April CEAB meeting focuses on new assessments, report cards

The April meeting of the Cranston Education Advisory Board (CEAB) took place on Monday, April 3 in the Cranston East Media Center. The focus of this month's forum was on understanding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 specifically, as well as providing an update about the new trimester calendar, new assessment tools and the new standards-based report card. Providing those updates for the group were Joseph Rotz, Executive Director of Educational Programs & Services, Zachary Farrell, Assistant Principal at Cranston High School West and Dutemple Elementary Principal Kim Magnelli.

"It had come to our attention that a few parents had gone to the Special Education Advisory Board (SEAC) with questions about 504 plans, looking for clarification," said Rotz. "Since a 504 plan is a regular education plan and not a special education plan, we decided to do our overview and information session at the CEAB meeting instead of the SEAC meeting." Rotz explained that one of his roles currently is to hear appeals during the process, to try to mediate and come to a decision all can agree on so that the plan can move forward or if a further appeal needs to take place beyond the district level, that process can also move forward. Effective next school year, Farrell will be taking on that role, and will be the district's 504 Coordinator for the 2017-2018 school year.

How the 504 came to be

Farrell provided a historical context for the development of the ADA, which came to be in 1973 and described its impact on public education, specifically Section 504, which as of its update in 1990 requires public schools to provide "reasonable accommodations" on the basis of the disability to qualified individuals. He explained the process a parent would go through if they felt their student was in need of a 504 plan, which included documentation of a disability. He clarified that there is a wide spectrum of conditions that can qualify to be covered under a 504 plan and gave examples such as diabetes or allergies, ADD or Executive Functioning issues, or even a short-term disability such as a broken leg. Magnelli clarified that a disability must be impeding a students' academic progress in order to qualify for accommodations, and Rotz emphasized that the accommodations must be reasonable. Farrell also gave some examples of common accommodations that might be listed on a 504 plan, such as accessibility to the school nurse when needed, an extra set of books at home, or extended time on assessments. He also explained that employees can qualify for a 504 plan as well, and gave the example of someone in need of a particular classroom location or someone needing a medical plan for chemotherapy. Once set in place, plans should be reviewed at least every three years, although in Cranston they are reviewed yearly.

When Farrell concluded his presentation, Rotz took the time to answer questions, which had been submitted to CEAB for clarification since the previous meeting in regards to the new trimester schedule and report card as well as clarification on assessments and grading at both the elementary and secondary levels.

What about trimesters?

"This year a new trimester schedule was put in place at the kindergarten level as a pilot program and a kindergarten trimester report card was piloted as well," said Rotz. "There is a big difference between the current traditional report card and the new report card in that the new one is standards based. We have identified anchor standards in English Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies, the content areas and we have created scoring for proficiency on these standards, so on the new report cards you can see if your child is meeting the specific standards or what their progress towards those standards is, and the report card is done three times a year as trimesters rather than four times a year as quarters."

He also clarified that in some cases there may be an indication that a concept hasn't been covered or assessed yet, and therefore no progress has been made, but later in the year, that standard would then be covered and assessed.

Magnelli explained that on the report card the traditional letter grades are now being replaced with individual scores showing progression instead, and are on a four-point scale.

"We are trying to really provide teachers, parents and students with direct feedback on specific standards so that they can see the specific areas in which they are doing very well and areas that may need extra attention. Parents are getting real feedback on their child's progress," said Rotz.

The pilot program in kindergarten will be expanded to all elementary grades one through five, for the 2017-2018 school year and beyond.

At the secondary level, Rotz explained that the state has come out with secondary regulations which were adopted in July 2017 and built off of prior regulations which essentially state that secondary school students need to be receiving scores based on proficiency, aligned with the proficiency levels on specific standards.

"Across the country, there is a movement out there about changing grades to more accurately report the progress of students," said Rotz. "There is a lot of data about whether or not our students who are graduating are college and career ready, and much of the data says that they are not. Less than 30 percent of college students will complete their college education in four years, many of them need to take remedial classes once in college, and they finish in five or six years instead."

He stated that it's the responsibility of districts to come up with systems, which more accurately report the students' progress and proficiency.

"Here in Cranston we are using a hybrid system for now which currently keeps the letter grades but also adds in proficiency scores in different courses," Rotz said. "The students are given common assessments in their courses and receive a number grade, which is their proficiency score and is shown on their report card. This shows their progress towards proficiency in that course, based on certain standards, such as problem solving, for example. This year there are nine academic expectations that are aligned to 21st Century Skills and aligned to the content specific standards in the Common Core State Standards. They are under the umbrella of Problem Solving, Communication, and Critical Thinking and they include things like narrative writing, and scientific inquiry."

Timeline for future, rollout

Rotz stated that assessments have been built into the curriculum and they are given every quarter and scored for proficiency, with each student needing to take four different assessments a year to meet the proficiency for the course.

"The high school level has rolled this out now, and we will be starting it at the middle school level next year," Rotz said. "We want our students to be more engaged with their learning, we want to come up with assessments and build the units around the assessments that are project-based and engaging. We want to give students voice and choice. There is a lot of behind the scenes work being done with this, and it's a work in progress. It's not perfect, but we are getting there. A lot of companies around the country are looking for our students to graduate with the soft skills needed to be successful in their jobs like working in groups, speaking and communicating well, and problem solving. We need to come up with more project-based learning in the classroom now to get students more engaged in their learning. Some teachers in our district already do an amazing job of that in their classrooms, and we are developing a curriculum that supports that. It's challenging work and we're getting there."

He also clarified that the common assessments consist of two parts each quarter, each worth 7.5 percent of the quarterly grade, combined to equal 15 percent of the quarterly grade.

"There is the performance-based piece [common task] which they have two weeks to redo and make better if they don't score well and the objective piece [quarterly exam], which may consist of short answers, multiple choice, or read and respond using evidence types of questions. Together, those equal 15 percent of the quarterly grade," he said. "As for the traditional Final Exam at the end of the school year at the high school level, we don't have one true final exam any longer. It used to be that the final was 15 percent of the final grade and it was cumulative. Now, moving forward, there should be no one test that holds that much weight for a student's grade. The fourth quarterly test is 15 percent of that fourth quarter grade. The teacher might still choose to create a test that incorporates what was learned over the entire year, but the grade will only be 15percent of that quarter's grade. We need to be moving towards assessing to learn what we need to teach for learning, not for what we have learned."

Finishing out the meeting, Jeff Gale gave a school committee update on the 2017-2018 school year budget, stating that the mayor has approved a $700,000 increase for the school budget, which he foresees being approved by the City Council. The mayor has put in a 49 cent-per-thousand tax increase on resident property taxes as well.

Gale also spoke again about the need for parent advocacy when it comes to supporting budgets and expressing the need for various types of funding, such as the 21st Century funding which completely funds the district's before and after school programming and summer camp programming. He encouraged parents to contact legislators at the higher government levels to express the need for keeping those funds in the federal budget in order to keep valuable programs available to students across the city.

John McCarthy, chairperson for CEAB reminded the group that all of the April vacation camp information as well as the summer camp information is available at cranstonafterschool.com and the site contains pricing and sign up information.

The next meeting of the CEAB will be held on May 1, 2017 in the Meshanticut Room at the Cranston Area Career and Technical Center on the campus of Cranston High School West.