Commissioner's Update
June 11, 2010

Dear Superintendents, and Leaders of Charter Schools and Collaboratives:

In this Update I have four announcements and three items for your review.

Recruitment of Candidates for Massachusetts Board of Education Advisory Councils

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is seeking candidates to serve on the Massachusetts Board of Education Advisory Councils. The Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 established the Board of Education's Advisory Councils to advise the Commissioner and the Board of Education on matters related to their specific areas of focus for the purpose of enhancing efforts to improve public education and advance student achievement. We are seeking a wide range of diverse constituents including educators, parents, students, business leaders and other community members who have a demonstrated interest in and commitment to excellence in public education in addition to content experience and expertise specific to the interest of the advisory council.

Advisory councils generally meet four times a year at locations and times determined by their members. Several councils will have openings for the fall of 2010. Members are appointed by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for a term of three years and they serve without compensation. Nominations will be accepted through June 30, 2010, and recommendations will be made to the Board in September. Interested parties should submit 2 copies of a letter of intent along with 2 copies of their resume to Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell D. Chester at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 75 Pleasant Street, Malden, MA 02148-4906, (attention Advisory Councils). To learn more about the advisory councils, please go to http://www.doe.mass.edu/boe/sac/.

Common Core State Standards Initiative

The K-12 Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics have been posted on our website at www.doe.mass.edu/candi/commoncore/. We hope that you and your school community, including faculty, parents, and students, will review these standards and comment on them in a survey, Common Core State Standards Survey, which will be available on this section of our website until July 2, 2010. The purpose of this survey is to collect responses to inform the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which will vote on whether to adopt the Common Core Standards at a Board meeting in July.

We have also posted working drafts of the Massachusetts ELA and math standards that emerged from ELA and Mathematics Curriculum Frameworks Review Panels' work that began in 2007 at www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/. These drafts are not complete and have not been reviewed or adopted by the Board and are being posted solely for informational purposes, not for comment.

Tools to help build improvement capacity now available

The Office of Urban and Commissioner's Districts has developed a number of tools to help districts increase their capacity to implement improvement efforts. These tools, while designed for the state's largest districts, have elements that can be useful to all districts across the state. They are united by the belief that developing professional learning communities at all levels of a district is an important element for promoting high-quality teaching and learning. The resources that are currently available for dissemination include:

• PLC Guidance Document: Establishing and Maintaining Professional Learning Communities
• Learning Walkthrough Implementation Guide
• Common Planning Time Self-Assessment
• District Data Team Toolkit

Clarification: 2010 Competency Determination (CD) Update-Individuals Who Were Originally Members of the Class of 2009 or an Earlier Class

The Department has received several calls asking for clarification regarding the May 2010 Memorandum, "2010 Competency Determination (CD) Update-Individuals Who Were Originally Members of the Class of 2009 or an Earlier Class." In response, we have updated the memorandum to clarify which students qualify for a delay in the 2010 CD requirements. Specifically, we have clarified that students who have never taken a high school MCAS test in Biology, Chemistry, Introductory Physics, or Technology/Engineering prior to February 2010 may be eligible for the delay if they meet the additional criteria included in the memorandum. This memorandum supersedes the May 2010 memorandum. Please contact Student Assessment at 781-338-3625 if you have further questions.

Information on all four resources can be found by visiting http://www.doe.mass.edu/sda/ucd/ or emailing districtassist@doe.mass.edu.

Items Posted at www.doe.mass.edu:

1. June Release of 2010 Preliminary MCAS and MCAS Alternate Assessment Results
2. Bullying Prevention and Intervention in Public and Non-Public Schools
3. Reminder about Massachusetts Law Prohibiting the Practice of Hazing

Sincerely,

Mitchell D. Chester, Ed.D.
Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education