HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-10-27-CLARKE-min RECEIVED
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Jonas Clarke Middle School
School Site Council Meeting
October 27, 2021
3:00 PM
Virtual Meeting, Jonas Clarke Middle School
17 Stedman Road Lexington, MA 02421
Google Meet link:
Video call link: haps://meet.goo.1e.com/hiz-hvze-rko
Or dial: (US) +1 402-647-0250 PIN: 825 333 589#
Agenda
1. Call to Order, Welcome, & Public Comment
a. Google SlideShow Link for meeting
b. Introduction Larry Freeman
2. Review &Approve Last Meeting's Minutes
a. September 27,_2021 minutes
i. Motion to accept M.Wright, E. Sayre second.
ii. Vote - passed unanimously
3. Parent, Staff, and Admin Reports
a. X. Zheng: some parents see Otus is more difficult to identify what
students are doing and not doing well. Very confusing.
b. D. Despres: Yes, many parents have shared this with me as well. We
will be reaching out to parents and to Otus to try to make this easier to
read and use.
c. X. Zheng: During the extreme weather, is it possible to have the bus
weather closed? Keeping the bus windows open, the seats are
soaked. The classroom windows are also open in this extreme
weather.
d. D. Despres: Acknowledges that this has been a discussion at the
school committee as well.
e. M. Wright: DESE guidelines still require bus windows open.
Additionally, once the windows are closed, all on the bus are
considered close contact.
f. X. Zheng: Understand that the children getting wet 2x a day increases
the chance they get sick as well. Parents might decide to drive their
students to and from school on those days.
g. D. Despres: We do need to follow state guidelines, but we encourage
students to let the teacher know if they are getting wet from rain
entering the classroom window.
h. L. Freeman: Tracking what students are doing via homework,
classwork, has been difficult this year. Example: for one of my children
I have to bookmark four or five different sites to keep track of their
homework/classwork.
i. D.Despres: Is there consistency on the Team Website?
j. L. Freeman: No, and some subjects are not even being updated daily.
k. E. Sayre: There is a question as to how to interpret "progress" as to
"meeting". There is a bit of confusion on how to interpret the scores. It
seems to be coming more from World Geo than other classes.
1. E. Sayre: Also seeing a similar trend that was mentioned by L.
Freeman. There is an inconsistency with what teachers are using.
Once you learn what and how each teacher is doing this, you can
manage it.
m. J. Clark: Students are feeling some of the same confusion that the
parents have expressed here.
n. M. Olsson: The discrepancy between "progressing" and "meeting" the
standard does exist with some teachers.
o. D. Despres: So far, we have used the PLC (Professional Learning
Community), really what this means is similar grade level and content
level teachers meet and determine what it means to be "beginning,
progressing, and meeting" for the content standards.
p. D. Silverberg: Comment about the early release amendment that the
LSC passed last night. A lot of the staff are elated about this.
q. J. Clark: I too am elated by this extra time, even if it is only one time a
month. Being a Special Education teacher, I only have one team
meeting per six-day cycle, and having the extra time is so valuable to
get my work done and help to modify curriculum, etc.
r. D. Despres: I will need to get more clarification on what the
discretionary time means. As soon as I have that information, I will get
that out to staff.
s. D. Despres: The past three days we have had indoor lunch and it is a
good reminder to the social and emotional needs of our students.
Based on observations so far this year, it will continue to be a
persistent challenge throughout the year.
t. D. Despres: Thank you for the feedback and I hope to get more
feedback about Otus from parents. Also the report card will be in a
PDF format.
4. Discussing Clarke's School Improvement Plan 2021-2022: "Innovation Plan"
(Focus on Goal 1: Addressing Equity Gaps, Redefining Success, Cultivating
Student Agency, Innovating for Sustainable Change)
a. Addressing Equity Gaps at Clarke: What equity gaps exist in the 2021
MCAS data? Disciplinary data? What longitudinal trends exist with
these gaps? What are the three tiers of RTI and the DCAP? What does
Clarke's RTI map look like? What is "restorative justice?"
i. Clarification of RTI and DCAP.
1. RTI = Response to Intervention. This is our way of
supporting students and their learning. There are
basically three tiers of intervention. First tier is classroom
level. Second tier is additional support (pull out or push in
from another staff member, or even support during WIN).
Third tier is a scheduled intervention placed into a
student's schedule (e.g. Math Workshop, Reading
Workshop, Guided Learning, scheduled check in with
social worker or counselor). Please know that when we
add an intervention, there is a specified amount of time
that we wait to gather data to determine if we need to
increase the interventions or if the ones put in place are
working.
2. DCAP = District Curriculum Accommodation Plan. These
are basically classroom interventions (Tier 1) that
teachers can use daily to allow them to access the
curriculum and learn.
3. SRT = Student Response Team. This is a diverse team
that meets once every six-day cycle. The team reviews
student data from teachers, considers interventions,
makes recommendations, tracks the data and follows up
with teachers and parents to determine if the
interventions suggested by the SRT are working.
ii. First Equity Gap: MCAS Scores/Academic
1. Notice that the performance levels of Black/
African-American students and Special Education
Students are lower than other subgroups.
2. Note: Last year's MCAS exam was very different than the
years prior.
3. Shared slide with the disparity in MCAS scores for the
various subgroups from last year.
4. Shared the slide with MCAS data for past three MCAS
years of MCAS scores and noted the downward trend.
5. Shared the slide with MCAS trend for Special Education
students in the past three years.
6. Both the district and our school have taken specific
initiatives to address these disparities.
a. Unleveled courses with commitment to
differentiation within the classroom
b. One exception for 8th math -- Honors and Math 8
classes (both provide students with access to the
similar topics
c. Shift to standards-based grading to remove
behavior/homework completion from academic
performance scores. We haven't analyzed SBG
data to look for trends.
7. Next steps: How do we innovate? Collect and analyze
data. Tier 1 intervention & curriculum focus? To what
degree do social & emotional needs and culturally
responsive practices impact academic performance?
a. L. Freeman: One area to look at would be teacher
expectations with students, especially Black
students. Having high expectations can in fact
encourage students to perform better.
b. J. Clark: Staff are all coming from different places
when it comes to their understanding of cultural
diversity. I so agree with Larry and his statement
of high expectations for all students.
c. M. Alexander: I'm in marketing and I love data. In
the world of education, there are so many
nuances. All of these situations don't fall into a
funnel that lands into one space on a spreadsheet.
d. J. Clark: Can we look at this data from the growth
perspective?
e. D. Despres: Explained how it is best to look at one
student and their growth over the year - as a case
study - to better understand what factors affected
the growth.
f. L. Freeman: Is there a way to tell that students
who just don't test well, yet perform well in the
classroom?
g. D. Despres: No, there is no way to do so. We
know standardized tests have been bias, that is
why we need to use multiple sources of data.
h. M. Alexander: So how does project based
learning work with all of this?
i. D. Despres: PBL creates spaces and
opportunities that are more universally accessible
for all students. (e.g. more access to learning).
am not sure if we look at students who perform
well in these subgroups and then see if these
students have had more PBL experiences - is
there a correlation here?)
j. E. Sayre: With respect to Special Education - does
this include the MCAS Alternative? What is the
cross-over to other subgroups and students in
Special Education?
k. D. Silverberg: No, the Alt is a portfolio and has a
different scale.
1. D. Despres We can drill down in the data to see if
there are students with IEPs who are Black/African
American.
m. D. Silverberg: There are 104 students on IEPs at
Clarke. Roughly 14%.
5. Selecting Next Meeting Time &Adjournment
a. Tuesday, November 30, 2021 from 3pm-4pm.