summer programs including 5th Quarter Summer Learning Academies, Credit Recovery, The Exam School Initiative, programs offered by the Office of Multilingual and Multicultural Education as part of fifth quarter, next level summer, and student supports summer synergy. This summer, BPS served approximately 14,600 students, an increase of 600 students compared to the summer of 2024. Our summer programming was led by Deputy Superintendent Dr. Ana Tavares, who oversees the Division of Family and Community Advancement, in addition to teams from the Divisions of Academics and Operations. Those teams included specialized services, student support, and multilingual and multicultural education, who collaborated on our goal to increase the overall participation of BPS students specifically our multilingual learners and our students receiving special education services. This year's improvements that increased participation included shared decision-making and communications, This meant that families now get information faster and in their own language. Cross-departmental collaboration made processes and communication smoother. Community Partnerships in collaboration with our Boston After School and Beyond partners, our family liaisons, personalized outreach, ensure families are provided the information and support needed to access summer learning opportunities, and updated communications such as fifth quarter programs organized by themes. It also featured academic improvements where every classroom now has a consistent High quality curriculum. Thousands of students are using top tier materials in math, social studies, and STEM. It also included cross-departmental improvements. And this was more like students with disabilities were included in new opportunities. This summer, our OM office continued to expand access and impact for multilingual learners. A total of 2,933 multilingual learners participated in fifth quarter programs, which was up from 2,700 22 last year with nearly 1,900 students in OM-led sites across Boston. 81% of students in credit recovery successfully completed their courses and almost 60% of summer staff were bilingual. reflecting the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of our students and families. We're working towards further expanding access to the exam school initiative to support students who are interested in attending an exam school. It also featured operational improvements, hiring and support for schools are faster and more streamlined, staff are getting stronger training to build long-term capacity. Tonight, you'll hear from Deputy Superintendent Dr. Ana Tavares and other team members leading the work, Magaly Sanchez, Chief Family Advancement Officer, Kay Seal, Chief of Specialized Services, Joel Gamir, Chief of Multilingual and Multicultural Education, and Cory McCarthy, Chief of Student Support. Our goal for the summer month is to keep our students engaged by providing access to instruction and enrichment opportunities, including our multilingual learners and students with disabilities. At this point, I'll turn it over to Dr. Tavares. Good evening.

Thank you, Superintendent Skipper. Madam Chair and school committee members for the opportunity to share the learning our over 14,000 students experienced during fifth quarter next level summer. This work reflects the strength of collaboration. Across divisions, our city partners, and our families, together we ensured that summer was both joyful and an opportunity for growth and achievement. This summer's progress represents the all hands on deck approach across BPS's three divisions and the city. School committee members you're in for a treat. Our team is going to share the gains and areas of growth that continue to propel us to improve programming for our students in the summer. And yes, we are already gearing up for next summer. We are so proud of the work that the team has led. And now I am pleased and honored to hand things over to Chief Magali Sanchez, leading the change for summer learning and who along with our esteemed colleagues will share summer highlights. Thank you.

Good evening. Thank you, Dr. Tavares. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the Boston School Committee. It's an honor to be here this evening in front of all of you to share a little bit about our summer, next level summer. As Superintendent Skipper mentioned, today we are joined by a plethora of our chiefs from our district in service to all of our students. And I'd like to take this opportunity to also introduce our Ofca Expanded Learning Opportunities team who's here with us tonight, which include Francisca Borders, Jewel Perry, Talbot, Ayanna Spencer, they're sitting over to my left, Eli, as well as our Executive Director, David Martinez, Deputy Director, Dr. Elizabeth Ara, who all lead fifth quarter summer learning in service to all of our BPS students. It is no lie that it truly takes a village to implement our fifth quarter programming because it is really an extension of the learning that our students have during our years within the regular school year. In addition, as you heard earlier today, you'll have the opportunity to hear from Chief Seale as well as Chief McCarthy and Chief Gamir that's with us today. Our Deputy Director Lauren Viviani from our Specialized Services, Alicia Scott, as well as Felicia Sandoz is also here to answer any questions in regards to our exam school initiative programming, which we'll share some information about. This summer showed us a very strong demand for many programs and the need to expand access amongst our most popular programs. Some of our programs did have some waiting lists. You'll notice within the information that we provided that we offer 241 programs citywide reaching, as shared earlier, over 14,000 students. And these programs included credit recovery, summer learning academies, both within our schools as well as with our partnerships with our community-based organizations. and also our programs with exam school initiative and our expanded school year programming for all of our students. The program outreach was pretty incredible. And we ensured that this was culturally and linguistically applied for our students so that our families were able to access. Thank you for the recommendation of last year of having us provide the programs in a thematic way so that our families can access these programming opportunities which they give us a lot of positive feedback for. Thank you for that. In addition, oops, I'm supposed to be moving the slides. I also would like to share that we clearly understood the importance of summer learning while maintaining fun and enrichment activities for all of our students. This meant that it was a call for us to proudly expand our offerings, combining academics with arts, STEM, sports, as well as hands-on experiences. The impact was a rich portfolio that met the diverse needs and highlights the vibrancy of the Boston neighborhoods using our amazing city for their classroom. I'd like to talk a little bit about our shared decision making and communications and how our families asked us to make summer learning easier to navigate against. I shared earlier that we made these slowdown available in multiple languages, the programs. In addition, we launched newsletters, built parent-friendly and again, culturally, linguistically and responsive website, as well as A multilingual parent square messages that offered in-person multilingual registration for our families. We wanted to ensure that all of our Boston families had access and that they were able to participate in our summer program and so we did that by a multitude of ways for them to register. In addition to that, I'd like to also share that we recognize that smoother operations as well as staff support were really critical for growth as we learned from 2024. And so this summer we expanded leadership roles aligned to our regional model. We streamlined our hiring processes. We provided biweekly cross-functional professional development for all fifth quarter site coordinators. As a result, this step created a more inclusive student experience with more than 360 students qualifying for extended school year programming, participating in our fifth quarter programming. Now I'll talk a little bit about our enrollment trends. Last year, we showed a steady demand for summer learning with more than 7,600 students engaged in fifth quarter programs. This year enrollment held steady, but the story shifted. Over 50% of pre-K through fifth grade students joined, an increase from approximately 47% last year. Students had the opportunity in credit recovery to access and I think earlier we were talking about access for students and multiple opportunities for them to gain their graduation requirements and the courses that they need in order to cross the stage. And so during the summer, we provide this opportunity via our middle school and high school credit recovery programs. This summer, we had a total of 1,702 students. participating in credit recovery, which resulted in 83% of credits successfully being earned There was an attempt of 4,861 credits of which 4,046 credits were attained by all of our students participating in high school credit recovery. In terms of equity and access, we wanted to ensure that in regards to credit recovery we were reaching all students, especially the most neediest of populations. This year's participation reflects some meaningful progress. meaningful progress towards equitable access and participation, which include 53% of our students identified as Latinx, 37% of our black students and 82% of our economically disadvantaged students. Their participation in credit recovery was due to the intentional outreach as shared earlier from our family liaisons and our cross collaborative work, ensuring that our students have every opportunity to attain the credits that they need to graduate. In terms of our credit recovery attendance, I'd like to share a little bit about a shift that we did do in terms of our operational way that we actually gain attendance. And so last summer, Attendance was recorded using a default system that marked all students present unless noted otherwise. This process is known as a negative attendance process. This year we decided to implement a full attendance process or system which actually requires our teachers and educators to record the actual and many more. who are the students that we need to engage with those conversations when they're not showing up to programming. Overall, attendance this summer reached 79% and our Asian, Black, White, and former English learners students surpassed this rate as well. In terms of enrollment, equity, and access in our summer learning academies, our summer learning academies, This year, we saw strong representation from our Black students, including 34%, as well as representation from my multilingual learners, for a total of 40%. with 19% of participants identified with disabilities compared to 23% district-wide. and in terms of our Summer Learning Academy attendance, we improved systems this year to ensure that we increase our attendance. We did have an average of about 75% with high schoolers Asian students and former English learners reaching 79 to 82 percent. This summer, I'm excited to share that we did have the opportunity to serve 228 students within our exam school initiative programming. of which 12% of these students identified as students with disabilities and 11% identified as multilingual learners. These were critical increases from prior years. The impact of this was more inclusive pathways that welcome diverse students within these rigorous learning opportunities in order to provide them with access to advanced learning. In terms of other gains within our exam school initiative, student engagement in these advanced learning programs varied widely in the past. This year our attendance grew significantly with our black students by six points, Latinx by 15 points, and our multilingual learners by 11 points. This paired with a notable gains in math and literacy as measured by the outcomes from the program. In addition, we targeted students to providing them with social emotional learning supports and partnered with the Museum of Science across all of our fifth quarter programming. in order to ensure that they had opportunity for advanced learning and vigorous joyful learning opportunities. With that, I am very excited to pass it over to Chief Seale who will talk a little bit about our extended school year programming. Chief Seale.

Good evening, and thank you, Chief Sanchez. Madam Chair, members of the school committee, I'm honored to present the outcomes of our specialized service programs for the summer, which we refer to as Extended School Year Services, ESY. I think most of you understand that those are services that are mandated by our students' IEPs, and it's through that process we identify the level of services that our students need. I'd like to also give a shout out to some of my staff who actually were hands-on in our classrooms, in our schools, across the district, and all of our sites. who led this work, our Deputy Superintendent Chief, Dr. Lauren Viviani, who's here today, and Alicia Scott, our Director of Expanded Learning. and also the host of our ESY servicers like our senior advisors, our assistant directors for special education, our special education teachers, our specialists and our support staff, but most importantly our families who really supported this each and every step of the way. As you know, the purpose of ESY is really for us to provide a range of mandated IEP services for our students. And through the summer, we provide not just educational services, but behavioral, social, emotional, and therapeutic services for our students as well. as outlined by their IEPs. These services are essential to accelerate students' learning outcomes as we focus on maintaining critical skills to prevent regression and also focusing on their goals. We ensured that our instruction was targeted. Also, we provided enrichment activities for our students to accelerate their learning as well as to assist them with their transition back to school where they were able to learn the prerequisite skills. and ultimately leaning and helping our students to learn meaningful educational progress. Excuse me. As we look at our students and we look at our family engagement, I think I really want to recognize the grows. This summer we had Over 3,400 families who expressed interest in participating across 13 sites, ESY sites. That was a record enrollment for us, and we achieved a substantial increase and Student Participation, servicing over 2,551 students, which is a growth of 500 Am I on? There we go. Which is a growth of over 500 students over the previous year. This expansion really reaches and shows us our commitments in servicing a greater number of our students, but also making sure that our students continue to learn throughout the summer. We also have strong community connections as we focus on engagement and translations in terms of how we action up in terms of providing open houses for our families to engage them so they had an understanding of what their children were going to have experienced through the summer. We had over 300 families in various locations across the city as we start up the program. And I also want to give a shout out to Fifth Quarter because in partnership with Fifth Quarter, we really rocked it with inclusion this summer. We really advanced inclusion opportunities for our students and IEPs and they were with their peers and they had some amazing learning opportunities but also they were fun. and that was really exciting for our kids to go into the sites and see the things that they had the opportunity to learn but not only just learn but actually do. Can you go to the next slide please? Thank you. When we think about our excellence and we think about our programs, in terms of what we did in terms of really creating engaging, interesting learning opportunities for our students, we really focused on developing in terms of programs based on competencies, but also based on excellence. We had a high impact enrichment pre-vocational career opportunities for our students by Einstein. When you visit some of our sites, our students were hands-on working on global warning, Problem-Solving Activities. One of our sites our students were working on creating a community in terms of looking at global warnings in terms of what do you need to do if there's a flood. And it was really interesting to see how they had created that environment to make sure that there was safety. We also did minis in terms of missions in terms of the pet therapy sessions. We did ARCFest over Transformative Arts, which focused on data that boosted creativity, literacy, as well as SEL. Excuse me. And also, what was really important is the fact that not only did we focus on the academic, we also focused on the SEL for our students. We recognized that there need to be training for our staff. In terms of their readiness and we were able to achieve 98% of compliance with safety care training standards for our students. And what that means is that we really worked on making sure that our staff were trained and did de-escalation and also providing support for our students in terms of behavioral supports. We also focused on what we did in terms of expansion with our curriculum. We launched a new ESY curriculum which was a website-based curriculum for our educators to streamline access and also making sure that some of our students had access to technology tools Our STRIVE program at Madison Park was amazing. If you hadn't had a chance to see the GROW program, to see our students working with carpentry, We had The Hut where our students had customer service and workplace readiness. We also had a bakery program for our students. What was really also awesome was the fact that our students also were doing bike repairs for other students in the community. Our students also had opportunities to work in facilities in terms of alongside our trained staff. and supporting a range of maintenance projects in the district, including painting and other building improvement tasks. Our students were hands-on, doing the work, learning and having fun. We also partnered with transition students. Slow down? Okay, sorry. We also partnered with our transition students from East Boston High School who supported our classrooms by creating instructional materials because some of our students need visuals, they need hands-on, they need manipulatives. and our own students were involved in creating these materials for our students and they themselves also gained valuable vocational experiences. throughout their learning. So overall, we really were excited about this summer and we know that our students had an amazing summer. The successes were evident. Our students' learning was positive beyond ESY to involve a range of inclusion opportunities with their peers, And as you hear tonight, our students are given amazing opportunities to engage in learning and recreational activities in their community where they live. And it's a pleasure for me now to pass it on to my colleague, Chief Joel Gamir, who will share the work of the Office of Multicultural Multilingual Learning.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief Seale. Good evening, members of the school committee and Madam Chair. I definitely want to thank our and give shout out to our supplemental services manager, Rachel Chen, who's done an amazing job in organizing and working with Our friends from ofca in fifth quarter and the multiple staff members who worked really hard and diligently to provide a really robust summer for our students. I'd like to take a moment to highlight the impact of the Office of Multilingual and Multicultural Education during the summer of 2025. This past summer, Our fifth quarter program served 2,933 multilingual learners up from 2,722 last year. Of that total, OM led 48 programs, including 27 summer learning academies and 21 credit recovery programs. These programs were located in key Boston neighborhoods, ensuring that students had access to great opportunities close to home. Participation in OM-led programs grew from 1,445 students last year to 1,919 this year, a clear sign of our continued growth and impact. This steady increase reflects our department's deep commitment to expanding access and creating summer experiences that not only help prevent learning loss, but also give our multilingual learners meaningful opportunities to strengthen their language skills, celebrate their cultural identities, and stay connected to joyful, engaging learning opportunities. Our outcomes this summer speak to both student achievement and program quality. The attendance rate was 75% for our current multilingual learners, and 82% for our former multilingual learners. Among the 874 students who took part in the credit recovery courses, 81% of them, meaning 708 students, successfully completed their courses. We also strengthened our summer staffing pool. Nearly 60% of the OMS summer hires reported proficiency in a language other than English. helping us to ensure that our staff could connect with students and families in linguistically and culturally responsive ways. The top languages represented amongst our staff were Spanish, Haitian Creole, Cape Verdean Creole, Mandarin Cantonese, French and Portuguese. Program quality was also affirmed through APT assessments, where our programs earned good and excellent from our participants. And finally, our center was student voice. In our surveys, 75% of our students reported feeling highly engaged, Ome is committed to providing high-quality, inclusive summer learning experiences in collaboration with our other departments, that truly meet the needs of our multilingual learners academically, linguistically, and socially. And now I will pass it to my colleague, Chief Cory McCarthy from the Office of Student Support. Thank you.

Realize I'm on the clock here. Thank you, Chief Gamir. Members of the school committee, thank you for sticking with us tonight. The work this summer was felt within the community, within the hard work that folks in BPS Collaborated on to create quality experiences for our young people. I'd like to thank our staff. This summer we had Our nurses collaborating with our programs. We had our social workers super active. Our young people, as you could tell, this is probably two-thirds of the work we were able to do. We were able to put students In cars, we were able to work with the Juice Foundation, with Jalen Brown to get students to MIT to learn STEM. Among other things, we were able to play some golf. We were able to have an all boys and all girls STEM-specific program, which was grounded in mentoring. We were able to support 300 young women and bring them to Emanuel College where they can have a holistic and We had a wonderful trading program where students were able to learn how to be content creators Learn how to do real estate. Learn how to explore and build their own brand as entrepreneurs. We were also able to make sure that our young people played sports. I think the beauty of what we were able to offer this summer was from the day school got out the next day we began. and we went for 10 weeks straight providing opportunities for young people to get in spaces that they otherwise would not be able to go. This means justice and court involved students. This means students who students with disabilities, students who are multilingual. We provided an inclusive environment with the support of Fifth Quarter and the help of our colleagues For our young people and our families who showed up, we were super inclusive. We continued our Sunday program throughout the summer, Sunday Wellness. We fed families. We supported them academically. We provided a space that was holistic and inclusive of our families. The data is there, but I invite everyone, especially our wonderful members of the school committee, to sort of see what we have done This summer, but also it has carried over to the fall. So many of these programs will continue at the request of the families and we remain student centered and adult adjacent, no offense. But I think one of the final things that we really One of the things we pushed out this summer was to start our My Brother's Health and My Sister's Health mental health supports. We were able to get students telebehavioral health, students who were struggling, students who didn't know whether or not school was their thing. and we partnered that with the Reconnection Program and Initiative where we reached out to students who discontinued school and brought them back and sort of say, hey, here's this opportunity. You defaulted on one pathway, but here's eight more. and I think that speaks to the amount of effort, the amount of commitment, the amount of kindness that we have as a district and that level of connection that we have built with our families that allowed them to really, really feel comfortable with the work that we are doing and the work that we're going to carry forward. So yes, we have a high level of participation. We had a high level of activity and community engagement and involvement but more importantly young people were very happy The feedback was amazing and we hope to continue such initiatives with the help of Fifth Quarter and the support of our colleagues. Thank you.

Thank you so much Chief McCarthy and to the entire team. Now I have the opportunity to talk a little bit about looking ahead before I close with a fantastic video that our team put together. So what we have definitely learned over the last couple of summers is that collaboration, inclusion, and the joy of learning is what are key and what makes our summers very successful. As a result, we understand that there's a clear roadmap to summer 2026. Some of our goals are around ensuring that we're expanding access to high quality diverse programs as measured by our sale data you heard earlier as well as , strengthening the implementation and alignment of our high quality instructional materials and better figuring how to use these materials and curriculums to share what our student outcomes are, right, in measuring those. And the alignment is really critical because we provide such diverse programmings that many of our programs have the opportunity to have autonomy within the curriculums that they use. And that's oftentimes what makes it really difficult to measure student outcomes, but we're getting there. We also are going to ensure that we continue broadening inclusive opportunities for all of our students. It's a pleasure to have all of our students enrolling in our fifth quarter programming with their peers. That's our goal and that's what should be happening, more inclusive opportunities for our kiddos. and also improving our student attendance. Now that we are actually taking the actual attendance versus utilizing the negative attendance, it helps us really understand who's attending, who is not attending, We can then knock on those doors with our collaboration with student support, ensuring that our students are showing up to our programming, right? And providing them with access to culturally and linguistically and many more.

Hmm.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for this presentation and it's great to to see all the data particularly around the attendance and the increases that we've seen from 2024 to 2025 so Thank you for that commendable job from the entire team on that first and foremost. I just have a few questions. One, I think in the future, I would love to see some of the participation demographics also break out our alt ed students as part of that in participating in summer programming just so that we're making sure that we're tracking their role and their contributions to summer program and how they're accessing that as well. But my first question is really, do we know how many students that, particularly I'm talking about credit recovery, how many of those students that are engaged in credit recovery and many more. Thank you. getting to a point of being on pace with their performance during the academic year.

Yeah, sure. Thank you for that question. That's currently not a data point that we measure, but it's one that we definitely can for sure. When we think about credit recovery, our main goal is, I think we said earlier that we try to provide as many opportunities as possible for our students to access. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. You're welcome.

and actually a follow up to what we're seeing in terms of the participation. I'm wondering if I put myself in the shoes of a student I've now undergone this wonderful series of summer programs What plans do I leave with as a student going back into the academic year? So the staffing that's there, is there a comprehensive plan for students as they migrate back into the academic year so that We're ensuring that the support that they receive during the summer seems to be consistent and that there's plans in place so that, again, they may not necessarily need the same level of supports during the following year.

Sure, yeah, and I would venture to say that during our high school credit recovery, we make a strong attempt to ensure that we're aligning the programming to the needs of the students and where they go to school, right? So many, sorry, can you hear me?

It'll come back.

It'll come back. Okay, here it is. Many of our schools have like diverse graduation requirements in addition to our course, right? And so what we definitely have, and we will definitely want to do more is ensuring that our students have access to those diverse opportunities and to the courses that they need but that part about a very clear plan becomes more personalized at the school level and and it's definitely something that I can again also circle back with as well to better understand how do our schools actually do that across all of our high schools. um i would venture to say that it's not going to be one exact plan for every single student but just the thought right that there is a personalized plan so that one they don't come back to that even though that's an opportunity for them which is i think where i hear you going yes okay thank you

And then my last question is, looking at the exam school initiative participation, do we know the correlation between students engaged in the exam school initiative and the invitation rates?

Oh, that's a great question. I know that I have Alicia Saunders with us this evening here. Oh, there you are. Okay, did you want to come on up? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was the question?

It was just related to understanding the correlation between participation in the exam school initiative and the invitation rates that different demographics will receive.

Yeah, there's actually a formula that you use. So what happened at the very beginning of us thinking about getting kids registered for the exam school initiative is that each school based on their OI score has a specific number of students they can nominate to attend the exam school initiative program. And so that's sort of our first level of getting kids involved. There's also a strategy that we use that central office where we send out invitations centrally to students who are not nominated by their schools who outfit the criteria. So that's usually the correlation of how we choose or how students actually get registered for the ESI program.

So I think I'm asking about Understanding the participation within the exam school initiative and how that correlates to them receiving an invitation rate when they apply to an exam school. Do we track that at all? No.

Okay. So if we looked at last year's students that participated in ESI, what percent of them would have gotten the invite? So that's data that we can crunch. We definitely can get that data. Yeah.

No, yes, but thank you. Thank you. You're very welcome.

Your first two questions are just sticking with me on the high school one. When we ran this initially, it was like about 40% of the students returned. To have to, again, take credit. The difficulty is seniors would be excluded.

Mm-hmm.

and we actually have seventh and eighth graders now. But I actually want this data point. You asked a really good question because I do think it's important for us particularly to do it by subject. So if they have failed math the previous year and taken credit recovery, do they in fact Through student support and tutoring back at the school, are they then able to not have to go the following year? So I think we need to break it down by subject.

And it is critical to know that the presentation that you all saw this evening was absolutely influenced by the questions that you asked us last year. So we're meticulously taking notes because you will be influencing next year's presentation.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to congratulate you, congratulate you all because of the excellent job and work you did this summer.

y tuve la oportunidad de hablar con algunos de ustedes y sé que no solo hicieron un trabajo muy fuerte de hacer todos estos programas, sino trabajaron con el corazón y me gustó mucho eso.

I had the opportunity to have the conversation with you and I know that it is not only the work that had to do with everything that you did, but the heart and the intention that you put into what you did. Ole, thank you very much for doing that with your heart as well.

El highlighted que tiene el aumento de los estudiantes multilingües debe ser celebrado.

So we have to look at the screen right here at the slide where it's highlighted the increase of this particular population that...

Number 19.

Number 19. That has to be celebrated. That metric has to be celebrated. There was an increase there, a reason to celebrate.

En ese sentido, siempre estamos hablando de cómo implementar el lenguaje nativo. de los estudiantes en los programas y quiero enfatizar la parte de que podamos en el verano también crear esas memorias a estos estudiantes. que llegan a un programa de verano que nunca habían ido y se sientan bienvenidos con su cultura y con su idioma.

So we have to consider that we are incorporating the native language in this particular program and we have to celebrate as well the level of satisfaction that these newcomers have when they go into these programs. Whether their language and their culture is celebrated so they live with that memories of being walked and that particular population that never had this program before.

Por ejemplo, se me ocurre que pueden incorporar un programa donde los abuelitos o personas puedan leerle a los niños en su idioma de las historias de sus países.

So I think of a program maybe we can have their grandfathers or grandmothers to read stories from their own countries to them. Maybe we can think about something like that.

en su idioma y historia de su país para que esa cultura se mantenga viva.

in their own language, telling about stories in their own language where they grew in order to keep that culture and that heritage alive all the time.

Imaginen como, hemos hablado de casos imaginarios aquí, hemos puesto escenario, ¿verdad? Pero imagina como se siente un estudiante que llega y encuentra que una persona le habla en su idioma y le mantiene la cultura también de su país.

We have to imagine different scenarios here. We have talked about different scenarios, but imagine how a student will feel. How would they feel when they have a person speaking in their own language, talking about their own culture? Imagine that great feeling that they will have.

Así que solo quería inyectar y poner este granito para que ustedes el año que viene lo tengan en cuenta y puedan pensar en este programa. I know that there will be volunteers. I know that we have a city where there are many people interested in contributing and saying, come read to our children.

So I just wanted to share with you that humble advice that I'm giving you in order to be able to implement this next year. I do know for a fact that there will be many volunteers People willing to come and read for the students. People will show up for this. It is a great cause.

Muchas gracias. Y me hizo pensar, los abuelos y las abuelas también pueden enseñar a jugar domino.

Grandfathers and grandmothers, also I'm thinking about it, they can teach them how to play domino as well.

Dominican pastime, y'all.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation, and congratulations on a successful summer, of course. Grant, first question, do students who attend a summer program show measurable improvement in literacy or math upon returning to school?

Yeah, so we're working towards that. I think earlier I mentioned that many of our programs have the opportunity to have like diverse They have a lot of autonomy with the curriculums that they implement. Many of the programs that you heard about this evening also have, we partner with community-based organizations and they have Their main visions and their goals in terms of what they offer. And so we are working towards consistent curriculum and programming. So that that way we're able to better measure our student outcomes and identify how we're going to measure those student outcomes. But first we need to ensure that there is consistency and many more.

We have map assessment data from the beginning of the school year comparing it to the end of the year.

Yes, thank you for that. That is an effort that we have discussed with our partners from ODA and it is something that we are looking at how we can best measure it to ensure that there's accuracy in terms of the data that we're presenting. And so to answer your question, yes, there has definitely been an effort. And we have been thinking about ways that we're able to do that to ensure that there's accuracy in what's presented.

And do you know what our per student cost of summer learning is?

I mean, it's going to depend program to program.

Or even just on the average per student spend for summer programming.

Yeah, I can definitely get that for you, Member Cardet-Hernandez, because We actually have totality of budgeting across all of the different programs. And it really would depend, to the superintendent's point, program to program. So I can break it down by program.

Or even just an average. At some point, all of it together is like, on average, we spend x.

The only thing I wanted to add is for those of us who have collected data and understand research, one of the things that makes this a beautiful challenge is that there is diversity in program. That's great. We have diversity in program. In order to measure, you have to have commonality to do the measurement. So it's definitely something we are constantly thinking about. Not just a little bit, but a lot of it, because we do want to measure the impact to students ultimately.

Yeah, I guess there could be some commonality, but at the end of the day, we're a mission-focused organization, and that mission is on kids' outcomes, right? We're talking about... A third of Boston students are reading or doing math on grade level. I mean, you look at black and Latino students and then you're talking about one in five. So there is an urgency. I get really excited when I hear half of all pre-K to fifth graders attended summer programming. And at the same time, I think, One in five of our kids pre-K to fifth grade are reading on grade, black and Latino students are reading on grade level. There's an adjustment maybe in our thinking. I'm super excited about kids just participating, but there is an adjustment in how we're thinking about the mission. I could care, I love that a lot of kids did it, but what I really am here for, why I'm not having dinner with my son, is because I care about kids closing the achievement gap. and so I'm like I want to hold joy and I know everyone worked really hard but I think there needs some like feet to the fire that if we're investing this type of money in summer programming, we have to be talking about kid outcomes as a result of that program. There's another organization in the city who could run joyful programs during the summer. We have a mission to close achievement gaps. And so I don't know how we get there, but...

So I think... I think that the vision of summer in BPS has evolved over decades. There used to be where summer school was where you went when you didn't reach particular benchmarks in academics. However, participation was very very low. and I think post-pandemic especially, the goal has really been to get kids engaged um in a way that they feel connected valued um if they for instance in in ESY where it is part of their IEP they're moving toward their IEP goals right so it wouldn't necessarily be a benchmark of English and math but it would be that but some of it is getting the kids to just feel reattached and to work on socialization Particularly for our multilingual learners, in our newcomers especially, it's about coming in and being able to understand language like at basics, being able to have different kinds of experiences, So each program sort of has different sets of goals that it's trying to achieve. In the case of Fifth Quarter, Courageous Sailing is a great example. That is one where kids are learning to sail but they're not spending a lot of time on English and math. So I think it's the type of thing where it is this kind of trade-off of And this would be good for the committee to also give us feedback on, but if the committee is seeing this as something that as money becomes and budget becomes tighter, because many of these summer programs were funded out of ESSER and we now have to fold them into the budget and it's to be more strictly academic, that's a different way to evolve summer programming. Right. If the goal is to be able to give students a continuity where, and for many of our kids this is really important, they stay attached to the adults that they have relationships with the schools that they're familiar with in the spaces and from a food security perspective Home, Housing, Stability. If those things are important, then it's important to us to offer programs that kids will enjoy and that they want to be a part of. I think that there's some value things that we have to kind of talk through together. But as it stands right now with the collection of programs I think that Ana and Magali are presenting, They have such different missions that it's very hard, although your question is a great one, it's very hard to pull it all apart and say, did they do better in English? Did they do better in math?

There's like an ROI that I'm looking for that I think like as a body has to be part of everything we're talking about so you're right there are programs with different missions and it may not be it may be a focus on socialization but then we have to be measuring if it did that so we can decide if we need to return to that investment again year over year or if not an easy one for me when you have half of all pre-k to Fifth graders, given the urgency I feel around it, is like, yeah, it's the summer of major, most of our kids need reading intervention. And so you have this opportunity to do that. Yes, we could run sailing programs and all the other, but there has to be a goal of what We're spending this money for something, are we getting that thing from it? Maybe it's reading and math, maybe it's socialization, but I'm just, we've done this a few times and it's like, there's just no target other than

So I think the fifth quarter data is interesting data because fifth quarter, as you know, has been around, Boston Afterschool and beyond has been around for 20 years. and they produce data that shows like very clearly students that engage in fifth quarter programming Come back to school and they report feeling having higher attendance, generally getting higher grades, feeling socially connected. They do that survey data very deeply. and so that is like all available and that's a large portion of our programming. I think credit recovery sort of speaks to credit recovery in that it's 80% of the kids are getting their credit To Dr. Elgin's point, I think what we want to know is, is that kind of like, okay, great, they got it for that year and then are they coming back? Or is that something that's allowing them to progress enough that they continue? We would just have to think about, for some of the other programs, how we would potentially measure that. For instance, our newcomers and our multilingual learners, what specifically, like we saw huge bumps in access, which you'll hear about later on. Is that cross-correlated, right?

And does it lead to, you know, in the next presentation we're going to talk about chronic absenteeism. Half of our high school students are chronically absent.

Yep.

Does this, if we're talking about connection, I love that you have a connection over the summer, but are you coming back to school and is your attendance increasing? There's just a bunch of data points we could be thinking about. that we talked about last year that I'd love to see us doing mostly because you're right. The budget is going to, this will be one of our budget choices. and I know we hate talking about this but like this will be one of the things on the table and the only way to really assess its value is to know its value more than just participation. There's something for us to think about. Thank you.

I want to echo my colleagues' celebration of a positive summer, wearing my hat as a school committee member and as a parent. Wonderful, the rich assortment of options for families. Just a question on the 14,000 students served. Is that an equation of SLA plus credit recovery plus ESY plus synergy equals 14,000?

That's correct, yes. Okay. That's correct.

And I also just did wanna applaud the, enrollment being really reflective and representative of our student body, particularly for historically marginalized communities. A lot of evenness there, which is very exciting. I want to build on member Cardet-Hernandez's push to move from inputs to outcomes These are very different programs, but there are measures that can be attached to the school year for each one. They might not be the same, and I don't actually think they need the same curriculum to assess Outcomes, particularly if we look past the summer and into the school year. I think for the summer end of experience measure, it might be difficult from program to program, but our students are, to your point, all engaging in the same types of assessments and expectations when they go back, whether it's average daily attendance, access testing, MAP, or MCAS. And so I am surprised by the We have a disconnect between the inputs of the summer and tracking students especially now that we have so much data on them. We know exactly who they are. So how is their attendance compared to last year? How is their student growth? Thank you. Thank you. can prevent learning loss too. If that's the game changer, then the goal is to double the 14,000, right? If there's a marked achievement difference between the two. So I think that's really important. There are also just some very direct correlations that we should absolutely know the answer to, particularly what is the point of exam school initiative. To not know whether they're applying, getting in, is surprising. So I would also say for the course credits, just building on Dr. Elkin's point, We could know whether the seniors are graduating in four years or we can tie that to graduation rate of course participation. I think there's a way to define a measure for every type of these awesome programs and that we should work to do that for this past summer's data because it could inform those tough decisions we have to make soon.

First of all, kudos to all of you. I think it's a commendable job. Just for my edification, it's a very quick question. The credit recovery program, Here, the overall is 79%. Am I allowed to be safe in assuming that the 21% that did not Finish the accredited recovery will repeat the same class again the next year? Is that how it works? And to follow up on that question, what were or what are the kind of Thank you very much. Those students who somehow didn't make the cut.

Yes, so generally, Member Tran, generally if a student does not pass a credit recovery course, that gets reported back to their school, and then when the schedule is built for that student, Depending on how far behind they might be in credit, they're either included so that they retake that course, or they're offered an opportunity to take a different type of course that could count Thank you for watching. We also have students that take, they drop out, they drop from a credit because they drop.

And the opportunity means it.

and so like in taking the class exactly exactly taking retaking the class or to be taking a credit equivalent to the class so like say a student had a job and they just simply could not juggle going to credit recovery and the class and in the job and they need to work. In that case, they would have an opportunity in the fall to take credit recovery at their school or at a central site or build it into their schedule to be able to make up that credit. But that would be all tracked at the school level when the school gets the report. As a school leader, you get a report of which students took what and what they passed, and then that gets inputted before the schedule gets built.

Just a couple of quick comments because my colleagues have brought up so many great points. First of all, like the rest of my colleagues, congratulations on... Tremendous amount of work to make this happen. I love the full range of programs for so many different of our populations, in particular whether it's credit recovery, the exam school initiative, students with disabilities, multilingual learners, et cetera. It reminds me of, and by the way, I'm assuming when I look at these numbers, we're not including the other initiatives Thank you. Thank you. It's a pretty substantial part of our population now. When I think about how this expanded superintendent, you were saying it used to be summer school. All right, and then now what we're doing, and there are learning portions involved, but also fun portions you can learn different as a sailor. You incorporate a lot of math and science when you're out on the water, so there are different ways to learn and it's fun to do it for a period, but it reminded me of, It's like the Hippocratic Oath that doctors take, first do no harm, right? And I think the original intent of this was really to stop the summer slide. Is that the right term?

Right, that our students would have.

But I also agree that we are a governance body focused on student outcomes. And since you said you're taking notes, meticulous notes about how to adapt for next year, I agree completely with our colleagues, particularly as we move into difficult budget decisions without the ESSER funding, having the knowledge of what the outcomes are and is it helping our students increase student achievement. That is our focus, and when it comes to making those difficult decisions, we're going to have to prioritize those programs that are helping with the achievement. So the more we can build learning into programs, coordinate across programs to hit benchmarks, measure, and be able to report and compare so we can learn and prioritize, that's great. None of those comments are taken away. This is our suggestions, I think, for how to continue to improve. But this year was excellent work, and I wanted to make sure to end my comments by thanking you for that excellent work.

I applaud all of this work. This is amazing. I have a couple of questions similar to others. We had almost 15,000 students participate. How many could we have had participate? Do we have a particular number that we were

We were very hyper-focused on increasing diversity and access for students. And listening to all of you give us feedback is really critical around making sure we maintain the criteria for what are the areas that we need to focus on programming for next year. And one of them that we heard very clearly from this body last year was really thinking about accessibility across all communities in Boston and across all of our students. And I feel like in that way, we hit that mark and now we have other marks to hit.

I guess my other question is always were there students that we wish had been in programming who never signed up or did we at a school level reach out to families of children who we already knew were struggling and to help them to encourage them to specifically sign up or sign up for a specific kind of program.

Yes, thank you for that question, Madam Chair. That's excellent. We absolutely did. Our family liaisons worked really hard communicating and connecting with all of our families. In addition to that, we also had in-person registrations for our families. We had localized registrations as well. So these are all things that we didn't do before but we heard it loud and clear that they were access points for our families. We also ensured that, of course, families had the opportunity to learn about the programming in a thematic way. The website was translated in multitude of languages. I think one of the most The best feedback that we received from our families was the in-person support because many of our families wanted that personal connection. So shout out to our helpline team who supported all of our families when they came in to register. We think that that's what really increased. Of course, we always could do better. If it were up to me, all 47,000 students would be in summer and then we'd be talking about a very different budget. And so... Keep that in mind, y'all. Keep that in mind. So keep pushing me in terms of the numbers and those are goals that I'm very happy to set along with clearly understanding that we have to make sure that our outcomes for our students are there. and so we're committed to working really hard with our ODA department to pulling that data and that information so that that way you all as a body can make really clear informed decisions as well. But our goal is always to increase student attendance because we know how critical these opportunities are for all of our students.

And the only thing I would add is that when we use the term, the helpline department was highly involved. Family liaisons were highly involved. The emphasis around language is critical and key to, you know, school committee member Polanco Garcia's point where we were consistently targeting the top eight highest frequency languages across our system. and that's huge and that was a purposeful and very clear and intentional form of attracting our families that Chief Sanchez really led.

There's also, we didn't ask it, but there were roughly, well there was over 10,000 students that were in jobs. We also tried to accommodate as much as possible those that were in jobs to do credit recovery by having different session options for them, which had always been a tension point in the past. and there was a high priority for and there will be going forward but for students who are homeless or multilingual learners or special education or most vulnerable of students that they would be given priority and be able to get We prioritize those four groups mainly.

I know we don't have time to talk about it tonight, but one of the other things I am interested in finding out more about the exam school initiative that I know we're using with fifth and sixth graders. I have a question of why not go down to fourth grade? Because I'm really just thinking about the parent We've had engagement over several summers to look at this issue of do we get more kids whose grades improve over the year? and other test-taking skills so that we are giving them some of that enrichment that some of our other students can get on their own but are not necessarily baked into every family's thesis. And I'm hoping that there's more ways That we can both engage families and also help them to understand the enormous cost to this gift. to families in terms of we know if we were going out to put our kid in camp for two weeks what that costs. And there's a lot of investment. Here and I know we don't charge our families anything and sometimes people don't always take it as seriously as they might if they were I feel like we really need to help people to understand what that class cost and that that was an enormous gift and sacrifice of some other things in our budget. I think we need, particularly when we know it's going to get harder to do this because people are all very eager to tell us we should be doing more and more and more without understanding are we fully taking advantage of what we're already giving and if they're not why not so that we're not wasting dollars when we have to make these critical choices.

I think this point about the fourth grade or the SI is a good one and I think as we've talked about the exam school potential policy change, part of that outreach has to be To our multilingual learner families, to our special education families, as well as to reach down as early as possible relative to the fourth grade. and I think that was part of including the data was to show that we definitely had a broader, more diverse group attending ESI this year than in the past.

If there's nothing else tonight, again, thank you all for this incredible work. Thank you.

And another one.

And our last. All right. Our last report tonight is the 2025 State Assessment and Accountability Results Update. Let's aim to keep the presentation. Thank you, Chair.

So last week on September 29th, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, or DESE, released the 2025 accountability results for schools and districts across the state. and the SY 2425 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System data or MCAS. As a reminder, students in grades three through eight and grade 10 took the MCAS in the spring of 2025 in ELA Math and Science. We're joined tonight by Senior Executive Director of the Office of Data and Accountability, April Clarkson, as well as Dr. Angela Headley-Mitchell, who you heard from earlier, and Joelle Gamir, who is here for OM. I'm pleased to share that the district is moving in the right direction. Boston's data shows encouraging progress in literacy for grades three through eight, with more students meeting or exceeding expectations in both math and ELA. or English Language Arts across nearly all student groups. For grade 10, ELA and math remain focus areas for continued focus. According to our analysis, Boston outperformed districts across Massachusetts and other large cities in the Commonwealth. Although MCAS is no longer a graduation requirement we are supporting our families and school communities in helping students understand the value of the exam as one measure of their learning and readiness. These results indicate that our targeted investments and support are yielding positive outcomes across our schools. Overall, in the state's accountability system, the district was deemed to be making moderate progress toward targets and was not identified as requiring assistance or intervention. Across the district, 52 schools do not require assistance or intervention, while 45 schools are designated as requiring assistance or intervention. This is about the same number of schools designated as needing assistance or intervention as in 2024. The district also continued to show great progress in reducing chronic absenteeism over four consecutive years across all subgroups. BPS met its targets for reducing chronic absenteeism in the non-high school grades and exceeded its targets for high school. By reducing the high school chronic absenteeism rate by 2.5 percentage points BPS exceeded its targets for chronic absenteeism. BPS is making steady progress in critical areas that are contributing to our students' success. including our focus on equitable literacy, support for multilingual learners, and stronger services for students with IEPs or individualized education plans and 504 plans. We saw some of our best results for English learners who demonstrated strong progress towards attaining English proficiency. At the non-high school level, the rate of making progress toward targets increased by 3.8%. to 48.4%, meaning that nearly one in every two English learners demonstrated substantial progress. At the high school level, the making progress rate is the highest since 2019. At the high school level, this rate increased by more than seven points to 24.9%, meaning that one in four high school English learners demonstrated substantial progress. We also saw improvements in science performance in grades 5 through 8. For the first time, all students in grade 8 were required to take the Civics MCAS test. Nearly three quarters of students, or 73%, partially met or exceeded the expectations on the civics exam. with a notable achievement gap seen by race with about half of white and Asian students meeting or exceeding expectations compared to 16% of black students and 14% of Latinx students meeting or exceeding expectations. We had six BPS schools, which were named schools of recognition out of 61 schools statewide, roughly 10%. This is the most we've ever had. These included BLA, BLS, the GRU. New Mission High School, PJ Kennedy, and the former Philbrook Elementary, now part of the Sarah Roberts Elementary School. Schools of Recognition are identified by DESE as schools that met or exceeded their targets and high growth. And my mic's working again. Of the district's 41 transformation schools given accountability percentiles, we had 18 schools improved their accountability percentile and 8 remained level. 13 transformation schools have now improved their accountability percentile to 11 or higher. And my team will provide a quarterly transformation schools update at the next school committee on Wednesday, October 29th. We are encouraged by the study progress we're making in reducing chronic absenteeism in grades 3 and 8 math achievement and will continue to focus on English language and math proficiency at the high school level. Teams worked hard to implement strong systems across BPS this past year, past several years. The data shows us this is important work ahead of us to improve student achievement. At this point, I will turn it over to our illustrious panel for presentation, and then we'll entertain questions. So, April.

Thank you, Superintendent. Good evening, Chair Robinson and school committee members. The slide deck that I will share with you tonight encompasses the analysis of the 2025 MCAS access and accountability data. We look at this data to better understand district achievement as it relates to our instructional and programmatic strategies during the 24-25 school year. The Massachusetts State Accountability System looks at MCAS achievement and growth, English proficiency, chronic absenteeism, as well as two high school specific domains, high school completion and advanced coursework. Highlights from this year's performance include a continued reduction in chronic absenteeism for nearly all grade levels and student groups. The English proficiency rates for high school multilingual learners reached a five-year high and overall the district was classified as making moderate progress towards its targets. The state's accountability system classifies schools and districts into two broad categories, requiring assistance, which is demonstrated on the right by being placed into one of those two red categories, or not requiring assistance, which is demonstrated on the left by being placed into one of the five blue categories, the highest of which is a school of recognition. As the superintendent mentioned, we are proud that of the 61 schools announced by DESE last week as schools of recognition, six are from Boston. This is the highest number of schools of recognition in the district in recent history. As a system, Boston met or exceeded targets in 11 areas. Of particular note are the increases across the board for chronic absenteeism and English learners making progress towards language proficiency. In both cases, we see that non-high school grades met their targets and high school grades exceeded their targets. This amounts to a one percentage point decrease in the chronic absenteeism rate for high school students meaning that fewer than one in four students was chronically absent last year. I will now pass the mic to my colleague, Joel Gamir, to discuss the strong language acquisition performance for English learners last year.

Thank you, April. Good evening, Chair and members of the committee. As you just saw, our multilingual learners met and in many cases exceeded their targets in English language proficiency this year. We believe that success is directly connected to the district's implementation of the Inclusive Education Plan which has placed the majority of our multilingual learners in inclusive SCI classrooms. In these classrooms, students learn alongside their peers while receiving the targeted language and academic supports They need to access rigorous grade level content. Beyond inclusive SEI settings, our multilingual learners also thrive in a variety of language supportive programs, including dual language, Dual Language Classrooms, which foster bilingualism and biliteracy, Transitional Bilingual Education Programs, or TBE, Slife, and Newcomer Programs, which provide culturally and linguistically responsive supports to meet students where they are. Additionally, our strengthened service delivery determination process has helped students or our schools more accurately identify the right level and type of language services for each student. This alignment between program design and student need has been a key driver in improving student outcomes on the Access for L's assessment. As a result, we saw meaningful growth across grade levels, with elementary schools increasing their making progress rates by nearly four points, as my colleague April has highlighted. and high school students improving by more than seven points. Altogether, this means that one in four high school multilingual learners made measurable progress towards English language proficiency. A strong indicator that our inclusive data-informed approach is moving in the right direction. And while we are encouraged by this progress, we are not complacent. We remain deeply committed to refining our practices, Strengthening our programs and ensuring that every multilingual learner continues to make meaningful progress towards full language proficiency and Academic Success. And now I'm going to pass it to our Chief of Teaching and Learning. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm gonna pass it to April, back to April, sorry.

Thank you, Joelle. Despite the successes we saw, especially in the secondary space, the district's overall achievement last year for high schools is an area of focus. The district declined in performance in eight areas which were all concentrated at the high school level. MCAS achievement declined across ELA, math, and science. We also saw decreases in graduation and extended engagement rates as well as stagnation in the dropout rate. Despite these decreases in performance, the district earned points in the relative metric of student growth for ELA and math. We will see later that these declines at the high school level are emblematic of decreases experienced across the state, not just Boston. To sum up last year's MCAS performance, we are proud to highlight the elementary data. In math, we saw a third straight year of improvement, and in ELA performance, our performance returned to rates seen in 2023. As mentioned earlier, though we saw a decline in high school performance, this does correspond to performance that was seen across the state following the elimination of the high school graduation requirement. I'm gonna pause. just to let you all know that this year's presentation will follow a slightly different format. So while I will not walk you through every performance slide that we have, The slides and the tables are included in the appendix, and the tables that I show you will be exemplars of what you should expect in the appendix slides as well. So in this first slide, we're looking at the non-high school ELA performance, and we highlight the achievement that we saw in ELA. Overall, Boston students' rate of meeting or exceeding expectations increased by about 2.5 points. and what we really celebrate is that this increase was seen for nearly every grade level and student group in the system. Additionally, The ELA gains that we see in Boston are similar to gains that we're seeing across the state and in other large urban districts. Boston's math gains were generally larger than those of other districts in the state, and our stable performance in science mirrors that at the state level. I will now turn it over to my colleague Dr. Hedley Mitchell to discuss the results that were seen in our elementary ELA classrooms.

Thank you, April. Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the school committee. The increases presented in MCAS data align to what we're seeing in classroom observations throughout the year. Namely, there was an increase in explicit use of high quality instructional materials across all classrooms. Through observations in our elementary classrooms specifically, using the district's equitable literacy observation tool, we noted that an increased number of classroom tasks were aligned to grade level content standards. We also observed a higher level of student engagement with grade-level complex texts, which is one of the district's equitable literacy practices. Additionally, more students were doing the heavy lift of learning, an essential culturally linguistically sustaining practice for the district.

Thank you. At the high school level, we see a two-point decrease in meeting or exceeding expectations and mixed results by student group. For example, we see that black student achievement declined by three points, while the achievement for students with disabilities increased by over two points. At the high school level, Boston saw decreases in both ELA and science performance. However, the size of these decreases were smaller than what was seen at the state level and even in other urban districts. In math, Boston's performance remains stable despite decreases experienced across the state. Typically, we've shown you the relationship between chronic absenteeism and achievement. And while this is not a causal relationship, it should come as no surprise that we see a sizable gap between the achievement levels of students who attend regularly as compared to those who are missing 10% or more of their school days. This gap is largest at the high school level, where there is a larger than 20 percentage point gap in the proportion of students meeting or exceeding expectations. In math, this means that nearly one out of every two regularly attending students met or exceeded expectations, whereas only one in five chronically absent students were able to meet or exceed those expectations. To sum up, the district is proud to have continued to substantially reduce chronic absenteeism. both at the elementary and secondary levels. We see this as one of the most important priorities to improving student achievement. We will continue to monitor and strengthen our implementation of the inclusive education plan as we are seeing the benefits that all students, and this year especially multilingual learners, are seeing from this strategy. The improvements at the elementary level in both math and ELA are continued evidence that our focus on equitable literacy is turning the tide on performance. However, Due to the shifts in requirements at the high school level, the district will need to focus on policy and strategic interventions to ensure that high school students are fully prepared to move on to college and career. We thank you for your time tonight. as we reflected on our strategy and reviewed our results. And we look forward to continuing this discussion with you.

Thank you all. I'll now open it up to committee members for questions. Dr. Alkins.

First, remind me of where we are. 100% of schools with use of HQIM, correct? So I guess it's one of those, perhaps it takes time. Thank you for the presentation. I guess my question is, What happens between 8th grade and 9th grade? Because I'm looking at slide 12 and I'm just looking at that explicit use of high quality instructional materials. You know, that 30-point drop-off, right? Like what is really happening? you know from that trend in that transition period that is really challenging our high schools to either not use it as explicitly or What is causing that drop off, that 11 percentage point drop off where students are not doing the heavy lift? I'm just wondering what you all might be thinking is related to that.

As we move towards acceleration, I think what we've been looking at as a department is the integrity in which curriculum is being implemented in the classroom and the fidelity. Looking at, we have HQIM in place, we have the 12 hour course where teachers are learning about the implementation of curriculum Thank you. Thank you. So one of the things that we're looking at is the heavy lift. So that's a place where we need to accelerate what we're doing. Students are still sitting in classrooms where teachers are still trying to really have the control over learning. How do we make sure that our students are having more in discussions How they're making sure that they're doing a lot of more student-to-student dialogues. If you walk into classrooms, if a student is like teacher-to-student dialogue, we need the inquiry to come from the students. Once we have teachers, really, I think the 12-hour course is one of the high leverage lifts in regards to that. that we're now having our program directors and our coaches really focus on equitable literacy strategies to get our students to have these discussions to engage in writing and that will help move us I would believe in the right path in regards to implementation. It's one thing to have the curriculum in the classroom and it's another thing to start to unpack that curriculum. really internalize it and understand that all the pieces of that curriculum are there for a reason and that it's important for the integrity of the curriculum that we follow it the way it is so that we're not missing key instructional purposes that are built in there for students to make grade level achievement.

And are we finding that our faculty at the high school level are reporting that as a higher challenge as compared to our elementary school faculty?

I think there's still a hold, and this is just from my observations of classrooms, there's still a holding of information and knowledge that's happening in high schools where you see Questions being asked of students and then it's like great and now we're going to move on. How can we build upon that knowledge that the student just gave us and now let's have another discussion. Let's unearth that a little bit more instead of I ask you a question, great, we're moving on, next response. We need to unpack students' understanding a little bit more, and then also part of that is that Understanding of knowledge is socially constructed so those dialogues are really key and that's one of our metrics we're looking at about how to increase student dialogues because that's really an important piece for students to like start to internalize learning for themselves. So I think what has been great with the equitable literacy tool is we're able to see by region, by grade level, where students are having these Moments that are happening, but is it partially or extensive? We're trying to move the needle towards extensive. Right now, we still have some of our data living in this partial. Less in the not seeing, which is great. but how do we move that partial to extensive so you're seeing that throughout the classroom not in just particular moments.

Thank you.

Just for my edification again, page seven, Progress for Multilingual Learners. I may have misheard you. I think I may have misheard you, so I just want to make sure that I understand correctly. The inclusive education plan that moves students from different language learner programs into that program. Once they are moved into the inclusive education program, are they still entitled to keep? Their status under dual language, transitional bilingual, slide newcomer program? Or what is it? I don't understand. Okay.

So we have different programming. So we have over 17,000 multilingual learners in Boston Public Schools. and we don't have all of our multilingual learners in specific language programs. So the majority of our students are in an inclusive setting. So they are learning English In an inclusive setting, they receive ESL service through an ESL teacher. Some of the classrooms are able to have teachers that are multilingual learners to be able to provide targeted language supports for the students. But we also have, because we always want to have choices for our families, we also have multiple multilingual learners that are in language-based For our students who may have had interrupted learning in a SLIFE program. And then also really considering our students who are new to the country that are enrolled in a newcomer program. So we have various programs for our students, but the majority of our multilingual learners are in an inclusive setting. And so really being targeted and intentional to support our students that are in the inclusive environment Thank you. Thank you. with disabilities, our students who are multilingual learners in a UDL approach for our students, really building the skills or building the backpacks of our teachers so that they feel Thank you. Thank you. are multilingual learners who are in the setting and ensuring that we're supporting them and supporting educators to be able to instruct the students but in addition to we still do have are targeted programs like dual language and SLIFE.

So just a follow-up question on that. The 3.8 percentage point, percentage points, for non-high school and the 7.3 percentage point for high school. That, that, do you club all together, you know, students from, Dual Language, Transitional, Bilingual, Slave, Newcomer Program or is there a place where I can see the increases in Language Acquisition from different programs?

That's a great question.

Yeah, so that's not included in the slide deck here. It's something that we look at internally, so we have a dashboard that does show that. We can get that to you after tonight. But it is something that we do look at to see what does that making progress look like by the different programs that we have. And so, for example, one thing that we see is for our inclusion, This inclusive SEI set of courses, it's about a seven point increase across all grade levels. So this is loving everyone together. But in that inclusive SEI piece, our dual language, we saw like a 10 point, increase in making progress across all grade levels. And so we can get that to you after this breakdown by all programs.

Yes. Just one minor question for, you know, last question as a matter of fact. Progress for Multilingual Learners. Okay. I'd like to see the progress for... Student with Disability, particularly students with, you know, I mean, ML students with disability as well. If that's not too much of a problem. Okay.

Yeah, we can disaggregate the data to look at our MLs with disabilities as well, too.

Sure. Okay.

Thank you. Great. Thank you for the presentation. I have a bunch of questions, so I'm going to try to go fast. I will just say, I guess as my preface, I'm probably experiencing frustration with the state today because I find it... It doesn't sit well with me that the state can say we're making moderate progress and 29% of kids in grades three to eight and many more. The way we aren't honest about sort of where we are outside of this room. I think a few things really quick. So the report says we're making moderate progress. It highlights the six schools of recognition. I just said it right, 30% of students meet grade level expectations. And I'm happy that we're leading with celebration and optimism. I guess I am curious, like which schools or grade levels saw the largest drop in performance in 2024? So we're really good at celebrating when things are good, but sometimes struggle to talk about where things are not. particularly interested in high school ELA, which obviously fell 2.9 points, or biology proficiency, 12 points. So which schools are we seeing the greatest struggle with?

Thank you for that question. I think what we see in the data is there are mixed results. And so we might see lower performance Thank you. Thank you. We have one slide that shows that 32 of our schools declined in their accountability percentile year over year, and the largest size of that decline is 10 percentile points. and so that demonstrates the range of performance or comparative improvement. that we have across the district. I think the second question is we have a set of schools, our transformation schools, that we have a strategy around, those are the schools of large concern. It's not just a single metric or a single grade level, but there is enough that's going on that we have designated them as transformation schools and we have committed a specific district-wide strategy towards them. there will be a separate presentation on October 29th about that set of schools and the district strategy there and I think that's where we'll kind of like name and talk about like not just like oh within a year we saw a drop but like what's happened over the past two to three years with these schools and how are we feeling as a district in supporting them.

and then maybe some like the places where we're the most concerned because we were often talking about them it's now half of our system so we talk about it as like all of them at once and we don't target the conversation around places of The same way where these are our schools of recognition, I am really curious of where are we really seeing the bottom performance? Because then it allows us to understand if we're deploying resources.

Yeah, and I think those are definitely, it's a good point. That is, for the October 29th, I think that's when we'll get into the more granular of the school level data that you're looking for. But we're also talking about even among our transformation schools, there is a subset of schools that are of more concern among the transformation schools that are more stagnant. And so really evolving, actually we had a meeting on this today, but really evolving our strategy for those schools. The analogy was sort of like they're stuck in the mud and it's not just good enough to do what we typically are doing. I think your question is a really good one at the high school level. And it's just hard data to sort because to the state's admission, Students left things blank. They didn't complete. They didn't, you know, without it being the graduation requirement. And I think you see that reflected in biology and in English and in math. and you see that and so it's very hard now for us to discern is this like a legitimate drop or not I mean clearly we didn't drop as much as other places or the state But it's hard for us to sort through that. We're trying to figure that out right now and looking for state to provide guidance as well as to what their plan is going to be relative to high school testing.

Yes, thank you for that. I'm trying to think which one I'm going to next. The, yeah. So black and Latino students remain far below proficiency, only 18% to 19% meet ELA expectations in grades three to eight. I don't consider that moderate progress. But we are talking about on slide 12, only 43% in high school. The final slide claims, we say that equitable literacy is beginning to positively impact ELA achievement, but the scaled scores remain below target for every single subgroup. Help me understand what you're seeing that I'm not seeing to show that it's taking shape more than just implementation looks good. Like kid outcomes, where am I seeing that it's working?

I think part of what's motivating that statement is the improvement that we are seeing in the proportion of students that are meeting or exceeding expectations. And so one thing that, We've got a lot in the appendix. So one thing that we've seen in previous years is like there had been at this ELA level like a consistent drop in scores. and we saw an improvement start earlier for our math achievement at the non-high school level and that in some research that we've seen says like when you focus on literacy, You start to see gains in math sooner, and it feels like we're now starting to see ELA also turn the corner. So it's not just looking at the scaled score, or the percent meeting or exceeding, but it's looking at like the trend that we've been monitoring in math and now seeing that turn in ELA and what's great about the turn in ELA and I showed it earlier before. but nearly every student group, every grade level has seen that increase in achievement. which we haven't, you've seen me do this a couple times now, we've generally had like mixed results when we look at the grade level in student group. We've seen this year consistent improvement and not everything is green. We've only marked what's green, what's above two percentage points on difference year over year, but you can see increases for each of our grade levels, all of our student groups. with the exception of the group that you are concerned about, Member Tran, which is that multilingual learners with disabilities group. and so I think both like looking across the grade levels and student groups and then looking at those broader trends for both math and ELA is where we're seeing a little bit of Improvement, Encouragement, et cetera.

I see that. Thank you so much. I guess this is a question for everyone. And you know how I feel about some of this, so this will also make sense. I guess I'm curious, as we're watching the trend through high school, how much We obviously are promoting students every year who do not meet grade level standards. So like in Boston, you go to fifth grade not having who achieved mastery of fourth grade skills. And that's true nationally. It's progressive policy fail. And How much of the problem with social promotion are we seeing impact the outcomes in high school? Like how much of it is a ripple effect? Like you can't read at a fifth grade level and we have you in ninth grade. That's where we're seeing some of this. And then I guess to tie that back, Is there part of the equitable literacy strategy? Is there intervention work that's happening to make up for the fact that we've sent so many young people into middle and high school below proficient literacy levels?

Yeah, so I think, Angela, I know you want to chime in on this. So I think a few things. One, certainly there is a build of the gap as you approach high school, and I would say it also becomes more calcified as students get toward high school. Like reading becomes much harder to remediate at high school level. However, we started with tier one because with gaps like these and across the state, you cannot remediate yourself out of them. So we had to sort of start with literacy and start Tier 1 to improve that and get consistency and now have layered in this year in particular a stronger Tier 2 and Tier 3. And that is the work that is now happening in school teams. with their MTSS and adding in other kinds of enrichment programs that will help to address some of that gap. That needs to build and scaffold more and more, particularly in the younger grades so that we catch that gap before it accelerates and exacerbates going into the high school years. That said, reading interventionists have been added in past the third grade, which traditionally doesn't happen anywhere. But yet if a young person can't read, they still can't read. really trying to look at that as well as some of our advanced math that also have the ability to be able to give opportunity for students to work on their math skills so that even if they have a gap, they're not shut out of advanced math come high school level. So I think we're trying to really tackle it through our Tier 2 and Tier 3 now that we have more confidence in Tier 1 being pretty level across the district. Angela, I don't know if there's others.

I also will say at the high school level one thing we've been very deliberate with our content departments is understanding adolescent literacy and trying to build content needs understanding about adolescent literacy and because the focus point has been in elementary spaces, and understand our contents, our places for literacy to happen, and it's not an isolation of ELA classrooms, but through our history classrooms, our math and our science classrooms, We also did work as a department with our MTSS reading specialist department to create an actual course where students are getting like the OG or Wilson reading. That's called advanced word study that happens semesterized. So if student needs it semesterized, if you need it for the year, you can have that. I've also been in talk with Joelle's department and how that would look for our SLIFE student population as well so that they would be able to get that Intervention at the high school level even building it within a schedule so that they can meet literacy requirements because you know once we get to fourth grade you're reading to learn not learning to read. So I think we've been purposeful in teaching and learning to make sure we're paying attention to that, that what you're saying as our older students also need the support in regards to literacy as well.

and the only other thing I would just add is that in terms of exacerbating the gap like chronic absenteeism It's a huge issue. You can have the highest quality instructional materials, you can have every teacher using them appropriately. If kids are not there to get it, they can't learn it. And so the gap then grows, and then it's self-fulfilling They feel out of sorts. They don't know where to plug in. They don't have the skill. We're almost trying to work like this to kind of catch the kids. and at the high school level I think particularly like working around like the prevention of dropout backward. which is why we're putting so much resource into our alternative education programming, right? But I just can't emphasize it enough because when half of the students at high school level are chronically absent, They've missed a minimum of 18 days of instruction. And that in and of itself is very hard to make up, let alone whatever gap they come with. And this is just literally a national and state crisis. We just, we as, you know, we're doing a lot around building back the campaign on this and just really trying to work. We're very proud that we've been able to make headway, but the reality is kids are just out of school too.

It's real. The data around this is alarming. We're talking about almost half of our high school students. There is a part of me though that deeply holds. There's an element of human nature. We like to do things we're good at. And if we keep sending kids to high school, who are unable to access the material, they will not show up because it doesn't feel good to be there. So it's a double-edged sword. It's like, yes. I'm sending you to ninth grade and you're reading at a fourth grade level. This is not fun. This is not interesting. I'm not prepared to be here. I will find something else to do. Human nature, we do things that we're good at. And kids who are good at, who are on grade level show up to school because it feels good to be there. There is something I do and I will, and here I do think we need to think about promotion more generally because I think we are just sending the problem further down. The pipeline for kids experiences. I think there is a correlation between why we're seeing half of our kids in school and the connection to their proficiency levels. Thank you for the presentation.

Thank you. Member Cardet-Hernandez talked about the state identifying the progress as moderate when we are talking about single-digit gains and proficiency.

Thank you.

I know we're in the middle of strategic planning and looking to have a multi-year view of our improvement goals. Are there like scaled score goals for five years from now that we could Come back to this body and just report on regularly in terms of progress to our targets. Are there internal or externally communicated multi-year goals in terms of Proficiency growth or student growth aims beyond DESE's own targets that they're setting for accountability.

Thank you for that question. So I think the goal and intention with the strategic plan is that would provide us with that three to five year vision for where performance should be for the district. Currently, we do align to the state's accountability system which sets that multi-year goal-setting process for us. Internally, we are looking through our QSP Our quality school plan goal setting process with schools. We look at annual one-year targets that we measure throughout the school year to see how schools are

I think there's a lot of importance in looking school by school and setting goals and I'm also thinking about just district-wide Proficiency Goals, like we're in 29%. for all students grades three through eight this year, where do we wanna be in 2030 and how far away or close are we? I think would be a useful structure to come back to this data annually. Also interested in what indicators we can have as a full team to see whether we are on track to raise proficiency and increase student growth over the course of the year. Dr. Headley-Mitchell talked about the value of the progress and observations. and also wondering about interim assessment data or other things that you all use whether not necessarily as a predictor but some other achievement data that we can receive in the interim between these annual MCAS reports.

Yeah, we usually align that somewhat with the transformation report out, but I think we could do that more broadly. And I also do think that the vision of the strategic plan would be to have multi-year projects and to work backward from what that five year would look like in terms of the intervals. It'll be kind of curious to see what direction the state goes if they stay with the linear kind of one to two year that they currently do or whether they'll broaden

So the interim is that map or what is the current interim?

Yeah. So right now we're looking at curriculum embedded assessments. Since we're heavy into the HQIM, those would give us really good specific touch points in classrooms. to know where students are and to also know where teachers need to make that instructional shift. We're doing that work right now with the ODA department to identify those assessments within each content of where we're going to be looking at student achievement beyond MAP, beyond MCAS. But because of our investment in HQIM, those are the assessments that are really going to give us really on the ground data of where students are in their achievement. in relation to the instructional practices that we're focusing on.

And I know that it was mentioned that the high school implementation of HQIM is so much less. I think there is also like a chronological Yes, EL has been utilized in the district for the last 20 years.

HQIM at the high school level, for instance, StudySync adoption was 2019, it started grade six to eight and expanded after that. History is one of our more recent adoptions. Math has been an adoption, but there are several math curricula in regards to that. So there has been a ramp up at the high school level in science with Open SciEd that has happened that where elementary and early childhood had the focus, had the EL. There's been shifts in math curricula at the elementary level, but high school is a place where there was more autonomy, and now we're seeing the adoption happen full force.

Yeah, because 2019 was like soft. Yes, it was, yeah. I don't think every school.

Yes, it was like a piloting. We had piloting across multiple content areas at that time. And then with the instructional memo that came out in 2023, it was... you know this is what the path we have in regards to HQIM adoption using these particular curricula and then schools who were using other curricula had to go through the REPT process in order to state that their curricula was meeting the high quality instructional

I think the autonomy plays a heavy hand in the high school's usage. I think high school... Educators also use a lot of supplemental materials, and so I think it's just a little bit harder to reign it, but I think Angela and the team are attempting to do that.

Just in terms of choosing the right curricular embedded assessment to kind of move these numbers I wouldn't expect it in this report but I'm just wondering if the team's doing like item analysis on the MCAS to see where the gaps are, particularly if they're open responses that are not very long or developed if writing is the gap or is it more on the comprehension of passages or both and how that kind of connects to the focus areas for equitable literacy.

I know our teams just with presentations with ODA with the data not being embargoed have started to look at the data. We haven't done that dive yet, but particularly writing is a piece that we definitely need to focus strategy around. between all grade levels but our content teams are looking currently looking at the data to kind of look at particular schools and regarding like looking at our QSP data where can we step in to intervene to provide more guided supports whether that's in classroom observations with teachers or is that building structures with common planning time, building capacity of in-school coaches, working with our transfer, sorry, transfer, it's late. Transformation Department. So how can we best come in to look, like you're saying, look at that data and then think of a strategic plan in regards to what our interventions need to be? from our equitable literacy coaches, our program directors, and working with transformation as well.

I think what I'd like to add is there is work that's happening kind of centrally at the district level to understand trends in that item analysis data, but one of the focuses that my department has done has been to get that data into the hands of teachers as soon as possible. And so as soon as MCAS data starts to come out around May, that's when we start to get our non-high school ELA data. We have a dashboard that teachers have access to. They're able to see for their current students what that item level performance looks like and be able to analyze for their own classes and their students what that looks like. In the fall when classes turn over, teachers are then able to see how did my current students do last year and then how did last year's students do. They can continue to look at that. they have the opportunity to like take that information and use that directly with their students in their classrooms while then at the central office level we can think through What are the high-level trends that we're seeing that might need additional supports beyond individual teacher-student interventions?

I have a fourth grader in VPS, so last year was his first MCAS year. When can parents expect to receive scores? What does it look like? and what supplemental communication or programming for parents are involved to help them make sense of scores and also potentially partner in things that could be done to advance literacy or math.

Yeah, thank you for that question. So mid-October is, we just received, I think, earlier this week or maybe the end of last week, The data from the state. And so mid-October, families should be receiving a message in Parent Square with their MCAS report. And so that comes with a compendium of like both What, how did your student do? And then what are the things that you should look at? A little bit of assessment literacy of like, how do I understand my child's performance? There also will be links to, kind of like publicly available supports and guides that come from DESE. And so that's what you'll receive relative to MCAS.

I think if we only rely on the state's messaging, then it doesn't feel that important. I think it's incumbent on us to determine what our messaging is in terms of How we want to communicate the urgency of these proficiency levels. And we have a lot of avenues now. We have Beyond the Bell. We have webinars we can do. We have experts who can kind of share what they're seeing in classrooms and what kind of questions could be asked at home or writing assignments. And I think families really want to know those things. I don't think Desi's report is really anything that folks are going to internalize, so I would encourage us to think about how we can really make these feel More significant than just another report that's going to feel, I think, a lot like the map results that we get, which has a very similar type report.

We will be receiving a new version of the MAP report which provides much more detail and that'll come out mid-October as well. But I will take this back to the team to see what other sorts of events, webinars, or informationals we can put out for families.

And it could also be for MAP too. Like we just really don't engage families about what the testing means and implies and helping them make sense of the scores. So it could actually just be a MAP

Part of the strategy that we've done around MAP is to create teacher materials because we do think like beyond just like a district webinar about this assessment and Having those teacher family conferences are going to be the best ways to reiterate the importance and the performance for students and so that's been a set of curated materials that we've worked on is what are the teachers supported materials so that they can have those conversations with parents and families.

I think it's great. That is the right place to have the convo, and you'd have to devote some time into universal professional learning in terms of how teachers are talking to families about the scores, because I think conferences can touch on a lot of things. I know I'm out of time. I would just want to echo Member Tran's request to see the student achievement data across MLL classroom types. We've heard in public comment a few times some questions about What are the best and most effective instructional classroom types for our multilingual learners? And I think it would be really helpful to look at those outcomes by those types in response to that inquiry.

Yes, thank you. The hour is late, so I'll try to keep it short. Thank you for the presentation tonight. I always get a, I don't want to say I get a chuckle, I applaud the six schools that are named School of Recognition. and I'm intrigued how they get it because it says high achievement, high growth and meeting or exceeding targets. I know this is not the only schools in our district that consistently have high achievement Sometimes I think they don't show up in the list because they don't have high growth because they're always at high achievement. Is that accurate to say?

Well, growth is a measure of what the student comes in at and then is testing at. Correct. If students are coming in higher, exam schools are a great example of this. Three, four, five years ago when you looked at exam schools, They were not in the growth area at all. And so I think the fact that two of them are in that growth area indicates the value added that students are now getting from the exam schools.

Exactly, but then I think of a school like the Elliott that I think is very high achievement, but doesn't have, has consistently high growth. You know the point that I'm making, so. That's not the point I wanted to make today. I'm more intrigued, and we've been discussing about MAP versus MCAS. We were talking about MCAS. How much can we actually believe it, particularly at the high school level, as students realize it is not part of a graduation achievement for them, a graduation requirement? Have we looked at the past? I believe I recall that there is a strong correlation between MAP and MCAS. MAP in the past has kind of pointed to us for what we can expect at MCAS results. Is that an accurate memory on my part?

Yeah, very regularly NWEA commissions a linking study between MAP and the state assessment, and they are able to show a strong correlation Kind of statewide between like MAP and MCAS, not just for BPS.

So I'd be intrigued this year with the difference in viewpoint about MCAS You know, was MAPS pointing that we should expect this result and then instead we get that? And so you see the point I'm trying to make, I'm sure, in an extremely eloquent way?

We get it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I think the other piece, I don't know if you wanna touch on it, April, but is the testing fatigue at the high school level. that we're seeing just with the compilation of AP, SAT, right? Like there's just a lot of types of testing, like there's a lot of testing that happens. So what do you think about that? Like April is the high school correlation.

Yeah, we can look to see what it is similar to what we see in other kind of like secondary level metrics like participation can be a little bit lower at the high school level. and then we can see what that relationship looks like. The linking study that NWA does is across the state because there are other and other districts within Massachusetts that do use MAP. But what we can do is get those numbers for you to see what that.

Yeah, I'm just intrigued, was MAP pointing to we should expect this in MCAS and then we got less of that may help explain How seriously the students have taken it as an example. And then thank you, Member Skerritt, for pointing out You know, what type of assessment should we be thinking about in the future? And you said it would be more curriculum-based, right? I'm sorry.

Looking at our curriculum-based assessments, all of our HQIM have assessments that are built into them and utilizing those as data points. because they tell us specifically if their students are utilizing a unit of instruction, these are the outcomes. Therefore, if we look at the assessment, we can say students have met or are meeting or not meeting this particular content standard. or Practice Standard.

And I think it, I want to echo also, Ms. Skirritt, what you said about the communication around this. Back to parents, why is this important? What is it telling? I have to say, Member Cardet-Hernandez, your comments about chronic absenteeism and thinking about the promotion piece, I mean, this jumps out at you how important chronic, the big impact of chronic absenteeism, but Stepping it back is really important for us to think about as a body. Instead of just saying, oh, we have to improve absenteeism, it's the early years and if they're not on grade. what the impact of that is.

The other interesting part that would just be interesting to show these guys is the churn data. Like in our overall by school and in the district. And so one of the struggles is when you have a fluid student population, you're injecting for that given year resources in a student that then the next year is no longer there and so I think what happens in urban districts is you get a lot of movement that you don't get necessarily in other districts. And so that has impact in terms of what sticks. that's always been like a thing for me with with Tran and so it could be like also interesting in the transformation schools you'll see it very clearly because Tran is very high in those schools but that would be like another interesting point April to Right? Yeah, we can share that.

Yeah. I mean, that's fascinating, Superintendent. Think of the changes in our student populations the past couple of years.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, even just the high-quality instructional materials, our kids are, like, it's great, okay, and yes, we need to do that, but if a student comes in in the fifth grade and they haven't had all those years of high-quality instructional materials, they're coming into us with a gap. We now have a shorter amount of time to close it, but some of our schools have churn of 40-50%.

May I have my second round very quickly? Very quickly. I'm pretty sure that chronic absenteeism Really, you know, in my mind, really does not apply to ML students and students with disability. So, looking at the 3% and 7% increase, I think it's horrendous. I understand that your job is to report to us on the data. And we take the data and we follow up with it, developing whatever it is. That would somehow increase, you know, to meet, quote, unquote, achievement gap. I know that. But I would implore you, I would ask you, for the future reference or for future submission. of Data, I understand, again, the data submission is for us to review, but I would, you know, just to take on a recommendation by somebody in our I'd like to see recommendations on how to rectify those kind of percentages. Some recommendations. And of course we'll do our own research and try to find a way to... To rectify it as well, but given the fact that you are... The front line working in that area, you know, you have first-hand knowledge, you know the issue. It would be beneficial to us with the kind of recommendations that you would submit. Along with the data. Because some data, you know, I look at the data today, 3%, 7%, and I feel very bad. But I know for a fact. The chronic absenteeism does not affect multilingual students, does not affect bilingual students. I don't know about students with disability, but I do know that it does not affect those. So that is just a request. You know, in addition to that, some recommendations.

Thank you. I will say that we do have some transient kind of I definitely want to say that we're moving in the right direction. What we're doing is we're strengthening Our existing programs, we are ensuring that we are implementing high quality instructional material for multilingual learners. We have created an ESL curriculum that has adopted high quality instructional material supporting educators as well to creating more programs for our multilingual learners that meets their needs. So having more SLIFE programs for schools and programs in areas that we need. Newcomer Program. So we're constantly assessing our students to see what the needs are. And we are working with educators. We're working with community members. A lot of the new programs that we have put forward is in collaboration with the community. Some of our former EL Task Force members have been part of the creation and collaboration for new programs like at the Quincy or at Blackstone or the Cape Verdean program that's gonna be created. Again, by no means am I complacent with the data The Haitian in me, like when I would get a grade at home, I get a 95, my dad would be like, okay, what happened to the other five points? So I look at that data that way as well too. But I am moved by the work because when I first came into the district in 2024, there was a lot of debate about inclusive education and having multilinguals in an inclusive setting seemed very foreign. But I think the farcity or the farseness of it was that we had something that was called BPSSEI. and BPS SEI was languaged, cohorted, but not necessarily language based. And so we had educators who had a classroom of students who may have spoken Spanish that was being instructed by a teacher who did not speak Spanish. And so for the external community, they thought that here we are dismantling a program where students are together, they're speaking Spanish, but they weren't necessarily receiving targeted support. And so now we're looking at how do we, with the infusion of high quality instructional materials for our students, for our English language learners, for the majority of our students that are inclusive settings, How can we really sit or meet the needs of our students? How can we address the needs of our students? And then looking at the community and working with the community, giving parents choice, strengthening our programs, strengthening our outreach to families. I know that the work that many of the members have said is to really sit and inform families about the importance of access or the importance of MCAS. That is something our family resource specialists do in our ELAC programs. A test is coming and they speak in the language of the family, your child is going to have a test. It's called ACCESS. It's going to measure your child's language proficiency. These are things that you should do. These are questions you should ask your teacher. This is what comes when the report comes. If you would like to have your child continue in this type of program, this is how you advocate for your child. If you would like your child to be in a dual language program, this is the advocacy we do. and I do think that as a district, yes, we can scale that up so that we're providing that service more for all of our families, for MCAS, for MAP, for ACCESS, but yes, Tran, Member Tran. There are lots that we can do and definitely work with the community for recommendations. But the key thing is really looking at the existing programs that we have. And how do we provide supports, instructional supports for teachers so that they can be strong educators, recruiting more teachers that are multilingual learners to help We do welcome recommendations but we really want to see that the gains, although small, to continue in that direction.

Thank you. I think the one thing that I would say is the purpose of tonight's presentation was kind of like twofold. One was to be able to provide the school committee with the most recent MCAS access and accountability data that was just recently released by the state. So that's like first and foremost to just give you all the overview of what the data says. The second purpose is as a reflection of what the 2024-25 school year strategy was. And so we hope that we were able to do that. In upcoming meetings, there are these strategy conversations where I think that's where you're gonna get more of the recommendations. It's like based on where we see performance, this is the strategy within each of our departments and divisions for the district. So it's to come, and this is the foundation to help you understand what's encouraging those strategies.

I know our hour is late, and I'm going to take the last. I'm going to have one comment. I have many questions. I know for me this data is always very sobering in terms of thinking about what was going on. So I only have two words, urgency and accountability. And I think those are the two things I'm really most interested in understanding as we take this information back to individual schools and teachers. How do they think about those two words and the work that needs to be done, reviewed or moving forward so that we don't have fourth grade reading in the ninth grade? We know that happens much too much. and you know we get these reports year after year and people look at them and they nod and we still get those kinds of outcomes so the question is where is the urgency for all of the adults whether they be The educators or the parents or whomever and also the accountability because we are all accountable. to all of our students for this. And we say here we are in Boston. We've got high quality materials. We've got all of this teacher education going on. We are inputting all the resources we can into the adults that we have hired to do the work, yet you can't really tell me our kids cannot all learn. Something is not connecting, so I'm hoping that We continue to take this seriously and not just talking about our transformational schools, but looking at all of our schools to really figure out how do they take this seriously as they move forward for the rest of the year. So thank you. Thank you. Okay, so we'll now go back to public comment.

Yes, we have one public comment. Edith Brazil. Please unmute yourself.

Okay. $454 million in ESSA relief provided to BPS gave BPS a chance to change reading and literacy outcomes, but the district failed to rebound to pre-pandemic levels of 2019, which is when DESE said that special education was in systemic disarray. ESSA is gone, but BPS's obligation isn't. The district needs to ask, what have we learned and what is the district doing about it? So we have the focus curriculum that yielded a decade, over a decade, of abysmal outcomes for Black, Latino, multilingual learners and students with disabilities. I would say that BPS's equitable literacy approach is symbolism over substance, the kind of policy rhetoric that looks good but has not changed, declining student outcomes despite research that affirms 95% of students regardless of disabilities can learn to read on grade level by the end of first grade with evidence-based core Curriculum, Skilled Instruction, Timely Intervention. So what hasn't BPS delivered on? And where's the accountability for universal screening early but throughout the grade span? Research-Vetted Evidence-Based Core Curriculum with Ongoing Robust Professional Learning and Classroom-Based Coaching and certified reading specialists in all schools throughout the grade span using MTSS progress monitoring and publishing subgroup results each term. Also, I wanted to say a comment about your reporting data. which I believe lacks an equity focus. I'll give you an example. Celebrating the presence of HQIM without skilled implementation is like having a car without a driver. And also, when the district reports suspensions, this is an example, that suspensions decreased by 10% without sharing that suspensions were recoded to count fewer in-school incidents. This is misleading, especially when black boys were made... Thank you, your time is up. Two times higher than peers, showing no real progress. Last, we all know that why...

Chair, that concludes public comment on the report.

Thank you. New business?

Madam Chair, if I just may, it was publicly reported this past week that the Board of Directors of the Boston Private Industry Council is offering me the position of Executive Director, which I A plan upon taking at the beginning of January, so to best focus my efforts on that new role, my plan at this point is to leave this body at the end of this year, along with my current Full-time job to focus on that new role. So I did send a message to my fellow members this past week, and I just wanted to state it publicly.

Thank you. We'll be celebrating Chair O'Neill, Vice Chair O'Neill more at a later school committee meeting, but I want to take this opportunity to thank him for all he has done for the city of Boston and its families.

Yeah, I just want to say, I mean, 17 years is a long, good run. But just having had a chance to, throughout my career, see your commitment to the body. So many different ways. It's really, it's a big loss for us, but it is a huge gain for PIC and for, I think, Boston Public Schools, given how close we work with PIC. I couldn't think of a better person coming in after Neil Sullivan in his long run of success at the pick. Your contributions and just knowledge of the business community, long-standing knowledge of policy here and how BPS, what it needs and how it works. I think it's just a great match. So I'm looking forward to as much as we say goodbye to you at the end of December, saying hello to you in the role of pick and getting the opportunity to work in a different way for the benefit of our kids.

Thank you, Superintendent. Thank you, Chair. And thank you to my fellow members. It is honestly an honor to work with all of you, to listen, to learn, to interact. And we are all focused on improving opportunities for the youth that we serve. It's the deepest honor of my civic engagement.

If anybody else wants to give a comment or two before the lights go out at 11?

All of us are to a steak dinner over here.

Okay, so with Vice Chair O'Neill stepping away, this means there will be three open seats as Dr. Alkins and Member Cardet-Hernandez's current terms expire. on January 5th, 2026. So the application process to be considered opened earlier this week and can be found on the Boston Public School Committee webpage under the School Committee Nominating Panel tab. Applications must be received by 1159 p.m. on November 7th, 2025. So get them in quickly. That concludes our business for this evening. And the next school committee meeting will take place in person on Wednesday, October 29th. at 6 p.m. If there's nothing further, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. Is there a motion? So moved. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent? Hearing none, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you all and good night.

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to 1010 Massachusetts Avenue. My name is Tania Del Rio. I'm the Commissioner of Inspectional Services for the City of Boston, and I'm really thrilled to be here. This morning, to share update about Mayor Wu's initiative to transform permitting here in the city. At ISD, we know that permits aren't just paperwork. They are the foundation that we need for people to make Boston their home. So whether it's a family moving to a new apartment, a small business owner that's opening their doors for the first time, or a developer who's building much needed housing, The permitting process really does shape people's experience of our city. That is why today's announcement matters so much. By modernizing technology and streamlining the work that we do here, we are making Boston more predictable, more accessible, and more welcoming for everybody. People should not have to navigate a maze of offices or chase down paper forms. They should have a clear, consistent path to getting what they need and to build their lives here. To that end, here at ISD we're focused on improving and digitizing every single process that happens here. Over the years, we have moved nearly all of our permitting processes online, and we are finishing that job this year by bringing the last few applications Trench, Sheet, Metal, Sprinkler Permits, and soon Certificates of Occupancy into the digital system. and as of last week, contractors can request their inspections for all of their projects online as well. This means that by the end of this year and for the first time, more residents and businesses will be able to complete Their permitting journey completely online from start to finish. You know, there are people who have been coming to this building for years and they come here often enough that they've been able to form real friendships and report with our staff. and in the last months we have heard from several of them and they'll say you know I love coming here and I will miss seeing Nicole or Megan or Isabel but You bet that I will now be completing this application online because simply it's just going to save me time and it's going to save me money. So the impact is really simple but really powerful. There are going to be fewer trips to 1010 Mass Ave. We're going to have less uncertainty. We're going to have time saved. And ultimately, more money in the pocket of the people who call Boston home. And you know, in these times, our middle class really needs that affordability. A restaurant owner should be spending all of their energy cooking and serving their customers, not filling out the same form three times. A new homeowner should be able to see exactly where they are on their application status instead of being left wondering. So for us at ISD, this is about efficiency, yes, but it's also about equity. When the permitting process is transparent and when it's easy to access, we make it possible for more people to invest in Boston, to put down roots, and to thrive here. So that's how we plan on making Boston truly a home for everyone. I thank you for being here. You're now going to hear from my colleague Santiago Garces, who is the city's chief innovation officer. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone. I'm Santiago Garces. I am the Chief Information Officer for the City of Boston. We are delighted to be here because we know that government works best when technology and process come together to support people. and nothing more important than connecting our city employees with the constituents that they serve. We know that when we are making things easier, safer, and more convenient, everybody wins. So just to talk a little bit about the impact of what the executive order that the mayor is going to sign today enables us to do. I'll give you a quick story. Whenever a student needs to be registered for Boston Public Schools, we need their birth certificate. and our registry office has all of the birth certificates for any child that's been born in the city of Boston. And last year we worked with BPS and with registry to enable the Welcome Center to be able to access those birth certificates so that families didn't have to go pay $12, go to City Hall, get a copy of the birth certificate so that they would be able to enroll their kids. We are able to do this because we have great infrastructure and we've been able to invest in the past few years in new firewalls and new systems that allow us to do this securely. That same technology allows us to connect over 50,000 people to free Wi-Fi every month. Authority that we get through the executive order and the investment that we have thanks to the mayor and to the council allows us to continue to do these projects that make it a little bit easier for people to get what they need without having to go from one office to the other and without having to wonder where What step in the process they're in? So we can move data securely, we can make our residents' experience better, we can save money, and all of this because we can invest in making sure that our employees and our departments have the right technology to do the right tool. And I just want to say the work that we're doing is just built on the foundations of a long time of the work of our employees, Rich and Kevin and Kelly and all of the folks that have created an innovative All of the systems that our city uses, we're only going to take this to the next level and make it a little bit easier to make sure that people have the right resources. I'm very grateful to the mayor thanks to the council and for an amazing team and all of the people that do technology at the city not only in do it but in the other departments and companies so very excited about this I'll turn it over to the mayor I think

Thank you so much, Chief. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Thank you so much for joining us. I am so grateful to all of our city team members here who work hard every single day On the immediate issues, the fires, literal and in every metaphoric way, but also offensive.