DESE Update: September 6th, 2019
1. Early College Statewide Convening:
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Higher Education are hosting a statewide convening for Early College program designees and potential applicants for the Early College designation. Moving Forward: Massachusetts Early College Statewide Convening 2019 will be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, September 19 at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel & Trade Center in Marlborough. The day will include opportunities to hear updates from the commissioners and senior staff, attend workshops, learn from colleagues, have structured planning time with your Early College team, and share best practices and challenges with colleges and districts who are potential applicants.
Please RSVP online by Friday, September 13.
Picture of the Week:
On August 29, Holyoke Public Schools held their fourth annual Ready for Pre-K and Kindergarten Parade, which also involved activities for their youngest learners. The Department of Early Education and Care recently awarded Holyoke a $750,000 Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative Grant, which the district will use to continue to provide high-quality preschool offerings at three schools in partnership with Valley Opportunity Council. The 12-month program will serve 60 students. (Photo courtesy of Holyoke Public Schools)
3. Chapter 74 “After Dark” Launch Event:
From 1:30-5:00 p.m. on September 16, DESE will hold an event at Greater Lawrence Technical School (57 River Road, Andover) to celebrate the successes of innovative career and technical education delivery models that expand access by using shop space outside of regular school hours. This event will offer logistical and financial guidance to people and organizations interested in developing similar pathways. Guidance will be available from DESE personnel, district leaders engaged in this work, and students who have opted into these programs. For more information or to RSVP, email Tim Moriarty.
4. Early Learning Networking and PD:
The Department’s Early Learning Team and the Massachusetts School Administrators’ Association will host a series of early learning networking and professional development opportunities for elementary principals (preschool-third grade) during the 2019-20 school year. This year’s series will focus on social-emotional learning and trauma-informed practices and will start with a statewide kick-off event on October 10. The kick-off event will include a keynote presentation from Dr. Nicole Christian-Brathwaite of Riverside Community Care in Dedham, networking opportunities, and workshops. Please register online by September 20.
5. College and Career Advising and MyCAP:
Registration is open for Cohort 2 of the College and Career Advising/My Career and Academic Plan (MyCAP) Professional Development Series. The three-day workshop series is being offered regionally during the 2019-20 school year. Schools are asked to register teams of four high school staff led by counselors and including teachers and administrators. Teams will design a high quality college and career advising framework that identifies activities and lessons in the three domains of college and career readiness: personal/social; career development education; and academic, college, and career planning. Individual students’ achievements within each domain will be captured in the individual student-driven academic and career plan called MyCAP. This training is closely aligned with the MA Model 2.0 (the Massachusetts Model for Comprehensive School Counseling).
6. Symposium on Latinx Students:
The Department invites interested individuals to attend the In Pursuit of Equity, Accountability and Success: Latinx Students in Massachusetts Schools Symposium on Friday, October 4 at Worcester State University. The symposium is the result of collaboration among Latinx organizations, philanthropic organizations, scholars, and the Departments of Early Education and Care, Elementary and Secondary Education, and Higher Education. The symposium’s goal is to gather insights and create support for a multi-year initiative uniting multiple systems and sectors to address issues including Latinx students’ unequal outcomes in educational attainment.
Conference participants will be offered plenaries with Estela Bensimon of the University of Southern California and Pedro Noguera of UCLA and eight workshops on promising practices. The offerings are the result of a competitive statewide call for proposals. More information is available at the link above.
7. Request for Waiver from Limit on Alternate Assessments:
The commissioner recently posted a Notice of Intent to Apply and Opportunity for Comment regarding DESE’s intention to reapply for a waiver of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requirement that limits the number of students statewide who may participate in alternate assessments to 1 percent of all students who are eligible to take MCAS. The Department was granted a waiver for the 2017-2018 school year and an extension for the 2018-2019 school year, and it must reapply for the current year. The Department must demonstrate that districts have made progress in reducing the number of students taking the MCAS-Alt and must maintain a 95 percent MCAS participation rate for all students and students with disabilities. To comment on DESE’s intent to apply for this waiver, email mcas@doe.mass.edu by October 4.
8. Registration Open for Leading with Access and Equity Convening:
All districts are invited to send a team to the Second Annual Leading with Access and Equity Convening on Thursday, October 24 at the Best Western Conference Center in Marlborough. This free, daylong professional development opportunity will focus on topics such as creating a pipeline of diverse educators, developing multi-tiered systems of support, ensuring equitable access to high-quality curriculum, implementing bilingual education, ensuring racial and cultural equity, engaging families, addressing student mobility, addressing students’ mental health needs, and integrating social-emotional and academic learning. Many districts are engaged in multiple initiatives, and this is an opportunity to align those efforts, make connections, and share practices.
Districts are invited to attend as a team of at least three and up to ten members. Teams are encouraged to include a variety of stakeholders, and each team must include representatives of at least the following three areas: administration, general education, and special education. Registration is limited, so districts should register their team online as soon as possible. Anyone with questions about the conference can email Susan Fischer.
9. Model System for Educator Evaluation Updated:
The Department has updated the Model System for Educator Evaluation and has simplified the guidance and tools. They are aligned with the 2017 regulatory amendments that eliminated the separate Student Impact Rating and that embedded multiple measures of student learning into one performance rating.
Together with the updated streamlined performance rubrics, the simplified guides for teacher, principal, and superintendent evaluation include information about implementation strategies, evaluator calibration, and thoughtful evidence collection. The updates also remove redundant content and forms. The revised model system should be a helpful resource to support continuous improvement and effective implementation of the educator evaluation framework.