November 12, 2013 at 6:00 PM - Bethel Board of Education Policy Subcommittee Meeting

Key Points of the Briefing:

1. The CAPT no longer exists for social studies (Interdisciplinary Task), English (Response to Literature), or for mathematics.  Only science will be tested with CAPT; the other academic areas will be tested by NWEA and by a beta version of SMARTER Balanced Assessment in 2014 and a complete version of SMARTER Balanced in 2015.   
2. We removed the specific references to English and social studies, and substituted “reading and writing” since we know these components of the Common Core will be assessed by the State using SMARTER Balanced. 

Summary of the Briefing:  Due to the demise of the CAPT as an assessment tool for reading, writing, and mathematics, we wanted to update the policy for parents and students who will still need to take additional remedial coursework if they do not demonstrate academic performance at the level needed for graduation.       

Key Points of the Briefing: 

1. Due to the teacher evaluation statutes, Professional Learning is now front and center in terms of teacher and administrator professional growth, development, and evaluation. 
2. The policy was completely re-written and describes in detail many of the mandated changes to “staff development”—especially changes that state Professional Learning is much more than “inservices,” but is also the work of Professional Learning Communities or any school group working to solve a professional problem of practice. 
3. The policy describes how Professional Learning activities are developed based on student learning and behavioral data at the school and district levels; how the building-based Professional Development Committees and the Professional Development Council bring proposals forward, and how they are responsible for evaluating the activities. 
4. The newly amended statute 10-220a and the teacher evaluation statures make it clear that there must be ONE committee for the planning of professional learning activities and for developing and monitoring the teacher supervision and evaluation program.  In Bethel, we will maintain a Professional Developing Council and a Teacher Evaluation Task Force, but these groups will meet as one body two to three times a year to be certain that we are complying with the statute’s expectations for coordinating professional development and teacher supervision/evaluation. 
5. The new policy refers to the Learning Plans that teachers and administrators are expected to develop for themselves based on their needs.  These Learning Plans are an integral part of each certified person’s summative evaluation. 
6. The Appendix lists the mandated topics for districts.  However, the guidance I received was that we must monitor this list yearly and address the topics on an “as needed or as documented in our data as a need” basis.  It is critical, however, that if the statutes (such as teacher supervision and evaluation statutory language) states we must address such topic yearly that we do that without fail. 

Summary of the Briefing: The Board’s support of Professional Learning is pivotal to the improvement of student achievement in the district.  The policy on Professional Learning epitomizes many changes driven by the new teacher evaluation statutes.