• No major updates for this month.
• EOY testing is ongoing, so we don't have results yet. In late May, we'll get preliminary OST results. Once we have the results, we'll put them in a form that is easily consumable and share them with the committee in advance. At the meeting, we'll review our outcomes as compared to our goals. 
• We are also in the process of updating the strategic plan and academic roadmap. This will get approved as a part of the AEC annual review. We anticipate the review/approval after the June meeting/later in the summer, but we'll provide a status update next meeting.
• The June meeting is 6/11. 

BPS has used the insight survey tool to measure our organizational health. We have taken time as an NLT and ELT to look at this year's results, come up with key takeaways, and ensure it inform our planning. We've asked Danielle Sobel to join us and provide an overview. 

Danielle: 

• We launched in Febrauary and closed in March. We conduct this survey every spring.
• We have really high completion rates, which we should be proud of. 9/10 schools have over 80% completion. 87% of teachers network-wide took the survey. 92% of leaders completed the survey (principals, deans)
• Instructional culture as measured by Insight aligns consistently with higher teacher retention and improved student outcomes. Schools in the top quartile have better academic outcomes and higher teacher retention. So we always look at this survey.
  •  There are three different questions/domains:  The expectations for effective teaching are clearly defined at my school. (Evaluation domain). Teachers at my school share a common vision of what effective teaching looks like in practice. (Peer Culture domain). My school is committed to improving my instructional practice.
    (Professional Development domain) 
  • Overall, our index decreased overall from this year to last year, but our lowest scores have increased overall. We are still below the national average. Last year, we had two schools beating the national average, this year we have one. 
  • While we have some improvements, we know we can do better. 
  • Bottom Quartile: CLAG 4.2, CAG 4.4, EPW 4.9
  • Middle Half: EPWH 5.3, CAS 5.4, VPW 5.5, CLAS 6.1
  • Top Quartile: VPWH 6.2, VPC 7.3, EPC 8.1
  • We are trying to build the habit of using this data with our principals. We want them to make plans with their leadership teams.  
• Next, we're going to talk about retention. In our Board Metrics, we track and measure goals based on this data.
  • We didn't see a huge shift in overall teacher retention plans. We had 52% last year to 48% this year. 
  • More leaders said that this was their last year, which is a shift.  
  • Andre: We have made some movement, but people are pretty clear about why they are leaving. Compensation, student behavior, and leadership support. The last two are interconnected. We've started to address all of these, in meaningful ways, but I want to ensure that we address them structurally in the coming months.
  • There are differences in schools that we would anticipate. Our lower-performing schools, with the highest turnover, have the weakest culture, and this impacts teacher retention. This is consistent across the board. 
  • We have some schools in line with national averages, and have more and more of our teachers want to stay with us in the long term. 
• This is also just one way we measured and collected feedback. We had a number of conversations around compensation (surveys, focus groups, town halls) 
  • We heard loud and clear that compensation was an issue, so we addressed that. 
  • We are digging below the survey to unpack why folks feel like they have big workloads and address them structurally since our staff have narrower scopes than their peers. 
  • We took advantage of key senior leader appointments to address concerns and issues more holistically. 
• There is also a question on the survey asking if folks have heard about the Insight Survey from their manager, and we do well there. 
• The last aspect I want to cover is the various domains. 
  • The first is Teacher Feedback. We have seen multiple years of strong scores in our three highest domains (PD, evaluation, observation & feedback). The hiring process domain is new this year and was only asked of those who have recently been hired and is a benchmark for future goal-setting. We are outpacing national averages in many of these domains. 
  • What is exciting about this data, as a principal, is that you can log in and explore your data, you can compare both to the national averages and as well as the top quartiles schools. It's interactive to support principals' set goals.
  • There are also Leader Domains. We see that there are some similarities in some of our areas of opportunity (learning environment, workload) and some strengths (teacher evaluation, teacher observation and feedback) compared to teacher responses. 
• We bought the data this year so that we can build some of these measures into our data wall and really dig into the work. 
• This survey was conducted before our compensation changes, so we anticipate seeing this in next year's data.
• How does insight connect to general improvement plans? 
  • They are not super connected. This is more of a measure of teacher retention. 
  • We feel crisp on what our top priorities need to be going into the fall. 
  • This will impact our organizational health assessment. It will not be the primary driver in any shifts in strategy thought. 
• What would drive changing the tool? 
  • A new opportunity that is more actionable and lower cost, but we'd continue to be able to use the Insight Survey as a baseline. We feel confident about where we are, and have 9 years of data to tell us that.

We want to continue to outline some of thinking around shifts in the school model, and provide updates. 

Excited tonight because we have concrete names to go with some of the shifts that we have been talking about. The question we were asking is: does a K-8 model helps us meet our goals faster. 

Our current model has two principals on each campus, each with their own leadership team. There were four deans reporting to each principal. It is a very generous model, but we have not seen the results. 

Next year, four of our campuses will move to a K-8 model. There will be one principal with 4-5 APs, one Dean of Culture and one Real Time Coach. For these last two roles, we'll assess and potential sunset, but want to have a smooth transition. 

While this is a reduced leadership team, it gets us closer to our peers.

By, campus personnel review conducted. 

We're in a better-starting place than last year, but we will continue to move quickly to hire as many roles as possible. We will also overhire as much as possible.

There is typically additional summer loss, and we want to stay ahead.  We have the momentum right now, and new leaders in place to help be a driving force for change. 

Want to ensure our goals are embedded in our strategies. The network goals and priorities remain the same. 

We are changing the vehicles to meet our goals and priorities. Based on the new structure of the Learning Team, we have new actions that we are going to take to attack the goals: 

• Early Literacy: We are looking at the components of the curriculum and ensure we're using them with fidelity. We're going to strengthen the skills of our teachers. Align our Dyslexia Bill practices to MTSS 
• Humanities: Launching new curriculum, Wit & Wisdom, and partnering with the publishing company, for training, and schools to ensure implementation fidelity. We are going to solidify practices with existing work and then set a new long-term strategy after a year of analysis.
• Math: We will focus on implementing the current curriculum with fidelity. We need to increase the utilization of iReady, and then we can assess if these are working for us. We don't have enough data to know if the math deficits are coming from the curriculum or the practices. The PLC model will help with this as well. 
• Science: We have confidence in the curriculum for science and know we need to relaunch Amplify 3-8 by partnering with publisher for complete use of curriculum and fidelity of implementation  Engage K-2 leaders in discussions around implementing Amplify in K-2 classrooms and pilot units in certain classrooms. T

The PLC model will be a new model for professional learning, and we are following the PLC+ scope and sequence to implement our adult learning. 

When will see a difference? 

• Each curriculum, there are key benchmarks. We'll use these to track our progress. It is all very data-driven, and we can measure growth and outcomes as we go. It will also help us to unpack the root cause of the issues at each campus. 

Other focus areas:

• MTSS: A key focus on scholars who are struggling. This will lead us to launch tier 2 and tier 3 curricular offerings for reading, math, and SEL and ensure implementation fidelity by partnering with publishers and schools. Every school will have an identified MTSS team meeting on a regular basis as part of the PLC cycles. This will allow us to assess and adapt to the root cause of issues for each individual scholar. 
• Special Education: Keeping course on our current work. We do want to improve progress monitoring to ensure that teachers are using the right tools. 
• Professional Learning: Re-imagine leadership development for Principals, Assistant Principals, and those who want to gain the skills (to provide skills and resources to cultivate culture, assess instructional systems, and understand the various leadership standards to drive positive change) 

What we hope you take away from this, is that we are strengthening our existing roadmap. Tonight we outlined some changes in strategy, but are not moving the goalposts.