DESE Update: March 8th, 2019

1. Math Pathways Regional Meetings:

The grades 9-16 Math Pathways Regional Meetings started this month and will run through April. The meetings follow the success of the 2018 Pathways Summit, a collaboration between DESE and the Department of Higher Education to lay the groundwork for implementing distinct math pathways for students. Participants at each regional meeting will communicate shifts that have already happened and frame the logistics for the project’s next phases, like adjusting the sequence and content of high school math to better align with recently adopted higher education pathways.

Participants should attend in teams, which could include teachers, guidance counselors, administrators, directors and math faculty. All members of the team must register individually.

Upcoming dates and locations are: •Friday, March 15 at Holyoke Community College,
•Friday, March 22 at Bridgewater State University, and
•Friday, April 26 at MassBay Community College in Wellesley Hills.

Picture of the Week:

On March 8, 2019, Commissioner Riley’s visits included trips to Nashoba Regional School District and Harvard Public Schools. Here, students at Hildreth Elementary School in Harvard speak to him about their work.

A boy and a girl stand on either side of Commissioner Riley, who is sitting or squatting at a table looking at plants and information about them. The girl is talking to him.

3. VISTA 2019 Survey Reminder:

The window for superintendents and principals to complete the 2019 Views of Instruction, State Standards, Teaching, and Assessment (VISTA) survey closes March 15. The response rates to date are very low in comparison to prior years, and DESE urges everyone to complete their surveys. The Department’s program offices rely on this annual survey to inform their work and plan how to support schools and districts. Please take the time to provide DESE with your feedback.

Superintendents and principals who have not received a survey or who are having difficulty accessing their surveys can contact the VISTA Study Help Desk at MAVISTA@westat.com. For help with questions about VISTA that are not related to access, please email Shelagh Peoples, the VISTA coordinator, at speoples@doe.mass.edu.

4. Kairos Conference:

Commissioner Riley will convene Kairos: Mapping Our Way Forward, a statewide conference to reimagine K-12 public education in Massachusetts, on Tuesday, March 19 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Campus Center. Registration is now full, but parts of the conference will be streamed online. More information is available at the conference website.

5. Webinar on Renewing a Professional License:

In DESE’s continued efforts to assist the many educators in Massachusetts who need to renew professional licenses by June 2019, the Office of Educator Licensure is offering webinars from 3:00-4:00 p.m. on Monday, March 25 and from 10:00-11:00 a.m. Monday, April 1. Registration is open online. The webinars will review the license renewal requirements, including the minimum professional development points (PDPs) that academic educators must have in English as a second language, sheltered English immersion, bilingual education, special education, and diverse learning styles; the possible intersection of the Educator Plan and Individual Professional Development Plan (IPDP); options for earning PDPs; PDPs’ point value; and the simple process of renewing a license online in ELAR.

Besides the webinars, other resources include the License Renewal Guidelines (download), Renewal FAQs, and the Massachusetts Educator Licensure Series video on license renewal.

6. Registration Open for Science and Math Institute:

The Department’s STEM Ambassadors have been working with educators across the state to develop and pilot high-quality classroom tasks aligned to the current standards for math (grades 4-8) and science (grades 6-12). At the Science and Math Institute, attendees will learn more about the tasks, students’ responses to them, and how to use the ambassadors’ work to improve STEM instruction in participants’ districts. John Urschel (a former NFL superstar and current MIT Ph.D. candidate) will deliver the keynote address. This event will run from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 11 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Registration is open online.