IIC Minutes for January 16, 2020
IIC Committee Members
Alexia Ritchie, Larry Pratt, Kendra Knowles, Anna Collins, Becca Burns, Kim Trutane, Yael Bloom, Joanna Totino, Fiona O’rourke, Hengyue Lian, Laurie Roberts
Approve Minutes from 11/21/19
Unweighted GPA Discussion
This was first presented in December. We are trying to encourage students to take courses based on interest rather than the GPA bump. There have been several studies that show that unweighted GPAs are better indicators of college readiness. We do plan on limiting AP courses at this time. We just want to make clear that the GPA bump should not be the reason for students taking particular classes. We do not know yet how to deal with Juniors that have begun taking AP courses. Do we wait until this current Junior class graduates? Data shows that the majority of the staff supports the move toward reporting unweighted GPAs. Can students technically calculate their own GPA? Yes.
How are we thinking about those students that may need extra motivation to push themselves harder. The thought is that there are other ways to motivate these students.
Kim: It seems like this may be a more truthful/accurate method of reporting.
Talking to students, it seems like
George: Many students were not enthusiastic about this change. This was discussed at a recent leadership meeting and a common sentiment was why bother? If this does not address the core issue of “College Admissions” Then, why bother?
AP classes that are available in Science and Humanities isn’t balanced.
Taking away weighted grade may not solve the problem of added stress, but it may prevent students from taking a course that they do not want to take.
I want to acknowledge that we are attempting to change the conversation to follow your passion and whatever college you end at is probably the right fit.
I would like to see some real steps that would be promised of how we are going to educati
Review Timeline of Specified Agenda Topics (Past and Present) as Time Permits
IIC Minutes for November 21, 2019
Present: Larry Pratt, Kendra Knowles, Ryan Lian, Minju O’Rourke, Anna Collins, Yael Bloom, Becca Burns, Kim Trutane (members), Evan Green (guest)
Proposal for Comparative Government to be approved as a year-long course:
Larry received approval of department chairs
Mr. James surveyed his department and they are on board. Further discussion of World Religions being moved to a yearlong course at a later date.
Vote: approved!
Approval of minutes: approved!
Process to refine/reaffirm Student Learner Objectives:
Review of district mission statement (The mission of Albany Unified School District is to provide excellent public education that empowers all to achieve their fullest potential as productive citizens. AUSD is committed to creating comprehensive learning opportunities in a safe, supportive, and collaborative environment, addressing the individual needs of each student.)
Mission and expectations from Schooling by Design (Wiggins and McTighe) - bullet points to consider when crafting mission statement/learner objectives.
Questions/issues:
Can IIC create objectives that are measurable?
Can both the ESLRs and Social-emotional competencies be measured?
Is it possible to create measurable goals that address diverse post-grad paths?
Common assessment creates opportunity for measurability but needs support and will to be implemented.
Concern about common assessment inhibiting student opportunity to get feedback
Plenty of opportunities to measure various aspects of students’ proficiencies - participation in clubs and extracurriculars etc.
Concern about biases in grading based on participation etc/subjective criteria
Measurability doesn’t have to equal grading. Other means of data collection available. Student longitudinal survey tracking self-reports on growth?
Students may not be receptive to expectations that drive them toward highest achievement
School cell phone policy
Recent legislation gives school districts the right to set cell phone policies
Currently, teachers have the right to set their own policies and expectations regarding cell phones
Schoolwide process exists for classes that enforce no-phone policies (kept in office, series of steps to retrieve based on number of incidents)
Questions/issues:
From teacher perspective, it would be great to have a uniform policy that supports teachers not having to engage in arguments about taking phones away
Cell phones perpetuate inequality in classroom - engaged vs disengaged students use phones differently in class
Perspectives from different schools - focus on an issue tends to inflate the issue
Students: experience varies depending on class. When clear policy is in place, students tend to comply. Most students don’t know that there is a schoolwide policy.
Mental health research on negative effects of cell phone use among elementary and secondary students - quoted in state bill.
Could work if there’s a physical system (pouches) to contain phones, though there are problems here too - open campus lunch?
Posted expectations around phone use could be helpful (No phones on the 3rd floor)
Non-agenda item from Evan Green: English 3 Honors
More sections of honors than regular English 3
Unwieldy for teachers, conscious of keeping opportunities equitable, not clear that honors students are all there for love of English
Ideas from English department: Lottery? Removing grade bump?
Next step? English department to come to next IIC meeting
IIC Minutes for October 17, 2019
IIC Committee Members
Alexia Ritchie, Larry Pratt, Kendra Knowles, Anna Collins, Becca Burns, Kim Trutane, Yael Bloom, Joanna Totino, Fiona O’rourke, Hengyue Lian,
I. Approval of minutes pushed to next IIC meeting
II. Proposed future IIC meeting agenda item: CSU is moving toward a 4-year quantitative reasoning requirement.
III. Proposal for Comp Gov to be transformed from a semester-long to year-long course (by
Just too much content (see proposal)!
Questions:
How does this impact the master schedule?
If World Religions was eliminated due to under-enrollment, which students and teacher(s) would be impacted? Class would likely disappear.
Why was it a semester class?
It can and has been done as a semester course, but we have a lot of courses here that are “semester long” “College Board” courses that are taught as year-long courses.
Some students don’t want to take the World Religions class, but are locked in.
Is this course offered at neighboring high schools? Is it a year-long course?
Most high schools do it as a year-long course.
Next Steps:
~ Run the proposal by the DCs to see if there are any suspected unintended consequences.
~ Check with Social Studies department for possible unintended consequences, or conflicts.
~ Check on UC and College Board approval deadlines.
~ Check on necessity of School Board approval? (per Kim Trutane)
IV. Brainstorm a process for refining Student Learner Objectives (previously known as ESLRs)
LP wants to include input from various interest groups (IIC, admin)
Process might look like:
Refine the old ESLRs into SLOs
Also incorporate the district vision/mission.
What are the objectives we want all students to walk out with?
Current ESLRs:
- Critical Thinking
- Effective Communicators
- Self-Directed Learners
- Academically Prepared
What are the goals/purpose of the ESLRs/SLOs? How do they add value?
This is a critical component for WASC. There is a disconnect between the district mission and the ESLRs/SLOs.
Teachers need to be an integral part of the process if they are to take ownership of the SLOs.
How do we write and roll out the SLOs in a way that is authentic?
Is there a way to have the “Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful” to become age-appropriate SLOs?
Does PBIS have something age-appropriate?
Continued next IIC meeting…
SLOs process brainstorm
Share-out: PD Committee: Restorative Practices
IIC Minutes for September 19, 2019
IIC Committee Members
Alexia Ritchie, Larry Pratt, Kendra Knowles, Anna Collins, Becca Burns, Kim Trutane, Yael Bloom, Joanna Totino, Fiona O’rourke, Hengyue Lian,
Introduction of Members
Review of IIC Actions from 2018-2019
Goals for the 2019-2020 school year
Valedictorian Selection Process-
It has been suggested that we take a look at our valedictorian selection process. Should students who had an instance of academic dishonesty be disqualified from the pool of Valedictorian candidates? “I would like to see a discipline record be a part of the process.” I think that the process should reflect/highlight the growth of students, including those that have made bad decisions. “There was a lot of work put into this process.
Student Learning Objectives-
We will continue the process of attempting to refine student learner objectives.
Can we craft objectives that reflect the potential and needs of all learners? What could this process look like? This will be an important part of our WASC document in the next evaluation cycle. In future meetings, we will explore different options for having this discussion.
For the Good of the Order
Does anyone have future topics that they would like to see discussed over the course of the year?
Future Agenda items
We have never had a conversation around budget and the Master Schedule. Do we have too many AP Courses? Can we address Singletons in our schedules? For example, Math Support is at the same time as guitar. Students are forced to choose between a course that they need and one that may be enriching. Master scheduling is impacted by both singletons and class sizes. What do we think is essential? “Is our curriculum responsive to the most timely current events? What classes do we have that are addressing current issues?
There was a request and significant interest to discuss the impacts of College Board on the school and its resources. Is this an IIC topic? It was agreed that the valedictorian selection process would be put off until January.
The process of refining our ESLRs-Student Learning Objectives
It was suggested that we take a look at Advisory.
On a positive note, yearbook was UC approved.
IIC Minutes for November 26th, 2018
Minutes for the November 26th meeting can be found here.
IIC Minutes for September 24, 2018
Minutes for the September 24th IIC meeting can be found here.