5. College and Career Advising and MyCAP:
Registration is open for Cohort 2 of the College and Career Advising/My Career and Academic Plan (MyCAP) Professional Development Series. The three-day workshop series is being offered regionally during the 2019-20 school year. Schools are asked to register teams of four high school staff led by counselors and including teachers and administrators. Teams will design a high quality college and career advising framework that identifies activities and lessons in the three domains of college and career readiness: personal/social; career development education; and academic, college, and career planning. Individual students’ achievements within each domain will be captured in the individual student-driven academic and career plan called MyCAP. This training is closely aligned with the MA Model 2.0 (the Massachusetts Model for Comprehensive School Counseling).
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6. Symposium on Latinx Students:
The Department invites interested individuals to attend the In Pursuit of Equity, Accountability and Success: Latinx Students in Massachusetts Schools Symposium on Friday, October 4 at Worcester State University. The symposium is the result of collaboration among Latinx organizations, philanthropic organizations, scholars, and the Departments of Early Education and Care, Elementary and Secondary Education, and Higher Education. The symposium’s goal is to gather insights and create support for a multi-year initiative uniting multiple systems and sectors to address issues including Latinx students’ unequal outcomes in educational attainment.
Conference participants will be offered plenaries with Estela Bensimon of the University of Southern California and Pedro Noguera of UCLA and eight workshops on promising practices. The offerings are the result of a competitive statewide call for proposals. More information is available at the link above.
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7. Request for Waiver from Limit on Alternate Assessments:
The commissioner recently posted a Notice of Intent to Apply and Opportunity for Comment regarding DESE’s intention to reapply for a waiver of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requirement that limits the number of students statewide who may participate in alternate assessments to 1 percent of all students who are eligible to take MCAS. The Department was granted a waiver for the 2017-2018 school year and an extension for the 2018-2019 school year, and it must reapply for the current year. The Department must demonstrate that districts have made progress in reducing the number of students taking the MCAS-Alt and must maintain a 95 percent MCAS participation rate for all students and students with disabilities. To comment on DESE’s intent to apply for this waiver, email mcas@doe.mass.edu by October 4.
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8. Registration Open for Leading with Access and Equity Convening:
All districts are invited to send a team to the Second Annual Leading with Access and Equity Convening on Thursday, October 24 at the Best Western Conference Center in Marlborough. This free, daylong professional development opportunity will focus on topics such as creating a pipeline of diverse educators, developing multi-tiered systems of support, ensuring equitable access to high-quality curriculum, implementing bilingual education, ensuring racial and cultural equity, engaging families, addressing student mobility, addressing students’ mental health needs, and integrating social-emotional and academic learning. Many districts are engaged in multiple initiatives, and this is an opportunity to align those efforts, make connections, and share practices.
Districts are invited to attend as a team of at least three and up to ten members. Teams are encouraged to include a variety of stakeholders, and each team must include representatives of at least the following three areas: administration, general education, and special education. Registration is limited, so districts should register their team online as soon as possible. Anyone with questions about the conference can email Susan Fischer.
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9. Model System for Educator Evaluation Updated:
The Department has updated the Model System for Educator Evaluation and has simplified the guidance and tools. They are aligned with the 2017 regulatory amendments that eliminated the separate Student Impact Rating and that embedded multiple measures of student learning into one performance rating.
Together with the updated streamlined performance rubrics, the simplified guides for teacher, principal, and superintendent evaluation include information about implementation strategies, evaluator calibration, and thoughtful evidence collection. The updates also remove redundant content and forms. The revised model system should be a helpful resource to support continuous improvement and effective implementation of the educator evaluation framework.
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- STEM Week Challenge: STEM Week Challenge is a new zero-waste-themed design challenge for all grade levels based on real-world problems. More information is available in this video and at STEMWeekChallenge.org, which also has a link to registration. Interested educators should register by September 18. In order to participate, teachers must complete three hours of training and carve out 10 hours of instructional time for students to work on the challenge between the end of training in September and the end of STEM week (October 21-25). Afterward, teachers will be able to submit student work for review by industry professionals and participate in a showcase on October 25. Curriculum and training are provided at no cost.
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- Rocket Science Co-Lab: Named after another complex and inspirational profession, the Teacher Collaborative’s Rocket Science Co-Lab is a free professional development opportunity for school and district teams who are looking to help students take risks and think critically as a regular part of their school experiences. Teams will explore what engaging grade-level work looks like and how to support all students in reaching that bar and beyond. Participating teams of three to five educators will receive a $3,000 mini grant to support their involvement, and the group will meet in person and virtually throughout the 2019-20 school year. The priority deadline for applications is September 15, and the extended deadline is October 3. More information is available at the link above. Anyone with questions can email Kat Johnston.
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