“One thing is clear, it’s that we are going to be in a very unpredictable situation for quite a while,” State Board President Linda Darling-Hammond said in her opening remarks. “Clearly, teaching and learning will be organized in many different ways this fall in in-person, some distance learning, some hybrid learning, et cetera. It will need to be governed by purpose rather than by place.”
For local governing boards, State Board members said the most important of these resources is the Learning Continuity and Attendance Plan outlined in Senate Bill 98, the budget education trailer bill. The document, which replaces this year’s Local Control and Accountability Plan, is intended to offer a strategy for the continuity of instruction wherever students and staff are located. California Department of Education staff said the final template document will be available to LEAs by Aug. 1.
By Sept. 30, the document must be adopted by districts and filed with the county superintendent, who may return it with recommendations for consideration. The same deadline applies to county office of education plans, which must be filed with the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who also may return it with recommendations for consideration.
- A description of how continuity of learning will be provided
- Plans for in-person learning and distance learning program
- Plans to address student learning loss for 2019–20 and 2020–21
- Specific strategies for English learners, foster youth, special education, homeless students and students eligible for free or reduced-price meals
- How the mental and social-emotional health of students will be supported
- A description of how continuity of learning will be provided
- Plans for in-person learning and distance learning program
- Plans to address student learning loss for 2019–20 and 2020–21
- Specific strategies for English learners, foster youth, special education, homeless students and students eligible for free or reduced-price meals
- How the mental and social-emotional health of students will be supported
In addition to new board member Glover Woods, James J. McQuillen of Crescent City and Haydee Rodriguez of El Centro also joined the State Board. McQuillen has been education director for the Yurok Tribe since 2004, while Rodriguez has served as a teacher at Central Union High School in El Centro since 1998 and is the Advancement Via Individual Determination coordinator.
“It’s going to be very important that we have good formative assessments when students return to school to understand where they are in their learning, to deal with it as a continuous progress forward rather than a deficit approach that labels or stigmatizes students when they return to school,” Darling-Hammond said.
An additional resource is the Tools for Teachers website (https://smartertoolsforteachers.org), a new formative assessment component of the Smarter Balanced assessment system that replaces the Digital Library. The preview website features many of the instructional and professional development resources that will be available with the official launch on Sept. 30.
ETS is now slated to conduct a test run using residual gains data from the 2016–17, 2017–18 and 2018–19 school years that will be presented at the September State Board meeting. The board could possibly adopt a model at its November meeting, but state testing disruptions caused by COVID-19 mean data won’t be incorporated into the California School Dashboard for at least a couple of years, said Cindy Kazanis, director of the Analysis, Measurement & Accountability Reporting Division.
CSBA will continue to participate in the CDE’s Growth Model Stakeholder group as the process moves forward.