While the scramble continues to close the digital divide, improve distance learning and, in some areas, keep students and staff healthy on campus, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said the annual arrival of widespread destructive wildfires and smoky skies only adds to the collective challenges facing LEAs. “To see, as our schools finally are in a place where they can open — some in-person, most in distance learning — and to add to it fires and issues with air quality on top of that … Our schools are dealing with the most difficult circumstances,” Thurmond said.
State Board President Linda Darling-Hammond commended the work of LEAs in continuously improving the quality of instruction and services provided to students since the spring. Districts are showing immense creativity in connecting with families, county offices of education are collaborating like never before and distance learning attendance is much improved in many communities, she said.
The mounting challenges to the basic health and safety of many of the state’s children and their families, however, must remain the top priority, she said.
State Board Member
Board members similarly lauded the new seal, though Cynthia Glover Woods noted that LEAs will need support to provide students with the access needed to meet the criteria. “To have the seal and such wonderful criteria without roads for students to access them through their schools and districts won’t be as helpful,” Glover Woods said.
Growth scores will be released for informational purposes only in April 2021, said Jenny Singh, manager of the Analysis, Measurement, and Accountability Division at the CDE. “That will give districts time to look at the growth scores and we can have conversations with them about how we could report it so that it’s easy for people to understand.”
After board members continued conversations from past meetings about the goal of the growth model compared to both in-house and outside expectations, Singh clarified the point is publicly reporting growth at the student-group level, not at the individual student level. “I was hoping this growth model might help provide actionable data on a student level for LEAs in classrooms,” board member Ting L. Sun said in response.
Singh said there is still a decision to be made about whether individual data will be made available to LEAs for their internal use. Board member Matt Navo made it clear he would support the idea. “My food for thought is, if we want districts to be able to improve and support their students, I don’t necessarily believe it’s in their best interest or student best interest to hold back data that would be helpful,” he said.
In other State Board meeting news:
- In closed session, the board approved the Governor’s appointment of Brooks Allen as education policy advisor to the Governor and executive director of the State Board. Allen has been assistant superintendent, California Collaborative for Educational Excellence liaison and legal counsel at the Marin County Office of Education since 2017. He follows Karen Stapf Walters as executive director, a position Walters served in for seven years.
- New student board member Zaid Fattah was sworn in. Fattah is a senior at Monte Vista High School in Danville, and also serves as the California Association of Student Council’s governmental affairs and policy director in Region 4.
- In their update, assessment division staff announced that the statewide testing window for the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress will begin Jan. 12, 2021, and end July 15, 2021