Below is the e-mail letter submitted to the MMSD Board of Education and Administrators on April 29, 2018 regarding the AL Plan and its implementation. The letter identifies 5 issues and specific recommendations to address each issue.
Dear BOE members and MMSD administrators,
I submit this email to you on behalf of Madison Partnership for Advanced Learning. You are being asked to approve the 2017-2020 AL Plan on Monday. We believe this AL Plan draft is a significant improvement from previous plans. Thank you to Dr. Ethan Netterstrom for his work in crafting a solid document with contributions and suggestions from many.
The goal of MPAL in its collaboration with the district is to ensure that the AL Plan is as strong and clear as possible. This is important to support the implementation of Advanced Learning in all MMSD schools to benefit more students from all demographic groups.
Here are some final MPAL recommendations based on the current draft and our recent discussions. We request that you take action to address these items before approving the AL Plan on Monday. We believe these recommendations will assist in making implementation efforts more successful. We ask that with the following issues addressed, you approve the AL Plan so the important work of this department can continue.
(1) Accountability for cluster grouping for classroom placement for 2018-19
Issue: A perennial problem for AL is some schools choosing to disregard ALS recommendations for grouping students for classroom placement. Even in cases where recommendations are implemented in the spring, ALSs have arrived the next fall to find that the recommended groupings where dismantled over the summer (for any number of reasons). This makes it extremely difficult for one half time ALS to efficiently provide supports, coaching and instruction for the entire next school year.
Recommendation: Require an accountability mechanism to ensure that cluster grouping recommendations for advanced learners made by the ALS for 2018-19 not only get implemented in spring 2018 but that these recommendations stay implemented through the start of school in the fall of 2018. Have this reported back to the board as an update in October 2018.
(2) ALS Roles and responsibilities
Issue: Current language in the AL Plan implies that classroom teachers will be responsible for all tiers of advanced instruction with ALSs only providing coaching and support. In addition, the language and details throughout the plan of how advanced instruction will be provided beyond differentiation (Tiers2/3) is weak.
Recommendation: Change the language on page 40 under primary roles and responsibilities, the second point, to clarify the AL role at different tiers and school levels.
Current language: Support and coach classroom teachers in challenging a wider range of learners within the grade level classroom setting including talent development (Tier 1) and students with current Advanced Learning needs (Tier 2-3) and provide limited direction instruction as determined by data and student need
Suggested language: Use 3 points
Elementary and Middle School Tier 1: Support grade level teams and coach classroom teachers to effectively cluster and differentiate instruction to provide consistent levels of academic challenge for Tier 1 Advanced Learners within the classroom setting.
Elementary School Tier 2/3: Support grade level teams to provide targeted group instruction and partial curriculum replacement for students with current advanced learning needs as well as students with talent development needs, providing direct instruction as determined by data and student need.
Middle School Tier 2/3: Support grade level teams in providing instruction through advanced coursework as well as compacted unit sequences within courses. Provide support and coordination for the talent development model and strategies.
(3) Commitment to providing advanced instruction in middle schools
Issue: While work to strengthen the differentiated core at middle school will help Tier 1 advanced learners, there is little detail in this plan for how Tier 2/3 advanced instruction will be provided beyond one compacted math sequence. Without a commitment to advanced instruction here, it is likely that this need will not be addressed in the current middle school redesign process.
Advanced instruction that is systematic, continuous and during the academic school day is required by statue statutes for gifted education. Right now, only one compacted math sequence exists at 9 of 12 middle schools.
AL efforts at the middle school level should also directly connect to the Office of Civil Rights resolution goal of preparing more students from underrepresented backgrounds to not only access but be successful in advanced coursework in high school. AL should be viewed as an academic skill building effort, much like AVID. Academic advanced sequences and courses are needed to build these skills. Middle school is the exact place for students to try advanced instruction and build higher level academic skills without fear of negatively affecting GPAs in high school.
Recommendation: Report to the board the evidence-based, research-based best practices for advanced learners at the middle school level that the district has researched in conjunction with the middle school redesign efforts. If this work has not yet been done, include this is the process.
Require a decision on how advanced instruction beyond Tier 1 differentiation will be provided at the middle school level. We recommend advanced coursework and compacted sequences within courses at a minimum for the four core subjects: English, Social Studies, Science and Math. A compacted world language sequence is also recommended.
(4) Budget
Issue: There has not yet been a comprehensive process or analysis to determine what the appropriate staffing levels are for this department. The 2016-17 external evaluation by RMC was only permitted to evaluate options within the existing AL department resources.
We have one administrator and a 0.5 FTE to help with leadership and creativity. This is down from 2016-17 when there was a 1.0 FTE AL Teacher Leader position. With 20-25% of all students IDed as an advanced learner in some area, one AL Director alone cannot effectively administrate three school levels of a comprehensive Advanced Learning Plan.
AL has never been included on district equity charts to evaluate the ratio of staff to students as has been calculated for other departments. Now that the new identification parameters have been in place for the 2017-18 school year, a process for determining adequate staffing can be employed.
Recommendation: Use an objective process to evaluate AL staffing needs before the budget cycle for 2019-20 begins. Include AL staff that are school-based on the equity charts to show how the AL caseloads compare across schools and school levels.
(5) Talent development
Issue: The goal of talent development has been addressed only from the perspective of identification of students from demographic groups historically underrepresented in advanced learning; low income, ELL, Spec. Ed, Latinx, African American. Equally as important is what instruction will be given to students once identified in a particular domain. For specific academics, some students who skills are below the standard AL threshold, will require programming beyond differentiation in order to build the academic skills to accelerate their learning to more advanced levels.
Recommendation: Research talent development models and programs from other school districts in 2018-19 and choose one in which to invest for 2019-20.
Thank you again for the time invested in the process of writing this AL Plan. We request that the implementation process moving forward continues to be made transparent and accessible so that families can be partners with their schools in this work. We look forward to the discussion on Monday.
Best regards,
Christina Gomez Schmidt
on behalf of Madison Partnership for Advanced Learning (MPAL)
Dear BOE members and MMSD administrators,
I submit this email to you on behalf of Madison Partnership for Advanced Learning. You are being asked to approve the 2017-2020 AL Plan on Monday. We believe this AL Plan draft is a significant improvement from previous plans. Thank you to Dr. Ethan Netterstrom for his work in crafting a solid document with contributions and suggestions from many.
The goal of MPAL in its collaboration with the district is to ensure that the AL Plan is as strong and clear as possible. This is important to support the implementation of Advanced Learning in all MMSD schools to benefit more students from all demographic groups.
Here are some final MPAL recommendations based on the current draft and our recent discussions. We request that you take action to address these items before approving the AL Plan on Monday. We believe these recommendations will assist in making implementation efforts more successful. We ask that with the following issues addressed, you approve the AL Plan so the important work of this department can continue.
(1) Accountability for cluster grouping for classroom placement for 2018-19
Issue: A perennial problem for AL is some schools choosing to disregard ALS recommendations for grouping students for classroom placement. Even in cases where recommendations are implemented in the spring, ALSs have arrived the next fall to find that the recommended groupings where dismantled over the summer (for any number of reasons). This makes it extremely difficult for one half time ALS to efficiently provide supports, coaching and instruction for the entire next school year.
Recommendation: Require an accountability mechanism to ensure that cluster grouping recommendations for advanced learners made by the ALS for 2018-19 not only get implemented in spring 2018 but that these recommendations stay implemented through the start of school in the fall of 2018. Have this reported back to the board as an update in October 2018.
(2) ALS Roles and responsibilities
Issue: Current language in the AL Plan implies that classroom teachers will be responsible for all tiers of advanced instruction with ALSs only providing coaching and support. In addition, the language and details throughout the plan of how advanced instruction will be provided beyond differentiation (Tiers2/3) is weak.
Recommendation: Change the language on page 40 under primary roles and responsibilities, the second point, to clarify the AL role at different tiers and school levels.
Current language: Support and coach classroom teachers in challenging a wider range of learners within the grade level classroom setting including talent development (Tier 1) and students with current Advanced Learning needs (Tier 2-3) and provide limited direction instruction as determined by data and student need
Suggested language: Use 3 points
Elementary and Middle School Tier 1: Support grade level teams and coach classroom teachers to effectively cluster and differentiate instruction to provide consistent levels of academic challenge for Tier 1 Advanced Learners within the classroom setting.
Elementary School Tier 2/3: Support grade level teams to provide targeted group instruction and partial curriculum replacement for students with current advanced learning needs as well as students with talent development needs, providing direct instruction as determined by data and student need.
Middle School Tier 2/3: Support grade level teams in providing instruction through advanced coursework as well as compacted unit sequences within courses. Provide support and coordination for the talent development model and strategies.
(3) Commitment to providing advanced instruction in middle schools
Issue: While work to strengthen the differentiated core at middle school will help Tier 1 advanced learners, there is little detail in this plan for how Tier 2/3 advanced instruction will be provided beyond one compacted math sequence. Without a commitment to advanced instruction here, it is likely that this need will not be addressed in the current middle school redesign process.
Advanced instruction that is systematic, continuous and during the academic school day is required by statue statutes for gifted education. Right now, only one compacted math sequence exists at 9 of 12 middle schools.
AL efforts at the middle school level should also directly connect to the Office of Civil Rights resolution goal of preparing more students from underrepresented backgrounds to not only access but be successful in advanced coursework in high school. AL should be viewed as an academic skill building effort, much like AVID. Academic advanced sequences and courses are needed to build these skills. Middle school is the exact place for students to try advanced instruction and build higher level academic skills without fear of negatively affecting GPAs in high school.
Recommendation: Report to the board the evidence-based, research-based best practices for advanced learners at the middle school level that the district has researched in conjunction with the middle school redesign efforts. If this work has not yet been done, include this is the process.
Require a decision on how advanced instruction beyond Tier 1 differentiation will be provided at the middle school level. We recommend advanced coursework and compacted sequences within courses at a minimum for the four core subjects: English, Social Studies, Science and Math. A compacted world language sequence is also recommended.
(4) Budget
Issue: There has not yet been a comprehensive process or analysis to determine what the appropriate staffing levels are for this department. The 2016-17 external evaluation by RMC was only permitted to evaluate options within the existing AL department resources.
We have one administrator and a 0.5 FTE to help with leadership and creativity. This is down from 2016-17 when there was a 1.0 FTE AL Teacher Leader position. With 20-25% of all students IDed as an advanced learner in some area, one AL Director alone cannot effectively administrate three school levels of a comprehensive Advanced Learning Plan.
AL has never been included on district equity charts to evaluate the ratio of staff to students as has been calculated for other departments. Now that the new identification parameters have been in place for the 2017-18 school year, a process for determining adequate staffing can be employed.
Recommendation: Use an objective process to evaluate AL staffing needs before the budget cycle for 2019-20 begins. Include AL staff that are school-based on the equity charts to show how the AL caseloads compare across schools and school levels.
(5) Talent development
Issue: The goal of talent development has been addressed only from the perspective of identification of students from demographic groups historically underrepresented in advanced learning; low income, ELL, Spec. Ed, Latinx, African American. Equally as important is what instruction will be given to students once identified in a particular domain. For specific academics, some students who skills are below the standard AL threshold, will require programming beyond differentiation in order to build the academic skills to accelerate their learning to more advanced levels.
Recommendation: Research talent development models and programs from other school districts in 2018-19 and choose one in which to invest for 2019-20.
Thank you again for the time invested in the process of writing this AL Plan. We request that the implementation process moving forward continues to be made transparent and accessible so that families can be partners with their schools in this work. We look forward to the discussion on Monday.
Best regards,
Christina Gomez Schmidt
on behalf of Madison Partnership for Advanced Learning (MPAL)