2026-10-13 - Board of Education TLC Committee

It is 6.30 and we have quorum. So good evening, everyone. Today is Tuesday, October 13th. This is the TLC committee meeting. And so like to we have a couple of things. We have two resolutions this

evening. So I'll start with the with the first one, which is the approval of Stamford High School trip to Italy. It's resolution 10/27/26/73. Be it resolved that on the recommendation of the

Superintendent of Schools that the Board of Education approve the Stamford High School trip to Italy from February 12th, 2027 through February 21, 2027. And I will turn it over to administration for a

brief overview of the trip. Thanks Miss Boy. I did get some questions about the Italy trip. And so I have some updated information. We have 13 students that are scheduled to go. They were looking for

21, but they got confirmation from the company today that if they get 14, they can lock into the original price, which is good news because the 13 students that are signed up to go really want to go.

It is a wonderful trip. And so they're looking for one more student to get to that magic number of 14. And there are fundraising efforts. They're volunteering to go. We just want to go. Oh, we want to

go on the trip. I already did. Sorry, I was first. My daughter went twice. Yeah. So it's amazing. The fundraising efforts are already underway. And they are also given lots of wonderful, generous

gifts from UNICO and other Italian organizations around town who are delighted that we have two Italian teachers at Stanford High who feel that it's a wonderful experience to take our students to

Italy for quite the vacation. So they've been very generous in the past. And that promise is continued for this year. They're just waiting for details on how many students. So we do try to get the

price down as much as we can through through fundraising to make it as accessible to as many students as possible. Great. Thank you so much. So I'll entertain a motion to recommend. I'm sorry. Are

there any other questions? I apologize, Dr. Hamman. Thank you. Scholarship. If there are students who really, really want to go, but they can't afford it. Is there a scholarship available? Yeah, we

figure out, like I said, we have some private funders and some other other ways of having having those students be able to go. So it's Mr. and Mrs. Rufo. They're both Italian teachers, husband and

wife at Stanford High. They have a lot of connections here in the city. So we do make sure that if a student is in the Italian club or taking Italian and wants to attend, that they are able to. Thank

you. Are there any other questions from committee members or other board members? So I'd like to make a motion to recommend approval for resolution 1027-2673 to the full board of Ed. Can I get a

motion? Awesome move. Second. Thank you. I see Ms. Bederitz. Thank you. All right. All those in favor, say aye or raise your hand. Great. So that's including myself. So five. Five yays. Any nays? Any

abstain? Wonderful. Thank you so much. The motion moves forward to the full board. Thank you. Next resolution is the approval of magnet school operations plan for AITE. So resolution 1027-2674 be it

resolved that on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools and pursuant to section 10-215F, the board of education or governing authority approves the updated magnet school operations plan,

which covers the period of May 28, 2026 through June 30, 2031. And I will open it to, is it to Ms. Baldardi again? Yeah. So this is AITE's updated operations plan. It was submitted to the state in

May. And we received information in September that it was approved by the state and the final step, which is why it's coming to you this evening, is that the board of education now has to approve it.

And so we did not have that notification until September 11th, which is why we're bringing it to you all this evening. Mr. George, I see your hand. Yeah, a clarifying question. The document had a lot

at the date of October 20, 2024 on it, but it is an updated document covering the period you said, okay, I just wanted to be sure that what was attached to the resolution wasn't... It's a bit of a

strange document because they had to capture a lot of things that they did last year, but then it's written for 26 to 2031, but it was done in guidance with the state and it was approved by the state.

So AITE did everything that they were supposed to do in the correct way, but it is a bit of a strange document. Okay, thanks. Thank you, Ms. Baldotti. Any questions from committee? Dr. Hammond? Just

so the public knows, how much does the state, so we have a magnet school, how much monies come from the state to help with the students that are attending? So I asked Mr. Chan that question today, so

he is working on getting you that answer. So we'll provide that answer to you through email. As you know, he is newly on board, and I kind of sprung him on that today as we received your questions

last evening. And it's well over 20 years and it has an amazing track record. So that's where I just was wondering, and especially for the public to know, these magnet schools that we do have,

intermagnet, right? You know, how the state works with us and helps make sure this program continues to stay as active as it is and as exemplar as it is. Thanks. You're welcome. Thank you, Dr.

Hammond. Any other questions from committee members? Any questions from other board members? So I'd like to make a motion to move resolution 1027-2674 to the upcoming board, full board of ed meeting.

Do I have a second? Dr. Worley, thank you. And call for a vote. All in favor, say aye. Full approval. We have five ayes, any nays, any abstentions? Wonderful. So thank you so much. So the motion

carries and we'll move forward to the full board, full board of ed meeting for consideration on the 27th. All right. Next, I will turn it over. Oh, I'm sorry. It's okay, Julie. Just because I see that

Adam is here and Christopher, I guess, yeah, maybe because they're not. No, I was thinking that they will have to vote, but they don't have to, right? They're not committing. Yeah, no, I got it. I got

it. I'm sorry. It's all right. Thank you. All right. I'm going to turn it over to, um, we have, um, two presentations tonight. Um, the first one is the 2026 state assessment data, um, presentation. So

I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Baldati again. Thanks. You're going to spend a lot of time with me tonight. Yes. All right. So, um, this is, uh, a little bit of an updated draft of a presentation

that was shared with the board last Tuesday. I hope you all had a chance to, to review it. Um, several of you sent in questions, so I'm going to do my best to, uh, address those this evening, um,

through the slides, uh, we added a couple of slides, we changed some things around. So thank you for your feedback as well. Um, and, um, certainly we will have time. Uh, if I don't address anyone's

question, um, we have time at the end, uh, to ask those questions. But I, but I did do my best to try to embed all of the answers in, into the tonight's presentation. Um, so I'm going to go ahead and

get started. I'm assuming you can see my screen. All right. So before we dive in, I just want to let everyone, um, know, and, and I know I've done workshops with the board of education before, not,

not in a while. Um, some of the newer board members might not have ever had to sit through one of my workshops, but I've done workshops on how to use, um, Ed site and how to find all of this

information. Um, so all the information contained, uh, in the presentation this evening is public information. Any, anyone, um, can find the information by going, uh, to the website here on this

slide, uh, it's Ed site. That's what we, uh, referred to it as, um, and it has every district's data in any, um, way that you want to filter that data. So it has SAT data. It has, um, smarter balance

data. It has the lost links data, uh, the science data and any, any of these statewide assessments. It's all here. You can, you can look at any other district's data. You can filter by gender, um,

race, ethnicity, uh, demographic, different type of graphic groups, students with disabilities, high needs students, any, any way you want to slice the data, you can do that. Um, and so I just wanted

to remind everyone here, this is not, um, you know, magical, uh, information that I only have access to. Everyone has access to it. Dr. Talley, did you want to add something? I do. Um, I actually

visited this website multiple times before I came to the district and while I, before I even interviewed. So it is full of good information that anyone can access at any time, any day. So I just

wanted to add that to it. Great. Yes. It's yes. I know lots of people that are wondering about our district before they come go here. It has information about, um, educators and, and, and their

educational background and, and, um, just really endless, endless information seal of by literacy, all, all of that is on this website. So, um, anyone ever wants to stop by my office and have me walk

you through it, I'd be happy to, but it's pretty, it's pretty user friendly. Um, and I'm sure you all can figure it out. Um, but that's, that's where all the information comes from. And it's an

opportunity if you are wondering how, uh, black students in Trumbull, uh, do for an example on the SAT, you can find, you can dig down to that information and find that out. All right. So we're going

to just remind everyone that there are lots of factors that impact, uh, teaching and learning, uh, and achievement of our students. Um, there are some that, you know, we control as, as a school

district and, and our school based, um, issues. And there are some that, that are, um, not able, uh, for us to control or have, um, a ton of influence over. Um, but that does not mean that we don't

support, um, those, those issues and students that come to us with, um, you know, different abilities and disabilities. Um, but you know, we, we have certain, um, aspects that we are, uh, accountable

for and responsible for. Um, and so it's just a reminder of all the different factors that go into, to learning and achievement. And just a reminder too, uh, that we, uh, Connecticut, the state

department of Connecticut breaks our state up into what we affectionately called DERGs, which are district reference groups. Um, there are, um, several different, nine different reference groups in

the state of Connecticut, and we are in DERG H. Um, you can see a couple of the other districts there, Norwalk and Danbury, which is probably not a surprise to anyone. Um, and so when we look at our

data, we are, are, are typically looking at ourselves compared to our DERG because those are the districts that are most like us based on these seven factors that the state has determined, um, impact,

uh, student learning. Um, and so those are, this is just a reminder of you of where, where we sit here, uh, in Stanford, um, and the other districts that are in Brown around the state that we are

compared to. Um, and this is just a little deeper dive into our DERG. Um, we are the largest district in our DERG. Um, we don't always have the largest percentage of, of the different categories, but,

um, I think it's important to note that, um, while percentages are one way, uh, to compare, um, districts of different, different sizes, um, the raw numbers that we actually have included on this

slide now, um, tell, tell another story as well. Um, and they help tell just the, the, um, the true story around the operational nature and, and the, the resources that it takes, um, to service, uh,

the students in our district. Um, we have, um, our percentage of students for an example of high needs is, is not the highest across our DERG, but the sheer number of students, um, that I, I, you

know, identify as high needs is by far the largest. Um, and so that just gives you an example to, to service 10,000 students, um, that are identified as high needs does impact, um, the resources and,

and the support, uh, that we must provide to, to our students and our families. So I think it's a helpful, uh, reminder of sort of what we're, what we're looking at here, uh, in Stanford. The other

thing I'll just call your attention to is, is the colors, um, the red, um, demonstrates a decrease from last school year. So we are seeing decreased enrollment across every single district in our DERG

from 24, 25 to 25, 26. And that's also, uh, reflected at the state level. So the state as a whole is seeing a reduction in enrollment. Um, and so it's not unique to Stanford. It's not unique to

Connecticut. Um, it's, it's sort of a phenomenon that's happening in, in the East, on the East coast and in New England. So, um, just wanted to point that out that, um, sometimes we hear that, that

people are flooding away from Stanford. That's, that's actually not the case. We're, we're, uh, losing students at the same rate, uh, really as our, as our state and many of our, uh, neighboring towns

and certainly towns within our DERG. Um, and then you can see, um, students with disabilities, there's very consistently rising numbers across the state. Those percentages are going up and, um, high

needs and multilingual learners have a bit of a mix. Dr. Talley, did you want to? Yeah. I'm sorry, Miss, um, just to, to support what you're saying there and checking with other superintendents in the

area, uh, all seven so far have said that their enrollments have decreased, um, going forth this school year. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. So just a reminder, these are our state mandated summative

assessments that we administer every year. To our students at different grade levels. Our smarter balanced is, is the most widely used because that's, uh, given to students in grades three through

eight for both math and English language arts. So that's, um, many students take that assessment every year. Uh, we also have our next generation science standards assessment, which is given only to

students in fifth grade, eighth grade and 11th grade. So that's not taken every year. It's taken three times over the course of a student's career and also in 11th grade, our students take the S E S A

T. Now many students take the S A T more than one time. This is a snapshot of the S A T that is taken during the school day given to all students. Um, and it's, it's a, it's their one time score. Um,

many of our students take the S A T after this several more times, uh, the S A T also lets you do what's called a super score. So you could take your best E L a score, your best math, best math score

and submit those to colleges. So that is not this. This is just a snapshot of the S A T, um, given on the day that every student in, in Stanford, every 11th grader, whether, uh, they are interested

in, in headed off to college or not. Um, at the moment they, they, they sit and take this assessment. Um, and so we make sure that all of our students are assessed on that day. And then of course we

have our lost links assessment, which is given to our students who are, uh, involved in our multilingual programs. So the performance index is, is a bit of a complicated, uh, algorithm, but it allows

us to look at the smarter balance to cross grade levels as well as the S A T, um, on a, on an index, a hundred point scale index. Um, and so it allows us to, to look at those numbers, um, globally so

we can see how our students are doing across grade levels, including 11th grade and then across science for grades, uh, five, eight and 11. So it's, uh, um, a pretty, uh, convenient way for us to be

able to look at, uh, E L a math and science scores, uh, across the district comparing different grade levels. So this is the, uh, performance index, um, that is, uh, seen by our different durgs across

the state. And you can see that, um, you know, the different durgs, um, the scores look different, um, based on the durg, um, that they, that they represent. So, uh, the highest durg, uh, which is

the, um, durg a, which has the highest, you know, household income and parental occupation, education, um, that data points that support it, you know, have the highest scores in the state. Not

specifically based on the research of what we know the impact of, um, socioeconomic, uh, status can have on, on education, uh, and opportunities. And so, um, you can see that there there's pretty

consistent, um, uh, you know, a decrease as, as we move through the durgs across the state and that those numbers of, um, household income and parental occupation and education, um, decrease. And, and

the, the, um, the, you know, there's correlation between the data and, um, those placement factors and those are updated for this year. So if we move into our, um, performance index for ELA, again,

this is the, based on the Smarter Balanced and the SAT, you can see how Stanford has fared, uh, against our, um, other durg members. So this is the full complement of schools in our durg. Um, there

are some that are quite tiny and pretty far away, but they are most similar to us in, in those seven factors, um, that the state has determined. So, um, we also always include the state on here, um,

as a reference point. Um, we certainly would, would love to get, um, you know, closer to the state averages. Um, but we do see ourselves, uh, ticking up and, and very consistent with, with many of, of

the members of our durg, um, math. Similarly, we, we see a tick up this year, um, in Stanford and have over the past three years. Um, and you can see where we compare to all of our, our durg members

in this area and then science. So science, we, um, have actually ticked down a little bit. Um, we have implemented a lot of new science curriculum. Um, but this year we have also implemented science

quarterlies, which we're really excited about, which we'll be analyzing, um, and, and having a, um, I think a more timely, uh, snapshot of how students are doing and being able to address those, um,

and not waiting for an end of eighth grade assessment or end of fifth grade assessment, uh, to know how we're doing in, in science with our students. So we're excited about rolling those out, um,

that, that those are new for most of the middle school, uh, and high school grade levels this year. Um, and so that that's going to be an important indicator for us to be looking at and working with

our science department and science teachers, um, to look at those, those scores and how we can, uh, improve science. Um, we also, uh, the board approved a, um, teacher on special assignment to support

science. We have one teacher who supports science grades six through 12. Um, in addition to, of course, Rob DiAndrade, who is our assistant director. Um, and so she's new on board this year. She's a

teacher, um, from AITE. And so we do have someone specifically now supporting science and that is new this year and I'm very excited about, uh, Danielle Weber and her ability to, um, be in classrooms,

coach teachers, work with data teams to really dig into the science data and those quarterly assessments. So we, we think that that is a step in the right direction in supporting, uh, science

instruction in addition to all of the work, um, that we've done around, uh, curriculum and assessments in the area of science. And then we always like to break our data down. This is, the state uses

this as sort of, uh, their biggest indicator of, of high needs versus non high needs students. So this is our non high needs students for the last three years, uh, across ELA math and science. And

again, those state averages are, are there at the top. Um, and then on the next slide, we do have our high needs students, um, and their performance. Again, across the last three years, ELA math and

science. So we do continue to see, um, you know, achievement gaps between our, our high needs students that are nine non high needs students. Um, although we see growth, um, it's, you know, there is

still, still a gap. Um, there are a lot of things that we are doing as a district, um, to dig into the data, some of which I'll talk about in a few more slides. But we are, um, you know, making a very

concerted effort, especially in the last two years, this year being year two of making sure that all of our students have access to tier one instruction. It's really important that in addition to

providing any interventions or extra supports that student needs, students need, we need to make sure that they are available to be in tier one in core instruction. And, and we are, uh, making sure

that that happens. Um, if, if you, if you never are exposed to the tier one, uh, you know, core, uh, grade level content, then you will never, um, be able to reach that through just a series of

interventions and remediation. So, um, we're, we are continuing that work, continuing to support teachers, um, with differentiation and having all students, uh, involved in the core. Um, we're also

have done a lot of work around, um, more uniform interventions. So when students do need tier two or tier three interventions, making sure that they're in the right intervention. So really digging

into data, making sure that we know, um, what intervention they need. If a student is struggling to read, it could be in a lot of different areas, phonics, phonological awareness, vocabulary, fluency,

comprehension, what is it? Where, where is the area of struggle and what intervention is the best intervention, uh, to, to meet that need. Um, and, and we have a, um, prescribed, uh, menu of, of

interventions to match those needs for our students that we are able to support that we've given professional development to our teachers on, that they are trained, um, to implement these programs.

Um, so rather than everyone just kind of piecing together interventions or choosing whichever one they want, we've, um, really, um, structured that, uh, much more tightly control that a little more

tightly at the district level so that we can support, provide the proper resources, materials and professional development to implement those programs. And again, that's year two, but especially this

year, we spent a lot of time at the end of last year making sure that students were properly scheduled for this year into the right interventions with the right interventionists providing the right

program, um, for students based on their needs. So, um, we are doing a lot of work with data, um, and making sure that that is happening. We've also continued to standardize our, our MTSS, uh,

programs, um, consistent curriculum for ML students and our special education students doing a lot of professional development around that, um, and our high dosage tutoring, um, program at the middle

school, which I won't steal our thunder, but we're gonna be bringing you a resolution next week to approve an additional grant that we received to support that important work, uh, at our middle and

high schools. So a lot happening, um, to address, uh, those gaps moving on to the SAT. As I said, that is the standard assessment used by the state of Connecticut for high school. So all of our 11th

graders must take, uh, the SAT. It is administered at school for to know, uh, with no cost for any students. So all students take it for free. Um, it's common now that a lot of states have adopted the

SAT as, um, the, the measure for, uh, high school students and we, we have to make sure that we hit 95% of our students participating. So we usually are a little bit over that because we're very, um,

we want to make sure that we, we do test all of our students. Um, so every April our students do, do take this, uh, uh, assessment. Um, and it's broken up into two, two big sections. So we have the

evidence-based reading and writing and of course, mathematics. So we'll take a little bit of a look at our scores. Oops. I think I went. Okay. So here's our ELA scores. Um, I think exciting to note is

that we are outperforming all of the other, uh, districts in our Derg on the SAT last year. Our, our scores are going up and ours are, uh, higher. Um, our, our percentage of students that met or

exceeded, um, the SAT ELA standards, the benchmark, uh, is higher than any other district, um, in our Derg. So that's exciting. And, um, again, we're, we're shooting to, to be, you know, at least

where the state is. So that's, that's certainly a goal of ours, um, to get there and exceed that. Um, but we are excited by the results that we are seeing in ELA. And then math, as you can see

statewide are, are much, uh, lower than, um, our ELA scores. Um, although Stanford's, again, are the highest in our Derg and they did tick up, uh, this year, which we're excited about. Um, there was a

question sort of why, why math? Why is it, you know, significantly lower than ELA? There's a couple of interesting things. And I, you know, we could probably do a whole presentation on, on the

difference between the math and the ELA. But a couple of things that the benchmark for math is actually higher than the benchmark for ELA, which is interesting. You'd think that the, the, the, the

mark would be the same. It's not, um, it's actually higher for math. So, so what students are expected, the, the, the score that students are expected to, to achieve in math is higher than ELA, which

is kind of interesting. Um, the other is, is that, um, math is cumulative and it tends to be something that, um, is not as interdisciplinary, uh, as other subjects. Although you do run across some

math in your science courses, um, differently from ELA. ELA is built into all of our courses, right? Reading and writing skills are built into science. They're built into math. They're built into

social studies and obviously in English courses, right? World language courses in every subject area, students are reading and writing. Um, and so math is a little bit different. Students typically

have less time and less, um, you know, I guess time to, to practice those skills. Um, and so typically, again, they're taught in, in math class and it's, you know, one, one period of, of a student's

day. And so, um, you know, that, that's some of the theories around why we see math. Math was also more, more impacted during COVID. Um, although we, you know, we are seeing scores start to tick back

up. And so is the state, um, our math scores across the state, across Stanford, across the nation were, were, were more impacted, um, uh, during COVID than, than ELA scores as well. So there's a lot

of different factors, um, as to why, um, there was, there were some questions about, you know, what are we doing at the middle school level? I would argue we need to do, doing things at the elementary

level, um, to, to address math. Um, we don't want to send, you know, students off to middle school with, with big gaps in, in math, mathematical skills, mathematical reasoning. Um, and we are doing a

lot at the elementary school to address math, um, which I will address in a, in a couple more slides, um, and share with you some of the things that we're doing. Uh, this was a late entry today, uh,

but I did want to just share a board member had asked to see our essay school, SAT data by high needs versus non high needs. So this is our Stanford data from last year. Um, you can see how our non

high needs students, you know, are, are certainly outperforming our high needs students. Again, our high needs students are students who are ML, a student with a disability or student receiving, uh,

free in the free and reduced lunch programs or any combination. Some, some students are, are all three. Um, and so, uh, you can see the difference here in how, how our different student groups, uh,

are performing, um, this again, 11th graders from 25, 26. Okay. And then our last assessment that we're going to just take a look at, um, is our last links. So our last links assessment is again, the

state required assessment for all students who are identified as a multi language learner, even if they've opted out of multilingual, um, support, uh, they are required to take the assessment. So

every year in the, the window is, uh, January and February, we assess all of our students in K 12 using the last links. Um, and it looks at five, uh, four different domains, speaking, listening,

reading, and writing. And students have to have to have a very high score, uh, in, um, overall and in reading and writing in tour in order to exit out of, uh, of ML services. And so it's a high bar,

um, and, uh, we work hard to, um, have students reach that. Um, so here, here are our last link scores over the last three years for students who are reaching that proficient level, level four or five

on the last links. Um, we are, we are seeing, um, uh, increase in the last couple of years. So we've worked hard. Uh, and we, again, I'm going to share a little bit more of what we're doing, uh, to

support our ML students and, and some of the, um, cohorts that we're involved with, uh, to support, uh, our ML learners here in Stanford. So I'm going to move to that now and just share with you some

action steps. So what does all this data mean for us? What do we do with this data? Um, we, we do share this district level type of data with our schools, right? With our, with our building leaders,

we share, we want them to have a perspective of, of where the district's performing, you know, similar to, to what we want to share with you, where we are as a district, um, as a, as a board member,

you want to know that. Um, but we look at the data very differently, um, also, um, so at, at the school level, we dig in, um, you know, to school level data, grade level data, department data,

classroom data, you know, linked to different teachers, uh, intervention data. We're, we're, we're digging in very, uh, deeply multiple layers. Um, you know, this is a very high level view of data

right now. This is not where we live most of the time. We're, we're digging in, you know, down to at the, at the school level, down into the student level data. Um, and so this, um, that that's the

work that, that our, um, our schools are doing. That's the work that we support them in doing. So currently we have schools coming down in leadership teams. So each school is invited down to come and

see their, um, BOI data, because we just finished that, um, which is our beginning of your data. They're coming down and they're looking at their I ready data. Um, they are digging deeply into that

data. They are setting goals as a school for that data, um, and for diff, for different student subgroups. Um, and so all of that is happening now. That's a little bit of time away from the school so

they can really come down and concentrate, um, on their data. It's, it's a two hour packed session, uh, where they can, they can have that time, uh, to do some of that work. And that, that also helps

them, um, with their school improvement plan. We've updated our curriculum. You all on this board know that for several years now we, um, have been, um, and we're really coming to sort of the end of

the, of the process. Although, uh, curriculum is never done. It's an iterative process. It always needs to be revised, updated, made relevant. Um, so we will never, never stop. Um, but to the, to the,

um, point where we were three or four years ago where we didn't have curriculum for a lot of subjects and have curriculum in our, in our, uh, classrooms. We now have consistent curriculum in all of

our, our, all of our core classrooms, most of our electives at the high school level. Um, and this year we did roll out some, some final pieces. So I want to just remind everyone that we rolled out

our math curriculum. That's, um, iReady Mathematics classroom in grades three through five. So that's exciting. We've already, um, done walkthroughs at Davenport last week. Uh, so thanks to the fifth

grade team at Davenport that allowed all the principals in to see the instruction already, um, happening in their classrooms as they roll out that new math program. Um, we've rolled out empowering

writers now consistently K five, uh, to support writing curriculum in our elementary schools. And we've also rolled out a new multilingual, uh, learner curriculum, national geographic, uh, for our K

five students. Last year we rolled out our middle school and high school, uh, L Achieved curriculum for our older students. And this year, uh, we rolled out our multi-lingual learner curriculum for K

five. So those are really the final pieces, uh, uh, big pieces of, of curriculum that have been rolled out this year. And so we're supporting that, um, teachers have had professional development that

in that and will continue to have professional development on election day and on the early release days, um, and after school. So, um, we're excited about, about those final pieces. As I mentioned

before, we have, um, really worked on consistent MTSS structures and interventions, uh, in our buildings we meet, um, monthly with all the MTSS coaches by level. So the elementary MTSS coaches, middle

and high school all come down, uh, for time with the teaching and learning department, um, to, uh, work on, on creating plans and communications with parents and supporting interventions that are

happening in the building. So, um, that is, uh, very consistently implemented, not just for academics, but also for behavior for SEL and for attendance. So that's exciting work, um, that continues to

happen. And we've made a lot of progress in that area in the last several years. Um, I'm really excited and I hope this group will come, um, maybe do a presentation in the future. I'll work with Julie

to maybe schedule that, but we're participating in the first, uh, SCALE cohort, uh, across the state. And, um, SCALE stands for Student Centered Assessment for Learning. Um, and it's a collaborative

effort among, uh, the Connecticut State Department of Education, the Center for Assessment and our RESC Alliance to really look at how districts are using assessment and a balanced assessment system,

um, to reduce redundancy and, and support student learning and, and really value instructional time. Um, and the state has also, I don't know for those of you that, that know, but the state has passed

legislation, um, that, uh, affected July 1st of 2027. The state is actually going to incentivize districts who are moving away from what they term broad assessments that, um, are typically referred to

as, um, midterms and finals, uh, assessments that measure simply what students should have learned during a semester over the course of a school year. Um, to, to districts that are using assessment in

a more formative way to really improve instruction and also support teachers in using formative assessment for learning, uh, to drive instruction. Um, and so we have a group of teachers that are

involved. Um, Dr. Talley is also very involved. They're working with superintendents as well, um, with this scale effort. Um, so very excited. And I, I met with this group of teachers today who's

leading the work in our district and I would love for them to, to come and share, um, some of their learning and a lot of the work, they're doing a lot of work, they're required to do a lot of work

for this cohort. So, uh, they were kind of all untold, uh, to do this, uh, enjoying this cohort. So I'm, I'm really thrilled that they, um, have stepped up to the plate. They're amazing teacher

leaders and I would love for them to come, come talk to the board in the future about some of the work that they're doing to support formative assessment, um, in our classrooms. Um, in addition, the,

the teaching and learning department is along with my, my assistant superintendent friends, Scott and Lisa, we hold monthly meetings with our principals. We had the secondary APs today in two

different, uh, groups, uh, morning and afternoon and the high school department heads. We meet with all of these groups monthly. We're doing a lot of professional development with these groups,

problems of practice, but, but most of it is really focused on instructional practices. Um, and so we are doing instructional walkthroughs. Those are, those are done to calibrate our understanding of

best practices and support each other in identifying, uh, those practices that we want to see in our classrooms. Um, we use a, a rubric, um, that really helps us look for effective instructional

practices, um, in a variety of areas, cognitive demand, engagement level of inquiry. Um, and we've been using that rubric for, for a couple of years now. So our administrators are very familiar with

it and are really using it, uh, as a tool as our, our department heads, who are, um, in that unique position of being a leader, but being, um, you know, a still a colleague. So they're able to really

coach and mentor, uh, other folks in their department. So we're working on empowering them to do that important work. Um, we're also during that time practicing, providing feedback to teachers. How

can we provide the feedback? What, what is good feedback? Um, what's helpful feedback that can actually move teachers toward, um, you know, the instructional practices that we want to see. And then it

also helps us collect, um, data to, uh, determine what needs for, uh, professional development may still, uh, uh, you know, be out there for us to, to target. Um, and so that's also really helpful.

All this, all these walkthroughs provide us with data, um, observational data, um, that helps us, um, you know, determine what, what's still needed. Um, and this is just a reminder for everybody. We,

we all are responsible for this data. Um, I know I, I have the pleasure of presenting all the data and I, you know, love to take credit for all the data, but you know, I, I have a role, um, certainly

in supporting teaching and learning, obviously in my role in the district, but, uh, there are many, many people, uh, that have a role in, in the work that happens in teaching and learning. And so this

is just a, a little graphic to, to help everyone, um, sort of know who, who's responsible for what, um, and, and have that shared sense of accountability for, for our data. The data is all of ours.

We, we own this data. We, we own this story, uh, for our students. And so, um, it's important that you all are aware of, of what we're all doing, all of us, the teaching and learning department,

assistant superintendents, building administrators and teachers, um, to, to support the work, um, around teaching and learning. And this is certainly not everything that these folks do. This is really

just, um, a snapshot of the work around the teaching and learning piece, um, around the data that we talked about this evening. So this is not everything a teacher does is not everything an assistant

soup does. Um, this is just, just a snapshot again, uh, of those things directly related sort of to the, to the data work, um, that was shared this evening. So I'm gonna stop sharing so I can see

everyone. Thanks so much. I spelled daddy. Please get a drink of water because my goodness. I have water actually. That was awesome. Um, incredibly informative. Um, and so I'm going to, and thank you

because definitely, um, a couple of those slides I know answered several of my questions that that I had sent in. And so thank you. Um, I thought it was very comprehensive. Um, I'm going to open it up

to questions from committee members. First, Dr. Hammond. There's not any other committee questions. I have two. Um, so Derg H that's the Derg we're in district reference group. If you go to slide 20,

and I don't know if you need to bring it up. It's just the lost links and eight out of nine districts did improve big time. We're the district that did a little improvement what lost links is huge and

I know it's different than the, um, the initial side that ELA. Um, but what are those districts doing in our Derg eight out of nine of them. What are they doing that's getting such large improvements.

What, or what do we need to do, because I want to make sure those kids are doing great too. You know, and yeah, oh I 100% and so I, um, we are, we did, we have rolled out a lot of new curriculum. So

we rolled out new curriculum last year, like I mentioned for grade six through 12 so that that's one of the things that we do is we spend a lot of time with other districts right at CS with our, our

risk is CS and so we spend time with other districts those aren't all of our Derg districts right but there are other districts around us that we spend time with and so we, we, you know, get to share

best practices we get to share, you know, ideas around, you know, how others are achieving success and so one of the things that, that we did learn and heard last year from other districts was that

they had a consistent curriculum and, and we have not, we have not had that in Stanford for our ML learners, we've sort of allowed people to kind of pick and choose what they wanted to use or just

modify, you know, the curriculum if you're taking kids out of math will just kind of teach the math in, in, in, you know, your ml program and support students in that way and that's really not best

practices so we have invested now now K 12 in new curriculum. We've done a lot of professional development with our teachers and we have teachers on special assignment that are specifically working

with our ml teachers and I can tell you for sure our K five teachers are like being on the moon with this new program they absolutely love it. It has a ton of reading and writing in it has phonics in

it it has all of the domains of, of, you know, good strong language and literacy support so we are, we are really hopeful that what we see on, you know, will be higher gains and more increases in that

area. I think to what what well like you see derby derby has great results they have 80 students who are ml, we have 2900 students that are ml dispersed over 13 elementary schools, eight middle

schools, and four high schools right and so, you know, size matters, and it is, it is, I don't I'm not making excuses but it's, it's harder even though our percentage like their percentage I think is

higher than ours of ml maybe, but, well, it's not actually but I mean the sheer number, it's, it's, I would guess, easier to support 80 students with ml needs than it is to support 2900 students with

ml needs and I would guess that derby probably has one elementary school, right so they probably have one ml teacher to ml teachers right we have, we have whole departments of teachers and, and, you

know, in some instances less human resources to support other teachers as well in terms of coaches and and content experts. They probably have an ml, you know, team that's as big as our ml team in

Stanford right and so, you know, it's, it's, it's something that that we are that we're working on but we are we're not afraid to ask other people hey what are you doing right what are you doing that

we can do to make sure that our ml learners are are getting the best that they can so we are, we are continuing to work on that but we are we are pleased with the number of unprecedented students that

we've had over the last three years as well as what I showed this evening which is our proficiency growth, Dr. Tally, I will just add to everything you said I think we also have the numbers are

important, meaning how many we have in our district, compared to other districts. The other thing would be the range of our ml students meaning that the range of the students who come in, and the

level at which they were when they came into the district. Like when you have a small number of students, it's very possible that you have a small range of students in that small group of students,

whereas when you have a much larger group of students like we have the range is going to be much bigger. And so that can add to why there are differences in achievement levels across districts. No,

and I appreciate it I think it's, you know, but let's not overlook that it did it take, you know, a CES presentation to say, Hmm, we probably need consistent curriculum and I wish that could have

started earlier, you know, it's, you know, it's good we're starting now, you know, and because these kids deserve, you know, to do just as well. And Jen my second question is your, your science I I'm

glad that you're going to roll out like a, is it a quarterly what are you calling that in science, the, an assessment, you said, quarterly assessments, and I know math is cumulative, but can we do

something like that in math as well, we have them, we have them in every core area including world language. I'm just going to interrupt very quickly, I was in the print room today and they were

printing up the common assessments I saw them being printed in these blue books. Yep, here they come and that's great that it's in action. I just, you know, because math is still, we got a long ways

to go in that area too so, and I'm glad we're getting the curriculum. I guess my concern is, you know, we, we've, you know, did our audit on the curriculum, and it took, you know, six years to

implement or five years to implement a math program. We're going to start seeing success. And, you know, it is K 12. But, you know, that that would be my other area of concern is this math and how we

move the dial on that because it's hard, I get it, it's I taught it, it's hard. So, you know that that would be my yeah and I think I think a lot of people are, why did it take so long to we had a, we

had a very solid math program we had everyday mathematics. Which is a research based very solid math program right for 25 years in Stanford, people had gotten a little tired of it moved away from it a

bit, we weren't as strict about following the program the way that it was written. But we were required by the state to adopt an ELA curriculum right. And so we needed to do that first and it's very

hard for our teachers to, to roll out both an ELA and a math curriculum in the same year and so we had to make decisions right and so we did ELA first, followed by math, because we knew we had a solid

math program really still in place. And so we now have have swapped out everyday math for the I ready mathematics classroom. But it's not that we didn't have, you know, a research based math math

program in our schools. We just have a new fresh, I think, our teachers feel invigorated with the new math program are excited about it has a lot of math discourse I'd love again for a human to come

and maybe talk a little bit more about that at some point, and share with you just what we're seeing in our math classrooms, because it is exciting. It's very exciting it's very much. Our teachers and

and probably for parents to see math instruction done in a very probably different way from what we all experienced as as kids but it's pretty exciting to be in those classrooms and hear students

talking about math at the level that they're, they're learning about vocabulary again we were at Davenport last week it's it's pretty early on in the school year we saw some some pretty fantastic math

discourse happening amongst fifth grade students student to student so pretty exciting. Good. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Hammond. Better words. I just want to add it up, you know, I'm glad that got to

him and brought it up about the last because I was also very, you know, comparing how the other schools in our system for we're doing much better, especially that we have a lot of resources out of

town or this part of community, but I'm glad to hear Amy that explanations the reasons and all the whites were scoring less than they are or numbers are higher of students. And I'm glad that we're

tackling this this is one of the things that is very important for me that I'm very passionate that I feel that the English language learners needs more attention. And I think is with the new

curriculum and everything that is put in place from now on, is something for us to really look at for better outcomes for the students so thank you for looking into that and hopefully, you know, the

past is the past but it's time to move forward and do better for all our students so thank you. Thank you, Antonio. Mr. George. Yeah, it makes me think that an interesting analysis or statistic would

just be ECS funding for these various towns I mean, everybody's focused on comparing ourselves to other dirt, but our other dirt schools, and, you know, well what's happening with those and is one

district getting a lot more per student versus another. I, I have no idea what it would show, but it'd be just kind of an interesting very interesting that's a really good point, it would be. That's a

good point Mr. George Thank you. Yeah, yeah sorry I mean you know I'm carrying off on that idea Andy in our business manager, Dr. Tally it would be great to see since he loves to do some of that kind

of inner work, if he could look into that because that we are not getting the same funding, we're not there. And it's, it's a chain that our elected officials in Hartford are not thinking, you know,

in a bigger picture, because we really deserve to have the same. Well, I think our delegation is thinking. Well, I'm not sure all the other legislators feel the same everybody's, everybody's battling

for the same dollars up in Hartford. But, you know, I think our delegation works very hard for us. Yeah, definitely. I agree. Thank you. Any questions from other board members that are that are on

tonight. Okay. All right, we are going to move on to, to the next next item on the agenda which is the Arab and Islamic Studies. So, Amy I'm going to turn it back over to you again. Okay, I'm going to

share my screen again. This is a little bit shorter, but I know this came up. Came up in September. Yeah, so I'm happy to share sort of where we are and again this was sent and that we did receive a

couple of questions so I'll make sure that we address those so you know this is all determined by the State Department and by legislation right and so Connecticut law prescribes courses of study that

that we are either required or encouraged to offer to our students. And that's really to make sure that we're honoring the history culture and contributions of of our different communities within our

public schools so we want to make sure that our students have a well rounded understanding of global issues and other cultures and so the state, you know, gives us guidance and provides us with

resources that we can use, and sometimes are required to use which I'll share so affected this July, the state is requiring that the their Board of Education provides districts with curriculum

materials for Arab and Islamic Studies. And so those are being worked on as we speak and are thought to be ready and will be provided to us by January. With this particular area, the Arab and Islamic

Studies. We are encouraged to offer courses in Arab and Islamic Studies but we're not required to teach it as a stand alone course. So, just to give a little history, this is not the first area that

the state has either required or encourage students districts to provide different topics within social studies. We've had the Holocaust and genocide studies, African American, black Puerto Rican and

Latino studies, Native American studies, and the most recent was the Asian Pacific Islander studies so all of these have come out. In the last several years, most since COVID. Now, the yellow

highlight the African American, black Puerto Rican and Latino studies is a little bit different. The state does require that we offer this course as a one credit elective. That's very different from

the other topics that have been developed by the state. We have options around those. We can offer them as a course or we can embed some of the content into our other social studies courses. So

beginning with the 2022-23 school year, we were required to offer the African American Black Puerto Rican and Latino Studies course. So while we do offer this course, it's not a required course.

Students do not have to take it. It is not a graduation requirement. It is an elective that we do offer at all of our high schools. And it's designed again to explore the contributions, the history,

culture and economic impact that African American Black Puerto Rican and Latino communities have had in shaping our United States. So that is the goal of that. Now, I'm proud to say that this has

become a very popular elective in our high schools. We have two sections at AITE, four sections at Stamford High and two at West Hill running this year. So students, this has been a really exciting

elective course. Again, it's a one credit elective course. It fulfills a humanities elective credit for graduation, but it's not a required course. So of course, we don't make all of our students take

it, but we do offer it. And I am excited that it's been very popular and seems to grow in popularity each year. So back to the Arab and Islamic studies. When the State Department releases their

materials, we will as a district review them. So we have, which I've talked about many times, our social studies content area team for high school. So we will have that team led by Dr. Lisa Forbes and

several other social studies teacher leaders review those materials provided. And we will decide whether as a district, we think there's going to be enough interest in our student population, how

many, how much material we have. Would that be offered as a half year credit course, as a full year credit course. So we will look at that. We will make that decision. If we decide that we want to

offer this as a standalone course, we'll then have to determine which social studies teachers might be interested in teaching the course. We have to add it to our program of studies. And then it only

runs if we have enough students. So I will say we have offered our Asian and Pacific Island course a couple of times and we have not had enough student interest to be able to run that course. So we

haven't run it, although it's been in our program of studies. We are running the Holocaust and genocide studies course this year at West Hill that did have enough students. So that is running as an

elective course, but it does kind of vary year to year on whether we have enough students to offer the course. But that does not mean that we won't take some of the resources and materials and embed

them in other courses that we offer. We certainly will do that because that is required by the state. But we may or may not offer it as a standalone elective. That's to be determined. So I just wanted

to share. I think that's all I had there. Hopefully that clears up any confusion or misunderstandings about where we are as a district with that course. I did receive a couple of questions around Arab

and Islamic studies in this presentation that was shared. So the first question was, is Islam a religion? So yes, of course it is. It's one of our most one of the world's major world religions. So

yes. And yes, we are permitted to teach religion. I think some people get confused by teaching religion from a historical and cultural perspective versus teaching religious practices, right? We don't

teach religious practices in schools. We're not reading from, you know, the Bible or the Quran in school, but we are teaching about all of the major religions really throughout our ELA and social

studies frameworks, really starting an elementary school. So we teach about Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism. And so this is another layer that we're adding to our social studies and ELA

curriculum that we're really excited about to have these resources. Typically I can share that what the state provides to us is high quality vetted materials typically worked on by professors from

UConn and other professors from other areas as well as some of our strongest teacher leaders across the state. So, and we've had several teachers from Stanford participate in these groups as well,

developing these curriculum materials. So we're excitedly anticipating their release and we can keep you updated as to, you know, what decision we make as a social studies department. - Thank you, Ms.

Beldadi. Any questions from committee? Dr. Hammond. - Thank you. I noticed the Connecticut State Department of Ed this curriculum, the Islamic and Arab Studies curriculum design team will include

national CAIR, a national CAIR consultant, which stands for Council of American Islamic Relations, as well as four CAIR selected candidates. On slide number four, it says review materials and

resources provided by the Connecticut State Department of Ed. When are we going to do that? And will we have a chance to look at it? Because my concern about CAIR at the national level, it's known

for, well known for its radical anti-Israel activities, pro-Palestinian stance, and potential ties to the Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. - Point of order, Madam Chair. Point of order. I'm not going

off of anything. So it's, I'm asking specifically, are we going to, on slide four, review the materials and resources? Because that would be something my concern is, if this is a religion, then we

should be teaching, there's 4,000 religions in the United States. We should be teaching an actual religion, you know, I understand it's more the history behind it, but the governor has chosen five

individuals from CAIR to help write this curriculum. So I think it's only fair that we do have a chance to look at that, because there is anti-Semitism that's happening nationally. - Point of order,

Dr. Hammond. - I had a point of order. - Point of order, I'm just asking. - I have one, I need to be acknowledged by the chair. - Dr. Hammond, Ms. Kolk. - I'm asking, are we going to have a chance to

review this curriculum? - Dr. Hammond, I'm going to have to interrupt you for one moment, because specifically about slide four, it says review the materials. - Dr. Hammond. - Are these afford going

to review the materials? - Dr. Hammond, excuse me, thank you. Ms. Bell-Daddy answered that question multiple times. - No, she did not, I wanted to... - The question was answered. - She did not answer

it specifically, it just says review the materials and resources, will that happen in January, where we as a board have a chance to look at that? Because there... - Your question has been asked. Your

question has been asked. Let us, Ms. Bell-Daddy, please answer. - Perfect. - Your question has been asked. Thank you. - So I think what I said was that our social studies department will review these

materials. Now if board members would like to, they will be publicly made available. So they'll be on the state website. Anyone can go on and see all the materials that have been created for the

Holocaust, the genocide studies, the Asian and Pacific Islander studies. They're all publicly available on the state website. So anything this committee comes up with in terms of a curriculum

framework, resources and materials, all of it will be public. The review will happen with the high school social studies department and members of my team. We will review the materials. I'm sure some

of the high school administration will be involved in that. Mr. Clayton might be involved in that. I know he's a social studies guy. And so we will review all of the materials, but I'm confident based

on what has come out from the state with all of the other topics that have been made available to us, that it will be founded in solid cultural and historical relevancy. And in fact, it's going to be

vetted by a lot of people, again, many professors across the state who are offering Arab and Islamic studies as a major at UConn now. And so those folks are actively involved in it as well. So I am

confident that what is provided will meet all the parameters of what we would want in terms of historical fact and historical significance. And then I did ask a question, does this course have to be

approved by the Board of Ed? No, Board of Ed does not approve courses. So we don't approve it? Okay. I don't approve any course. All right. I mean, because there's public that are involved in

listening and I just want to make sure because, yeah, no, I mean, we don't, we don't, we don't bring, I mean, if we're going to offer a new forensic science course, we don't bring that to the board

either. I mean, we don't, we don't, that's not part of our process. We have a process for how courses are added to our program of studies, but it does not involve the board of education. Can I just

ask that we as a board are the curriculum is a, we can look at it. Sure. January. I mean, when it's available and you all have access with your Stanford public schools, you know, emails to our

curriculum dashboard that has all of our curriculum on there now. And so you can, you can look at all of it, but certainly anything that the state provides to us also will be public. So that will all

be, you know, available for it. For once it's available to us, it'll be available to, to the public. I miss, I'm assuming almost simultaneously. Cause then you know, it's being, Dr. Hammond, I will

make a note for when the curriculum is released and shared with the school districts that the TLC committee, we will revisit and review and look at the, at the curriculum as it becomes available to

us. So we will revisit back in January or whenever it is released. Thank you. I just want to say at somebody who love history, I think it's great that we're offering something like that, especially

the Stanford that it has a very high community of Muslim and people from the other world. So I think it's important for the children to learn and somebody who travels. And I have been some part of the

world where I have learned and seen is, is, you know, it's beautiful to learn about other cultures. So thanks for bringing that up. Thank you. I'm going to open it to other board members. Thanks,

madam chair. I just wanted to self correct for a second. I wasn't supposed to do a point of order as a non-voting member at this meeting. I just wanted to make sure I made note of that for the record

for the rest of the members on the board today. They don't want to confuse anyone with Robert's rules. So I wasn't supposed to do that. And I'll make sure to make note of that. Thank you. Dr. Hammond.

Yep. And just so you're aware too, with Robert's rules, this is a committee meeting and it's very different in a sense than, you know, the regular meeting. And so I appreciate that. But these are the

hard questions and maybe uncomfortable questions that have to be asked sometime. And, you know, I just look forward to seeing it in January that we have a chance to see, you know, what it looks like.

Point noted, Dr. Hammond. Thank you. Any additional questions from other board members that are on tonight? Ms. Baldotti, thank you so much. I hope you get a chance to rest your voice for the rest of

the evening. No one wants to hear me anymore. Until first day tomorrow morning. Thank you also to Ms. Savia Price and Mr. Clayton for being on tonight as well. We appreciate you being here. If there

are no further questions, I'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn. Anyone? Thank you, Ms. Betawirks. Can I get a second? Thank you, Dr. Worley. And all those in favor, please raise your hands. We're

all there tonight. Yes, Mr. George had to step off. So it's just the four of us. All right. That is it for this evening. The time is 744 and we are adjourned. Thank you so much, everyone. Have a great

night.