Information from March 28th Meeting on: 1. Budget Development and Decisions; and Assessments, Curriculum, and Common Core

Our third School StatNet meeting was held at Worcester Technical High School on Friday, March 28, from 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.

Topic: The meeting included two separate strands, with one focused on district budget development and decision making, and a second focused on what curricula and assessments districts are using, and how these are helping districts align instruction to the common core. The group reviewed summarized data relating to each of these topics. See here for an agenda.

Attendees: The following cities and/or districts sent representatives and/or shared data as part of the meeting: Amherst-Pelham, Ashland, Boston, Everett, Fall River, Franklin County Regional Tech, Hudson, Leominster, Lowell, Milford, North Brookfield, Somerset-Berkeley, Somerville, Springfield, Swampscott, Waltham, Watertown, Webster, Weston, Wilmington, and Worcester. In addition, representatives from the following State agencies attended: Administration and Finance, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, several District and School Assistance Centers, and the Executive Office of Education. Finally, professors/staff from Northeastern University and from the University of Massachusetts Boston attended.
 
Take Aways: Participant feedback and take-aways from the meeting are summarized here. Below is a brief summary of the discussions that occurred with each segment of the agenda.

A few of the issues discussed in the meeting were:

Joint Session on District Strategy: Independently and with others at their table, attendees discussed their districts’ theories of change, discussed what their district would invest in, if given the chance, and discussed where they would cut. To see a summary of what people said in this session, please see here.

Break-Out 1 - Curriculum and Instruction: Summary of K8 curricula and discussion of strategies to implement curricula with fidelity: Participants reviewed and compared which curricula each districts is using for each subject and grade span.

Break-Out 2 - Curriculum and Instruction: Summary of K8 assessments in use and Discussion of protocols for data meetings: Participants reviewed how each district uses assessments and what formats districts use for data meetings.

Break-Out 1 – Finance and Operations: Summary of budget process and budgeting decisions. In this session, the following themes came up as topics that people would like to investigate further:

• School Improvement and budgeting: Attendees asked if some districts had a structured process to tie school improvement planning into the annual budget process. People said they’d like to see a codified protocol of how this might work, including potentially embedding more information relating to school/district goals into the budget document.
• Regional issues: For most topics discussed, and especially for the annual budget development process, it was clear that regional districts have special challenges and/or perhaps opportunities. MARS works on some of these issues and School StatNet staff asked how StatNet can help support that work.
• Benefits Spending: The discussion pointed out how huge benefit-related spending is for districts. Participants said that this is a topic for which much more analysis and discussion would help, so as to identify what levers are available to impact the spending.
• Municipal/District Issues: A number of questions came up relating to how districts and municipalities divide work or negotiate spending. A longer discussion of these issues might be worth doing.
• Privatization: For a number of different functions (e.g. food service and transportation), participants reported on different practices in terms of privatization of those functions. It maybe worth investigating the pros and cons of privatization vs. carrying out work in-house.
• Achievement gap and low-income districts: Participants talked about budget constraints and the discussion highlighted the financial landscape in which districts serving the poorest students have the fewest resources to do so, in many cases. The question was raised as to what can be done?
• Decentralization vs. centralization: Participants talked about how there are some incentives (e.g. regionalization) to consolidate administrative functions and others (e.g. innovation schools/charter schools) to decentralize and divide administrative functions. How do we reconcile those two different trends?
• Quality of data: Participants pointed out that districts report spending by DESE budget category differently, in some cases making it difficult to compare spending trends across districts or over time. The category for teacher coaching and instructional leadership, in particular, is hard to isolate for analysis.
• Out-of-district spending: As with benefit spending, out-of-district is a huge component of district spending that has been growing. Participants talked about how this topic could get studied more in future meetings.

Break-Out 2 – Finance and Operations: In the second break-out, participants discussed the following:

• Development of in-district special education programs: The group discussed several examples of districts trying to develop more in-district placements for special education students. One idea that required more investigation is the possibility of sharing specialized positions between districts. 
• Building-level autonomy and weighted budgets: Participants talked about the challenges and possible benefits with creating weighted budgets.
• Using transportation data case study: Jamie Racanelli from Boston Public Schools presented on how his department uses transportation data. Participants asked about how the department was able to make a culture change and how that culture spreads to other divisions.
• Budget categories and funding sources: John Portz from Northeastern University presented on how the design of budget categories within budget documents impacts how districts and the public can track spending and revenue on a yearly and more frequent basis.

Lunch Discussion 1 – Comparing notes on PARCC implementation: The group discussed how PARCC implementation is going. Participants had a lot of questions, and anecdotes of test-taking mishaps (mostly driven by lack of knowledge among district test administrators). In addition, they wondered if it’s possible for the DESE to provide more information to parents so that districts don’t have to handle the push-back from parents on their own. Receiving recommendations for necessary technology procurement and technology infrastructure improvements would be helpful as well. One big question was how test questions and/or testing results may vary depending on the format used for test administration.

Lunch Discussion 2 – Plans for State/Local Study Team: The group considered a number of possible topics to study over the course of five meetings in the coming year and selected the following topic: Look into how districts can carry out a ROI analysis to support decision making regarding district investments/strategies, perhaps with a focus on what helps close the achievement gap. A meeting in the Worcester area will be planned for the spring.

Lunch Discussion 3 – Discussion of School StatNet Round 2 analytical capacity: This group reviewed different options for what School StatNet may be able to offer in the second year of its roll-out, which begins this spring.

Lunch Discussion 4 – Updates on Edwin Analytics functionality under development: This group discussed the reports that are in the pipeline for release by the Edwin Analytics team.

Spring School StatNet Meeting March 28th, Budget Development and Aligning Curriculum and Instruction to Common Core

Please plan to attend the next School StatNet meeting, which will be held on Friday, March 28th, from 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. at the Worcester Technical High School. Breakfast and lunch will be served. There will be two primary topics discussed at the meeting, and attendees are welcome to participate in a mix of sessions. All workshops will center around an analysis of data that districts have submitted in advance. Meeting topics will be:

SCHOOL DISTRICT BUDGET PROCESS DEVELOPMENT AND DECISION-MAKING: In a series of workshops, district administrators will compare notes on their budget development processes and on the budgeting decisions they are making this year. Additional discussions will focus on: 1. Tools and strategies that give building-level administrators more autonomy in budgeting decisions; and 2. Examples of how districts use data on transportation to make decisions.

ALIGNING CURRICULUM, INSTRUCTION, AND ASSESSMENTS TO PARCC AND THE COMMON CORE: In these segments, district administrators will discuss how they are preparing for the transition to PARCC and how they are working to align their current or planned instructional strategies and local assessments to the Common Core.

TO RSVP: Please complete these two steps. First, send an e-mail to Amy Dain at amy.dain@umb.edu - with name, title, affiliation and email. Second, attendees from districts should complete this data collection form and send it to Amy Dain no later than March 21st. The data will inform all parts of the meeting, and having your district’s data gives the conversation more substance.

 

Information from Oct. 8th Meeting on Educator Recruitment, Induction, PD, and Evaluation

Our second School StatNet meeting was held at Worcester Technical High School on Tuesday, October 8th, from 8:00 a.m. until noon.

Topic: The meeting topic was educator recruitment, induction, professional development, and evaluation. The group reviewed summarized data relating to each of these topics. See here for an agenda.

Attendees: The following cities and/or districts sent representatives and/or shared data as part of the meeting. Belchertown, Fitchburg, Bourne, Everett, Springfield, Somerville, Milford, Westfield, Boston, Westborough, Attleboro, Chicopee, Revere, and Wilmington. In addition, representatives from the following State agencies attended: Administration and Finance, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Greater Boston District and School Assistance Center, and the Executive Office of Education. Finally, professors and staff from two universities participated: University of Massachusetts Boston and Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Take aways: Participant feedback and take-aways from the meeting are summarized here. A few of the issues discussed in the meeting were:

• Protocol for Hiring: Participants discussed different strategies for hiring high-performing teachers. A number of people pointed out the lack of a research base used by districts to guide practices in educator recruitment, induction, and retention. These identified best practices could, in turn, result in a suggested protocol for principals.
• Operational Issues and Achievement Gap: In response to a presentation by State researcher Erin Dillon, which showed that first year teachers are more likely to be assigned to teach higher risks students throughout the Commonwealth, participants discussed what factors drive differences in hiring practices between districts that may lead lower-income districts to hire more junior teachers.
• Ed Eval Implementation: Districts discussed the benefits and challenges associated with the implementation of the new Educator Evaluation system. One of the most frequent comments was the need for resources and time to help facilitate the culture change required.

Next Steps: Attendees identified issues that they hoped the Shool StatNet Coalition could work on in coming months. Ranked in order of participant interest, they were as follows:

1. Research what hiring practices lead to the hiring of the highest performing teachers and develop a recommended protocol.
2. Undertake or help facilitate research on why lower-income students have lower SGPs on average and how State, district, or school-level policies may impact those results.
3. In collaboration with State partners, support districts as they work to develop DDMs. In particular, investigate the following questions: How should we determine teacher of record? How can we adjust DDMs for populations of students, since lower-income students have lower SGPs on average? How can we measure student performance if there is only one assessment?
4. Research models of metrics of school performance. For example, a School StatNet research/practitioner team could look at these questions: What are measures? How do they connect to School Improvement Plans? How do we empower decision makers (e.g. principals)? What are the leverage points for improving schools? How are teachers involved? How can we learn from other models, such as the Chicago Consortium or Wilmington's work?
5. Undertake a pilot analysis using longitudinal SIMS data, such as on how grade 3 retentions or PK enrollment impact long-term student performance.
6. Work with State officials to share feedback that came out of the Ed Eval discussion, such as ideas on the pace of the roll-out and on the publication of ed eval results.
7. Look into feasibility of creating analytical team that helps districts carry out intervention program evaluation (issue raised in meeting #1).
8. Work with the State to investigate the demand for and feasibility of creating a statewide Student Information System and to provide advice on Edwin features, including consideration of these requests: one-stop shop for teachers and guidance counselors, five years of data to allow for trend reporting, reporting that allows users to select schools, local assessment data, and more SIMs data.
9. Develop analysis on school-related operations topics, such as facilities and energy management.
10. Research the feasibility of creating an alternative certification program within MA.
11. Convene a meeting of MA districts with SchoolSpring developers to request changes.

Fall School StatNet Meeting: Oct. 8th, Educator Hiring, Induction, PD, and Evaluation

We hope many of you will be able to attend the next School StatNet meeting, which will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 8th, from 8:00 a.m. until noon, with breakfast at 7:45 a.m. and an optional lunch following at noon. The location will be at the Worcester Technical High School at 1 Skyline Drive in Worcester (see: http://portal.techhigh.us/Community/Conference/Pages/default.aspx). The school is just off of Route 9 and parking is available on site.

If you are planning to attend the meeting, please complete these two steps:

1. Indicate your plan to attend. Please RSVP by completing this form: http://tinyurl.com/SchoolStatOct8RSVP
2. If you are coming from a school district, please have someone from your district complete the data collection form and send it to Stephanie Hirsch (shirsch@k12.somerville.ma.us) no later than Wednesday, Sept. 25^th. The meeting’s discussion will center around the information you submit. The collection form is available here: http://tinyurl.com/SchoolStatOct8

The topic will be educator recruitment/hiring, induction, ongoing professional development, and supervision/evaluation, including updates on districts’ progress with implementation of the educator evaluation system. Our discussion will center around issues raised in consolidated district data relating to each of these topics.

 In addition, we will discuss several ongoing projects that School StatNet communities will be working on, including the implementation of performance management initiatives within districts, techniques of evaluating school performance, analytical work relating to district operations (e.g. transportation, food service), and collaborative projects with the State to analyze State longitudinal data so as to inform district-level decision making.

If you can’t make the Oct. 8^th meeting but would like to be added to the School StatNet mailing list, contact Stephanie Hirsch (shirsch@k12.somerville.ma.us).

Information From May 21st Meeting on K-5 Interventions for General Education Students

Our pilot School StatNet meeting was held in Marlborough on Tuesday, May 21st, 2013, from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.

Topic: The meeting topic was systems of intervention and support for general education students in grades K-5. The group reviewed summarized data relating to the types of interventions the participant districts provide, such as out-of-school academic support, in-school support, and wrap-around services. See here for an agenda.

Attendees: The following cities and/or districts sent representatives to the meeting. Orange-Mahar, Westborough, Boston, Attleboro, Revere, Somerville, New Bedford, Chicopee, Watertown, Holliston, Everett, Springfield, and Advanced Math and Science Academy. In addition, representatives from other organizations participated, including the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Collins Center at UMass Boston, the Office of the State Auditor, Key Steps, EOE's Edwin team, EOE Secretariat, and A&F.

Take aways: Participant feedback and take-aways from the meeting are summarized here. A key lesson learned from the meeting was the difficulty all of the participating districts experience in evaluating the impact of different interventions. Among the ideas proposed to address this concern were:

• Look into the possibility of the State or some other consortium building a student information system that also tracks dosage for interventions.
• Look into resources that districts might use to strengthen their program evaluation capacity. Ideas mentioned include a centralized team of analysts who could help districts, training or tutorial on the "return on academic investment model" that was discussed, and help for districts on how to put systems in place (in terms of protocol, staffing, or technology) to implement performance management.

Possible future topics of interest: The group discussed together what topics they'd like to feature at future School StatNet meetings. Those included:

• Systems of defining school quality
• Early learning and kindergarten readiness strategies
• Educator evaluation system implementation
• District Determined Measures (DDMs) creation and how we use classroom-level growth data
• Operations topics, such as busing, food service, nursing, facility maintenance, and custodial services
• Continuing discussion of systems of performance management within districts
• School-based improvement planning processes
• Collaborative effort to cost out interventions and potentially compare return on academic investment

Materials: Linked below are presentations made by staff from Springfield and Boston on their performance management programs:

• Presentation on Springfield Public Schools' Performance Management Program
• Presentation on Boston Public Schools' Performance Management Program

Links: Attendee Sarah Glover, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, provided these links as a follow-up to the discussion:

Resources related to data sharing with providers to support program evaluation:

• A list of resources compiled by the Harvard Family Research Project   
• HFRP’s April newsletter, which is dedicated to topic of data sharing: 

And a tool to help with determining whether to keep a program or not: 

About SchoolStatNet

ABOUT SCHOOL STATNET

School StatNet is a new initiative, funded by the State, with a mission of bringing together school districts from throughout the Commonwealth to examine data on school operations and student achievement, and to discuss operational strategies on a variety of topics.  A State-level advisory board is shaping the direction of School StatNet so that it complements related initiatives at the State level, such as the release of Edwin, the State’s new teaching and learning data management system.

School StatNet is one of five education-related projects being carried out throughout the Commonwealth funded by the Patrick-Murray Administration’s Community Innovation Challenge (CIC) Grant Program. Somerville, Revere, Chicopee, and Fitchburg are taking the lead on the School StatNet program, which also involves partners from state agencies and academia. It has been modeled after the successful municipal StatNet program, which was launched five years ago, and has brought together more than 65 communities for data-informed discussions of municipal operations.

READ MORE ABOUT SCHOOL STATNET

A blog post from Commonwealth Conversations: Mass Innovation

Press release on the initiative

Grant application document

CONTACT INFORMATION

Stephanie Hirsch, School StatNet Coordinator
Somerville Public Schools, City of Somerville
617-625-6600 ext. 2340
shirsch@somervillema.gov