Free Parking: August 18, 2017

DYK: A lion’s roar can be heard from as far as 5 miles away.

What a busy, great week! It's great to have all of the principals back and to see buildings coming to life as we ready to begin the 2017-18 school year!

We began implementing the MI-Excel blueprint during the 15-16 school year. Last year, during the 16-17 year, we added additional systems and drivers. This year, we will adjust the systems we've already installed, but will be focused on the implementation of three big items: Curriculum & Assessment, High Quality Visions of subject specific instruction, and the Intense Student Support Network. Information about these systems will be shared from me at the district level, as well as from your principals, teachers, BAN members, and curriculum leaders throughout the school year.

Communication in a district our size is always something we need to be conscious of. We are working this year to emphasize communication so that all staff know what's going on, why it's happening, and how you might be impacted by it. As the school year goes on, please keep me posted about how we are doing with communication. I'll be around and in buildings, or you can call me or send me an email. We'll likely not achieve perfection in our communication system right away, but we are committed to continue to work on it. Thanks for your help, and patience, as we work to improve!

ARTICLES OF THE WEEK:

Wanted: Top Skills

Stuff You Should Know

1. Sec. DeVos shares feedback with 4 states, approves 5 more plans;
2. Chiefs for Change looks at curriculum reform;
3. MN draft plan available for public comment, ID plan goes to Gov. for review.

Reports and Recommendations from the Field

8/11 – Chiefs for Change released a report examining how ESSA “presents new opportunities for curriculum reform,” which can be a “powerful and underused driver of school improvement.” The report profiles work in Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, D.C. to “create the conditions for aligned standards and curricula or to directly develop and scale high-quality, standards-aligned curricular materials, and the results of their efforts.” Based on these experiences, Chiefs for Change recommends that states and districts:

1. Use incentives, not mandates, to maintain local autonomy;
2. Emphasize evidence – and start small if a research basis hasn’t been developed;
3. Leverage teacher expertise and teacher leaders in the work;
4. Use the procurement process to expand use of the highest-quality curricula;
5. Create professional learning focused on curricular content; and
6. Messaging matters, and external partners and validators can help.

THANKS AND APPRECIATION:

To Ben Berger, Andy Wares , Joe Esper Kristin Stuedemann, Rose Gallagher, Colleen Smith, Ryan Schrock, Jessie Houghton, Charles Kobusz for the incredible information shared through your presentations today at the Joint Principals Meeting.
For the dedication of these curriculum writers for spending time this summer working on new units. Mary Brisbois, Kristi Brunink, Maria Chargo, Shelagh Fehrenbach, Jeremy Howe, Juleen Jenkins-Whall, Aislyn Johnson, Erin Jongekrijg, Bryan Kay, Brittany Kay, Brent McCall, Julie Puckett, Kirk Ranney, Briget Sheeran, Erin Sorenson, Katelyn Stark, Maria Taplin, Linda Williams #rockstarteachers!
TCAPS Curriculum Framework - Joe Esper- Social Studies Instructional Leader, Bryan Kay- Curriculum Writing Team, Charles Kolbusz- Science Instructional Leader, Rose Gallagher- Framework Review Team, Jessie Houghton- Math Instructional Leader, Kristin Stuedemann- Framework Review Team. Caroline Wacker- ELA Instructional Leader
Christine Guitar, Mark Bak, Rod Lowes: School safety workshop with principals, focusing on all of those situations we know we need to be prepared for, but hope never happen. This is great work and directly aligns with our focus on safe, orderly learning environments. Nice work!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

NEW CURRICULUM UNITS

How does TCAPS define curriculum?
In TCAPS, curriculum is defined as a series of instructional units which indicate instructional targets, content, applicable standards, and a plan for collecting evidence of student learning as outlined in the UbD document templates. The district may collect and share exemplary lesson plans for each unit, but this element is not required and is not considered part of the district-approved document.

Why do we need a district-level system for curriculum and assessment?

Shared understanding across the district instructional practices and high quality visions of subject-specific instruction
Improve our ability to adjust instructional goals
Adjust supports for professional learning at the site and district levels
Identify instructional needs more quickly to more rapidly deploy resources to increase student success
Help ensure the social, emotional, and academic success of all students
Eliminate the need for teachers to create their own curriculum and free up time to focus on differentiation

District curriculum leadership teams have worked hard this summer writing curriculum units and common assessments. These curriculum writers received training from Grant Chandler and the MI-Excel team and have aligned each of the units with our high quality visions of subject specific instruction. Many Math and ELA units have been completed, as well as some Science and Social Studies units, with more planned to be completed through the school year and next summer.

TCAPS has joined a statewide Curriculum Consortium of other school districts who are at various stages of this work. This has enabled us to share, compare, and collaborate with others across the state. Curriculum writers have adjusted any units or portions of units to align with our HQV of subject specific instruction. Teacher feedback about the units and assessments will be important to help writers to continue to improve the documents. Feedback forms will be distributed to all teachers and that feedback will be collected by curriculum leaders and writers to use during the reviews. All units and assessments will undergo a review on an annual basis. The units will be shared "View Only" with all teachers via a Google Team drive. Teachers will receive an email which will notify them that the folders have been shared with them. Google Team drive functions essentially similar to the regular Google Drive that has been in use in the district for some time.

The TCAPS published curriculum units do not include daily lesson plans. This isn't an attempt to script out every class. The art, knowledge, and skill that teachers bring to the classroom are recognized and appreciated. These units serve as a common road map for the district, while maintaining freedom for teachers to use their skill to advance the results of learners.

For the units that are published, it is a district expectation that those are the units that will be taught and the assessments that will be used. This work connects with the Instructional Infrastructure System in the Blueprint.

Principals, curriculum writers, and curriculum leaders will be working with teachers around unpacking these units with teachers during our first days back at the end of this month. This will allow the opportunity to talk through the essential questions, unit summaries, standards, and assessments prior to the start of school.

I understand that there are at least a couple of ways that releasing the published curriculum documents now can be interpreted. There will be those who will have wanted them much sooner, those who will find the units overwhelming without folks to talk through the units with while they look at them, and those who will feel comfortable browsing through the units now, knowing that support is on the way prior to and after the start of school. I think its important for folks that are interested to have the opportunity to start looking through the documents and to start thinking through the questions they might have regarding how to use them. Principals have had dialogue about how to support the process of unpacking these units with staff and are prepared to help lead and provide this support during our PD days.

I will share access to the published curriculum documents later this evening, or over the weekend. You will receive an email notification once you have access to the documents.

As additional units are completed and have gone through the approval process, they will be added to the published documents.

2017-18 PLC Information
I met with Curriculum Leaders today to discuss goals, objectives, and activities for each of the four core curriculum leadership teams. Each team will track their progress throughout the school year and report quarterly at Board Curriculum. The work being done in each of these areas is critical to what we do (We exist to educate) and it is appropriate that the work stays front and center in the minds of those at the district and board level (at least at the curriculum committee.). It is great to be able to shine a bright light on the great work being done in our classrooms throughout the district!

We also discussed PLC structure for this coming year. Here are some highlights:

PLCs should meet on the following dates:

September 26
October 24
November 28
January 30
February 27
April 24

PLCs should all meet at Central High School (for all departments)

contact the CHS office for help with scheduling rooms for these nights

Secondary PLCs should all begin at 3:45pm
Elementary PLC's will all take place from 4:30 to 6:00 and will also take place at CHS

SCORES EMBARGOED
State accountability data continues to be embargoed.
IMPORTANT – While embargoed individual student results may be shared with parents at this time, it is NOT permissible to share any school, district, or state-level results with parents, the community, or other external parties until the embargo is lifted by the MDE. School Board meetings are considered open meetings; therefore, the sharing of embargoed assessment results at these meetings is not permissible until the embargo is lifted.

MI-Access - embargoed
M-STEP – embargoed
PSAT 8/9 – embargoed
PSAT 10 - embargoed
SAT – embargoed
WIDA ACCESS for ELLs (includes WIDA Alternate ACCESS for ELLs) - not embargoed
WorkKeys – embargoed

Stay tuned for the much anticipated MDE release / removal of the embargo...

2017/18 Drill Schedules
If you haven't fill out the Emergency Management Building Drill Schedule, please do so before August 24. Julie will then log the information with the State of Michigan. When scheduling, keep in mind special events at your school that need to be avoided.

PRINTING DEPARTMENT
Hole Punching and Spine Removal (not a medical procedure)

This year, due to the massive distribution efforts that printing is helping with around ELA and Math, the printing department will not 3 hole punch nor remove spines from any curriculum material / work book for the 2017-18 school year. While we know that this may cause inconvenience, we must put all efforts into making certain that every student has the materials necessary to support their learning when school begins. Distributing this amount of material AND hole punching and removing spines is simply not something we are staffed for nor able to do. Thank you for your understanding and patience!

SPECIAL EDUCATION LAW
Schools of Choice and Special Education Students

Earlier this year, there was some conversation among administrators as to whether or not a district could legitimately deny enrollment to students with IEPs under Section 105 of the State School Aid Act and the Pupil Accounting Manual if the district considered its special education programs full:

“Based upon the analysis below, it is this law firm’s opinion that the TBAISD Choice Policy must be interpreted and applied in a manner that complies with Section 105, the MDE guidance regarding Section 105 and the Pupil Accounting Manual. It is our further opinion that a local school district from TBAISD may not deny enrollment of a special education pupil solely because a local district special education program is full or otherwise unavailable. Finally, it is our opinion that, if a local school district with TBAISD does deny enrollment of a special education pupil based solely upon the fact that a special education program is full or unavailable, the local school district is at risk of a claim for disability-based discrimination.”

My take: I think this is pretty well known information in TCAPS and has been for a while. You cannot exclude an open enroll / School of choice student solely on the basis of an existing educational disability. Can't do it. Discrimination is real and it is something we must work together to help keep our of our school district.
Principals / Admin Assistants: if you're having questions around this policy / law, please feel free to call me. I'll be happy to help in whatever way I can.

MATH DEPARTMENT / PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

Attention Math Teachers!

As part of our district work implementing the Mi-Excel Blueprint, your Math Leadership Team has worked with our district Blueprint facilitator to complete curricular units for math and paid time in August to review and process the curriculum units. These units are intended to support you! They provide a cohesive framework for systematically improving math instruction in our district, and will lead to full installation of the Instructional Improvement Network. They are a required component of teaching mathematics in TCAPS. The curricular documents outline:

important concepts within the our district resources
required assessment items
common instructional stumbling blocks

While these units complement and support our instruction using the Math Expressions, CMP3, or Envision program, there are also some important changes that you will want to be aware of. Understanding and using these curricular units will be an important part of planning for math instruction this year and we have designed some targeted professional development to help you. However, because of our district’s PD calendar, district-wide work around these units will not happen until the week before school begins. We recognize that this timeline could be overwhelming! In order to better support you, we have built some additional paid PD time before the school year begins.

Math PD sign up HERE - You are welcome to attend any or all of the days. Please bring your teacher editions and a computer.

Public Portal Timeline

July 31 - Public Portal is open for elem. to complete e-collect registration forms. (schedules have not been entered for elem.) Closed for Secondary
Aug. 15 - Public Portal will be closed for elementary and secondary at midnight.
Aug. 15 - 30 - Public Portal Closed - Data Team uploads elementary schedules into PS and AA's adjust class lists or add new enrollments.
Aug. 21 - 25 - Secondary Registration at all 5 sites (Public Portal Closed)
Aug. 28 - Secondary portal open directly after registration.
Aug. 30 - Public Portal is open for elem. which will include the viewing of schedules at both levels and the second registration for extended day.

REMINDERS:

Thirlby Kick-Off: August 28 (7:30am - 9:00am)
Teacher Work Days: August 28 - Thirlby Kick-off plus 9:30 - 12:30 time-sheet DPPD possibilities: August 29 & 30 PD days, August 31 Teacher Work Day - 2 hour staff meeting
First Day of School: September 5

PARKER'S CALENDAR:

THIS WEEK:

Monday