Monday, May 21, 2012

We are Getting There


I was hoping the school district would have posted the video of the Thursday evening Working Session by now, so that I could provide exact quotes.  Since this is good news though, I don’t want to wait any longer, and will rely on my notes to present the sense of the discussion.

The Board of Education has instructed the administration to scope out the work required to conduct a mathematics curriculum review!
Chairman Leslie Moriarty introduced the topic (as a result of an added item on the agenda) by saying she was interested in obtaining a Board consensus on how to move forward with the transition to Common Core Standards for math.
Peter von Braun immediately answered that we should be doing a “full bore” review.
Barbara O’Neill indicated that it would be “short sighted” to focus on Common Core, and that we should be doing a full review.
Jennifer Dayton said that given the date of the last review, a full review was needed. 
Chairman Moriarty pointed out that there were competing priorities, and that the budget process needed to be considered.
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Professional Learning Stacey Gross said that the current plan was to work this summer to start the transition by developing augmented materials and enabling professional learning, with a focus on the elementary level.  She continued that the next Math Monitoring Report was due in November.  She indicated that the curriculum review schedule was “very flexible” and that currently the Science implementation was on track for 2012-13 (first year), the Social Studies review was being expanded, and the English/Language Arts review (scheduled to start next fall I believe) could push out.
Dr. Lulow indicated that his interest in this topic (i.e., he asked for the agenda item) was a result of wanting to know where the new Math Coordinator (to be hired) should focus.  He asked if we should expedite the math curriculum review, and if so, he would take that into account in the coordinator selection.
Peter Sherr asked whether the introduction of the new testing for the Common Core Standards in 2014-15 school year meant that we should be implementing changes in the math curriculum in the 2013-14 school year.  He went on to refer to a Wall Street Journal article questioning whether the Common Core Standards were really an improvement.  In any case, he indicated that he supported a “deeper, sooner, more complete” review.
Jennifer Dayton said that we could move forward with a curriculum review, irrespective of the timing of the implementation, and that she was supportive of a start to the review sooner, picking up on Peter Sherr’s phrase.
Adriana Ospina, referring back to the presentation made by the current Math Coordinator at the 4 April 2012 Work Session, indicated that she supported option #3, which would entail a full curriculum review.  She specifically mentioned Everyday Math (and not in a complementary way).
Seeing that at least five of the Board members were in favor of accelerating the review, Chairman Moriarty summarized by saying this would not be a small change, and then asked the administration to give an indication of the scope of work for a curriculum review. 
Barbara O’Neill mentioned that the first step would be the Math Monitoring Report, scheduled for November (see my comments below).  Peter Sherr asked if we could get outside help for the review, to which Dr. Lulow responded that it was not unprecedented.
I may have missed some of the nuances being expressed (and apologies for misquotes), but the general feeling appeared to me that the review should be a full review and that it should start sooner rather than later.  The tone I sensed was concern that the proposals (options #1 or #2 from the previous Work Session) for transitioning to the Common Core using Everyday Math as a foundation was not going to produce the improvements in performance desired. 
Barbara O’Neill’s comment that the first step would be the Math Monitoring Report (“MMR”) is correct, given the policy for such reviews (the  policy is currently under revision).  But let’s look at the timing that this would impose.  If the MMR is published and accepted in November 2012, starting the review, the 12-18 months stipulated as a maximum time frame would put the first possible implementation in September 2014, at the beginning of the school year leading up to the first testing under the Common Core Standards. A twelve month review would allow 9-10 months for preparation and professional learning, but the start would still be September 2014.  This path would also require spending resources (time and money) on planning and executing a transition program, as it would be unwise to put all the marbles into a big bang implementation.
If the Board decides that this is not a feasible path, the immediate start of a review (as soon as the new Math Coordinator is named or hired) would allow a 12 month (preferably shorter) review, with the remaining months (June-August 2013) for professional learning prior to a September 2013 implementation.  This implementation could be limited to grades 2-5, giving all grades almost two years of the new curriculum prior to the first test in May 2015.
Needless to say, I am a huge supporter of an expedited review.  While it would be too late to provide a better curriculum for our daughter, the benefit to younger students needs to considered.  Even one year less of Everyday Math would be a tremendous improvement!

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