LEGACY MCAS AND MCAS 2.0 RESULTS AND SCHOOL SAFETY UPDATE

MCAS RESULTS

Introduction. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released the MCAS and accountability results at noon today, September 27th. Student results will be delivered to the schools over the next several days and will be sent out to families as soon as possible. This memo is a preliminary sharing, but district leaders will be doing a deeper dive in each area to analyze our results and determine adjustments to instruction, curriculum, or supports.

We are in a testing transition that has extended over the past several years. Students in grades 3-8 took the MCAS 2.0 in ELA and math for the second year in 2018. The first year of the test, 2017, served as the baseline for the new test. Improvement targets were set for all students and for each subgroup based on those 2017 results.

MCAS 2.0 is the new state assessment, which tests students’ knowledge and understanding of the Massachusetts Frameworks in ELA and Math, both of which strongly reflect of the Common Core Standards. These Common Core standards focus on higher order thinking skills in relation to text, and therefore align closely with the Bedford Public Schools’ core focus on strengthening students’ analytical thinking skills. However, where for quite some time we have taught students how to use textual evidence to support claims about the fictional literature that they read, having them do this with nonfiction is a relatively new focus. Developing these skills K-12 is presently our central strategic priority.

Meanwhile, the Science assessments and the 10th grade ELA and Math assessments, referred to as Legacy MCAS, reflect the old standards, with a small degree of the new standards layered in.

Results Overview. Overall, the following information shows excellent achievement and growth at the 3rd – 5th grade levels, with 4th and 5th grade showing the strongest results. In the 6th – 8th grade category, 7th and 8th grade reflect moderate overall achievement, with poorer showings in our subgroup categories like special education and low income students. The 6th grade’s scores are disappointing and require a much more detailed causal analysis. The exiting news is that the Lane School integrated the Common Core well before either the middle or the high school, and its strong scores reflect this. With our new, “all hands on deck focus on literacy”, particularly the development of students’ abilities to independently comprehend complex non-fiction, or paired fiction and non-fiction texts, we are confident that the middle school’s results will become much stronger.

The high school continues to score in the high range for math and ELA, (90% Advanced and Proficient in math, and 96% in ELA), but we have dipped in the past few years. This decline, while small, particularly given the strength of the programs that support our most struggling students, is something that we are anxious to better understand and address. While Bedford’s high needs population is larger than most of the districts that are scoring higher, our mission is to bring all of our students to Advanced or Proficient levels.

Preliminary Details.

 The Lane School (grades 3-5) met or exceeded their improvement targets for all students and in every subgroup in both English and math. The performance of 5th grade students in ELA was exceptionally strong, in the 98th percentile for achievement of all students across the state. 90% of fifth grade students met or exceeded expectations in this very challenging ELA test. The math performance dropped a bit in grades 3-4-5, though that was the case in the state overall. There are

some areas of concern in the grade 3 ELA performance. Overall, the Lane earned 92% in improvement targets, and is thus identified as “Meeting Targets.” They are in the 94th percentile when measured against other similar schools in the state.

 At JGMS, the “all student” group met improvement targets, and the lowest performing students (identified the previous year) improved but fell short of their target. Several of the subgroups in math and ELA did not meet their targets. In grade 7 ELA, 64% of students met or exceeded expectations, in the 84th percentile statewide. In grade 8 ELA, 68% of students met or exceeded expectations, also in the 84th percentile statewide. 68% of grade 7 math students met or exceeded expectations, in the 93rd percentile; 66% of grade 8 math students met or exceeded expectations, in the 83rd percentile statewide.

Overall, JGMS earned 64% in progress toward improvement targets, and is thus identified as “partially meeting targets.” They are in the 71st percentile when measured against other similar schools in the state.

 The 2018 tenth grade MCAS tests in ELA and math, like the science tests, were MCAS legacy for the last year. The 2019 tests will all be MCAS 2.0. In the 2018 ELA test, while “all students” exceeded their target, students with disabilities declined. MCAS math performance held steady for “all students” but declined for students with disabilities and the lowest performing students (identified the previous year). Building leaders and program administrators are working with the results to identify additional supports and instructional adjustments. With the high school, as with middle school, strengthening literacy instruction across all subject areas, which began as a priority in 2017-2018 will take time to have full effect on such measures as MCAS. 10th grade Math scores were 90% Proficient and Advanced, with 71% or our students scoring Advanced. In ELA, we were 96% Advanced and Proficient, with 71% scoring Advanced. In Science, we were 92% Advanced or Proficient, reflecting a strong upward trend. Overall the high school earned 56% in improvement targets, and is thus identified as “partially meeting targets.” It ranks in the 76th accountability percentile.

 The science MCAS test, administered in grades 5, 8, and 10 is not yet a “new generation” (2.0) test, but is rather an “MCAS legacy” test. Improvement targets were set for this test, as with the MCAS 2.0. While science performance fell across the state, especially at grade 8, our science results improved. At grade 5, students in every group exceeded their targets with the exception of English learners (formerly called ELL students), who met their target. Students in grade 8 groups also met or exceeded their improvement targets. In 10th grade science, all students in measured groups exceeded their targets with the exception of students with disabilities, who met their targets.

The New Accountability System. Part of the transition in 2018 is to a new accountability system, which we will be explaining and writing about in more detail in the coming weeks. There are several additional factors now considered in the accountability rating: progress toward attaining proficiency for English learners; chronic absenteeism (more than 10% of enrolled days) measured in grades 1-12; advanced coursework completion at the high school (11th and 12th grades enrolled in at least one advanced course); assessment participation (95% requirement as measured over two years).

Overall the Bedford School District earned 72% and is thus designated as “partially meeting targets” (districts from 75-100 are designated as “meeting target” so this percentage should not be interpreted as a “C-.”) Statewide, 17% of districts are designated as “meeting targets”; 75% of districts are designated as “partially meeting” targets.

As Commissioner Jeffrey Riley indicated in his briefing to districts earlier this week, this is a new accountability system and is thus a year of learning and taking a breath, and a year to celebrate positive improvements. We have a number of things to celebrate with MCAS 2.0, especially at the elementary level, and have sure steps in place to strengthen student learning as measured by these more complex tests.

PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL SAFETY IN THE BEDFORD PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Overview. Schools have always attended to the safety of their students, whether through thoughtful dismissal processes, teaching students to respect each other’s personal spaces, or promulgating rules regarding and consequences for dangerous behaviors. But of course, during the past two decades, we have been forced to add to those practices a set of protocols and capital investments aimed to prevent and respond to catastrophic emergencies that put students’ and staff’s lives at risk. At the same time, with more and more students experiencing trauma in their lives, we have needed to evolve clear and effective responses to prevent self-harm or the harming of others. And, we have become acutely aware that effective learning does not take place when students do not feel emotionally safe, whether from bullying or malicious teasing, sexual harassment, racism, or social isolation.

How We Prepare for Crises. Several years ago, in the wake of Sandy Hook, we convened a task force to review our safety plans and procedures, many of which had been in place ever since Columbine. These included a district-wide Crisis Committee and regular “lock down” drills at all four schools. The task force, comprised of school personnel, school resource officers, parents and security professionals, recommended, and the school committee approved, that we:

 move to the more flexible A.L.I.C.E. protocol in lieu of the more rigid lock-down response,

 lock all doors and create lines of sight (either by space modifications or the installation of front door cameras) to all front doors, so that visual confirmation may proceed admission of visitors to all of our schools,

 add a special film to large plate glass doors and windows to prevent a shooter from being able to shatter glass to gain entry, and

 continue the critical work of educating our students to be upstanders to stop bullying and to provide critical information should they hear about potential dangers.

Improvements Planned for This Year. Presently, we are exploring a few technical improvements to our safety systems. We plan to implement a communication capability that would enable every staff member to immediately alert all police vehicles of an intruder, which will save minutes in response time, and key in the exact, and ever changing location of said intruder. Also, thanks to the suggestions made by several parents and staff, we intend to implement an identification process for visitors that will add a layer of safety to the existing visual recognition process, because not all visitors are known to the school receptionists. As part of this plan, we are looking to add a vestibule to the front entrance at Lane, since it is the only school that presently does not have one.

Balancing Safety with Privacy- Cameras and the Challenge of Dangerous Bus Behavior. We have long sought to balance safety concerns with privacy needs, and have resisted calls to install cameras in our schools. However, over the past few years we have experienced a range of dangerous behaviors on a number of buses- the nearly full buses on several Davis and Lane Bedford routes, and the elementary bus that takes over an hour and a half to bring students home to Boston. The behaviors have included students getting out of their seats, student to student conflict, throwing objects, etc. For the first time, we are considering adding cameras to these specific buses, keeping in mind that buses are the one place that groups of students are unsupervised during the school day, and we cannot afford to have monitors on each bus. While we have monitors on the METCO bus and have taken other creative measures, the length of the ride presents a tremendous behavioral challenge. Stay tuned for notice of an opportunity for family input on this issue.

Next week: Emotional Safety                                                                                     JS

What's Love Got To Do With It?- Opening Day Reflections

WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

After a long hiatus, Assistant Superintendent, Mary Lou Sallee, and I are back in the blogosphere, and are aiming for bi-weekly posts to start the year off right!

The school year is off to a great start, despite last week’s grueling heat.  As we toured the buildings, we could feel the positive energy, the excitement, and the commitment to learning that our exceptional staff expresses on a daily basis.  And seeing the smiling, laughing, and sometimes nervous faces of all of our students certainly eased our summer adieus.

New Faculty and Staff.  As you may be aware, teachers return for two days of meetings, professional development, and mobilization around the district’s key, pre-K through 12 priorities, just prior to the long Labor Day weekend.  And prior to that we welcome and orient our new faculty and staff- over forty this year- an exciting addition of new talent, energy and ideas for our four schools.  Among these are three new assistant principals, and two seasoned educators filling new positions- K-12 English Language Learner Program Director, and K-12 Guidance Director, about whom I will share more information in a subsequent blog post.

Heartfelt.  One of the most moving sessions that I sat in on, as I navigated my way past the carefully fenced off construction staging area at Davis School, included all of the guidance and special education staff, as well as the teachers of our “specials” like library and music.  In a ritual that is repeated annually, the group reviewed a long list of students identified as needing some special, “from the start” attention to ensure a successful school year.  Whether academically challenged, emotionally struggling, socially disconnected or physically impaired, each student was reviewed in a two way sharing- one to inform the teachers about the students who will be in their classes, and two, to invite the teachers, who see all of the students over the course of the year, to brainstorm with the support staff about how to best meet the students’ needs. 

I have rarely felt so much love expressed in one room!  The depth of knowledge about each child that these educators possessed, and the thoughtful, deeply caring way that they discussed how to help him or her move forward in the new year, were nothing short of awe inspiring. 

The following example, names changed, captures the spirit of the conversation, which lasted for several hours, as the team worked through an extensive list of students both in regular education and with special education IEPs.   “Let’s talk next about Felix.  He has shown some patterns of dysregulation throughout the year, and he tends to self-isolate,” began the special education program administrator.  “Yes, Felix,” chimed in the music teacher, “the Felix with the green eyes, he’s such a love.  He could definitely use a male buddy to help him feel like he belongs.”  “I know just the student,” responded the librarian- Damion-  “he would definitely take him under his wing.  Plus, they both really like legos.”

Educating children, of all ages, is an act of love.  Our faculty and staff pour their hearts into their work and into their students.  A wonderful colleague of mine from another district wrote a poem that I think expresses this beautifully-  the deeply felt hope and expectations that our families feel, the awesome responsibility entrusted to our educators… one that Bedford’s educators take ever so deeply to heart.                                                                                                       JS

Parents’ Night

One by one the tidy classrooms across the courtyard

are going black.  Parents filter out toward their cars

and headlights flicker across the windows.

But there she is at my desk, smiling out of a shapeless coat.

It isn’t just the heavy Russian accent that makes it hard.

I lean my head toward what she has to say

about her daughter Katya with, I see now, the same shy smile--

her daughter Katya who, too, lingers at my desk after class.

She burns a trail of smoky words:  Katya loves reading very much,

she has problem with hearing -- she wants to write like Tolstoi --

she liked so much last year’s English teacher--

I thank him thank him for the rest of my life.

When she breaks off, eyes eager at my face,

I pull my head back, clearing for a smooth landing,

but the sentences I pave out about the course, about Katya’s progress,

somehow crumble and fall away.

Her forehead wrinkles; she veers sideways and lifts off again,

circling back over the territory, words thick and halting.

I watch but cannot follow

though I try until the halls are dark.

On the drive home the mother’s words are large-winged moths

that brush soft bodies against my hair

and flutter thinly at the windshield.

Suddenly I see the nonsense of my replies.

“Please,” she’d been saying, racing against the custodian,

rattling his keys as he came, snapping off lights.

“Please,” she had said, those keys jangling toward my door --

“Can you love my child?”                                           

                                                                        --Mary Burchenal       

March 9th Professional Development: Pre-K-12 Ed Camp Day

Educators across the district participated in our first pre-K-12 Ed Camp Day on Friday, March 9th. The event was a great success, so we look to use this district-wide model in the future. The basic premise of Ed Camp is that teachers teach each other in a wide variety of educational topics organized around a broad educational principle. Educators are free to sign up for the workshops that interest them so long as space permits. The program is launched in the late fall with a survey of faculty interests so that the offerings meet educator needs and priorities.

This year's program was entitled "A Learner's Odyssey" and featured 111 speaker-presenters, including 5 student presentations, over 80 different sessions. Each educator could participate in four 50-minute workshops ranging from teaching and learning strategies; meeting students' social and emotional needs; understanding diverse students, including the Hanscom experience, which featured a field trip to the base; educating boys; strategies for assessing writing; oral storytelling; and engaging in difficult conversation with adults. The final session of the day offered wellness options, including yoga, print-making, and trivia.

The day began with a keynote speech by Audrey Jackson, a fifth grade teacher at the Joseph P. Manning Elementary School in Jamaica Plain, and 2016 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year.  Ms. Jackson inspired faculty and staff with her experience and wisdom, including video clips from her fifth grade class. She integrates social-emotional with academic learning to foster an environment that works for all her students. She described the process as differentiating for accessibility and engagement.  All her students are working toward the same standards but from different starting places as she helps them to develop both self-awareness and social awareness. 

Here are a  few follow-up survey comments from educators:

The day was a confirmation of the high level of professionalism, dedication and enthusiasm for teaching and providing a great education for all Bedford students.

Guest speaker was super motivating. Differentiating session provided great resources such as the pyramid model for "all students will be able to; most students will be able to; and some students" for easy use. The day had good energy.

I have two concrete ideas that I want to implement in my classroom. There is a new app I want to try for some lessons, and I am thinking hard about how I want to change how I lecture and give notes.

I have new tools and ideas to add to my classroom. And the guest speaker helped me feel good about the way my classroom is currently operating.

January Professional Development across the District

Bedford Public Schools values collaborative learning among its faculty as key to our model of continuous improvement. The most important of these opportunities are our full professional development days, one each in November,  January, and March. What follows is a brief description of our work in each building on January 12th. 

Davis: Teachers at Davis spent most of their day working on various aspects of reading instruction facilitated by ELA Curriculum Director Andrea Salipante, centered on their shared reading of Katie Cunningham’s Story: Still the Heart of Literacy Learning. They began with completing their own reading interest inventory, the principle being that one needs to understand herself as a reader in order to support students in their reading journey. They moved from there through different methods for identifying the reading interests of their students as well as student attitudes toward reading, all with the aim of meeting students where they are in order to help them grow and develop as readers. Students need to see themselves as well as learn about others in the stories they read. The day culminated with teachers examining their own classroom libraries in light of the essentials of a high-quality classroom library.

Lane: Lane teachers also focused on literacy instruction in a workshop launched by Andrea Salipante, then facilitated by reading specialist Kate Berrien and teachers Megan Farrell, Peter Ferguson, and Amy Campbell. The goal of the day was to help teachers understand more deeply how the Readers Workshop plays out within the classroom day-to-day.  The teacher leaders shared videos of their own work with students and answered questions about how to help students set goals and develop effective reading habits by reading “just right” books for their level. In this way, as Kate pointed out “weaker readers can be stronger thinkers” because they have some choice over what they read, and they are reading at their level. Teachers also worked on conferring with students, one of the most powerful tools in helping readers to develop. The day culminated with time for teachers to work in consultation with facilitators on their own current classroom situations and practices.

JGMS professional development included an engaging speaker/expert on Mindfulness during the morning session, and then, in the afternoon, the teachers were highly energized by the “treasure hunt” activity focused on literacy and different learning styles. This activity is similar to one high school teachers engaged in last fall, so all 6-12 teachers now share the experience of highly engaging yet challenging problem solving in cooperative groups.

BHS faculty focused on student behaviors impacted by emotional challenges.  As Heather Gallante observed in her Friday memo to faculty, “While we have committed to focusing on literacy as a district this year, it must be noted that literacy can cover a number of areas.  As part of an end of year survey, many faculty members expressed an interest in learning more about managing challenging students in an effort to help those students find academic and personal success.  We have looked at literacy through our academic lens.  Now we are going to shift and cover social/emotional literacy as it pertains to our 'hard to reach' students." 

Their guest speaker, Catherine Conway, presented the Concept of the Crucial Cs, through which "educators can develop short-term intervention strategies and long-term prevention strategies that focus on helping students meet their needs in positive ways and...build mutually respectful relationships between teachers and students." Students need to Connect, feel Capable,  Count, and feel Courageous. Often misbehavior is an attempt by a student trying to meet one of these needs.  Teachers who can recognize what need a student is trying to meet can help that student meet the need in a more positive way.

Ed Camp Coming in March

Our instructional and technology coaches have been working for weeks under the leadership of Donna Clements with input from the district leadership team to design our first-ever K-12 EdCamp experience in March. The idea of an EdCamp is that teachers offer workshops to other teachers. This approach to professional development began at the high school several years ago, moved into the middle school, and began last year at Davis and Lane.  The experience has been so successful for participants and presenters alike, and this year teachers have suggested we try a K-12 experience. We are all excited about this day, and we'll be sure to share the details with you.

MLS

MCAS 2.0 and Accountability

Greetings, and Happy New Year!

At the school committee meeting on December 12th, I presented our MCAS 2.0 results, along with our Accountability ratings for the Legacy MCAS test still being administered at the high school level and in science grades 5 and 8. Here are a few highlights from that presentation as well as the full presentation for your review.

We are in a testing transition in grades 3-8 Math and English Language Arts (ELA) that has extended over the past several years.  For two years (14-15 and 15-16) we participated in the PARCC test along with many other districts in Massachusetts. While we received very little item analysis from these tests, we were able to glean several areas in which we needed to make progress: in math around applying concepts to new situations, choosing multiple correct responses, and showing-explaining work; and in ELA around analysis of multiple complex texts, especially in written or essay responses. These skills are part of the Common Core standards in ELA and math, released in 2010 and revised in 2017. We have been working as a district on aligning our instruction to these standards.

The MCAS 2.0 test, which students in grades 3-8 took for the first time in spring 2017, sets a baseline for the new test and as such gives us a solid starting point in a more coherent testing system. While it will take several years to adjust to the new test, Bedford has taken necessary steps to strengthen our instruction and student performance. Lane School's classroom teachers are involved in deep professional development around the teaching of reading so as to meet the learning needs of each student. JGMS teachers are collaborating more closely around the teaching of non-fiction reading and writing to further strengthen students' abilities to analyze and draw conclusions from multiple complex texts. In math, we are working closely to pace the curriculum and build in the more complex math practices required by the standards, and by these tests.

When you review the attached presentation, you will see in more detail how students performed and the steps we have taken.  Families received detailed individual reports on their students' performance in the fall.

In terms of accountability, there are no accountability ratings for these new MCAS 2.0 tests, so the Lane School and John Glenn Middle School have no ratings.  (That is true of all schools grades 3-8 across Massachusetts.) At the high school, we slipped to Level 2 for the first time because several subgroups (such as High Needs students) did not make the required proficiency gains in math and science, although we did make necessary gains in English.  As is our practice each year, we analyze the learning needs of any student who scored below proficient and adjust instruction, student schedule, and course material to meet those individual needs.

Later this month the district will be sending its annual "report card" to all families in the district.  This report card, issued by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), will give even greater detail on the district performance as well as other factors, including information about student demographics and teacher licensure. You will receive this report via email, and it will also be posted on the district website.

Here is the link to the presentation given to school committee in December.

MCAS 2.0 and MCAS Accountability

If you have any questions, please feel free to write or call.

 MLS

Teachers take a Deep Dive into Curriculum during Summer Months

While the summer months provide a welcome change of pace for students and teachers, many Bedford educators renew themselves over the summer by engaging in collaborative reflection on their practice with an eye toward improving some area of their curriculum or instruction. In our experience, collaborative work on curriculum over the summer is one of the most effective ways to advance our work as professionals.  For that reason, Bedford now commits about half of its professional development budget to these efforts.

The summer of 2017 saw extensive training and curriculum development for our co-teaching teams in all four buildings. This year the training was led by our own experienced teachers, rather than by consultants, with very good results.  While we needed consultants to help us get the training underway, we have now developed enough capacity to deepen the work using teacher leaders and coaches. Co-teaching teams will also have release and common planning time during the school year to continue developing and refining their work with students. Co-teaching will be presented to school committee by participating trainers and teachers in early December.

Several projects were devoted to integration of higher order thinking skills as part of out literacy implementation in 17-18: Second grade teachers continued to deepen their work on integrated learning that encourages critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity; elementary math and science coordinators and teachers developed more authentic and integrated performance tasks; JGMS social studies teachers strengthened the literacy skills sequence and training within their curricula; grade 8 ELA teachers strengthened the thematic unity of their course, incorporating a culminating project that knits their course together.

Equity and diversity continue as priorities, with work being done on the Teaching Tolerance curriculum at Davis, as well as extensive work increasing access to and student engagement in advanced courses at the secondary level. Educators continued development of the un-levelled courses in senior English, African-American Studies and Asian-American Studies.  Both courses have nearly doubled their enrollment for the 17-18 school year.

The summer curriculum work was presented to school committee earlier this month and is linked below.

2017 Summer Curriculum Development

HATE SPEECH, CITIZENSHIP AND LITERACY/ THE LANE AND DAVIS BUILDING PROJECTS: A BUSY NEW SCHOOL YEAR BEGINS

As August turned to September, an energized faculty entered buildings thoroughly prepared by our custodial, maintenance, computer technical and clerical staff, and anticipated the advent of over 2600 students by readying their rooms, reviewing their curricula, and finalizing their lesson plans.  The work of the year ahead, complex, varied, and tailored to the multiplicity of needs of the many children before us, was nevertheless framed during the opening days around key instructional priorities for the next several years.

KEY K-12 FOCUS
Recognizing the rise of hate speech and intolerance that this summer we saw splashed across our news media, the importance of making sure that all of our students feel safe formed an important starting point for the District's back to school message.  Embracing the democratic mission of public schools, particularly the promotion of equity and the development of independently thinking, thoughtful and socially aware future citizens, our schools take seriously the challenge of strengthening our students' literacy skills- their ability to independently distinguish between fake and real news, discern credible sources, and derive meaning from complex texts.

While Bedford is pleased with our high rankings in Boston Magazine and Niche.com, we recognize that too many of our struggling readers find it difficult to read complex non-fiction, and that even many of our stronger middle and high school achievers are not adept at doing so independently.  This is one of the ubiquitous realities that the Common Core seeks to address, and for us it represents a conscious honing of the Bedford Public Schools' longstanding focus on developing our students' complex thinking skills. To make significant progress, we have come to recognize that responsibility for strengthening students' literacy cannot be relegated to the elementary grades alone, but must be integrated into the thinking skills and content learning that take place in the upper grades.  There it must develop in conjunction with our students' learning how to think like historians, like scientists, like mathematicians or literary critics.  While our work will come to focus on strengthening writing, listening and speaking as well, our starting point is reading comprehension.

As we key in on literacy, we are simultaneously working to help all students take responsibility for their learning by engaging them in regular goal setting, curation of their own work, and active reflection on their progress.  While this metacognitive learning is valuable in itself, it is also a critical motivator for students who may find the perseverance needed to make significant progress in reading comprehension difficult to sustain.

Finally, we are integrating technology to support these two objectives in a number of ways, but two that will be particularly apparent in all four schools include: 1) using a variety of devices and the internet to support research projects and what we call "just in time" research, which includes both planned and spontaneous classroom inquiries where students search out answers to questions that come up in class or pursue individual interests to enhance a lesson; and 2) students developing digital portfolios of their work and their learning reflections.  For this latter endeavor, we hope to leverage adolescent, and even younger, students' out-of-school digital literacy both to deepen their engagement in their portfolio work and to nurture an awareness of their learning processes just as they have a heightened awareness of their social identities.

Helping all of our students learn to make sense of complex text, particularly non-fiction, is central to our mission of preparing students for college and career.  But also, I believe that literacy in its fullest sense is critical for a healthy democracy, and it is, at its heart, an issue of equity.  Without the ability to be critical and independent consumers of complex information, to be able to draw inferences, to evaluate sources and to support arguments with evidence, our future citizens will have to depend upon others to make sense of the world.  Without sufficient background knowledge and the analytical know-how to distinguish fact from fiction, platitudes from policies, or data-derived positions from dogma and demagoguery from anywhere on the political spectrum, each generation's creative potential to solve society's problems will be severely curtailed.

BUILDING PROJECTS

Happily, we opened the Lane School this September having completed the building portion of the addition/renovation both on time and on budget.  New England Builders, our general contractor, offered to pay for a party for all Lane families, replete with bouncy house and ice cream, to commemorate the opening of the new wing.  Hats off to our entire team, our facilities department, TBA architects, the town boards for their support, and of course the Lane School Building Committee, the Lane School principal, and the school committee for all of their input, expertise, confidence and recognition of need.  The parking lot reconfiguration and expansion will be completed next summer, and fortunately the over $300,000 in unspent contingency funds will pay for the majority of that project.

Meanwhile, after months of diligent examination of 15 different options, the Davis School Building Committee recommended to the school committee that we move the four integrated pre-school classrooms presently housed at BHS to an expanded new wing at Davis (which should obviate the need for adding square footage at the high school), and add another seven rooms there to accommodate Davis School enrollment and program driven needs.  Please visit our website at www.bedfordps.org to view the Davis School Building Committee Report and the Davis School Building Addition Powerpoint Presentation.

HATE SYMBOLS ONCE AGAIN APPEAR IN BEDFORD

Since the start of this school year, swastikas have been found in middle and high schools in Reading, Lexington, Newton, Brookline, Billerica, Cambridge, Harvard, Stoughton, Canton, and Marblehead, and on the garage of an African-American family in Arlington.  The Anti-Defamation League reports that in 2016 Massachusetts ranked fifth in the nation for the number of anti-Semitic incidents, with reported offenses jumping from 50 in 2015 to 125 in 2016. During this school year, as well, racist graffiti has been reported to have been found in Attleboro, Concord, Newton, Harvard, Cambridge, Brockton and Natick public schools.

Sadly, Bedford has not been immune to this intolerable trend, as indicated by the high school's discovery of two swastikas on Friday and the middle school's discovery of a swastika on Monday. Both school principals sent messages to their parent communities and they are addressing the issue with their students in a variety of ways.  Despite these and potentially other unreported incidents, perpetrated by what I believe to be a tiny minority, all of the work that the schools and our community partners have been doing since the spate of anti-Semitic incidents four years ago has not been for naught.  Our JGMS students' welcome poster/letters below that, to our knowledge, appeared spontaneously three days ago and have expanded ever since are a wonderful testament to the power of this ongoing work.  They are a much more accurate reflection of the values that our school community holds dear.

Dear Readers,

We apologize for the long delay in updating our blog.

On Tuesday evening, April 25, I presented the findings of the Religious and Cultural Holidays Task Force, the product of nearly a year of deliberations involving an interfaith committee of students, teachers, parents, community members and clergy.  On May 7, the school committee will hold a second meeting to consider and vote upon the policy and procedural recommendations of the task force.

As you will see from the school committee presentation linked below, our challenge was to address the following concerns related to how to the Bedford schools presently address religious holidays. With no formal policy regarding, or consistent practice for dealing with, religious observance-related absences, homework and tests, and no clear standard for determining on which days there should be no school, these concerns have included:

• Too much interrupted learning
• Lack of clarity for students and families and inconsistent practice regarding homework and tests on high holidays,
• Inequitable treatment of different faith and cultural practices, and
• Insufficient student awareness of diverse beliefs and traditions

Presently, the schools have no school on Christmas Eve day and a half-day for students on Good Friday.  There has been an unwritten practice of having no homework or tests on the Jewish high holidays.  There has typically been little to no acknowledgement of the other faiths' observances, and little education other than a history of world religions social studies unit in middle school.

http://www.bedford.k12.ma.us/sites/bedfordps/files/uploads/religious_and_cultural_holidays_task_force_presentation.pdf

In the context of the increasing diversity of our student body, the task force was charge with recommending a set of clear policy guidelines that promote:

• Respectful acknowledgment of different faiths/beliefs 
• Opportunities for students to learn about and respect each other’s different beliefs and traditions
• Equitable treatment of students whose families hold different beliefs

While minimizing interruption to learning

To those ends, the recommendations include:

• Minimize disruption of learning by:
• having no school only on Christmas Eve day when the high rate of student and teacher absence would preclude academic progress
• Allowing for normal teaching and learning on all religious and cultural* holidays, including new material, tests, quizzes and homework

• Have a policy that:
• Excuses all absences due to observance of religious or cultural* holidays upon parent request
• Provides for extra time for observant students to make up missed work or tests and the expectation that teachers will work with students to do so in a manner that minimizes the burden
• Includes major religious holidays and cultural* holidays as designated by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on the school calendar

• Provide professional development that:
• Orients teachers’ awareness of the new policy and school calendar so they can anticipate student absences and plan, whenever feasible, not to give tests or major projects.
• facilitates increased faculty awareness, sensitivity and readiness to support students who miss work due to these observances.
• Ensure the promotion of awareness of diversity of beliefs through morning announcements of impending holidays (whether week day or week end) 

• Pilot for two years and review

Please see presentation for specific policy recommendations and survey results.

                                                                                                                                           JS

Dear Students, Families, Faculty and Staff,

During February break, President Trump reversed President Obama's guidance to schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that they feel are appropriate to their gender, and instead argued that the question of which bathrooms transgender students may use should be left to the states.

Massachusetts passed its own law in 2016 giving "transgender people the right to use restrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identities."*  Unless the Supreme Court were to rule otherwise, the Massachusetts law will remain in effect whether or not the federal government supports this position. The Bedford School Department's actions are governed by the Massachusetts statute, which closely aligns with our District's values.

Those values clearly uphold the right of all of our students to be themselves, to be free from discrimination and disparate treatment, and to feel safe to embrace their identities.  We also safeguard the right of all of our students to voice their opinions, respectfully, even if those opinions are not embraced by a majority of their peers. Ensuring the intellectual and emotional safety of all of our students is a personal priority, and I pledge to work closely with all members of our school community to protect, particularly, the most vulnerable among us. In the context of national news regarding the travel ban and deportations, this may mean our Muslim students or immigrant families' children.  In the context of a particular class discussion, it may mean a student with conservative political views.

At the end of the day, learning is undermined when students feel unsupported or under attack, or when they are afraid to voice their beliefs.  As educators, we cannot sit idly by and allow that to happen.

Sincerely,

Jon Sills

A Message to Faculty, Staff, Students and Families

While I am certain that we have faculty, students and families who are opposed to President Trump's recent executive order and faculty, students and families who support it, I am equally certain that we have students and faculty who are personally impacted by it.  

Please be alert to the very real possibility that we will have students in our classes or fellow faculty members who will be anxious, afraid and/or feeling personally attacked by the travel ban.  At the very minimum, anxiety, fear and a feeling of being targeted or diminished impede learning, and we all must do our utmost to take care of our students' and our fellow faculty members' feelings.  

I would add for families that if you have a concern about your child's well-being relative to this evolving situation, please contact the classroom teacher, school guidance counselor or administration to let them know.

School Committee Approves FY18 Budget 

Last Tuesday, the School Committee voted to approve a $39,061,561 FY18 budget, which is a $1,320,858 or 3.5% increase over the FY17 budget.  Following a multi-month process that included a line item review of the present budget and a reduction of $209,080 from the Superintendent’s initial increase request of 4.05%, the final vote aligned the FY18 budget with the Finance Committee’s 3.5% guideline.   Confident that this budget will support the District’s 2017-2018 educational objectives, we will present the FY budget to the Finance Committee on February 2. 

The principal drivers for the FY18 budget include our growing student population, expansion of our in-house special education programs, additional personnel needs to support academic success for all students, and instructional technology integration.  Key among the enrollment-driven needs are  additional teachers at Lane and JGMS and added custodial support for increased space at Lane and Davis; and included among our special education additions are special educators and teaching assistants for our SAIL, STEP and Integrated Pre-school programs.

Were it not for the success of these special education programs and the corresponding savings derived from educating increasing numbers of students in-house (several million dollars per year), it is fair to say that we would have found it much more difficult to meet this year’s guideline. 

Please go to Superintendent's FY18 Budget Request Final to view the Final FY18 Budget Presentation.

Governor’s FY18 Budget

Good news for Bedford out of the Governor’s office.   While there is some controversy over whether the Governor’s FY18 includes the funding that the Commonwealth’s schools need to address their many challenges, Bedford is unquestionably the beneficiary of two of the Governor’s decisions: the increase of Bedford’s Chapter 70 (Education Foundation Budget) funding by $242,761 and the inclusion of $513,000 Military Mitigation Aid for the first time in a governor’s budget request!

Bedford has had to fight each of the past ten years that the Massachusetts State Legislature has agreed to channel funding to Bedford to mitigate the fiscal impact of our Hanscom students, given that the federal government has failed to adequately meet its obligation.  Fully committed to continuing the relationship with Hanscom AFB that contributes so much to the unique character of our students’ education, we have fought with some success to convince Massachusetts lawmakers of the fairness of our position- that Hanscom contributes $8 billion annually to the region’s economy, but Bedford alone shoulders the cost of educating its high school age children.  Thanks to a collective effort, including the relentless advocacy of Representative Ken Gordon and Senator Mike Barrett, the legislature passed a bill two years ago that made this commitment permanent, but unfortunately it has nevertheless been subject to the unpredictability of the annual appropriation. While successful at the end of the day for each of the past several years, it has taken a lot of time and energy to see the process through.  So  Governor Baker’s decision to include it for the first time in the governor’s budget thankfully makes it all the more certain that the bill will be funded in FY18.                               JS