No members of the public provided comments at this meeting. A. Kaynor noted that the following members of Excel Academy Rhode Island's Board who are not Academic Oversight Committee members are in attendance for informational purposes: Mayor Brett Smiley, Jamie Greenthal, Chiv Heng.

S. Patton, F. Reyes, and K. Ring presented an updated on the State of the Schools, the SY23-24 EOY academic results, and the implementation of a new Teacher Observation Rubric, as summarized in the Academic Update Slides and quarterly board academic data dashboard that were provided to the Academic Oversight Committee in advance of the meeting.

S. Patton highlighted the following outcomes indicating a dramatic turnaround at the school:

• RICAS Growth: Students earned an SGP of 61 in ELA and an SGP of 60 in Math, putting us 3rd and 7th in the state respectively for student growth. 
• Student Culture: Chronic absenteeism dropped from 36.4% to 19.8% and the number of students suspended was significantly reduced 29.0% to 7.2%. 
• Staff Culture: 91% of staff members returned and staff had the highest satisfaction and optimism in the network.

B. Smiley asked for clarification that the suspension policy has not changed since last year, and S. Patton confirmed it has not changed.

C. Heng asked for more information about the levers that helped to create this shift at the school, and members of the XLRI team provided context about leadership and culture changes that contributed to the successful turnaround.

P. Santiago, a member of the ELL advisory council, noted that challenges with students exiting ELL status and meeting ACCESS benchmarks is a statewide challenge. 

F. Rojas asked a clarifying question regarding how we access incoming 5th grader historical data, which F. Reyes answered.

J. Greenthal asked for more information about how the Network Academic Team supports the school-based team, which S. Patton provided.

S. Patton reviewed the new Teacher Observation Rubric with the Committee in detail and answered clarifying questions.

C. Heng asked for clarification regarding whether the rubric is used for teacher development or evaluations, or both. S. Patton noted that we are still using the RIDE evaluation rubric for formal evaluations. In the future we hope to incorporate all components of the RIDE evaluation rubric into the Teacher Observation Rubric, so that we can eventually transition to using only one tool.

J. Greenthal asked for more information about the instructional PD schedule, which K. Ring provided.

J. Greenthal asked about comparability between the Excel MA and Excel RI curricula, which S. Patton clarified. They are very similar, given the standards and assessments are so similar between the states.

O. Stearns shared reflections and gratitude for the exceptional work the team has done to lead the school and improve outcomes for kids.

F. Reyes previewed topics coming up at the next Academic Committee meeting. A. Kaynor previewed the upcoming Board and Committee meeting schedule.

• 11.7.24 Academic Update Slides
• Quarterly Board Data Dashboard
• New Teacher Observation Rubric
• 5.2.24 Meeting Minutes

List of documents used in the meeting:

• 5.2.24 Meeting Minutes
• Quarterly Board Academic Data Dashboard
• New Teacher Observation Rubric
• 11.7.24 Academic Committee Update Slides