During a School Committee meeting on June 23, Superintendent Jill Geiser updated the community on the district’s progress toward meeting its strategic plan goals, highlighting advancements in academic excellence and equity; social-emotional well-being, belonging, and engagement; and family and community communication.
Support Systems
One of the district’s goals is to develop a “multi-tiered system of supports” (MTSS) for students.
In this model, students are supported by multiple “tiers” based on their needs. For example, at the first tier, all students may take universal screening assessments that identify learning or social-emotional challenges.
Further tiers may involve small-group learning time with teachers or targeted interventions by specialists.
The district is working to identify existing supports and determine what is needed to ensure all students reach their potential.
“We want to be a school district where all kids can be successful,” said Assistant Superintendent Lucia Sullivan.
Sullivan will present more information about the MTSS plan at an upcoming School Committee meeting.
“The things that are not in place at this point, it’s more a function of having the resources to do it than anything else,” she said.
Vision of a Graduate
Another goal is developing the “Vision for a Graduate” — an articulation of the key competencies and skills expected of all learners.
In brainstorming sessions facilitated by Jessica Harding from Battelle for Kids, community members identified five competencies:
- Being an active collaborator
- Being an adaptable learner
- Being a critical thinker
- Being an effective communicator
- Being an empathetic community member.
The next step will be to create rubrics and identify other metrics to measure these competencies.
“We really put a lot of focus on this, and accomplished quite a bit in this area,” said Geiser.
Multiple Pathways to Graduation
The district leadership team will also create a working group to identify different pathways to graduation.
For example, pathways to graduation could involve grouping certain courses together to create options for areas of focus (akin to college majors), said Sullivan. Or it could take on the form of internship opportunities or partnerships with vocational schools.
According to School Committee Chair Meghan Moriarty, developing multiple graduation pathways has been popular with residents.
“I’m sure we will have people in the community who are really motivated and helpful to support the district [in] thinking about things that can be accessed by our kids,” Sullivan added.
Social-Emotional Learning
Darnell Thigpen Williams, Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Well-Being for the schools, stepped into his role on April 1.
Since then, Williams and his team have focused on determining the best way to measure school climate, according to Sullivan.
“This is trying to get a pulse on: how are kids feeling in our schools? Are they feeling a sense of belonging? Do they feel that they have friends? Do they feel that they have the skills to advocate for themselves, and do they have trusted adults they can go to?” she said. “When those things are in place, everything else works better.”
Family Communications
The district recently adopted a new software program called “Talking Points,” which will streamline communication between teachers and families.
Talking Points also has the capacity to automatically translate PDFs for families who speak languages other than English, said Sullivan.
“Lots of people don’t work at a computer, so it isn’t maybe so natural to check their email, whereas they’re going to have their phone in their pocket, and if they get a text from their kid’s teacher, they can respond real quick instead of finding it a week later in an email,” she added.
Sullivan said once the district adopts a new student information system, it will be integrated with Talking Points.
Effective, two-way communication between families and the schools is crucial, she said.
“You know the parents know their kids best — they’re their first teachers … The school absolutely needs to be able to get information from parents, and of course, has information they want to give back.”
The district leadership team also conducted a series of surveys with families and staff about the effectiveness of school communications.
Sullivan said having a strategic plan in place has been greatly helpful during the past year.
“I think the gift of a strategic plan is that it gives you a road map, and it helps to sort of screen out other things — because lots of things are important and lots of things are urgent, but having had a strategic plan this last year has felt so much more purposeful and strategic in terms of the ability to focus the work,” she said.
“It really makes the learning of the whole organization more cohesive and more transparent,” Sullivan added.
More information on the strategic plan update can be found at the School Committee’s website.
