Monday, January 3, 2022
Superintendent’s Blog
Bedford Public Schools
Acceleration Road Map at Mid Year
It’s that time of year, when we can take stock not only of the past calendar year, but also where we are at the mid-year point of the school year. While we are still trying to navigate the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, we continue our efforts to focus on student learning.
Last May, almost at the close of the 2020-21 school year, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education published Acceleration Roadmaps for Teachers and Administrators. These “Roadmaps” were intended to help educators prepare and to address the varied needs of students as we began to bring all students back into the classroom, after different models of teaching and learning, i.e. hybrid, all remote, all in-person, etc., were implemented during the 2020-21 school year. The following provides a broad outline as to where we are in Bedford in relation to the three priorities included in both the Teacher and Administrator Acceleration Roadmaps:
Priority 1: Foster a sense of belonging and partnership among students and families
Focusing on student attendance, and ensuring that we are watching carefully to see that students are attending school regularly, and that if students or families need assistance with attendance we provide outreach and support.
Our Bedford District Improvement Plan, for 2021-2024, outlines specifically, three areas that pertain to fostering a sense of belonging and partnership among students and families, they include a focus on equity, diversity and inclusion, a strong focus on student-centered curriculum instruction and assessment, and continuing to implement programs and a focus on social-emotional learning. This plan with strategic details embedded, will continue to provide a clear focus and steps for us as a district not only for this year, but for the next few years.
We continue to implement many different forms of communication with families, from weekly updates from the superintendent's office, to individual school updates. The utilization of webinars and virtual platforms like zoom continue to help us communicate with families. We also continue to focus on making sure that all families can access information vital to understanding what is happening at our schools, this includes providing information in many different languages, and also meeting with families in a variety of formats.
Social emotional learning is pivotal as we continue to address the needs of our students. This year in particular, we are focusing on professional development in March for teachers at the elementary level on the Responsive Classroom program, which will help us to broaden and reinforce our understanding of creating classrooms where students are engaged and feel supported. At the middle level, we continue in year two of our implementation of the RULER program to help students understand how they are feeling, and how to help facilitate those emotions with strategies on regulation and agency. At the high school, with the implementation of the Advisory program, we aim to connect with students in small groups, where conversations can happen organically and in a supportive environment.
Priority 2: Continuously monitor students’ understanding
A major focus within our district during the past three years has been the implementation of the Data Wise process. By developing and carefully implementing a data system within the district, during the 2019-2020 school year, we were poised to really be able to capture where students were when they entered our schools in September 2020, and again in September of 2021. With the use of assessment calendars in all four buildings, we were able to assess students’ understanding mainly in reading, writing, and mathematics. We utilized screening tools, to understand the skills of students, and attained concepts. By analyzing the data as grade level teams, departments and schools, we’ve implemented tiered interventions (RtI) at all levels. We continue to assess student progress, and will shortly be involved in the second round of “data sweeps” this month, and again at the end of the year, as we did in September.
This year at the elementary level in particular, we developed a “Data Dashboard”. Which was a quick snapshot of a student's skills at the beginning of the year in literacy. We were able to share this with families at parent/teacher conferences. The objective was to share important information with families, to assess where students are with their learning, and to discuss strategies to help students grow in the coming months.
Priority 3: Ensure strong grade-appropriate instruction with just-in-time scaffolds when they are needed
While last year was challenging, it provided us with a deeper understanding of the importance of implementing standards comprehensively throughout the year-especially in the area of mathematics, where the scope and sequence of concepts and skills is crucial to the building blocks of mathematical understanding. Much focus is happening throughout the district on providing formative assessments, especially in mathematics, to make sure that students have the understanding they need, before moving on to the next standard.
In November our K-5 teachers were able to participate in Reading professional Development with trainers from Columbia Teachers College. This professional development provided the teachers with the time, and expert knowledge to reinforce all that they’ve been doing while implementing the Units of Study for Reading, at the K-5 level.
The department work within the 6-12 continues, and has been refined by the MCAS analysis we were able to do in September. This work yielded important data for us, and provided us with a roadmap of our own in Bedford in relation to how our students are doing on the state standards in ELA, Math, and Science.
Our instructional practices have also been altered and have strongly been focused on student centered teaching and learning. Instead of the more traditional teacher-directed approach to instruction, we’ve been working on creating more small group instruction, more time for teachers to engage with students in small groups or individually to check for understanding. This happens within the reading, writing and math workshop approaches. This also enables teachers to differentiate their instruction, and for students to display to their teacher their level of understanding in “real-time”.
Our focus within our observational work as administrators within the district, has been on understanding and working with teachers on objectives. Clear objectives, guide both the teacher and students, in what students should know and be able to do, as the result of a well crafted lesson. This has always been important work, and through professional development as a an administrative team, we’re working with a consultant from Research for Better Teacher (RBT), which is also the group that we consult with for our Studying Skillful Teacher course, along with a Differentiation class we offer to all of our faculty members during the summer.
While the Acceleration Roadmaps for Teachers and Administrators, published by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in spring 2021, provided important suggestions and guidance for schools in Massachusetts, we were fortunate in many ways in Bedford to already have many processes in place.
The ongoing focus in Bedford on student learning during the pandemic, as outlined above, is to continue to make sure that students are receiving what they need in terms of their ability to attend school regularly, understand the curriculum, and also gauge their level of learning through formative assessments and when needed, provide scaffolds. This is all possible, because of the support that the Bedford community has provided during the past few years. The families, the school committee, faculty/staff, and administrators, along with the resilient students, have positioned us to continue to hold teaching and learning at the very forefront of the work that we do in the Bedford Public Schools.
Tricia Clifford, Ed. D.
Assistant Superintendent
