The District updated the website to include a presentation by the Mathematics Department. What is important here is that the District finally acknowledges parental concerns connected to Math without the dismissive condescension the community has experienced in years past.

Much progress has been made in scaling BTC back, given the highly problematic lack of Empirical evidence supporting it and the District’s troubled implementation of the program two years ago. SOME of the practices within BTC were discussed as evidenced based and as part of this model – which isn’t unusual.

What was refreshing about the presentation is that it connected to community feedback meaningfully and gave a nod to evidenced based practices.

Timeline:

If approved by the Board, the initiative looks to start next school year; however, full efficacy of intervention is expected to be demonstrable in the third year.

Uniformity and Gaps:

It was unclear how fidelity to the model or practices will be assured and whether this is about “a model” or collection of practices.  There were some concern expressed by BOE members about the transition and level/type of support for students coming from BTC.  I don’t feel that these questions were answered fully. I am concerned we are going to lose a large swath of kids in focusing on a new model/practice/approach(?) versus dealing with the repercussions of the last one.

Questions on Measurement 

While research and evidenced based practices are mentioned throughout the presentation (a positive), I have questions as to why short term metrics connected to implementation and student achievement are not present for next year. The public should have some level of confidence that, at the very least, ground isn’t lost in year one.

Other Concerns

This item appeared to be added just before the meeting and I could find no record of the BOE Curriculum Committee recommending this program/initiative.

The educator making the recommendation has not been with the District for a long time and has some experience in working with consultants on this model (I need clarification as to the extent).  If consultants are the main lead on this, what can we expect from the STEAM Director position?  What will be their role in this implementation and in the long term?

I also wasn’t too happy with what I felt was a misunderstanding on questions connected to Direct Instruction, which was equated to lecturing.  This is not the assumption parents with concerns about BTC were operating from.  I was a fierce critic of BTC and felt more direct instruction should be provided—I did not mean that as lecturing.

Third, feedback from the PTO cannot be taken to mean feedback from most parents.  Any major initiative should be connected to Town Halls with doors open to any parent who wants to ask hard questions.

In my comments to the BOE, I expressed my feeling that the initiative appeared underfunded and that the funding requested appears allocated mainly to a consultant to provide training.

I would like to understand what exactly teachers are going to be trained on, how this training request connects to sustainability – whether the initial phase is intended to “train the trainer” so the District can rely on in-house resources to monitor and enhance the learning  This connects back to concerns surrounding the lack of detail on implementation and uniformity.

Lastly, I’m not clear as to why only professional development appears to be addressed, but supports connected to students aren’t part of the plan – even if it’s a simple reference to some of the strategies the District has already implemented since last year.

In the end the main question that needs to be answered is what tangible changes can students expect in the classroom and what evidence will we have throughout the implementation that things are going well?  

The acknowledgement of community concerns and the straightforward, professional manner of the presentation were a great start, but more work needs to be done to get a clearer understanding and buy-in from all stakeholders.

Full Presentation

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