REPORTS TO THE BOARD

Teaching and Learning Report

To: Michael Green

From: Asha Riley

Date: December 7, 2020

Re: Teaching and Learning

Beginning Educator Support Training:

Our request for additional BEST funding was recently approved. 

• First-year SPED teachers are approved for additional funding to support their induction.
• Teachers in their 3rd year (year 2 in 2019-2020) were approved for additional support due to the pandemic.
• Approved for funding for ESA staff that were initially not captured in counts. 

We are excited to share this news and look forward to these additional funds making a lasting difference for staff.

CTE:

One of the major changes in CTE is the requirement for districts to conduct a Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (CLNA). The CLNA serves as the basis for our annual Perkins application. It also assists in the development and review of CTE programs. This process is lengthy and in-depth. We are pleased to have submitted it to the state for review. 

Assessment Update:

As you know, graduation requirements now include students passing the state SBA test in both Mathematics and English prior to graduation.

Due to COVID-19 and the closure of schools last spring, students in the class of 2021 were unable to take the state SBA tests, however, they still need the opportunity to meet this requirement.

While multiple "pathways" to meet this requirement are offered by the state, many of these other pathways were also unavailable last spring (and continue to be unavailable) due to COVID-19 restrictions. For instance, nearly all local SAT testing has been canceled, and we just scheduled our first ASVAB testing in November.

We recruited as many students to test as safely possible but recognize there are still far too many students who will not graduate if this barrier is not addressed.

Many are hanging hope on the legislature granting a waiver to these students. The last time a waiver was issued, we were not notified until May. I fear if we have to wait that long, kids will just give up. I think we need a win on this early, so I reached out to our ESD. 

As a result, we have a lobbyist partnering with PESB to help get early action to grant the waiver. I also recently spoke with Ed Orcutt to enlist his support. He was supportive and understood the urgency of taking early action. I will keep you informed as I learn more.