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