FISD Deputy Superintendent Lauren Ambeau sits down with us to discuss all things Standards-Based Learning and Grading. As with any change, there have been some questions, and she is here to help answer them!
FISD Deputy Superintendent Lauren Ambeau sits down with us to discuss all things Standards-Based Learning and Grading. As with any change, there have been some questions, and she is here to help answer them!
Speaker 1 Our boys, I believe. Yes. Speaker 2 Last week, in the full suite of our homes. Speaker 1 They did. Speaker 2 Some. Some bad guys. It's so funny. Colts and Broncos. Unknown I guess, with my boys. We will get into that. So let me just. Speaker 2 Start with today. We had Ms.. Laura Lambeau, Deputy superintendent. She leaves our teaching and learning a mother, among many other things. Essentially, though, Lauren, you're responsible for professional development coaching curriculum, leading our teachers, who we call learners. You have a passion for education and astute the student experience, right? With absolutely description of you. Speaker 1 Absolutely. Speaker 2 We love Lauren's heart for education, for sure. And you're going to get to experience just a little bit of that today. So to be completely transparent, we had some parents want to know more about standard based learning and grading and what it looks like and how it's different, how it came about. So we thought, you know what, let's just make this simple. Speaker 2 Let's pop on and do a podcast and let's talk about all of those things. I know a lot of the campuses have hosted some parent learning sessions so parents could ask more questions, but that's what today is also. So if you didn't get a chance to go to one of those, we just want you to listen to this podcast and you can kind of understand a little bit more about the standard based practice. Speaker 2 Oh. Speaker 1 Good. Girls do it. Yes. Speaker 2 So standard based learning and grading this basically, in my opinion, this is my overall summary. This basically is moving from traditional teaching and grading, which is think about the single overall grade to differentiated instruction for your child or teachers. Break learning down into smaller learning targets or standards, and the grading becomes a more accurate measurement of learning. Easier for students to understand. Speaker 2 So did I miss anything there? Speaker 1 That's a great description. So. Absolutely. Speaker 4 Okay, good. Speaker 1 You nailed it. Speaker 2 So let's just start right off the bat with how and why did this concept of grading reform and standards based learning come about? Speaker 1 Absolutely, yes. So it's great to be with you guys today. So really, to start back about five years ago, kind of before my time in friends at IAC, actually your strategic planning committee, which was comprised of students, which is which is incredibly awesome. They had a student voice and that committee, parents, community members, administrators and teachers came together and said, really, what is their vision for public education in Friendswood in the next five years? Speaker 1 And really what came out of that plan was 13 beliefs and seven goals. And two of those goals really are bringing forward this reform or this shift, this transformation and how we teach and in essence, how we grade and feisty. And those are goals two and six a goal. Two of our strategic plan inspires us to redefine the measure of success for students. Speaker 1 And so really asking ourselves, what does it mean to redefine success for a five year old, for an eight year old, for an 11 year old, right. So in conversation with teachers and parents and our community, one of the greatest barriers to really being able to personalize learning and make learning unique to each of our learners was this idea of traditional grading. Speaker 1 This idea that I have to have eight grades that may measure different standards in each classroom and that students are having a difficult time owning their learning when it's kind of comprised of just an ambiguous average, if you will. And so from that strategic planning committee over the course of the past few years have gathered up kind of kind of subcommittees, if you will, of that particular group, again, of students and parents, student voices, parents and teachers, administrators that really have begun to research and design. Speaker 1 What could it look like to remove the barriers of traditional grading to allow us to really personalize instruction for kids? And so that's where we kind of landed on the research around standards based learning and grading. So lots of learning, lots of I've kind of light bulb moments of what are the possibilities for for kids in Friendswood. Speaker 2 So tell us about standard base. What is it? Is it new? Speaker 1 Yeah, that's a great question. Actually. Standards based learning and grading is not new, right? So we get we got some great questions about that. So first and foremost, standards based learning and grading also could be Google. You could Google competency based education, you could Google lots of different words that kind of talk about competencies or standards or kind of grading that eliminates this idea of an ambiguous average. Speaker 1 Right. And so our research was rooted in really two big sources. The first one is Tom Skimmers research, and our committee is rooted there learning in his book called Grading From the Inside Out. We've also done a lot of reading of Katie Martin's blog, Dr. Katie Martin. She has a great book out called Evolving Education Shifting to a Learner centered, student centered Paradigm. Speaker 1 So it's actually not new. And there are hundreds of districts across the state of Texas implementing standards based learning and grading and really across the nation data. Speaker 2 So so it's research based. You have a couple of books that, you know what we could even add to our website and we're going to get into later how parents can learn more because we have an entire website web page dedicated to this. But so last year, why don't you tell us about how kind of it started here? Speaker 1 Sure. Yes. So traditionally and historically in Friendswood, right, kindergarten and first grade have been in a standards based learning and grading system. So over the course of the past few years, we have done a lot of work with our Austin Kinder and first grade teachers on just really taking a deep look at what are those standards that we're assessing on the report card? Speaker 1 How can we ensure that we're really clear that that students have opportunities to own that learning? What kind of evidence are we collecting to ensure that that we're at the highest river level possible when we're reporting these standards on the report card? So in essence, standards based grading and learning is not new in kindergarten, first grade in Friendswood. Speaker 1 See that last year we had opportunity to really bring this work forward to our second grade classroom. So we had 11 classrooms across 55 at Westwood and six at Kline that piloted standards based learning and grading in their second grade classrooms and incredible group of pioneers was so inspired by them that really spent time all that previous spring digging into building a standards based report card, digging into essential standards and different ways that we can collect authentic evidence unique to each learner to measure their proficiency of standards. Speaker 1 And so because of the success of that work and the hunger for this work from students and teachers and incredible feedback from parents, we have moved that work forward now to this year. So standards based learning grading is in all kindergarten through third grade classrooms. Speaker 2 Which is about, I think, around a thousand students. Speaker 1 Which is incredibly exciting. Speaker 2 So exciting. It is. It's very exciting. Any hope for continuing this, like in the future? Are we looking at fourth graders? Fifth graders? Speaker 1 S There's there's there's lots of hope to continue this work in the future. So one of the things that we certainly want to point out, it's been great conversations for us to talk with our with our parents and our community about in our campus meetings. Is this idea of a standards based mindset, this work that's happening actually. K 12 Right. Speaker 1 And so our fourth and fifth grade teachers, whereas they're not necessarily living in that standards based learning and grading kind of reporting piece right now, they're immersed in a lot of the a lot of the beliefs around this work, this idea that sometimes the mean is mean, meaning the average can be super ambiguous and how do I really personalize instruction if all I know is that in math, you're an 82, right? Speaker 1 So teachers are not comfortable with that anymore. They're they're hungry to really break down those standards and celebrate students strengths and help students set goals on areas of continued growth. And so there's this hunger and this passion coming from our fourth and fifth grade teachers as well as students, I would say, that are moving up in this pilot. Speaker 1 And there's incredible work being done at the sixth or 12th grade level. I mean, it started years ago with the elimination of class rank. Yeah, it didn't start it until last year with kind of how are we waiting certain courses at the high school level. And even right now in their evidence based reporting, pilot is really excited about 50 plus teachers working in that standards based mindset at the secondary level as well. Speaker 1 So there's great hopes to bring this forward. We're certainly committed this year to really making sustainable creating sustainable practices around this work at our kindergarten through third grade classrooms before we rush to bring it to scale. Right? We want to make sure we're gathering all the feedback and sure we're getting out all the information to create a solid system for standards based learning and grading before we bring it to scale. Speaker 2 And couple of things that I was thinking about as you were talking. One, we love that parents are asking questions and they're interested in, you know, this new shift, so don't ever be hesitant or worried about asking too many questions. That's certainly what we want parents do. That's what we expect parents to be doing. So we love that. Speaker 2 We have the opportunity to kind of explain a little bit more of this. And of course, I have no idea. I can only think one side at a time sometimes, but I know that was one thing that you made me think. Speaker 4 And I have something that I think is pretty neat. Maybe most people don't know this is that one of your boys has actually experienced this and was part of this last year. So yeah. Do you want to kind of go into that a little bit? Speaker 1 Sure, Sure. Yes. I happen to have a third grader and friends. And I see he goes to climb. He's a proud climb pony. But absolutely. So it's been pretty exciting both from the educational side and my current work and getting support teachers and leaders in our community in this learning, in this huge shift, but also getting to see it as a mom and having to even help shape my husband's conversations at home about, you know, moving them from what was your grade or, you know, really just what did you do at school today, as you know, moving that towards? Speaker 1 What did you learn? And tell me more about these goals that you're setting and really moving, you know, to this shift around instead of asking students necessarily, you know, tell me about the 98 or how could you have tell me about that 72. How could you have made a better grade towards help me understand what you think you did well on this particular recess on our assignment and help me understand what you think as a student you're still struggling with. Speaker 1 And it's really exciting, what, eight year olds, you know, he's eight, what he's really capable of coming up with. And it's exciting to even see what's happening in kindergarten classrooms around goal setting. Right. So getting to see this as a parent and as educator has been incredibly exciting for me personally as well. Speaker 2 And being someone that has kids that are grown, right, and they're not in the school system, I've enjoyed the conversations. I have to say that. And we've even had this conversation a couple of times, Lauren, that we tend to focus on the grading in this, but it's really about the learning and that's why it's fun to watch. Kelsey and I were in and out of heads of classrooms last year talking to second graders about. Speaker 2 So tell me what this means and what is this target and what is this goal that you have for the to hear in? Listen to students, second graders talk about? Well, this is what, you know, they would really talk to about. Speaker 4 Their social awareness, just like they were aware of their glows and grows, which is something a lot of adults even struggle with, of where my strengths or my weaknesses, they were able to verbalize that which I know you talked about, experiencing that from the parent side and just how cool that was. Speaker 1 Yes, absolutely. It's and that's the reason I know it's it's a long phrased answers. Base learning and grading, but it's the reason we kind of refuse to let go about learning peace, because this actually really has little to do in our eyes about the grade. Right? We're really focused on changing a game of school from this idea of earning to learning, right? Speaker 1 This idea that we are on a mission to ensure that really proficiency levels or grades, if you will, and friends and I still meet to tests. They're accurate measures of students proficiency on a set of standards, and they also increase students confidence. They allow students to come back without some preconceived notions based on one number grade that they're bad at math or they're a horrible writer. Speaker 1 That wasn't okay with us any longer in our kindergarten through fifth grade system. To have a student as young as second grade already saying, I'm not a good mathematician or I'm not a scientist and never will be. And we just we believe differently about what students are capable of dreaming up for themselves and the kind of goals that they're capable of setting for themselves as well. Speaker 2 And hello, but this is what education's all about. So if you are not strong in a certain standard or area, you get to circle back to that. You the key to build on that and that's the key. Speaker 4 I think that that's what's so cool is like I if I give myself a three, it's I know I've really got this down to understand it, but if I have a one, it's not okay we're forgetting about that one and moving on to the next thing and never understanding, especially in a subject like, like math that does build on previous concepts, They're able to go back and continue to work on that until they do build up some of the competencies. Speaker 4 Just yeah, it's the sweetest to see our little. Speaker 1 Ones in a traditional system. Typically the curriculum drives the pace and the standards based systems. Students drive that pace right, And so we're really working for mastery on a set of essential standards that are critical to their future success and future grades and life in the real world. So super exciting to say, You know, we talk about a student centered or, you know, learner centered paradigms. Speaker 1 So this is really, really putting putting it down on paper and saying this is how much we agree with it. We believe in it so deeply. We're willing to have a conversations and to begin to make this shift for kids within our learning and grading systems. Speaker 2 Well, and I can even hear parents thinking, wait, so that would mean in a class of 22 kids, the kids are at all different levels. How how can you expect a teacher to kind of keep up with that? Kids have always been at different levels, right? Whether we give them a grade or we. Yeah. You know, so that's something that that teachers have learned. Speaker 1 Yes. Speaker 2 To deal with. Right. And manage all. Speaker 4 Along. It's just more intentional now and the student has a greater awareness. Speaker 2 That student focus. Yes. Which is where our heart is and what we want. Yes. Speaker 1 And teachers have learned an incredible amount about man, you know, students can really own that. When I begin to differentiate and students are setting goals, students are so passionate about their goals and the kind of evidence they want to share with their teachers, that that differentiation is not just happening by that one adult, that one kind of used to be can consider the one expert in the classroom. Speaker 1 Right? This learning is being driven by students who are so passionate to pursue these goals because it's oftentimes related to their interest level. I mean, kids want to see success, too, right? Like they get excited and really just think about the celebrations that are happening over each student's unique path. And each classroom really builds that classroom culture, too. Speaker 1 So it's exciting to see. Speaker 2 It is exciting. Okay, so let's talk about if grades are not coming in skyward, how will the parent know how their child is progressing academically? Speaker 1 Absolutely. Yeah. Speaker 2 So kind of. Speaker 1 In our mindsets and friends that I see, because we sometimes can think that communication really happens through the grade book, it happens or skyward. So in a standardized learning grading system, well, we're not necessarily taking grades in that traditional sense. We those grades are now replaced with evidence. Right. And a standards based system. We don't assume that evidence will look the same for all learners at the same pace every day. Speaker 1 This is the concept of differentiation, the concept of meeting students where they're at. Right? So when grades are replaced by evidence, that evidence can't always be tracked through a number and skywards. So there's different kind of mediums or tools or avenues that we're going to begin tracking that that that evidence. And so several ways we could mention today are seesaw. Speaker 1 So that's a that's a kind of you they can download the family seesaw app. I know that I looked at a lot of the campus presentations. They were sharing ways to do that. So seesaw is a way to really communicate. Digital evidence of students can record and share themselves sharing certain goals. They're meeting certain pieces of evidence on on different things that they were making progress on. Speaker 1 Also, you might see a daily or a Friday folder to come home that has evidence in it. It could be samples of their readers response, it could be evidence of student writing, it could be it could be worksheets that students were really tracking and celebrating based on progress they wanted to make related to a goal. And so really what's coming out on September 30th, I think we'll we'll probably hit on this two days different ways that we're going to continue to communicate that September 30th. Speaker 1 All parents of students, kindergarten through third grade will be receiving kind of a district wide email explaining the standards based evidence reporting system, if you will. They're going to receive a campus letter from their campus principals as well as, most importantly, kind of an individual letter from their classroom teacher explaining how evidence will be communicated. How is academic progress being communicated in their standards based classroom? Speaker 1 Because we recognize that's a shift. Speaker 2 And that's next Friday. Next Friday. Just hang on. We love that you have questions and it's making you a little bit nervous, right, That it looks different than what it has in the past. But we promise that we're doing right by your kids and your your we will continue to communicate with you and keep you up to date on everything that's going on and continue to talk to your to your children about it. Speaker 2 And, you know, that's one of the things that we found out going into classrooms last year is kids know the stuff they can explain. Now. It may make you a, you know, feel a little silly. I study daddy, why did you why did you pick this girl? And she said, well, because I don't know anything about you. Yeah, which makes sense. Speaker 2 I need to know more about the school. That's why I chose it. And I need to be. Speaker 1 Really cool that students are comfortable saying like, Yeah, hey, I'm a new third grader. This is a third grade concept. Like, I didn't know it before and I have an opportunity to learn and grow in it, right? They they feel comfortable acknowledging that that that's an area of growth and that they can take a risk and learn more about it. Speaker 2 Right. Well, I'll tell you one thing, how it's easy for me to look at my husband and say, here's here's a grow and here's a yellow about myself that I really like and here's a grow a way that I promise to that I need to grow in. And I now recognize that instead of my husband saying, Hey, let me give really actually see your who Yes. Speaker 2 Choose how we're going to. That's one clue. So let me contribute. Speaker 1 To that. Speaker 4 Based on that. Yeah. Yes. Speaker 2 And we do not remove it. Speaker 1 Yeah. Speaker 4 On occasion. Yes. Yes. Speaker 1 Do you know what's exciting? What's really exciting too, is that we're creating this idea of self-awareness. Right? Like, so teachers are creating like less sage on the stage, less the keeper of all content and curriculum. And they're really not treating students as these empty vessels that walk into their classrooms like they're saying to students like Dottie, Hey, Daddy, I know you come with a lot. Speaker 1 I know you come with a lot of strings, a lot of celebrations. And I also know you come with a lot more that you want to learn, right? So I'm going to get really creative with, like, how I can figure out what Dottie knows and then where Dottie needs to go, because Dottie needs to go is not the same as the other 22 or 21 students and that and that and that classroom. Speaker 1 So again, really removing this barrier of traditional grades and having to average everything that comes in allows us to figure out each of each unique learner and their path forward. Speaker 2 Well, that's the beautiful part. As a parent, what you can expect is your teacher has to know you. Did you know how to guide them in their learning? That's right. Yeah. Whereas before it wasn't yet. Yeah, I'm not. And we're not going to spend a lot of time about, you know, dogging education. You know, there are always great things going on in schools, but how exciting that and you had said this earlier, this is a great way we're figuring out where we want kids to go in the future. Speaker 1 Yeah, right. Speaker 2 And that's not necessarily serving them as well as what standard base. Speaker 1 That's right. At least. Right. There's a great quote that says, if we continue to teach students, if we continue to teach students like we learned were really robbing them of their of their of their future. And we heard a great we saw a great video the other day that really talked about many of the jobs that our students were told don't don't even exist today. Speaker 2 Right. Speaker 4 The 65% to. Speaker 1 65% of jobs are students. All do not exist today. Right. So sometimes I think as adults, we get in this hurry to prepare students for a world that we know. Speaker 2 That's. Speaker 1 Really the world that they're going to live in is really still. So we don't even know what to anticipate. Speaker 2 Right. Which is why we've move more towards skills that surround us. Right. And even soft skills of learning to advocate for yourself, which is what standard base is all about. You know. Speaker 4 Communication. Speaker 2 Communication, huge. Speaker 4 Part of immigration. Speaker 1 Creativity, more opportunities to explore those things. Speaker 4 When I think like something important to note too, like for parents is what would have been easy is to just continue doing what was being done. Like it's a lot of work that has gone into making this shift and like the parents, it's any change is going to be a little uncomfortable at first, but you just stick with it and you'll see just the immense benefits to doing that. Speaker 1 Yes, absolutely. Yes, we do get a lot of questions about how are they going to be prepared, though, for the real world and the rigor that's expected. But, you know, at at the secondary level or you know, beyond high school or whatever, that path that they may choose. And what's interesting is we're constantly getting feedback as public school districts about preparing students for the workforce for their real world. Speaker 1 Right. And so I think we're finally able to work, you know, those folks in their face and say, yes, absolutely, you're getting students that are self aware, you're getting students that have those those CS, that collaboration opportunities to create opportunities to communicate effectively. And students are used to advocating for their own goals, right? So in our mind, this is enhancing that real world preparation. Speaker 4 Yeah, Well, you talked about like adults, whenever we're evaluated in our jobs, you want to tell us. Speaker 1 A little bit more? Yes. So we've we've really just we love working with our community on this shift. And really talking with adults has been super fun to have. These have these campus presentations have been asked some great questions. So keep them coming in, really challenging ourselves, like how do we make this shift relevant to those that may be in the business world, Right? Speaker 1 And so we would love to kind of challenge our community to think about in any job that you've held and you think about your end of the year appraisal or your summative appraisal and more than likely your boss did not sit you down and say, you know, Miss our end, miss goals, you are 95, you are an 82, more than 98. Speaker 4 You come on. Speaker 2 Right. I think I'm with it. Right? Speaker 1 So more than likely there was conversations around certain domains that involve your job in the skills that you needed to be successful in your job, to really do your job. And within those domains, there's probably a certain set of standards or competencies that you were asked to meet and you were rated or evaluated on those domains and specifics or competencies. Speaker 1 This is exactly why the kindergarten through third grade report card looks like as a result of really zooming down into competencies and not averages specific standards, we have to get creative about the kind of evidence we're collecting to show mastery on each of those standards. Right. And not continue just to move students on it, really, and perpetuate gaps. Speaker 1 Right. We want to acknowledge that students have so much to celebrate, but how can we zoom and ensure that we're really working on this critical skills where there's no there? There still may be some gaps, right? So it's been exciting. We even had a had a fun meeting with our district advisory committee last year. We were kind of said, okay, you're now you know, you now own a business, right? Speaker 1 And you got six openings and you have to hire six new employees. Right? And so we kind of gave them you got Dana own 85 Kelsey Kelsey goals and 95 more names. About 83, right? Yes. So we asked them, okay, who are you going to hire? And it was a great conversation and. Speaker 2 Say all of them. Speaker 1 Said, Lauren, we need more information about the applicants. Yeah. Tell me what other information you need. Speaker 2 Amy. And yeah. Speaker 4 Yeah. And I think like to that point too, it's like when you get an evaluation, a lot of times you're asked to evaluate your own performance as well and to go over that. So that's just another thing. Like it's happening on both ends. Like the students are evaluating their own learning and then they're also being evaluated by their teacher. Speaker 4 And I know when we were going into those classrooms, a lot of the teachers shared most of the kids are pretty spot on with what they give themselves, and if they're a little off, the teacher will help them get to that adjustment. Speaker 2 But it can actually be very hard on themselves. They are. If you ever let your kid come up with the the consequence of the discipline of what what they chose was wrong. It is much worse typically than what you would have ever done your chance. Speaker 1 But I also. Speaker 2 Want to say, because I heard you talking about at work. So if you are in a business where you evaluate people and you do not allow them to share their own beliefs, goals and what they need to grow in, yeah, I want to encourage you that should be going on in your company because a lot of companies don't do that. Speaker 2 How so? Leaders of corporations can sit down and say, Let me tell you how I'm going to rank you in what you're doing is just pretty. Speaker 4 Outdated and for feedback and then figuring out how you can support that employee, which is the exactly. Speaker 2 In their own growth. Speaker 4 What's happening here. Yes. Yeah. Speaker 1 Well, and for us, you know, in our world, that practice really fosters classroom culture, right? It says to students, listen, I may be the adult in the room, but this is our classroom. Right? And we agree we agree to acknowledge that everybody in this classroom has a unique set of strengths, a unique set of needs, a unique set of challenges. Speaker 1 And their path forward could look different. But they're all valuable parts of our classroom culture. Gosh, wouldn't you love to work for a leader who says, like, you're all here because you have unique needs and strengths at this organization? Exactly right. Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Okay. So some parents may be concerned that it isn't fast enough. What if my child mastered the concepts being taught very quickly? What happens next? Speaker 1 Sure. Absolutely, guys. And we have a lot of students who who who come to mastery guide many standards very, very quickly. And so we want to acknowledge all learners, those that take a little more time, those that master really quickly. So there's this notion that that the student master is it and they just kind of sit and hang out. Speaker 1 Right. And we want to dispel this myth and dispel this whole notion that standards based learning and grading somehow kind of lacks rigor or lacks that real world preparation. So the first thing we want to ensure you and all all kindergartner, fifth grade now would even argue all kindergarten through 12th May classrooms of friends are does that all students should be ensured at least a year's worth of growth in that content. Speaker 1 That is our job that is our moral obligation is ensure that every student shows up to be challenged daily. Right. What Steiner's based learning and reading does, it actually exposes where those challenges need to be much more quickly, right? In a traditional grading system as we're just kind of taking, if you will, assignments and we're averaging those, the average can look like maybe it looks like a 90, maybe it looks like an 80, right? Speaker 1 So it doesn't really break down for us. Where's the 80 ad? What is the child really good at? But where are those few things that could be fine tuned, where that challenge really exists? So in a Steiner based system where this allows us to do as our students are working towards mastery right away, if they're mastering some things quickly, great, We're not going to continue to reteach those. Speaker 1 That child doesn't need that any longer. Maybe we have just a few skills within those standards and even a little bit of fine tuning. And once those have been fine tuned, we can really we can really engage these students in two big ways. We can accelerate their instruction within those within those grade level standards and perhaps beyond. Do we have a second grader in math who really, within that nine weeks has mastered to the to the deepest level possible those standards, and we might pull out, you know, future grade level standards and say, how can we continue to challenge them? Speaker 1 And we can also go deeper. So this allows us again, this is goal six of our strategic plan. But this allows us to move into project based learning and allowed us to move, Yes. Into those extensions and those enrichments and some of that more personalized learning where students are getting to like teach the class students are designing. Usually when you allow a student to design an assessment like you guys mentioned, they design some really hard assessments, right? Speaker 1 They really challenge their peers. So what are opportunities that students could really kind of be responsible for supporting their peers and and really going towards mastery as well. So we can accelerate and we can go deeper with our current standards. But we do want to ensure parents, just as in a traditional system, when a child came home with one hundreds and nineties and the great book and that's all you saw in Skyward, I want to challenge those parents to ask the same question of any teacher How are we ensuring we're engaging all students regardless of their starting point? Speaker 1 One that may be a little higher, one that may be a little bit lower? Right? It's a great question for us to answer as educators. Speaker 2 So what if a parent is listening to this and they still have more questions and they want to know more about this? So what are some things that we can offer for those parents? Speaker 1 Yes. Yes. And we want to encourage you to reach out. In fact, really cool. We had to parent. We had our wind song parent meeting yesterday at the campus. Ms.. McLaughlin and her two instructional coaches did an incredible job, as did all of our leaders. But we had two parents ask for books as we're grading from the inside out books from Tom Skip, and we have extra copies at the office, by the way. Speaker 1 So we'd love to to share those and even sit alongside parents and work with them as with our campus leaders. But two things come to mind, guys. So September 30th is a big day. We kind of mentioned that date earlier, but September 30th, which is next Friday, when I get really clear about our communication in our standardized classrooms. Speaker 1 And so, again, we do not take lightly this this shift in ensuring that our parents don't want to be surprised. Right. They want to partner with us. We can't say to parents we want to partner and not ensure that we're exploring all avenues to do that right. Even though it's a little bit tricky. We're talking about evidence that can't be measured in just a numerical system, right? Speaker 1 And so on September 30th, again, district email will come out kind of explaining this process In the morning. We'll have a campus email from your campus principal explaining how their campus expectations for seniors based communication. And then you will by 4 p.m. on September 30th in our seniors base classrooms, kindergarten through third, you'll receive a personal email from your teacher outlining what evidence collection looks like in their classrooms. Speaker 1 That's a way to get more information about your child's academic progress. In addition, we have October 4th and we're having an evening parent information session on standards based learning and grading. So 6 to 7 p.m. in our boardroom here at 402 Laurel Drive. So October 4th, I believe that's a Tuesday. Speaker 2 Do they need to do anything for that? Do they just show up. Speaker 1 At six and just show that we don't we don't require an RSVP. We'll do our best to be ready with enough seats and they will be this will be very similar to the campus presentations, but we'll dive a little bit deeper into some concepts and certainly have time to kind of pick the brains of our campus leaders and myself and our instructional coaches will be present that that evening as well. Speaker 2 And come with questions on this question. Absolutely. You have certain questions and obviously the presentation may answer that, but if not, then I'm sure there will be a yes at the end of of that. Speaker 1 And I know we didn't know we haven't talked about this really kind of publicly yet, but we are starting an fiesty teaching and learning advisory committee. So we are starting now. We're going to think we're going to call it feisty focus and we're going to kind of focus in on really kind of high party teaching learning topics K-12. Speaker 1 And so stay tuned. We're going to be sending out a letter that explains what this advisory group is, What's the purpose of it? And this advisory group will actually be visiting campuses will be walking standards based classrooms, will be walking classroom instruction only, or we have lots of kind of high priority, kind of some shifts and teaching and learning. Speaker 1 We want to make sure our community, our parents have a have a chance to access. So if you're interested in serving on that committee, being a part of this work, we'd love to have you to some more information coming on that as well. Speaker 2 That's awesome. Yeah, I know that we have a webpage dedicated to standards based with a lot of information. Let me just tell you it. It breaks down what it is. It it has a section for understanding the report card and what that's going to look like looking at detailed progressions of each grade level, I was a like first grade. Speaker 2 Here's the progression, what you should be seeing and this is if your kid earns a three in this progression, this is why and these are kind of the standards for Yes. Speaker 1 Knowing and well, and this is really cool. And one of the things that I want our I want our community feel certain about in our parents, in our students, honestly, is this Web page is built as a transparent resource for you all. And for the first time ever and friends that I see, we have our report cards, everything your child will be assessed on, you know, everything that we're saying is critical to their future success that we're going to report on is there on the website alongside those learning progressions was really breakdown. Speaker 1 How was this assessed? So we're really trying to be as transparent as possible. And we even even was in a classroom their day and they were allowing students to click around those progressions and really take a look at all the things I'll be learning as it relates to those standards. So a great way for students to own their learning to. Speaker 4 Yeah, and just to let people know kind of how you can navigate to that page on our Web site. So if you go to my FRC dot com under the department's tab, it's going to be teaching and learning. And from there we have so many great resources, including the standards based learning. Speaker 2 And also I want to say a thank you put it in a different place. Also student, parents and students. And there's literally standard base. Speaker 4 There. Speaker 2 Under that. Yes. Speaker 1 So I don't. Speaker 2 Get you there. Yes. Yeah, yeah. A lot of great things on that web page that you can look at. So what else do we want parents to know? Lauren talked about the upcoming communications on September 30th, October 4th. You're hosting a Stanford based parent information information session in the board room at 6 p.m.. And one of the other things that I think is so exciting, and I have to tell you personally, like. Speaker 1 I cannot wait. Speaker 2 To see parent student teacher conferences. Speaker 1 In some places. Yes. So we have October 12th. Yes, we are really working to our student led conferences. Dana and Kelsey, I want to say we have a lot of we because here's the cool thing about standardized learning and grading is that when students start to own their learning, like they're super hungry to talk about it because they're so excited about it and they really can show you all of their evidence. Speaker 1 So that is coming stating we're working towards that kind of sense of agency with our students. So stay tuned on that. Certainly a big goal of ours. But October 12th is a dedicated elementary conference day. So your students won't be at at school. That day. But stay tuned. There are some sign up genius forms coming out from campuses and teachers to sign up parents for conferences and a great opportunity to ask your teachers about evidence collection, about all things teachers based. Speaker 1 Your teachers have a lot of passion and a lot of knowledge about this shift as well. We've engaged in a lot of professional learning about our mindsets, our beliefs as educators in this work. So take advantage of that October 12th parent conference day for sure. Speaker 2 Cool ism. Is there anything else that you and listen we could go into this. I did have a question about talking to how our educators are trained and all that. We're going to hold that for a later time. What we really wanted to be able to do in this podcast is just talk to you as a parent about what you can expect, what's happening, what's coming up, how were we promised and our commitments to keeping you informed and communicating with you. Speaker 2 So really, anything else that you want to say before we wrap this up? Speaker 1 No, I think I would just end with a really cool comment from a parent at with song. His name was Mr. Morgan, actually, I hope you don't mind me calling you Mr. Morgan, but he really was able to share with a group of parents there yesterday, awesome parents that that were there to engage more and learn more just about the cool possibilities that he sees in increasing students confidence in this approach. Speaker 1 Right. This idea that school doesn't happen to kids. It happens with kids, right. That we do we have this dream and friends ideas that all students will come to school because they want to be here. I know that every day matters for their learning on their unique pathway, right? So when we recharge and goal to with how do you redefine student success for a five, eight seven year old. Speaker 1 Right. We we feel super confident that this is a wonderful path forward and just want to thank our parents, our community and gosh, our incredible educators and leaders for really embracing this shift and moving forward for kids. Speaker 2 That's so awesome. I want to end I find it necessary that we end with I just want to say I applaud you and your efforts. I applaud all of our teachers. You know, it's scary taking on a new challenge and learning something new. But I do know that our hearts are in it for kids. That's why we're in this business of loving on kids and growing them. Speaker 2 And that was that was a glow and a grow, I would say is really almost the same thing. I applaud sorry, I just hit them on my phone. I'm so excited. My hands are. But I'm just so proud of feisty. And I don't want to sound cheesy here, but we are really doing some great things in this school district and we do have a heart for kids. Speaker 2 And so it's exciting to see how we are growing and how we're moving forward in teaching your children. And we believe in your children. We believe in you as parents, and we're here to do everything we can to just help guide and lead our families in this process. So thank you for listening. And Flora, thank you for being here. Speaker 1 Thanks for having me. Super fun. Thanks, guys. Speaker 2 Okay, Bye. Speaker 4 Bye. Bye.