member reinfeld I'm not sure if you're I'm not yep thank you all right how many years have we been zooming all right so please be advised that there will be a meeting of the curriculum instruction assessment and accountability subcommittee of the Medford school committee on Tuesday May 28th 5:00 pm this meeting can be viewed live on Medford Public Schools YouTube channel or via Medford Community media on your local cable channel Comcast channel 98 or 22 and Verizon channel 43 45 or 47 the meeting is being recorded uh and since the meeting will be held remotely participants may log in using the link below uh the zoom ID number is 92647 5749 so we will start with a roll call do I do the roll call as the chair or does Paul okay um member branley present member Russo present member reinfeld present three present zero absent and we are joined by members of the administration and and I believe some members of the public as well thank you all so much for coming uh so this is the followup on the resolution I don't actually have the resolution number in front of me but be it resolved that the subcommittee for curriculum instruction assessment and accountability meet with the assistant superintendent of academics and instruction and other relevant staff to discuss the development of a process to review and assess recently adopted curricula and assessment tools across the district and to identify the key stakeholders timelines and prot calls to be involved in these reviews consistent with the policies described in section I of the Medford school committee online policy manual uh so by way of context uh We've we've called this meeting because in recent years the Medford Public Schools have adopted a number of new curricular materials uh through a robust process of review and input and stakeholder input and we would like to have the ability to assess whether our goals for adopt those materials are being achieved and what that looks like in terms of uh the materials themselves as well as the instruction and the student and by way of further context uh in the Medford Public Schools strategic plan item A1 is to establish an ongoing process of curriculum review um so I'm happy to pull up that document with the details of that but I've asked Dr gusi to give us an update on where we are because phase one is uh slated for uh 2021 through 2024 and here we are in 2024 and we'd like to get ahead of the process so I think if we start with an update on phase one and then discuss what phase two looks like is it useful to say who's in the room here uh from the schools before we do that I would agree would you um would it be okay if everybody just kind of went around and introduced themselves and what their role is within the district um that would be great so I mean you already introduced me but um Suzanne gusi assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction thank you so much Maurice Edward Vincent superintendent of schools Joan Bowen director of student services Nicole key is the director of humanities Isa KH director of mathematics hi bernardet ricelli director of professional learning and student assessment hi Shannon deos principal of the Brooks Elementary School hi there Jennifer skain principal of Andrews Middle School hi everyone I'm Nick Tui principal of the mugglin middle school and we definitely also have um Michelle croll on the call she's the principal of the Roberts but I know she's just um finishing up something in the building um but I wanted to make sure that she was um recognized and I know somewhere Dr Cushing was on this call as well but I think he's just in listening mode right now um so I mean I think the best just maybe the best way to handle some of this we have some wonderful expertise on the call and so oh and I see um Paul Tech Sarah is coming in to the call right now the director of um English learner Department um but with all the expertise on the call Paul Paul I'm so sorry to put you on the spot the minute you come in the room but do you mind introducing yourselves before we get going um sure hi I'm politicar I'm the director of the English learner education program for the Medford Public Schools thank you um member reinfeld I would agree to start with um I had made a copy if you would like I can share my screen I had made a copy of the A1 curriculum document that's linked to the Strategic plan um and I just added a column so that we have like a starting point to provide an update for the work that's been done um throughout the life of the Strategic plan does that sound per okay all right can can everyone see my screen so I've lost sight of all of you so I just need a verbal we can see thank you thank you okay so this is the um the A1 curriculum tab from the strategic plan um and this outlined the work that the district did um between the years of 2021 and 2024 So currently so for each action item we just provided an update so the first one said uh deliver professional development activities related to the revisions of the Massachusetts curriculum Frameworks so internally we have a spreadsheet um that Dr rodelli started and that we've been updating um which speaks to the current curriculum per the depart per each department um and it kind of lets us know where we are within the curriculum cycle um per Department per grade level I'm not quite sure if you'd like me to just also open that up and just briefly I don't know if we need to necessarily hit every tab I don't think we should dive deep but just to get a sense of of what that just to get a sense so like this is the English language arts one so you can see it goes from um K to 12 and it just lists the program that's being used when the implementation year was um the criteria and the components of the program and a little Baseline as to when it would be up for the next review cycle um and we have that for all of our departments um just to get an understanding of how we're tracking things internally um so the second action item was use a protocol for assessing instructional materials for bias so this is part of the core review process we go through when we're looking at uh reviewing curriculum updates uh as well as brand new programs and part of that cycle for the Department of Education includes um a review of Ed reports and the curate system um so that part of that review is done when we are updating the curriculum within each department please just like interrupt with any questions or if there's uh administrators on the call that want to add to anything I'm saying um just chime in please the next action item is to create a master list of adoption cycle curriculum offerings which we have done at as I showed in the updated curriculum catalog and then one of the things that we've been working on is a draft um process to finalize uh that curriculum review process from me Medford Public Schools which I think we can maybe highlight once I get through the action items just so that we can provide first a base review of the work we've done okay um so the next one just says update curriculum so this is something as in that spreadsheet that's ongoing so you know sometimes it's that we've been with a curriculum for a long time and we're seeing that we need something new because it's not maybe hitting student needs sometimes it's the Massachusetts um Department of Education has updated the Frameworks and the standards that teachers use when they're teaching and so there are many reasons why we initiate curriculum reviews um when the Strategic plan was written in 2020 for a launch in 2021 this column here highlighted some of the work that was had begun and or ongoing or maybe nearly completed and so over here the updates per Department are all listed here so for the Humanities um text lists were provided texts like lists of the texts that grades 6 through 8 and 11 um were using the elementary um started the core review process for a new curriculum last year and last year was like the the review process this year was the full implementation um of the hoton Mifflin program PD has been sustained and embedded all year long both through um hoton Mifflin hardcourt who's the publisher of the program as well as through a partnership we have with Hil for literacy which is a literacy consulting firm um of expert um reading specialists in the field uh physical education and health is quite long because they've been doing a lot of work so their health curriculum updated um per the Department of Education in 2023 and so I know that direct director Rachel Perry along with um assistant superintendent Dr Cushing they both sat on the heak committee I believe um member reinfeld member rouso also sat on that um committee I'm apologizing if anyone else on this meeting also sat on that committee and I failed to acknowledge you I apologize um but I know they've done a lot of work so this is the in a snapshot I know the biggest implementations that work is ongoing so this year the fifth grade um puberty has shifted the curriculum that we're using and the approach and the form format that we're using those lessons have started this year and so some of the work is still continuous as they're looking to update um her the Frameworks but I know that they began with the health curriculum and then she's looking to move next to the physical education curriculum so implemented this year as I have said was the fifth grade um puberty lessons um along with making sure that that work aligned we've updated Nexus at the elementary level so that Nexus is handling the health curriculum um which is Michigan model and Miss Perry has been working directly with the Nexus teachers in that department um and I know that the work to finish the new um sexed curriculum will be finished next year she has listed here recommendations um and again the work with the PE Department um that will begin next year um as you see here to develop a a physical education committee World Language also had um framework somewhat recently updated and so Ms um Dr Vilma babau has started working with her staff to review the updated standards um she's provided numerous opportunities for professional development and professional affiliations within her department and lesson plans and curricula will be aligned next year based on the work that she's been doing within her Department to update to this to the Frameworks math um as we all know and fisa can speak to this um much close more closely than I can but she's been in a constant state um of alignment and adjustment within the math department um both at the middle school and the high school level to align to inte to the integrated math Pathways and Elementary last year went through their full implementation year of the investigations three um curriculum so this is year two uh for that curriculum science Foss was uh implemented I believe in 2018 so next year we'll be looking to kind of review um Foss and see where we go from there and then the rest is pretty much some of it is reiterating the things that I have just said in terms of the Departments um additional information for science would be that at Middle School the stem Scopes curriculum was implemented in school year 2021 um High School ranges which is reflective in the spreadsheet but it ranges depending on the course um so some of the curriculum began in 2019 where others were just updated um last school year or this school year um we spoke about health and World Language um and the only other piece right now would be technology um Molly Laden director Molly Laden has worked to um update the technology uh curriculum that is offered through the schools one of the things that she will begin the work that will begin next year is updating the library curriculum um to align with the library media and then the last piece of an update the last uh action item here speaks of review of new research-based comprehensive Elementary literacy programs um rubrics to select Elementary literacy programs and then Implement literacy Elementary literacy programs so that was a mouthful but basically uh this has kind of two levels to it one was the work we did to become compliant with the Massachusetts literacy screener regulations under the dyslexia um regulation and so that was the we've had like a tiered approach to that and that was uh this bottom piece here which is the pilot of the Dibbles program which fully meets it's like full compliance per the Department of Education for meeting the literacy screener regulation that pilot was done last year and um it was fully implemented this year Elementary K to5 so all K to5 students received the Benchmark Dibbles um and grades six through eight intervention students uh received Dibbles um either in a benchmark or progress monitoring um situation when it comes to oh also we uh implemented erri which is enhanced core reading instruction uh this was to also comply to make sure that our um reading instruction is structured and explicit um and so all of our K to2 staff use um ecre when they're teaching reading to their students in terms of the core review process um the Department of Education as I stated is very um particular about the process that's used when we when districts are selecting new curriculum and so this core review process as aligned by Ed reports and the curate system um we used Hil for literacy to help us engage in that work um for the ELA reading program um this folder that's linked here also kind of explains the core review process which was quite extensive it included um teachers administrators and um caregivers to narrow down uh Ela programs and to finally select the one um into reading that was implemented this year any um questions before I maybe stop the screen share I do apologize I've lost the ability to see people so I'm not quite sure if there are hands in the air am I okay don't see any I I have a I have a quick question so just um it's Nicole brandley I don't know if you can see me I'm sure you know this voice um my question I guess this just makes me think as I'm seeing you know some of these names and some of these positions um how do we go about these strategies if some of these positions are cut who who Who's Who does this fall on so I think I mean with with all due respect um I think that that's maybe a conversation for a different meeting um I think today right now we're kind of charged with talking about how we're going to create a process to show that our curriculum is effectively working for students um and I think having all like all of these lovely experts here um I would really love to be able to have that conversation and tap into the the school and department leaders that are on the call today but I welcome that conversation um at another point I will not forget my question Mrs Ki don't worry thank you hey I hope I'm I'm I welcome that thank you I know you always do I appreciate it thank you member Russo did you have any questions particularly as someone who's seen a lot of these curricula come in no no okay all right so I think what we want to do so this is this gives us a really good uh foundation for what's been done what's in progress I think one of the goals in calling the subcommittee at this point in time is to say when are so some of these things are due to be evaluated regularly uh and that's that process is in place um but one of the things I want to be really thoughtful about is when that Happ that there are a few different stages of assessing these and I know this this is ridiculous for me to say with this many um Educators on the call but one of the things that I've been thinking about with in regards to this is that didactic triangle where the content is one piece of a triangle and the students and the teachers are the other points and assessing the content isn't just about the content itself but it's about the relationship that that content has to the teachers and the students um I think the review process isn't necessarily a conversation about the teacher student relationship but it is to the content uh and the into to the teachers and the students and so some of looks like the for the content and the teachers that looks like the implementation um and is this doing is is this working are are are these things being implemented with Fidelity and in a way that the teachers feel are adequately trained to teach this and then no that seems to me something that needs to come earlier than the process of assessing whether the students have Mastery of the content or whether they're in well hopefully the engagement with the content is coming sooner and to be able to assess that through observations through test scores whatever it is and what that process looks like so it's not just we're looking at everything all together once we hit the six years or the curriculum expires in 2029 so we're just deciding if we're going to renew it I'd like to make sure that we have a process in place to review that in a strategic targeted way at selected points and you all on the call know far better than I do what is feasible because as we all know you know the more time you spend talking to people about what they're doing that's less time that they're actually doing it so figuring out what that balance is is something that I'd like to kind of lay out in terms of the timeline who the stakeholders are um and the role that different people are going to be playing in a review process thank thank you for that um I appreciate that I think that is one of the main reasons why the district moved to bring in nwaa map growth because I think we all know so we have multiple measures um of assessment and some are ongoing and some are kind of like a a a snapshot and mcass is um an endof year Benchmark through the Department of Education um but it is it's a onetime test um it's not a system and so nwaa nwaa map growth um checked some of those boxes for us in that it is aligned to common core standards it did include science and a lot of these um districtwide assessment measures only started with uh like I ready for example were just math and reading or Ela and so one of the things that intrigued us about map was that it also included the science components so that we had these set benchmarks to see how our students are fairing on common core standards outside of the curricula itself and so I think that is definitely a component that we rely on um but I think engaging in the conversation around uh the validity and the timeline is important um because some programs are probably in the the just right spot um while it's difficult to look at some of those scores and call it uh a reliable measure in like the first year of implementation so I know that Miss Khan I don't know if not to put her on the spot but I know she has seen um some tremendous progress per map scores at the end of the year here in math which is we're in like year two uh of the curriculum implementation um but we're not going to see that growth yet you know for reading because this is at least at the elementary level this is like year one of the program so I think and then there is the piece of to your point like the observational and the instruction um and the Fidelity to the program but I think it's important to continue this conversation so that it is in a more formalized manner but I would offer other people to kind of chime in if they feel yes yeah and I would love to hear from the folks on the ground there as you know is is map testing giving you the information you need and what other information do you need what are what are the ways to get that because I think as we all know we we don't all want to we don't want to just make test scores the measure of success what are the what are the metrics we need here can you hear me yes yes yes just may I answer piece of that that please you asking right okay um I do think one of the things we've been really successful with is triangulating um the map data with other data points that we have within um the classroom so we've done some really good work um many people on this call who and Beyond who where we look at how are they performing on map in terms of their growth from Fall to window of the spring but not just looking at that data point triangulating that for literacy with dibles um and then taking it a step further and cross referencing back to mcast those are some data points as well as performance within the cross room those are some data points that are going to kind of give us an indicator of where do we need tier two support where are we you know what components are we thriving in um and it's been very informative when we've been able to look at those data points together um so I'm not sure if that answers your question but I have found it very useful um to see where we have some students that may be at risk that maybe we wen't aware of and then we go back into the T even mentions in the programs themselves um go from there question a little bit and if I could piggyback on what Nicole just started um sharing to say that as I think about the nwaa map um the other assessments um in particular the mcast the the the common complaint about the mcast is that it's only given once a year at the end of the year and so you're not able to really Target the areas that were identified as areas of weakness because the students change grades the standards continue to evolve so it's kind of like you're working backwards but um you're not working really strategically because every year there can be a shift and I think in the absence of not having had a consistent assessment tool um across the district at all um to finally have nwaa map as a tool that that you can use as as one measure but a measure that you can use multiple times in a given year to get that beginning middle and end and you can still do the mid checkpoints and there are a lot of other assessments and different ways that the data can be slice that you can really use it to inform your instruction and make real time changes instead of waiting until you get the mcast results the following year and you're looking at different students that are sitting right in front of you so as we're looking at data and the data is being triangulated it's it's critically important to say we now have data how can we make it actionable I think that as we're looking at curriculum and different programs the programs can always shift but if everything is aligned to the standards and we are actually able to measure growth that those are the conversations that will happen with data teams those are the conversations that are going to give us improved outcomes for our students because if with the absence of data you you don't know are your students really making adequate growth and so I will continue to Champion nwaa map um and if the district were to choose a different assessment tool it would need to be something that you could use to get multiple points of data so you could measure your progress and your growth and I feel like the work that's happening now is the work that we needed to be doing and now that we have it and people know what to expect with these assessments you're really going to be able to be targeted specific laser-like focus in terms of you know what my students did not get this particular standard we're going to retach it and those are like the really rich conversations that happen either in grade level teams or if you're looking at it from a school level to be able to say are there trends that our students are not making progress with or look it everyone is hitting these particular standards and we're doing very well in these areas let's keep up the good work here and make the necessary shifts so I know we're talking spefic specifically about nwaa map which again is Norm referenced and it's a national assessment but even if it was an nwaa map we would still need to have something that we could measure more than once a year while the students are still in front of their Educators so that's yeah and I just don't want to lose sight of so this the scope of this meeting is about assessing the curricula not necessarily student gains obviously part of the goal of these curricula is to reflect student gains but to make sure that we're measuring something that tells us whether the goals of adopting a given curriculum are being met but I see hands in the air so I think Miss deos was first oh did we lose her oh you're up you're on mute Shannon sorry I thought I clicked it um so thank you for the opportunity um Dr Vincent actually took a little bit of what I was gonna but um what I wanted to say sort of Echoes the fact that um the nwaa scores really drive a lot of our instruction in differentiation and groupings here um and I'm sure for my colleagues across the district as well um it allows us to have conversations during our ilt and our cpts with the the staff and it really kind of drives along the discussions of okay what is this new program covering that our Old Co um curriculum didn't but then where are the gaps that we need to put in some teared support across the grade levels it allows me as the um instructional leader of the school to see are these Trends something that is across the grade level or is it something that I need to go and have some support conversations with my individual staffs that maybe a little bit needs a little bit more guidance versus somebody else so I really encourage us to continue with this because that beginning middle and end data is a uh big point for us as far as our groupings for next year for our you know next week's centers you know we get so much data from it um I really do um appreciate the fact that we were given this resource and I hope to see it continue thank you Mr teara thank you so we use the map data a little bit differently we'll have uh all of our students whether they're newcomers or elel pull out students they take the math map test uh because that's informing us obviously fifth grade looks different in Brazil than it does in China than it does in ha than it does in the US so because it is based on the standards we can Target what our students are missing not due to lack of instruction here but what they didn't get in their countries prior to coming in because we place them by grade level so if they're in seventh grade and they missed seven uh fifth grade skills we can hone in on that using the um map data and then for the uh Ela map only our pullout students who are level three 34 uh El or higher uh will take the map ELA test and we use that data to make our placement decisions uh if they're ready to exit from the elel program it's another piece of data in addition to the access test if we can place them in uh mainstream classrooms and then uh we also just we use the science in a similar way U mcass is just Fifth and eth grade there but it helps us kind of hone in on what skills that uh they may be missing because of cultural differences uh with Educational Systems in different countries great and the sorry Mr tixa the the list that we just saw from Dr galy of the curricula how many of those have the the buil in ela support I know that I know it was included versus a separate curriculum yeah so we do have a separate ELD curriculum English language development curriculum um and I'm not sure I have a different list that I added and I I may have missed this Suzanne as you were going through it I didn't add my stuff so we have English language development curriculum based on students grade level and their English language proficiency level and So currently right now what's happening in the elementary because we now have a new program um you know the into reading the hmh program where we our El program our El curriculum hasn't changed but we're updating the curriculum to support the new materials being used to deliver that corre okay Miss Khan real quick um can you hear me yes all right so good so I want to bring another perspective to U map testing um I use it very often also to see how I can support the teachers uh because every teacher's classroom is different and all the teacher you know every classroom Because by the nature of it have different set of students and that gives me a look into how I can support a particular teacher when I look at you know two similar classrooms and see all right um this is where you know my PD needs are this is how I need to coach so I I use it in that in that capacity as well thank you Mr Tui yes hi just from a secondary school leader perspective I'll just chime in to um almost Echo what Dr K was saying but expand upon it too as well and that we use a lot of the triangulation data in order to inform our approach as to how utilize our Wind Block uh over the course of the school year so often times what you'll see is that teachers will work with separate different groups of students and we'll have different intervention kind of groups within a team-based Wind Block opportunity for our students so that was one thing that hadn't been mentioned and also one other thing had been mentioned by my colleagues is how I feel like the map growth data can be very useful as a great resource for families too as well often times we're having family meetings uh we love to be able to present the map growth data and the family report and be able to share that information to work in partnership with our families in the work that we do thank you thank you that actually if anyone else has comments I welcome them but that seems like a reasonable transition to identify oh um Dr k sorry I just I wanted to add because I know I broke up before so hopefully you can hear me better now yes um we have an example of how we related the data to the curriculum which I believe is kind of one of your questions was when we saw a deficit nwaa when we first began it and we saw a deficit in the foundational reading skills we did pull in ecre um our enhanced core reading instruction as more of a foundational program and we did see success in the student scores um which then told us that ekri you know was was one of the tools that was successful in that and I and I know that you know Dr glu's done a lot of work with along with myself on on continuing um as it seem protective but that is an example of of how the assessment helped not just speak to the student but also to the curriculum if that's what you were referencing that is that's and that that speaks to the other kind of takeaway I wanted to get from this which is the timeline of when that it sounds like map provides a lot of flexibility for doing a lot of that in real time and if that is embedded in the process I don't know how much more explicit it needs to be but I'm interested in kind of identifying who are the stakeholders in making those decisions and getting that input I know when curricular is chosen it's done with Community input from families obviously a lot of most of the folks in families are not Educators or curriculum developers uh so but they can speak to the experiential component of things um and of course the teachers who are teaching it saying this is working this is not working anecdotally qualitatively MH so identifying who those those parties are and when they come into the review process I think would be a useful exercise for this is call um I think we agree and I know that we when we've engaged in the curriculum review cycle for let's just say a new program um new curriculum following that core review process has always included um varied stakeholders so it has always included Administration as well as teachers um and caregivers and but we don't we haven't really had anything necessarily like formalized um I know that just taking that process um there we have like a slight draft of what that process looks like um but I think what you're speaking about is that like final kind of part of the process process where you're in the implementation phase but then that implementation phase also kind of like leads into the monitoring phase and so right what does that look like as we're monitoring the curriculum to see how it's meeting the needs of our students and when that varied use of stakeholders kind of enters the that monitoring phase um I do think is worthy of discussion and think it's going to look different um at each level and at each department and I think we you know you use data to kind of guide those discussions so right now we're seeing some positive like just for example not to always kind of like say something to fisa but like we're seeing some like positive data around the math um but in terms of you know I mean so that math piece is in the monitoring phase that will stay in the monitoring phase for a couple more years um but if we see a dip in that student data um then it's going to Warrant a closer eye and I think the other piece like to my point is that some of that other data around like triangulation especially maybe just for F's piece but for all the Departments is I would also welcome a conversation around like tra trajectory data because I think that like part of the the push for math was because fisa was seeing some data about the preparedness of students in advanced opportunities in like grades you know I guess nine 10 and on um as well as what the enrollment looks like in some of our advanced placement classes um honors and AP fisa and curriculum directors are also um monitoring the scores that our students are receiving on AP exams and so I think even just having a conversation around the the kind of data um that's important to make some of these decisions Beyond uh map data also would be a worthwhile discussion are there thoughts from the group on that and also giving some attention to those to to non- mcast subjects as well I think of I know we've been talking about NWA map but you know a lot of the math and the literacy is baked into things where there's a little more I don't want to say leeway in other programs because it is they're absolutely rigorous and to standards but how can we make sure that's being included in this process and that those programs are getting what they need so I think that also varies from Department to Department know like World Language uh Dr babau there's like the Seal of biter biliteracy um I mean there are AP courses as well but there's also um the seal of biliteracy and then there's also just um there's enrollment and so at least at the high school level where students have a choice um starting in grade 10 with really like what they're um taking as both like electives and just enrollment in course selection um is also useful data for us to kind of track um you know the interest in students as well as the um persistence but I do defer to my uh experts on the call I would agree just from the social studies perspective which we do have an eighth grade mcast pilot this year but not you know anything set in stone you know we see it with the Civics project we have a Civics learning project that's in that's mandatory for our eth graders and our 11th graders and when we look at the Quality quality of those projects and then the engagement after you know for me it's it's of course Beyond numbers of how well somebody did on an assessment but are they engaged are they you know moving on to more Civics oriented projects once they hit eighth grade um those are valuable pieces of data that that we look at as a department as well um along with of course you know the Civics project and and what they're what they're doing within the classroom that's great and that that speaks to another question I had for this group which is the the cross- departmental influence right I see U Mr sier on the call you know do do our students taking Advanced science classes have the ADV the advanced math skills that they need to do that and what room in reviewing curricula saying the next grade is getting students are coming in with the knowledge that they need to succeed at this grade with this curriculum or looking it across you know do AP does the statistics Department have the statistics students have these math skills or these critical thinking skills that come from a Humanities program and so I'm wondering what cross-curricular opportunities there are to say this this is a a program that speaks to multiple needs and certainly at the elementary school level foundational math foundational reading but being able to make those connections across areas I think Roco and fisa could speak to that they work very closely on that do either of you want to and particularly in terms of of being able to review curricula with that in mind not just are the students getting these things but I I think um Miss Renfield your your question is it's twofold it's what um what the what the curriculum offers and what it expects as a baseline um in for example if you are choosing something in science you have to make sure that the reading level of the material is appropriate that the that the math reasoning skills are appropriate and is there crossover within those uh documents about um what can be done with the with the with the curriculum that's that's in place and that is absolutely um something that we're aware of when we do our reviews um I'm not I I don't recall I looked at the document very briefly I don't recall if that point is embedded in the curriculum review process as you know in the newest document that you have but it would be really valuable to put in there um as a point of reference that you know looking at you know the range of Lexile levels of the materials would be good to know before a curriculum is um purchased or or implemented um the same for the math skills um when you're looking at a science program I'm thinking more in particular as K to eight rather than the high school because at the um at the elective level after chemistry the expect expect is that students have a particular um level of mathematical or at least computational skill um that that might re you know that sometimes may um may say that this particular alternative that they're choosing may not match may not be well aligned to what their um what their skill set is so that's certainly in the in the mix um and I and I'm thinking it the more advanced classes the AP class in physics for example where you need to have simultaneous um instruction and calculus so if you have to have simultaneous instruction and calculus and the book has calculus in it um and it's a Physics course then how do students reach that level you know the text has to be that particular level um are which groups of students are qualified to reach that uh particular level um so it's a big range and there's a lot that probably has to be considered um but I would certainly put in there that when a curriculum is reviewed you know are we looking for the alignment grade level or at least grade band level uh for the students uh in their Ela um or their their linguistic uh background and in their mathematical understanding and Taps into a question that we had brought up earlier of is it the material is it the implementation is it the instruction and really being able to Suess it out because we don't we don't want to throw out a curriculum that has a lot of potential and is would be doing well if there were more training um but we also don't want to keep hammering away at a curriculum that isn't working so I saw two hands go up although one of them I think just went down so fisa yes hi um I wanted to add that um there are certain uh uh standards in mathematics um in which we can uh work uh cross content so for example in Geometry um this is something that connects very well uh with certain shops that we have at Medford Vocational Technical High School so just Rec recently um the mathematics Department uh has been working on uh creating um more uh projects at least once a quarter in every subject uh that is going to involve uh involve some kind of cross content um partnership so I've been encouraging teachers uh to do that it's a work in progress some courses have one done others have a couple done uh we just kicked it off after covid um so it's taking time so but but but we we we we are getting there uh the other thing uh as um that has been mentioned is the curriculum the three curriculums that we have um one is a pathway and the other two are the curriculums illustrative mathematics and investigations um we ensured um that it's not just emphasizing on procedural stuff and because if it's just um emphasizing on students procedural uh understanding then that doesn't leave any room for any kind of thinking and problem solving that comes in through these projects so we are working towards getting our students ready from very early age uh to be able to handle these cross content projects that will come their way maybe as early as middle school but definitely at the high school level so uh there is a potential um you know we are always thinking of Way teachers are uh I mean we have a personal finance course a consumer math course that involves um you know some Civics and some economics so I'm I'm very proud of those particular courses and teachers have worked hard to develop those curriculums so as I said there is potential we are working on it it's a work in progress that's that's that's another great point that I think is not quite this meeting but when a teacher brings a curriculum to the district and how that gets adopted but and assessing that so that's a great Point as well h Nicole sorry um you know I just wanted to add like when we think about literacy across the content areas we think about reading as Mr sieri just said and the levels and the ability to access informational texts versus fictional text but we also think about writing so looking at how our writing is crossing over curriculum is something that that is is really you know critical for social studies in English but certainly um Miss Khan and Mr SI and I work closely to to kind of think about those expectations at the middle school level we can have have Team cross-curricular activities which which we certainly do with social studies in English um and at the high school we have some courses that are one's called Humanities that's actually English and social studies um because the US history and the American lit lines up together so the class is combined but also with Arts we've seen a lot with social studies through the Arts so um working with the Arts coordinators um you know we have a class called Art and ideas looking at historical art and we have students that are doing like dosent trainers at Museum of Fine Arts which is kind of getting Beyond those walls of the classroom and having that crossover but certainly getting back to the curriculum itself that that writing component is essential um and that's something that I think we're constantly assessing because M map isn't going to tell us much about that Dibbles isn't going to tell us anything about that but you know looking at student work and progress across the four are areas um and having something set up to do that regularly I think is is something that we've started on and need to continue with if that makes sense it does and I think that was kind of the goal of this of of getting this group together to have this conversation is to say what does that process look like um and what is the timeline for that uh so I don't know if that becomes a question with with the Strategic plan for the district as we said the the phase one is coming to coming to an end this year um and knowing what that phase to is is something that I can speak for myself I hope the rest of the subcommittee agrees we'd like to know what as as we approach the end of phase one what does phase two look like who's involved and what's the timeline yeah um I don't think there's like a definite answer for that right now I I definitely welcome the continued conversation um in a future meeting but I know uh I don't know if you want to end I can kind of show like the draft for what that process looks like and I think following that process as well as taking a a deeper dive on the catalog um of curricula that we have internally um and in bed with your kind of like dactic structure right because it's that's the key we we've already well established that we have map growth and how it's used um and the importance of the instruction and Fidelity to the program but then there is the importance of that you know that third kind of piece of data too around the grade level performance some of those internal factors that we're looking at um and observations that we conduct and I think the like the observational rounds which have been very effective um In Pockets um Mr techera Mr Tucci and um Miss Khan as well as others but like they've really took like a deep dive on that and I think you know that's work that we can also build um as well as I think you know aligning to the Ed reports and the curate process is the Department of Education pushes highquality grade level curriculum right across the board and that's very easy to um kind of I shouldn't say it's easy but assessing grade level material when it's from a published program is one thing but reviewing and assessing curriculum that is created inhouse is a different process and I think I think that that's the process or some of the work that we could um that that the district needs to like maybe look at too um because it's very clear the process from the Department of Education when you're assessing high quality materials that have already been created by a publisher which we have many but assessing the high quality um I don't want to say high quality but um the high quality grade level piece of of internally created um curricula is a is a different structure um and I think that that's one that we could we could also discuss what that looks like will be different than what the other process looks like that makes sense I'm I'm noting that it's six I would love to see this this draft oh yeah yeah but I do I do notice it is the time and I think yeah especially in those instances where we're looking at I don't want to call them Frankenstein curriculum but to say there's a gap in this published material that we need to supplement with either something homegrown or some other published material so yeah I just I wanted to also just note that it's not going to look the same depending on the department or the grade level um because you know uh there are some guiding questions but to um Mr Si's Point um I loved his question about you know the difference between what a curriculum offers and what a curriculum expects um I think since this is a draft I would love to add that into our guiding question somewhere but this basically just kind of takes into account the the four phases when we're looking at assessing curriculum which is what happenings in the what happens in the planning and the review um I don't have to read all of it but this first box kind of gives the snapshot of what happens during this process which is establishing the team of stakeholders that you spoke about um member reinfeld and doing some of that preliminary work to know what is the the research saying um about the current content um so that the people on this team and all stakeholders kind of understand so to like Dr K's Point earlier if we were doing this on like early literacy screeners we would really want to inform this group of stakeholders what is current research saying about um the science of reading um then the second phase is like the analysis where we're looking at our internal um data around all those triangulation pieces um there are some links in here of things that we would be pulling in right away um from student assessments to Desi guidance um and of course alignment to our strategic plan and then the next phase is like making a determination about is the curriculum meeting the needs of students do we need to move on do we need to enhance um is it time to look for a new program um and the team would be making those decisions um to chart a path forward and then this is the very long um part here because it's not only the implementation but it's the monitoring um and this is where we can live for like three to four years um as we're kind of implementing a program and continuously kind of like progress monitoring it um and I think this is where a lot of the work per how you've kind of phrased this um you would like to live in kind of like this section of the work yeah although I will say I love the reason for initiation I think that's really important to make explicit that some of it is scheduled some of it is emerging right and some of it is external yes yes beyond our control yeah and do you have a Target timeline for this process from adoption to are you talking about for this draft for these stages you said we could spend a few years implementation and monitoring is there well I think this is like the crosswalk of this to this like I almost view this a little bit right so it's going to look different at each level right within each department so I think that's part of the work that we're all doing um internally um but I think that I would like to work on firming this up um with the administration the the school and department leaders as well as kind of narrowing in a little bit more on this so that we can see what the eventually I think we need to also have like something posted right so that it's very clear on our website um Year bye where we are so like 2024 if was up on our website we could see that this is you know year two at the elementary level it's year two for math um it's year four for Foss I think Rocco four or five four um I think it's five my daughter was in second grade and my other one's in third now so okay um and it's year one for inter reading right yeah um and I think we need to be able to build that so that there's a clear understanding of where we are I mean there is you know you can go on the Department of Education but they only list reading math and science yeah and I don't think it's fully up to date because it's not Jour is that's right we have to update it um but I think there should be something on our website as well yeah yeah and I think it's useful for this if not the sub commmittee or even the entire school committee to know when is it reasonable to say all right inter reading's been in place now we need this up we need an update on whether it's achieved its goals or not um because I know school committee approves we don't teach we don't tell teachers how to teach but we do approve major investments in curricula and so knowing when it's reasonable to see those updates those that data those data I know people argue best practice best practice is a five to six year s and so mapping out where those are for for the various curricula that so to that point we should be looking at f um of we should that should be one of the next um focus areas for elementary but I want to be able to like create that cycle so that we can see on a yearly basis where we are um and I think that would be very helpful right did anyone else have anything to add I know this was kind of a a preliminary meeting and it was for many of you laying out some of the things that you've been already working on for a couple of new school committee members but it is very much appreciated especially after hours um member brandley or me member Russo did you have any other questions that you wanted to bring um I can just add that I'm definitely not an expert in curriculum so thank you I took my notes you guys are rockstars so thank you for all thank you so I think I'm oh go ahead so I'm excited I'm excited to see this this next stage of the process laid out and to understand where we are with the various curricula so that we can we can come to you when it when it is appropriate and not make extra work asking questions and when we when they're not when the answer is forthcoming absolutely thank you um member brandley member motion to adjourn is there a second second all right uh roll call member brand yes member Russo yes member reinfeld yes thank you all so much and I look forward to continued conversation on this yes thank you for everybody for joining