🏫 May 23rd School Committee Agenda Preview

The Reading School Committee (SC) of Reading Public Schools (RPS)  is meeting at 7pm on Thursday May 23, 2024 at Reading Memorial High School. 

Links to the agenda, packet, and to watch the meeting are at the end of this article. 

Focus on Excellence

The start of the SC  meeting will be the “focus on excellence.” Which for this meeting will include recognitions of the RMHS Class of 2024 Valedictorian and Salutatorian honors, as well as the David B. Libby Scholarship recipients.  Per the packet p. 4, there will be 22 recipients who will share $68,000 from the David B. Libby Scholarship fund., in line with the scholarship criteria.

Facility Naming Request

ON BEHALF OF CHARLIE HARDY (packet p. 15 and p. 143-164)

This topic relates to a proposal that Reading community member Kevin Mulvey submitted, in accordance with the RPS Naming of Facilities police.  The proposal was accompanied with a petition signed by 500 individuals and can be found at p. 143-164 of the packet.  The proposal is to name RMHS Turf 2 in honor of Charlie Hardy,  who helped found boys and girls youth lacrosse leagues in Reading in Reading and who has been the RMHS lacrosse coach for over 22 years. Mr. Hardy also has multiple other accomplishments in Reading, as detailed in the packet at p. 148-150,  followed by pages listing 500 signatures.

Per the memo in the packet at p. 15, at the May 23, 2024 SC meeting, “Mr. Mulvey and the nominating parties will present their proposal, providing an opportunity for the committee to ask clarifying questions, not engage in discussion or make decisions. During the June 6th meeting, the School Committee will discuss and vote on whether to accept this nomination and establish the Advisory Committee in which a School Committee member will be appointed to. This Advisory Committee will further study and make a recommendation to the School Committee. Once the Advisory Committee presents its recommendation during a regular School Committee meeting, the School Committee will either accept or adopt the recommendation.”

Learning & Teaching Update

(packet p. 17-72)

This is expected to be a lengthy and thorough update, based on the presentation materials in the packet, which are too extensive to cover thoroughly in this article. Even so, there are a lot of highlights, and I have tried to hit everything at a high level. Here are some highlights (with corresponding pages when appropriate):

ELEMENTARY LITERACY:

• Independent Reading Level Assessment (IRLA) (p. 23-24) mostly show modest growth comparing gr. 3, 4, 5 students in May 2023 to a different set of students gr. Gr 3, 4, 5 students in May 2024, though there are exceptions.  For example,
  • % of students listed as “proficient or above,” comparing 2023 to 2024, showed gr. 3 grew from 63.5% to 76.9%, gr. 4 grew from 70.7% to 72.1% and gr. 5 grew from 76.9% to 80.6%.
  • The % of students listed as “at risk” went down in gr. 3 (17.3% to 13.3%) and gr. 5 (17.7% to 10%) but increased very slightly in gr. 4 (15.8% to 15.4%).
  • The % of students listed as “emergency” dropped in gr. 3 (17.9% to 9%) and gr. 4 (12.9% to 9.4%) but increased in gr. 5 (5.4% to 8.7%)

• IRLA levels comparing the same cohort of kids, from gr. 4 to gr. 5 in 2023 to 2024 (i.e., comparing current gr. 5 to when they were in gr. 4, current gr. 4 to when they were in gr. 3), showed more significant improvements:
  • % of students proficient or above grew:  gr. 4 63.5% to 72.1%; gr. 5 70.7% to 80.6%
  • % of students at risk  went d own (17.3% to 16.4% in gr. 4; 15/8% to 10.0% in gr. 5)
  • % of students listed as “emergency” decreased ( 17.9% to 9.4% in gr. 4; 12.9% to 8.7% in gr. 5)
• The chart on p. 25 also shows beginning or year to end of year growth in DIBELS ® (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), an assessment done in gr. 1-3 in RPS. 
  • Gr.1 went from 74%  at or above benchmark to 87% at or above benchmark
  • Gr. 2 went from 66% at or above benchmark to 81% at or above benchmark
  • Gr. 3 went from 78% at or above benchmark to 82% at or above benchmark

The presentation does not include past years (before 2023) of this elementary literacy data and/or this type of data from before the use of these materials, so it is not clear if this data is a marked improvement or change from past student performance and/or cohort comparisons, done on these assessments. 

OTHER RPS ACADEMIC IMPROVEMENTS

• NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL LITERACY CURRICULUM During 2023-2024 there where curriculum reviews for these subjects: Middle School Literacy; Secondary Science;  World Language;  Social-Emotional Learning; Multilingual Learner
  • Secondary Science – RMHS will pilot some new science curricula in Fall 2024
  • World Languages –  curriculum review moving into implementation & monitor phase in 24/25 school year
  • Socio Emotional Learning – has conducted needs assessment, presentation to district leadership to come
  • Multilingual Learning – set goals, evaluated current curriculum, began review of available curricula, decision on curriculum and presentation to district leadership to come
  • Middle School Literacy: RPS has been evaluating/piloting new middle school literacy curricula and gathering baseline literacy data using the i-Reading tool. 
    • Per data on p. 30 of packet, there has been a 4% increase in students in gr. 6-8 at or above grade level since last year. However, it is still concerning that, as of this year, only 66% of gr. 6-8 students are at or above grade level for literacy, and 15% of gr. 6-8 students are two or more grade levels below in literacy
    • A new literacy program will be selected in the next month, and per p. 12 of packet, RPS has received a “High-Quality Instructional Materials Grant” of up to $100K, which can be used to pay for up to half the cost of a “high quality middle school literacy curriculum”

• SUMMER BRIDGE PROGRAM FOR METCO:  In Summer of 2024, RPS running a summer METCO summer bridge program (MSBP) (see p. 13 of packet), supported via a so-called “METCO REI IMPLEMENTATION GRANT” of $15K.  The MSBP will provide math tutoring for Boston resident students in middle school with the goal of increasing the number of Boston resident students taking advanced math courses.”  The Secondary Math Pathways Advisory committee had recommended focus on “on improvements for student groups not equally represented in advanced math course, and this included Boston resident students.” 
  
  
• RMHS INNOVATION PATHWAYS (p. 42-46) – launched two pathways (Advanced Manufacturing, Information (computer science, digital media) with 80 students during 23-24.  Two near pathways (clean energy; healthcare and social assistance) approved for 24-25.   Total enrollment during 24-25 is more than double 23-24:   will be 193 students across all pathways.

• SECONDARY MATH PATHWAYS (p. 47-51) Secondary math committee has evaluated gr. 6-8 math data and secondary course enrollment using the i-Ready tool, with some minor improvements in 23-24 vs 22-23:
  • % of students in gr. 6-8 at or above grade level in math went from 56% in 22-23 to 61% in 23-24, but that still leaves 39% below grade level in math.  28% are one grade level below (consistent from 22-23 to 23-24) and the % of students 2 or more grade levels below dropped to 11% from 16%

• The data on p. 51 shows racial/ethnic breakdown of kids enrolled in AP math classes (either in gr. 12 or in the past) vs their demographics in RMHS gr. 12 population.   The data shows
  • White students are 84.8% of population and 80.0% of students taking AP mathStudents with disabilities are 16.9% of population and 1.4% of students taking AP mathAsian students are 6.6% of population and 14.3% of students taking AP mathAfrican American/black students are 4.5% of population and 1.4% of students taking AP math
  • Hispanic/Latino students are 3.1% of population and 1.4% of students taking AP math.
    

Review of Superintendent

(pl 73 and p. 124-141) – This memo outlines a timetable of actions for the formative review of the superintendent, which commences in the 5/23/2024 meeting and concludes in the 6/20/2024 meeting.  The presentation starting at p. 124 reviews the Superintendent’s goals, including key actions, benchmarks, and supporting data.  During the SC meeting, the Superintendent will provide an overview of the evidence aligning to these goals that he plans to provide as part of the mid-cycle formative review process.

District Benchmarks Review

(P. 74-122)  – This section of the meeting will go over a benchmark update on certain strategic objectives of the RPS District Strategic plan, namely Strategic Objectives 2 (Coherent Instructional Systems) and 3 (School Operations)..  These pages include a lengthy table that tracks progress in 3 columns:  – 1) Activities 2) Short- and Long-Term Outcomes 3) 2023-2024 End of School Year Updates.  This section is too extensive and detailed to cover in an article, and I refer the reader to those packet pages.

How to Watch

The SC meeting will be broadcast on the RCTV YouTube channel at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0f0rk2UrQY

The meeting also will be on Verizon Ch 32, Xfinity Ch 6.

In addition, you can join the meeting (or watch) via the Zoom link here:

Join Zoom Meeting https://readingpsma.zoom.us/j/87251971227  Meeting ID: 872 5197 1227