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A message from the
Massachusetts Department of
Elementary and Secondary Education

March 22, 2019
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News from Commissioner Jeffrey C. Riley and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Contents:

  1. Kairos: Mapping Our Way Forward
  2. Picture of the Week: Scenes from Kairos
  3. Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to Meet
  4. Additional Funding to Support Hurricane Evacuees from Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands
  5. MCAS Resources
  6. Career and Technical Education Partnership Grants
  7. VISTA 2019: Please participate
  8. For Your Info:

1. Kairos: Mapping Our Way Forward:


More than 400 educators, students, parents, and education advocates attended Commissioner Riley’s Kairos conference at UMass Amherst on March 19. Attendees enjoyed student performances and experienced hands-on learning projects ranging from owl pellet dissections to tower building. In his remarks, Commissioner Riley emphasized the importance of deeper learning featuring task-based approaches. “We know that kids learn through play and experience,” he said before sending attendees to breakout sessions where they could experience such tasks for themselves.
 
Parts of the conference were recorded and are available online, as is a survey for anyone wishing to give feedback. For photos, videos, and tweets from DESE and participants are on Twitter under the hashtag #KairosMA.
 
The Department would like to thank the many performers, presenters, partners, and participants who made the day a success!

Picture of the Week:

Scenes from Kairos: Lawrence High School students perform “This Is a Test” by Stephen Gregg, attendees (including Maya Mathews, student member of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education) participate in task-based learning as they dissect owl pellets and construct marble runs.
Students and teachers at Kairos conference

3. Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to Meet:


The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will meet from 8:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26 in Malden. Agenda items include a discussion of family engagement initiatives, updates from the receivers of chronically underperforming districts, a vote on whether to renew the certificate of Greenfield Virtual Commonwealth School (download), student assessment updates, a discussion of charter schools and school finance, and an initial discussion of potential modifications to the state’s district and school accountability system.
 
The meeting will be streamed live at https://livestream.com/MADESEStreaming.
 

4. Additional Funding to Support Hurricane Evacuees from Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands:


On March 20, DESE began issuing $15 million in state funding to assist districts serving students from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands displaced by the fall 2017 hurricanes. This is the first fiscal year 2019 payment, totaling $12.5 million. The balance of the available funding will be issued within the next two weeks.
 
The Department is allocating these funds based on each qualifying district's fiscal year 2019 foundation budget per pupil. In other words, the supplemental funding reflects the same proportion of state support that districts receive for their other students. The payment attempts to address the cost of educating displaced students from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands who enrolled in each district after October 1, 2017 and therefore were not included in the calculations for districts’ fiscal year 2019 Chapter 70 aid. These students are now being counted in each qualifying district’s foundation enrollment for fiscal year 2020.
 
These funds should be treated as grant funds and deposited in a separate account so that they can be spent without further action on the part of the local appropriating authority. The Department encourages districts to fully expend these funds in fiscal year 2019, though any unspent funds can carry forward to fiscal year 2020.

5. MCAS Resources:


The Department’s web site has several resources that schools and districts might find helpful as the MCAS testing window approaches, including

6. Career and Technical Education Partnership Grants:


The Office for College, Career, and Technical Education is pleased to announce the creation of a new funding opportunity to encourage creative collaborations that increase access to vocational technical education.
 
Federally funded, competitive Career and Technical Education (CTE) Partnership grants will support regional and local expansion of existing CTE programs and/or development of new CTE programs and initiatives that increase student access to CTE opportunities. Eligible students include secondary and other students served under the Carl D. Perkins Improvement Career and Technical Education Improvement Act. This grant opportunity will include a two-part grant process: planning (stage 1) and implementation (stage 2). Completed proposals are due at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30.

7. VISTA 2019: Please participate!


The Department has extended the window for superintendents and principals to complete the 2019 Views of Instruction, State Standards, Teaching, and Assessment (VISTA) survey until March 31. Superintendents and principals are encouraged to add their voices to those of their peers who have already completed their surveys. The Department values your feedback!
 
Superintendents and principals who have not received a survey or who are having trouble accessing their surveys can contact the VISTA Study Help Desk at MAVISTA@westat.com. For help with questions about VISTA that are not related to access, please email Shelagh Peoples, the VISTA coordinator, at speoples@doe.mass.edu.

8. For your info:

  • Free one-day dental clinic for kids: Tufts University School of Dental Medicine is offering free dental care to children ages 0-13 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Saturday, March 23 at 1 Kneeland St., Boston. No appointments are necessary, but families should pre-register online or via email at givekidsasmileday@tufts.edu
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