District/School Administration Administration
The Massachusetts Board of Education

Briefing for the March 25, 2008 Regular Meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

The next regular meeting of the newly-renamed Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will be on Tuesday, March 25, 2008, at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in Malden, starting at 9:00 a.m. Coffee will be available at 8:30 a.m. The meeting will adjourn by 1:00 p.m. If you need overnight accommodations or any additional information about the schedule, please call Belinda Wilson at (781) 338-3118.

Overview

This month we welcome three new members to the Board and congratulate Paul Reville on being appointed as Secretary of Education, effective July 1st, to oversee the recently created Executive Office of Education. The agenda for our March 25th meeting includes discussion of the 2006-2007 dropout report and initiatives to reduce high school dropouts and an update and discussion of next steps concerning two districts that the Board has designated as underperforming, Winchendon and Gill-Montague. Other items on the agenda are two charter school requests concerning loan terms and approval of grants.

Regular Meeting

Comments from the Chairman

Chairman Reville will introduce the three members who were appointed by Governor Patrick earlier this month: Gerald Chertavian, Jeffrey Howard, and Dana Mohler-Faria.

Gerald Chertavian is the founder and CEO of Year Up, a nationally recognized one-year training and education program that serves low-income youth ages 18 to 24 in five states by providing them with the skills needed to make successful transitions to careers and higher education. Before founding Year Up, he co-founded and ran Conduit Communications, an Internet strategy consulting firm.

Dr. Jeffrey Howard, a social psychologist, is the founder of The Efficacy Institute, a national not-for-profit education reform agency that provides training and application methods to adults in school systems and community organizations throughout the U.S., focusing on addressing the root causes of the poor academic performance of many American children, especially children in urban settings.

Dr. Dana Mohler-Faria has served as Governor Patrick's Special Advisor on Education, helping the Governor form the Readiness Project and guiding him on education policy. He is President of Bridgewater State College, where he has been a leader for over a decade, and he has been an administrator at three other public colleges in Massachusetts.

We are delighted to welcome our new members and look forward to working with them. At our meeting, Chairman Reville may also brief the Board on other issues and activities.

Comments from the Commissioner

1. Update on curriculum framework revision process. The English Language Arts Panel that I appointed in November has held five meetings to review the 2001 English Language Arts Curriculum Framework and its 2004 Supplement. This panel consists of 34 members, selected from 135 applicants. The panel has reviewed frameworks from other states and other resources in the field of English language arts. The panel conducted an online survey, seeking comments on the separate sections of the framework, and held four focus group meetings with educators and high school students. We received 28 responses to the survey and about 175 people attended focus groups. The panel will present its general recommendations to the Board in April for a possible vote in May. These may include, for example, suggestions for areas that could be simplified or strengthened, structural and organizational changes for clarity and ease of use, and incorporation of different types of writing standards. With direction from the Board on the areas for change, the panel will begin drafting proposed revisions, which should be ready for the Board to review and send out for public comment sometime in the 2008-2009 school year.

   Our recruitment for a Mathematics Curriculum Framework Review Panel began in February and will end on March 19th. Panelists will be notified of selection in early April and the first meeting will be held on April 16th. We have posted an online survey for this framework, and we will convene focus group meetings to gather ideas from educators, students, and other interested parties. The panel will review the 2000 Mathematics Curriculum Framework and its 2004 Supplement prior to presenting general recommendations to the Board in the fall of 2008.

   We also are convening a focus group meeting with elementary teachers in May 2008 to discuss the breadth and presentation of the elementary standards in all seven curriculum frameworks. The purpose is to get advice from elementary teachers about whether the format of the curriculum frameworks, currently seven separate documents, serves their needs, or if they would prefer an elementary framework that presents all of the disciplines together and suggests ways to integrate them. In addition, we will invite the teachers to comment on the reasonableness of the amount of content across the frameworks, based on their classroom experience.

2. Technology Literacy Standards. At our February meeting the Board deferred action on the proposed updated version of the Technology Literacy Standards, pending further review. I plan to send the comparison documents (the 2001 standards and the proposed update) to Board members early in April so that you will have the opportunity to review the changes in more detail. I will put the standards on the agenda for discussion at the Board's April 29th meeting and recommend a vote in April or May.

3. Reports to the Legislature. The Department has filed the following reports with the Legislature, in response to directives included in the FY08 budget:

   • Report to the Legislature on School Redesign: Expanding Learning Time to Support Student Success reports on the schools that are planning and implementing this new initiative. The Year One Report by Abt Associates is included in the appendix.
   • Addendum on MCAS Academic Support Program, FY06 supplements the January 2006 report and details the programs that eligible students participated in and their success in achieving the competency determination.
   • Academic Support Programs identifies the FY08 programs serving students who have not yet achieved the competency determination. We will submit an addendum after the participating students have taken the MCAS tests.
   • Implementation of the Special Education Reimbursement ("Circuit Breaker") Program identifies the audit procedure and findings of the fourth year of implementation of this additional state support for the education of students with disabilities.
   • Mathematics and Science Teacher Content-Based Professional Development outlines the work the Department is doing to develop a professional development delivery system to meet the demand for qualified educators, provide educators with tools to identify their professional growth needs, and offer regionally-based opportunities.
   • After-School and Out-of-School Time Quality Grants reports on the Department's coordination with other agencies as well as public schools, non-public schools, and community-based organizations to provide high quality experiences for students outside of the school day in academic tutoring; programs to improve health; art, theater, and music programs; enrichment activities; gifted and talented programs; and community service.
   • School Leadership Academies Training Initiative focuses on the implementation of the National Institute for School Leadership (NISL) Executive Development Program and implementation of School Leadership Academies for principals and superintendents to increase their capacity to provide effective instructional and educational leadership.
   • English Language Acquisition Professional Development reports on the status of training educators to deliver sheltered English immersion to nearly 56,000 English language learners in Massachusetts's public schools.
   • Intervention and Targeted Assistance Efforts details the state system for identifying underperforming schools and districts and the targeted assistance and intervention in Commonwealth Priority Schools.

   These reports to the Legislature are all posted on the Department's Office of Strategic Planning, Research, and Evaluation website: http://www.doe.mass.edu/research/reports/legislative.html. If you have questions about any of the reports, please contact me.

Items for Discussion and Action

1. Dropout Report for 2006-2007 and Initiatives to Reduce High School Dropouts - Discussion

   At this month's meeting, we will present the results of the 2006-2007 Massachusetts high school dropout report and consider some ways to address this critical issue. The persistence of the dropout problem is of great concern. Board member Harneen Chernow will lead a discussion with representatives from two urban communities about steps they have taken to reduce high school dropouts. Janet Powell, senior director of student support services in the Quincy Public Schools, will discuss three strategies employed by her district to work with high-risk, high-need students. Neil Sullivan and Emmanuel Allen, executive director and dropout recovery specialist, respectively, for the Boston Private Industry Council, will discuss their recent research and programs related to dropouts in the city of Boston. The memo in your materials under Tab 1 outlines several actions the Department is undertaking, both on our own and in collaboration with other state agencies and organizations.

2. Winchendon Public Schools: Update and Next Steps - Initial Discussion

   In 2003, the Board voted to designate the Winchendon Public Schools as an underperforming district, as a result of inadequate leadership and lack of community support to improve the quality of the district's educational programs and services. The Board accepted a turn-around plan from the district in 2004. Since that time, the Department has been working with the school district and its state-supported turn-around partner to address the problems that were identified. This month we will discuss the district's progress with outgoing Superintendent Peter Azar and Associate Commissioners Juliane Dow and Lynda Foisy of the Department. I plan to recommend in April that the Board vote to remove Winchendon from underperforming district status.

3. Gill-Montague Regional School District: Update and Next Steps - Initial Discussion

   In January 2007, the Board determined that the Gill-Montague Regional School District was underperforming and in need of formal state intervention. As a result, the Department commissioned a district leadership evaluation report to examine the district's leadership capacity and governance practices. The Board reviewed the report in November 2007 and directed Gill-Montague district leaders to use the findings in the report to prepare a district turn-around plan. Gill-Montague's Interim Superintendent, Kenneth Rocke, has submitted the plan, which is included in your materials under Tab 3. He will be at our meeting this month to provide an overview and respond to questions from Board members. At our April meeting, I will ask the Board to vote to accept the plan, with any modifications that we may direct the district to make after our discussion on March 25th.

4. Charter Schools: Extended Loan Term for Holyoke Community Charter School and Innovation Academy Charter School - Discussion and Vote

   Under the charter school statute, G.L. c. 71, § 89(j)(6), a charter school may incur temporary debt in anticipation of receipt of funds but requires approval of the Board if it wishes to agree to repayment terms that exceed the duration of the school's charter. The Holyoke Community Charter School has requested the Board's approval to enter into a proposed loan agreement for up to 15 years in order to secure $8.4 million of tax-exempt bond financing that will enable the school to reduce the interest and finance charges it is paying. The Innovation Academy Charter School has requested the Board's approval to enter into a loan agreement for up to 30 years to secure $7.5 million to purchase a new school facility. In each case, all parties to the loans have acknowledged in writing that the Commonwealth, Board, and Department have no liability for any portion of the loans and that the Board's approval of the extended loan term has no impact on any action the Board may choose to take in the future with respect to probation, revocation, or renewal of the school's charter. With the safeguards explained in my memo and included in the motion, to which each school has agreed, I recommend that the Board approve the requests from these two charter schools.

5. Approval of Grants - Vote

   Presented for your approval this month are grants totaling $556,400 under two state-funded programs: Safe Schools for Gay and Lesbian Students ($21,400) and Quality Full-Day Kindergarten ($535,000 in one-time increases for 29 high-priority districts). I recommend that the Board approve the grants as presented.

Other Items for Information

6. Education-Related News Clippings

   Enclosed are several recent articles about education.

7. Update on Perkins Five-Year State Plan for Vocational-Technical Education

   The federal Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act, known as Perkins IV, provides funding to states to strengthen secondary and postsecondary career and technical education programs. Under Perkins IV, Massachusetts will receive about $20 million for fiscal year 2009. In order to receive the funding, the agency must submit a Five-Year State Plan by April 1, 2008, to the U.S. Department of Education. Enclosed under Tab 7 is a memo summarizing key points in the federal Perkins IV law and our State Plan. I anticipate that we will schedule a discussion with the Board on career and technical education later this year.

8. Directions to the Meeting

   If you have questions about any agenda items, please call me. I look forward to seeing you in Malden on March 25th.