MCCPS Board of Trustees

Minutes

Academic Excellence Committee Meeting

Date and Time

Wednesday October 2, 2019 at 7:30 AM

Committee Members Present

Ellen Lodgen, Jessica Xiarhos, Kimberly Sullivan, Matt Cronin, Peter Cohen

Committee Members Absent

Michael Condon, William Sullivan

Guests Present

Artie Sullivan

I. Opening Items

A.

Record Attendance and Guests

B.

Call the Meeting to Order

Jessica Xiarhos called a meeting of the Academic Excellence Committee Committee of MCCPS Board of Trustees to order on Wednesday Oct 2, 2019 at 7:34 AM.

C.

Approve Minutes from 9/4/19

Ellen Lodgen made a motion to Approve the minutes as-is from the September monthly meeting.
Kimberly Sullivan seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

II. Academic Excellence Committee

A.

Vision Statement, Communication, Goals

Vision- not proposing changes at this time. Now what? Disseminated to faculty? Community? Students?

Site visit- Vision statement becomes integral part of Oct. 23 meeting.

Essential Habits- how do you bring them more to the forefront as opposed to just evaluating students at the end of the month. Are they in classrooms? Are students reflecting/targeting a specific habit/reflecting? Are we goal setting with students about these? People can speak generally but no specifics. 

Big Idea- How do we/are we assess the quality of our program and how is it being communicated out?
Board education- MCAS, DESE by February

Vision in place, now how do we create a "clear road map"

Our vision of academic excellence is different than in other schools. Moving away from academics, towards integrated projects.

Turnover in staff requires training

First step- uncovering what has already been done, rubrics. PBL is "in vogue", how do we implement high quality, building to 8th-grade Capstone/"Thesis Defense". 

Sharing instituaitonal knowledge- careful with the roll-out

Short-term: Charter renewal. After November- have Katie and Kay come to the committee, share what they know/take on a mentorship role? Reach out to other schoosl who are doing it well. How do you deal with staff turn-over? Invite alumni. 

Good to Great. Exhibition 2.0

Whole school Exhibition project? 



 

B.

Update on District Measure of Learning & Progress (IXL)

C.

Data Points

III. Additional Items to Discuss, Future Meetings

A.

Ideas?

Meet with Peter re: MCAS. IXL? Evaluations used by teachers for Exhibitions. A couple of years of Exhibition data. Teacher self-reflection on Exhibition. 

Charter Renewal- Developing clearly aligned goals and vision under vision. What data do we already have?

MyWay/MAPs


 
Action Item: Set meeting for 2 weeks. October 23.
Gather data from grade levels related to vision/Exhibition data (talking points). Teacher evaluation data. 

IV. Closing Items

A.

Adjourn Meeting

Kimberly Sullivan made a motion to adjourn the meeting.
Matt Cronin seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 8:32 AM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Jessica Xiarhos