Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
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7:54 - Good afternoon.
7:55 The July 30, 2020 board workshop is now in session.
7:57 Elementary leading and learning will be presenting
7:59 information about curriculum and standards.
8:01 Pam, roll call, please.
8:05 - Mrs. Belford.
8:06 - Present.
8:07 - Mrs. McDougall.
8:09 - Present.
8:10 - Mrs. Deskevich.
8:11 - Present.
8:12 - Mrs. Campbell.
8:13 - Present.
8:14 - Mr. Susan.
8:15 - Present.
8:17 - Please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance.
8:22 - [All] To the flag of the United States of America,
8:27 and to the Republic for which it stands,
8:29 one Nation under God, indivisible,
8:32 with liberty and justice for all.
8:37 - Okay.
8:38 I would like to ask Jane Klein,
8:40 Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Leading and Learning
8:42 to start us off with introductions of her team.
8:46 - Good afternoon.
8:48 This afternoon, you’re going to have the review
8:52 of our standards accreditation process
8:55 by Ms. Marilyn Chappie,
8:57 Director of Elementary Leading and Learning
9:00 Early Childhood.
9:02 And with her today is Janet Stevenson.
9:05 And Janet’s title is All Things Leading and Learning.
9:11 She is responsible for school improvement,
9:14 work with the Bureau of School Improvement
9:17 with turnaround, instructional reviews,
9:21 and instructional material process.
9:25 Their secondary counterpart for this process
9:28 is Ms. Lena Weibelt.
9:31 Ms. Chappie has attended the training
9:34 and will lead us through accreditation
9:37 that is coming up in January.
9:39 So I’ll turn it over to Ms. Chappie
9:42 as she overviews the process.
9:44 On your table, I left you the standards for accreditation.
9:51 Ms. Chappie.
9:53 - Thank you very much.
9:54 Good afternoon, everyone.
9:56 So today we’re going to take a little shift
9:58 from the conversations you’ve been having
9:59 and we’re going to talk about district accreditation.
10:02 I know this has been on everyone’s mind.
10:04 When do we renew our accreditation for our district?
10:06 And well, of course, being 2020, this is the year.
10:11 So the district accreditation,
10:13 it’s a process that we go through every five years
10:16 where we have an external review team
10:19 come to our district to evaluate us.
10:21 And today I’m going to talk about the process.
10:23 And I have Janet Stevenson here with us
10:25 because she is an expert on this.
10:27 She’s gone through this process the last time we did it.
10:30 And she is also someone who serves with Cognia
10:33 as an external reviewer for other districts.
10:35 So she is going to be key and instrumental
10:38 in helping us go through this process.
10:40 So on this first slide,
10:42 you’re going to see that the dates
10:43 for our accreditation visit are the 24th
10:46 to the 27th of January as it is currently scheduled.
10:50 And that is when a review team will come to our district.
10:52 But the process for our accreditation really begins now
10:57 because we have to start doing an internal review first
10:59 before the team comes.
11:01 So those are the dates when the team comes,
11:03 but the actual process is already beginning right now.
11:07 So how does this work?
11:09 First, we start with our internal review.
11:12 This is where as both a district
11:15 and all of our district departments
11:16 and our schools, principals, assistant principals,
11:21 their teachers and staffs,
11:23 they start looking and doing a self-reflection
11:25 to see are they following our strategic plan?
11:31 Is there a school improvement plan
11:32 tied to our strategic plan?
11:35 And do they have a system of continuous improvement
11:37 in place in their building?
11:39 And do we as a district have a system
11:40 of continuous improvement in our system?
11:43 That’s why it’s called a system review
11:45 because it all has to be tied together.
11:47 I should have water.
11:48 Okay.
11:50 Next there’s the external review
11:51 where our team of 16 reviewers will come to our district.
11:55 They’ll come into our district.
11:57 They’ll interview people at the district level.
11:59 They’ll interview people at our schools
12:01 and they will visit our classrooms.
12:03 I know that sounds a little scary right now,
12:05 but by January, everything’s going to be better.
12:08 All right.
12:09 If all of that goes well,
12:10 then we become an accredited system.
12:12 Both schools and districts will be accredited.
12:15 So what does this look like?
12:16 When the team comes
12:17 and what are we looking at now as a district?
12:20 We’re looking at our leadership capacity,
12:22 our learning capacity, and our resource capacity.
12:26 And for each of those, there are 11 standards.
12:28 The handout that you received just a little while ago
12:31 will show you what each of those standards are
12:33 and the key concepts for each of those standards.
12:37 If you’ve been through this process before,
12:38 you may have remembered it as advanced ed.
12:41 The accreditation that we have currently
12:43 is called advanced ed.
12:44 Before that, it was Southern Association
12:47 of Colleges and Schools.
12:48 Well, now it’s called Cognia.
12:50 They’ve all merged together.
12:51 So when you hear Cognia, that’s the old advanced ed.
12:54 And so on the paper that you have with the standards,
12:57 it says advanced ed at the top.
12:59 That’s because they haven’t even changed
13:00 that on their standards yet,
13:01 but it is the Cognia standards.
13:04 So the standards are all part of the three domains,
13:07 leadership capacity, learning capacity,
13:09 and resource capacity.
13:11 And what they’re looking at is where are we at
13:14 in our process of continuous improvement?
13:16 Are we, where are we at in initiating things?
13:19 Where are we at in improving things?
13:21 And what is the impact of those things
13:23 that we’ve initiated and improved upon?
13:25 Because the main thing they wanna see,
13:27 what you get the highest scores for,
13:29 is where have you had the greatest impact?
13:32 You can initiate a lot of things,
13:33 but if the initiation doesn’t go well
13:36 and you don’t sustain it,
13:37 then you’re probably not going to have the impact
13:39 that you had hoped for.
13:41 And that’s usually what you see in your strategic plan
13:43 is when you develop a plan,
13:45 what is that impact supposed to be?
13:47 And they wanna see that we followed through
13:48 and achieved that impact.
13:51 So the internal review, the part that’s starting now.
13:54 We’ve already begun this by meeting,
13:55 we started back in actually last school year
13:58 when we met with all of our principals
14:01 and explained to them that this process was coming up
14:03 and what their roles would be at their school level.
14:06 So they already had that at the end of the last school year.
14:09 And we’ve done it again with our leadership teams
14:12 at the beginning of this, at the end of this summer.
14:15 We’ve already started that process.
14:16 Yours are kind of blending together for me here,
14:18 so I’m having trouble differentiating.
14:21 But we’ve already started that process again this week.
14:26 The internal review, does the district use survey
14:28 and observation and student data to determine our actions?
14:32 Do we use it to increase student achievement?
14:34 And are we using it to close achievement gaps?
14:37 And again, with those things, they wanna see,
14:39 are we initiating, are we improving, and what is our impact?
14:43 And we have to save evidence from both the district level
14:46 and our school levels to be able to validate
14:48 that those are the things that we are doing.
14:52 So if we look at our external review,
14:55 our last one was in 2016,
14:57 and this one coming up in January of 2021,
15:00 how are they different?
15:02 Over on the far left-hand side,
15:03 you can see the components of each, standards ratings.
15:07 Last time, it was emphasis on each standards indicator.
15:10 Now we’re looking at the impact of the standards.
15:12 What is the standard,
15:14 and how is it impacting the work of our school district?
15:17 And when I say standards, again,
15:19 we always think of our, you know, our district,
15:22 our Sunshine, or Sunshine State standards,
15:23 our best standards, now our best standards.
15:28 And, but when we talk about standards with the Cognia review,
15:32 it is referring to the standards
15:34 that you have in front of you there.
15:37 Review of evidence, paperless, was last time.
15:40 They want everything uploaded into our computer so they can
15:44 reference it regardless of where
15:45 they’re at in case we have to do any virtual pieces.
15:50 Reference is needed, again, but impact over time is the gold
15:53 standard.
15:54 What is that impact that is shown over time of projects that we’ve
15:58 initiated?
15:59 So they’ll do the district visit and school visits in January.
16:03 They will interview a superintendent, school board, parents and
16:06 community, principals and
16:08 teachers and students.
16:10 They’ll do that again this time, just like they did in 2016, but
16:13 this time they want
16:14 to see, is everybody aware of the strategic plan and the impact
16:18 that it’s having on the
16:19 work we’re doing in our school district?
16:23 Classroom observations.
16:24 They use a tool called the Elliot.
16:26 We’re going to discuss that in just a little bit.
16:28 They’ll be using the Elliot again, and they’re going to want to
16:30 see, does the impact of our
16:32 strategic plan, is it evident in our classrooms with the work
16:35 that’s being done with our
16:37 students?
16:38 And finally, stakeholder involvement.
16:40 We will use our district surveys to show that we do have stakeholder
16:46 involvement.
16:47 So who will be the stakeholders who are interviewed when the
16:51 teams come?
16:52 They’ll start with Dr. Mullins, and he’ll do a state of the
16:55 school speech to them on
16:56 their first day arriving.
16:59 Then they’ll interview our school board members.
17:01 They’ll do that individually with each of you.
17:04 Central office staff, building administrators, instructional
17:09 staff, parents and community,
17:11 and students.
17:12 The number that you see here, the 723, this is how many they
17:15 interviewed last time we
17:16 were here, so that’s the projection for how many people they’ll
17:19 be interviewing the next
17:20 time they’re here.
17:26 Thank you.
17:27 Mrs. Stevenson just explained to me that’s from a different
17:30 district, but it will be
17:31 very similar.
17:35 I was concerned I had two more board members I didn’t know about,
17:39 so thank you for the
17:40 clarification.
17:43 Then we have our Elliot tool.
17:45 That is the tool that they’ll be using.
17:46 Elliot stands for Effective Learning Environments Observation
17:50 Tool.
17:50 That is a tool that the reviewers will use when they’re
17:53 observing in classrooms.
17:54 They will visit approximately 30% of our schools.
17:58 We do not get to choose the schools that they visit.
18:00 They will select them randomly and go in and visit the schools.
18:04 They will use this tool that is aligned with our Brevard IPIS,
18:08 so it is very similar to
18:10 what our teachers already have as an observation tool.
18:13 The observations are conducted for a minimum of 20 minutes, and
18:16 the focus of their observations
18:18 is on student engagement.
18:23 What were the results of our last Elliot when they came through
18:26 in 2016 and looked at our
18:28 classrooms?
18:29 If you look at the domains that are listed over on the left-hand
18:32 side, then you can see
18:33 what, under external review, what our ratings were against the
18:37 average ratings.
18:38 The average ratings are for what Advanced Ed has nationwide for
18:41 the schools that they
18:42 accredited.
18:44 If you look at Equitable Learning Environments, we were 2.62
18:48 compared to 2.69.
18:50 High Expectations Environment, we were 2.86 compared to 2.81.
18:56 Record of Learning Environment, Brevard was a 2.99 compared to a
19:01 3.06.
19:02 Active Learning Environment was 2.99 compared to 2.94.
19:07 Progress Monitoring and Feedback Environment, 2.73 compared to 2.79.
19:13 Well-managed Learning Environment was 3.11 compared to a 3.13.
19:18 And Digital Learning Environment, Brevard was a 1.46 versus a 1.82.
19:24 Overall, you can see that Brevard was very close to the national
19:26 average for those schools
19:28 that are accredited through Advanced Ed.
19:32 So in 2016, our findings for what were Brevard’s powerful
19:37 practices.
19:38 Under leadership capacity, BPS had developed and implemented
19:41 comprehensive standards-based
19:43 professional development for site-based and aspiring
19:46 administrators.
19:48 Another powerful practice was under learning capacity, Brevard
19:51 Public Schools provides
19:52 meaningful ways for teachers to meet and explore strategies to
19:55 improve student learning.
19:57 And under resource capacity, Brevard Public Schools focused on
20:01 facilities, services and
20:03 equipment maintenance to provide a safe, clean and healthy
20:06 environment for all students and
20:07 staff including broad planning and targeted action that
20:10 supported its purpose and direction.
20:12 Those were our powerful practices that they found.
20:16 So what areas did they find that might need for improvement?
20:19 Now remember, this was back in 2016.
20:22 So under leadership capacity, they felt that we could improve
20:25 establishing and evaluating
20:27 and implementing a continuous improvement process with clear
20:30 guidelines to ensure alignment
20:32 with the system’s purpose of prioritizing strategies to maintain
20:35 and enhance curriculum,
20:37 instruction and assessment.
20:39 Learning capacity, establish, monitor and evaluate a process
20:42 that ensures all students
20:43 have equitable and challenging learning opportunities.
20:47 And resource capacity, develop, implement and monitor a
20:50 comprehensive plan for professional
20:52 learning in the use of performance matters, particularly in
20:56 corporation of UNIFI.
20:57 So then two years later, after our accreditation visit, you do a
21:01 two-year follow-up report
21:03 to show what progress have you made since they’ve given you
21:06 those original findings.
21:08 So these were the components that were in our report that we did
21:12 in 2018.
21:13 So components of that plan were included in our new strategic
21:17 plan at the time, included
21:19 restructuring the leadership hierarchy with lower ratio of
21:22 schools to supervisors.
21:24 Brevard identified priority schools based on achievement gaps
21:27 and differentiated instructional
21:29 support for those schools.
21:31 Developed and implemented a new vision for actual instruction,
21:34 which we are still using
21:35 in all of our schools.
21:36 We implemented PAC teams comprised of principal, assistant
21:39 principal, instructional coach from
21:41 each school.
21:42 Those teams have had a tremendous impact on the instruction that
21:44 we’re doing with our
21:45 elementary schools.
21:47 We implemented instructional reviews defined as classroom walk-throughs
21:50 by system and school
21:51 leaders using a common observation tool and look-fors.
21:55 We recruited and support minority students’ enrollment in
21:59 advanced courses.
22:00 Developed a monitoring system for students’ achievement and
22:03 instructional change.
22:05 Implemented a system-wide discipline plan to improve equity.
22:08 Embedded increased social-emotional supports for all students.
22:12 And embedded performance matters in unified training and multi-tiered
22:15 system of supports,
22:16 MTSS as most know it, coaching, instructional coaching, and
22:19 other professional development
22:21 activities.
22:22 So that was in our report.
22:23 And all of those are continuing to this day.
22:27 So in 2021, during this school year, what does the new Cognia
22:31 rating scale look like?
22:32 Well, here’s the scale.
22:34 And you can see that up at the top, under rating, you see
22:38 impacting again, because that
22:40 again is what they’re going to be listening for and hearing.
22:42 What is the impact of our strategic plan on the work that we are
22:46 doing in our district?
22:47 So when they give us our report, and I’ll show you what it looks
22:51 like in a few minutes,
22:52 on the scales, you’re going to want to see a lot of blue and
22:55 green.
22:56 Yellow is OK.
22:57 We don’t want any red.
22:59 So blue, impacting noteworthy practices, producing clear results
23:03 that positively impact the institution.
23:06 Green will show that we are improving in areas, quality
23:09 practices that are improving and meet
23:10 the standards.
23:11 That’s all good.
23:12 Yellow means we’re initiating.
23:13 So if there’s something new that we initiate this year, areas to
23:16 enhance and extend current
23:17 improvement efforts.
23:19 And then finally red, insufficient, areas with insufficient
23:22 evidence or evidence that
23:23 indicate a little to no activity leading towards improvement.
23:30 So remember, we have the three domains, leadership, learning,
23:33 and resources.
23:34 So the leadership capacity standards, and I know it’s hard to
23:37 see on the slide, but
23:38 you have them in front of you.
23:39 But this is how the report will look.
23:41 And you can see that they’ll have the columns.
23:44 Under each standard, it’ll have impacting, improving, initiating,
23:47 and insufficient.
23:47 And they will score us in each of those areas as well as give a
23:54 final report.
23:56 Then we have our learning capacity and our resource capacity.
24:03 So what are our next steps?
24:05 We know how each BPS department connects to the strategic plan
24:08 goals.
24:09 So that’s key.
24:10 And we have to make sure that all of our schools know how the
24:13 work they’re doing connects to
24:15 our strategic plan goals.
24:17 And we have to make sure, Janet Stevenson is going to do this
24:21 with us, is that make
24:23 sure that our strategic plan is woven through all of our school
24:27 improvement plan.
24:29 There needs to be like a golden thread so that when they read
24:31 our strategic plan and
24:33 if they review school improvement plans and as they talk to our
24:36 teachers and they talk
24:37 to our administrators, everybody can see that the work that we’re
24:40 doing from the top up
24:42 here as a system goes all the way down into the classroom and is
24:46 having that impact on
24:48 the student sitting in that classroom.
24:51 We need to know our student achievement data.
24:54 That’s critical at the school level and at the district level.
24:57 And I know that leading and learning is working hard to make
24:59 sure that happens and we’ve been
25:00 doing that for the last several years.
25:03 We need to review the Cogney standards, not only at the district
25:06 level but all the way
25:07 down to the teacher level.
25:09 And we’re working on that with our schools and marking our
25:12 calendars through January
25:13 24th through 27th because everybody will be involved and invited
25:17 to the party.
25:18 January 24th is the day the team of 16 people from around the
25:22 country will arrive.
25:24 So that’s basically just an arrival and get to know you for them
25:27 to meet each other.
25:28 Our work with the team really doesn’t start until Monday the 25th
25:32 and there’ll be a lot
25:33 more information coming out about that.
25:35 So now if you have any questions, I turn it over to Janet
25:38 Stevenson.
25:39 No, we’re both here to answer questions.
25:47 Did you say there was a party?
25:48 There will be a party.
25:50 And when is this?
25:51 Is that on the 24th to 25th and what are you serving there for
25:53 food?
25:54 The party will be on the 27th.
25:56 Okay.
25:57 All right.
25:58 Now thank you so much for putting this together.
26:01 I know this was a, you know, one of the things that we were
26:04 looking at over the last couple
26:05 of years and I appreciate all the time and effort you put into
26:07 this.
26:08 So thank you.
26:09 So thank you, Derek.
26:10 Ms. McDougall, any questions?
26:11 No, I have no questions.
26:12 Thank you.
26:13 Ms. Duskovich.
26:14 Ms. Campbell.
26:15 Yeah, I’ve just got real quick on the slide when they do the
26:21 external review, the classroom
26:24 observations is 200 plus so they’re going to be doing more than
26:28 200 plus or more than
26:30 200 classroom 20 minute observations, is that what that?
26:34 Well I might let Janet answer this question because she’s
26:36 actually been on the review
26:38 team visits and she can tell you exactly how it looks when they
26:40 go into the schools.
26:41 Awesome.
26:42 Thank you.
26:43 In the past in non-COVID times, when they go to any school
26:47 district, they go to about
26:49 30% of randomly selected schools and then of those 30% of the
26:55 schools that are selected,
26:57 the team is given a map and a key to the building and they try
27:02 to go to as many classrooms as
27:05 they can.
27:06 Individuals go into a classroom, it’s not a team that goes into
27:08 classrooms.
27:09 So I would say at the most, staying 20 minutes, that each person,
27:14 like let’s say a six member
27:16 team goes to a school, each member of a six member team would
27:20 probably go to five classrooms,
27:22 so like 30 classrooms per school that they visit, that’s how
27:27 they kind of get to that
27:29 number.
27:30 You’re encouraged, as a member of a team, you’re encouraged to
27:34 get to five to six classrooms
27:36 in a visit as a member of a team, yes.
27:39 Same thing as far as picking the school, so they’re coming to a
27:44 school and you said non-COVID
27:46 times, so this year it may be, have they given, let me ask that
27:49 question first, have they
27:51 given any guidance or suggestion of what, how it might look
27:54 differently from this year?
27:57 Well they’ve given, yesterday we received an email saying that
28:02 there may be some virtual
28:04 options available, they’ve said there may be some virtual
28:06 options available and there
28:08 is also the option to put in a request to possibly delay the
28:13 visit, so that might be
28:15 an option too, depending on where we’re at at the time.
28:19 So in the same vein of how they would just give them a key and
28:22 pick the classroom, do
28:23 they have the same process as far as picking which schools, or
28:26 do they try to get a representative
28:28 sample, some Title I schools, some?
28:33 They work with the district representative to find out the
28:36 different types of schools,
28:37 but they will choose, we cannot say, well we really want you to
28:40 go see this school.
28:41 Right, right, good, does the, do the charter schools participate
28:45 in this process?
28:46 No they do not, just Brevard Public Schools, thank you.
28:51 And board members, I would just let you know that last slide
28:53 that’s still up there on the
28:54 screen of what’s next, all the things that need to be done, that
28:59 is our homework as board
29:01 members too, because remember each of us are going to be
29:03 individually interviewed by the
29:04 team, so we have to be able to address all of those things on
29:10 the screen.
29:11 And we will get you more information as we go through the
29:15 process, this is just to start
29:16 getting everybody aware, and letting you know it’s coming, but
29:20 we will give you a lot more
29:21 information to help you through this process, alright?
29:26 Ms. Belfort, may I just take two minutes to recognize the
29:30 leadership of this team.
29:32 You know first, Ms. Sylvester, director of elementary leading
29:35 and learning, as a former
29:36 long standing elementary principal in Brevard County, been a
29:39 director, I don’t know, three
29:41 or four years maybe, fifth year, been part of the leadership
29:45 teams in past district accreditation,
29:48 certainly been through it as a principal, and then Janet
29:50 Stevenson, I had the privilege
29:52 of working her formally as area superintendent who has done a
29:56 phenomenal job of leading our
29:58 school improvement efforts, truly a champion of continuous
30:02 improvement and pushing our
30:04 principals and evaluating and really pursuing excellence, to
30:09 have her as a reviewer of other
30:11 districts is just an added benefit to us as Brevard Public
30:15 Schools, so Marilyn, thank
30:17 you for your leadership, Janet, thank you for your great service
30:20 and leadership as well,
30:21 we know we are in great hands, and we wait your further
30:25 direction to make sure we’re
30:27 ready, so thank you.
30:28 Thank you very much.
30:30 Thank you ladies, alright, there being no further business, this
30:34 meeting is now adjourned.
31:00 [Music]