Summary of September 19, 2024 School Board Meeting
MEETING OPENING:
Call to Order - 7 PM by Ms. Mary Kadera. Member David Priddy absent. Recognized start of Hispanic Heritage Month. Recognized National Neighborhood Day and 3 Arlington Neighborhood organizations.
CONSENT ITEMS: Motion to approve passes 4-0.
Minutes
Personnel Actions
Revisions to School Board Policy B-3.6.37 Electronic Participation in School Board Advisory Committee Meetings and B-4.4 Electronic Participation in Meetings by Individual Members to clarify guidelines for participation.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Board Announcements
Dates for upcoming meetings were announced.
Reminder to community: members of SB Advisory Committees still looking for members.
Ms. Turner shared about a Kenmore 7th grader who is a finalist in the 2024 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge.
Ms. Diaz-Torres acknowledged a group of students who met with her to discuss the proposed cell phone policy.
Superintendent's Announcements and Updates
Dr. Durán played a video about collaborative math efforts underway at Gunston Middle School.
Celebrations for Hispanic Heritage Month - 2024 theme is “Pioneers of Change, Shaping the Future Together.”
Reminder on Lightspeed Content Filter. 1,654 have opted in through ParentVue so far.
APS is partnering with George Mason University to offer a direct path to college admission for Arlington Career Center, Wakefield and Washington-Liberty. Students who have a 3.2 GPA and higher will be admitted if they choose to attend. 776 APS High-School Seniors will receive the offer which will be shared next week.
APS Launches Ambassador Program with George Mason University. Middle and High-School students will receive leadership training to welcome new students to their schools.
National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced 22 APS seniors who were named National Merit Semifinalists.
PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDA AND NON-AGENDA ITEMS:
Speakers:
Parent of a student at Kemore Middle School: For after-school bus, the Principal has 2 groups. One boys and one girls. It’s not right if one kid makes a mistake that everyone is held back. We live 1.7 miles away and the bus limit says 1.5.
Teacher: Glad to see weekly grade report is returning. Son’s building struggling with HVAC issues and other schools have similar problems. Glad to see device choices being audited - perhaps relationship with Apple will go away. How many bus drivers short are we? 1,000 kids had at least one class without a qualified teacher on day 1 of school. Follow-up to purchasing audit. It’s impossible for well-meaning employees to make purchases. Rekeyed all buildings and 4 weeks in, many teachers don’t have keys. Audit revealed we are eligible for new healthcare plans in Jan 2027 as long as a RFP is available in 2025. What is being done to create a RFP?
Moms Demand Action group: Several school shooting threats made in Loudoun County following the Appalachia shooting. None were credible. There is a heightened sense of anxiety. School superintendent is expected to prepare a letter explaining the importance of secure gun storage and laws in VA. Would like to ask if Safety and Emergency team reviews and tests plans? Panic button badge worn by Appalachia High School worked - is APS considering something like this?
Speaker: In 1960 the superintendent reported on APS de-segreation efforts. Comparing APS test scores from 1963-64 and we have been failing our students for 60 years. APS does not have to frame this issue to suit the VDOE narrative.
Parent: Yondr pilot. Adulthood means learning to manage cell phone use on a day to day basis. High School students have adult responsibilities including jobs, siblings to care for and sometimes their own kids to care for. With Youndr pouches they cannot call 911. The 2022 Wakefield lockdowns traumatized students and teachers. It was terrifying. We were able to calm our kids. Cancel the Yondr pilot.
APS teacher: Every year the physics teachers at YHS plan a field trip to help kids connect concepts. They are fun but also change how a student experiences physics at a baseball game or theme park. It’s been safe every time. 20K is collected and no one has ever asked a question. Yet tomorrow if I need to purchase $6 of materials at Home Depot APS will no longer reimburse teachers. It appears some people did misuse funds. They should be fired or trained properly. We should be able to get what we need for our classrooms even if sometimes it’s last minute.
School bus driver: We need support. We start every day 33 drivers short. I drive Special Ed and had my ride expanded from 25 minutes to 60. My special ed student didn’t understand that because my bus doubled up that she would be a different stop and cried. Special Ed students can’t handle these changes. They deserve to be safe. We need an attendant in every bus. We need support. What are we doing to help drivers with the parking situation?
Speaker: Staff were sent surveys and sat on committees promised to be a part of productive change. Decisions were ignored. Large percentage of support staff do not make a living wage. Bus drivers and attendants have to park one mile away. This mile is unpaid time. APS doesn’t trust staff and teachers to spend a small amount of money. This is poor role modeling for students.
MONITORING ITEMS:
Annual Academic Update from Dr. Durán: Tonight we are providing an update on how students are progressing and the work we are doing. Dr. Mann will present data on standardized assessments and SOLs. Sneak preview on VDOE changes to accountability measures.
Reading: APS maintained its performance in reading at 80%. Outperforming state in every category. Increase at 4th grade. 11th graders also increased. Other grades remained flat statistically.
Math: Review of APS math and VA overall pass rates. APS increased academic performance by 1% from 2022-23. Was at 87% before the pandemic and now it is 79%.
Science: Area of strength pre-pandemic at 86% and now APS is 74%. Inching back up with 2% increase from last year. Increase for 8th grade students. Most students take biology in 9th grade and then are not required to take SOL again.
Social Studies: overall increased from 80-81%. There was a drop in history and social sciences. Also there are 3 tests where the sample size is too small to report statistically.
Writing: 7% increase and at 86% pre-pandemic level. APS increased EOC writing performance by 2%.
Overall:
Increase in reading, math, science and writing for black students.
Hispanic students increased in science, history and writing.
EL students: reading increased 3%, science increased 4% while scores went down in math, history and writing.
SWD’s increase in reading and science and writing.
Black students with no other identity markers are passing at reading SOLs at 86.9% at pre-pandemic levels and 7% higher than all of APS.
Hispanic students with no other identity markers pass Reading SOLs at 91.1% which is 3% lower than pre-pandemic and 11% higher than overall APS.
ACCESS Proficiency by Grade Band: APS remains 2% below pre-pandemic. Only middle school has recovered past pre-pandemic levels. Elementary and High School remain lower.
First year of giving MAP Reading Test quadrant chart students are at the high achievement line and above the high growth mark. This replaced Virginia Growth Assessment. Will be on the dashboard.
For MAP Math Test most students were above 50 percentile for achievement and high growth.
SOL and VAAP Pass Rates by Race/Ethnicity: Black and Hispanic students perform at least 10% behind the APS overall average.
Absenteeism: Students who have missed 10% or more of school year. APS was 7.3% pre-pandemic and has remained flat at 13.2% for the last 2 years. VDOE reports 16.1% for 23024 school year. These students perform 19% & 26% lower than their peers in reading and math respectively.
What are we doing to improve our schools?
There will be new standards without a crosswalk year and new testing items this coming school year. Implementing new standards will be a top priority.
ELA & Math measures for elementary and secondary were provided with specific callouts for advanced learners, ELs and SWDs.
Math and ELA will be difficult with new tests and new standards. Will need to be put into curriculum documents.
Social Studies has a crosswalk year to adapt and will plan to implement new Social Studies Standards next year updating curriculum and resources.
Science will continue to emphasize engineering practices across K-12 and 5E model.
OTHER
EL is a major focus. APS has brought in someone to Syphax to work with teachers on EL and support them.
Have moved from DIBELS to Virginia Language and Literacy Screening System (VALLS). Replaces PALS. APS is confident they will identify more students with learning disabilities.
VBOE has adopted revisions to Standards of Accreditation for 25-26.
Data for the plan will be based on what students do this spring on SOLS.
There are expected growth, mastery and readiness targets for Elementary, Middle and High School. Does not include Social Studies.
Still trying to understand the changes and impacts.
Schools will be penalized when parents refuse for students to take tests.
Instead of 11 semesters to learn a language it will now be 3 semesters which will have a significant impact.
Questions
Ms. Turner: What will your office do to determine whether the supports being provided are effective?
Dr. Mann: We’ve moved monitoring reports later into the year. Curriculum writing right now. Coaches will be helping. AACs working with them. We need to figure out what data points are being assessed.
Ms Turner: Content and approaches identified last year are very similar to this year. How much time is enough time for some of these measures to start showing up in student testing results?
Dr. Mann: If this was a normal year coming up, I’d say we need to change direction next year but with all the changes coming up we need to pause and look at the data this summer and then come up with a new plan. We know test scores are going to drop across the state. We’ve seen improvements in subgroups - how to get this to impact the aggregate. Identify where we are consistently struggling and focus on those strategies and sharing best practices across schools.
Ms. Diaz-Torres: Why is 7th grade math weird?
Dr. Mann: It’s been weird in VA as long as I can remember. Our 7th grade math students who matriculated through the system. Some are struggling / some are not.
Ms. Diaz-Torres: Those taking advanced coursework are taking higher grade SOLs and their data is not reflected in 7th grade SOL data so it’s a smaller population size.Can you speak to science this year?
Dr. Mann: End of Course Biology 81% passed. That is bulk of 9th graders. They will take other science but will not take another science SOL in high-school. Those who didn’t pass will take the Earth Science or Chemistry SOL where fewer and fewer students take changing the population size.
Ms. Diaz-Torres: Next year can population (n size) be included on the slide? Are the trainings we just spent time and money on still relevant for VALLS test?
Dr. Mann: yes
Ms. Sutton: Regarding the reduction of 11 semesters to 3 semesters for EL learners - want to clarify that the state of VA does not offer the test in the student’s native language. Could we look at other states on their data from before they offered it in native language and then what scores looked like after? Might be useful when advocating to legislature.
Dr. Durán: Mr. Stockton will look at this
Ms. Sutton: For students who are twice exceptional for students who are identified as SWD and advanced learners what supports are in place for them?
Dr. Mann - We want those students to be exposed to grade level content. These dual level students are important. We are focusing on these 3 primary categories now: Advanced learner, EL and SWD.
Ms. Kadera: My understanding was that DIBELS would still be available for some students
Dr. Mann: Yes, students who are flagged on MAP test will be eligible for DIBELS.
Ms. Kadera: When we talk about chronic absenteeism I assume it’s linked to lower performance on SOLS. Can we dig into this in future monitoring reports, including variation by school and sub-group. In spring with secondary literacy report, we will have last year beginning/mid/end of year growth. This year with the new course can you include beginning and mid year data? When you think about past school year, what 2-3 things we did that paid off, what would they be?
Dr. Mann: okay.
Ms. Turner: EL 1-4 and SWDs are below for achievement and growth. What can we do to support making progress in those areas and what should the Board’s focus be to allocate scarce resources? More teachers, more staff, smaller class sizes. Are there other things we can learn from or areas where it’s working right now we could utilize?
Dr. Mann: yes. Having our students have access to grade level content and being included in those classes. They need to be in science when science is being taught with a co-teacher.
Ms. Turner: How can we make inclusion and grade level content KPIs that tie to the strategic plan for reporting?
We would work with the EL team to see how to best capture the data. Elementary schedules are more fluid so we’d need to think about how to capture without adding more work for teachers.
Ms. Kadera: Are there big takeaways from last year where there is a ROI the Board should bear in mind?
Ms. Cruz: secondary literacy - science of reading within middle and high schools. Structured literacy is filling gaps students have. CLTs are where we noticed grade levels meeting collaboratively - collaborative teacher efficacy is something we are working towards with all schools
Mr. Seward: Math - investment in interventionists makes a difference. Investment of a 1.0 FTE math coach at each school to work with teachers along with structural interventionists. Those 2 things are helping students succeed.
Ms. Diaz Torres: Regarding incremental growth and potential for greatest growth, we are seeing year over year growth in sub-categories. The exception is Hispanic Non-Economically disadvantaged went down 10% in two years. What do we know about that group of students?
Dr. Mann - we will investigate and follow-up.
Ms. Sutton: 27% of black students who took reading SOL were non-EL/SWD/Econ disadvantaged. When we look at Hispanic students who took reading SOL and 21% were non-EL/SWD/Econ disadvantaged. How would you characterize these groups with modest / somewhat flat gains and the supports they have in place?
Dr. Durán: all students who score at a certain level will be getting additional supports. EL/SWD may get additional supports beyond that.
Ms. Sutton: We look at snapshots in time, not students longitudinally. We don’t have a way to look at the same student in 2nd, 8th and 11th.
Dr. Mann: we look at them as a cohort. You can pull them up individually but we don’t normally pull our student by student for reporting out.
Ms. Sutton: With the new system for accountability, the model assumes growth drops at different levels while readiness increases, a fairly stable, non-transitory population. We don’t have this in Arlington. We have a lot of students entering and exiting the system. Setting aside choice/option programs, many students don’t exit the same school they began at.
Dr. Durán: It was presented at a particular grade level were they were ready within the 5 C-performance tasks. How were they ready for that assessment only. Chronic absenteeism is a challenge within any framework. What worries me is how the measure of growth will be calculated and how will it be measured?
Dr. Mann: If you look at middle and elementary chronic absenteeism is 10% the first year.
Ms. Diaz-Torres: Can we get the data cut the same as it was a few years ago? It had 7th graders/8th graders/9th graders year over year examining growth.
Dr. Mann: we will follow-up
Ms. Kadera: We have a random sample of students who we know have remained enrolled with us. Filtering out students who arrived late in the game. Are we seeing compounding growth year over year?
Dr. Durán: We’ve received guidance not to do this when the standards have changed so much year to year. When there are the same assessments and standards, it’s easier.
Ms. Turner: Regarding updated curriculum documents for teachers - what is the schedule for this?
Dr. Mann: Right now we are working on what that timeline will be. At secondary we are prioritizing which courses will be first since there are so many courses. Not sure when the drop-dead date is yet to complete. We want to make it easy for the teachers. Standards shouldn’t change again for 4-5 years so we should be able to get feedback from teachers and tweak and change.
Ms. Zucher-Sutton: Do we still feel the joy? Are the teachers feeling joy? This was a lot of data.
Dr. Durán: Data and curriculum are important. We need to have more ways for teachers to have joy. Less time assessing over and over again. When we provide teachers with strategies, resources and support, then there is joy. There isn’t joy when teachers are developing their own lessons, and they aren’t sure how to support certain students. We need to find a way to take off some of the assessments. We need to be more intentional. There is joy I’ve seen but there is also frustration.
Ms. Zucher-Sutton: I worry we are going to lose the joy if schools have numbers drop and they are in the lowest category, it’s onerous the paperwork and reporting.
Dr. Durán: No one enjoys being off-track when the growth you are doing and the support is not properly documented and recognized. When the rules of the game are changed in a way to make it look like you’re not teaching and supporting students when you really are. I’m worried about the growth category. I’m proud of any teacher who has a student grow using the resources they have. When you are doing all that work and being considered off-track there is no joy. Mastery is critical and we don’t want to lose track of that but we need to find a happy medium. Still also important to support students who are already proficient. We will have to see what the new labels mean. We need to be thoughtful moving forward. There is no joy when it comes to being mis-labeled.
Ms. Kadera: When we are developing curriculum that aligns to new standards is it rolled out to the entire system or piloted?
Dr. Mann: when we get new standards without a crosswalk year, we have to roll up our sleeves and get it done without a trial.
Ms. Kadera: With pacing guides is it required to follow or can it be flexible?
Dr. Mann: We want to avoid teachers not covering all the curriculum. All the standards need to be taught. I hope none of the team members have said to teachers you need to be at this spot right now.
Ms. Kadera: At the George Mason Regional Elected Leaders Forum, the Prince William County Superintendent commented that it’s an unprecedented year in Virginia. She felt like school divisions in VA are having to deal with a lot all at once from the state. New math standards and new math assessments - rare not to have the crosswalk year to roll out. New ELA standards last year and new accountability and accreditation standards this year. She said usually it would be a 3 year roll out with a pilot test, then non-binding roll out to all and then have it fully count. VA is doing it in a compressed timeline.
Dr. Durán: I agree with everything Dr. McDade said. We also did it differently when I was on the State Board of Education including a crosswalk year for feedback. Its very different to do 3-4 things all at once. There are different ways to do it that may not have a negative outcome for students. Its unusual and fast-paced, not what i’ve seen in other states or when I was on the state board.
Ms. Kadera: Ways to use technology that allows students to use grade level content, AI can take what a teacher says and recap it for a particular grade level. What is being done?
Dr. Mann: We are exploring AI. With text to speech we want to leverage technology and introduce students age-appropriately in a way that is effective for teachers.
ACTION ITEMS
Summary of amendments to the 2024-2025 Audit
Human Resources: high-risk area for several reasons. High turnover rate, lost of business continuity. Narrowed scope for HR standard operating procedures to be examined including hiring, on-boarding, and off-boarding. Job descriptions and reclassifications. Compensation adjustments; annual contracts and contract adjustments, customer service requests, benefits, leave-time and payouts, separation from APS, emp;oyee expectations, internal investigations.
Information Services: high-risk area. Proposed audit scope includes: equipment inventory and tracking processes, assignment and return of equipment, equipment repair and replacement, loaner equipment, security and privacy, selecting and leasing hardware, software, apps and evaluation of business controls.
Amendments approved by the Board 4-0.
No changes to proposed text-book adoption of resource textbook for 9th grade immersion at Wakefield High-School. Approved by the Board 4-0.
NEW BUSINESS: None.
ADJOURNMENT
