March 8, 2007 - Unapproved Minutes

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Quality of Education Qualitative Sub-Committee Meeting
(*updated post meeting)

Thursday, March 8th
RMS, Room 602
3:30 pm-4: 45 pm

Qualitative Sub-Committee Members Present: Mully Blight, Adina Desaulinier, Marjorie Rose, Mary Sachsse, Paul Tierney, Linda Addante

Qualitative Sub-Committee Members Absent: Ann Waterfall, Jan Assmus, Rob Edson

Other QED Committee Members Attending: Bob Bruce, Wayne Gersen

Handouts used/referenced in the meeting:

Tentative sub-committee assignments 1.25.07-listing of sub-committee members
Sub-committee Expectations-describes sub-committee organization, work process and product
Qualitative Information Collection Sub-Committee-description of committee charge/duties
Jan Assmus 3.7.07 email to sub-committee members
Mully Blight 3.8.07 email to QED committee members
Hanover High School Quality Assessments 3.1.07
RMS Current Assessments 3.1.07
Marion Cross School Current Assessments 1.16.07
Ray School Current Assessment 1.17.07
Meeting Agenda QED Qualitative Sub-committee 3.8.07
SAU 70 Quality of education Committee Mission, Expectation, Tasks, and Responsibilities
3.1.07 Qualitative Sub-committee meeting notes

Established Ground Rules-these will be revisited as needed for additions/deletions. The objective is to foster an environment that will allow each of us to do our best work together. Sub-Committee Ground Rules 3.8.07:

Start on time and end on time: facilitator will be time keeper, and help to monitor air time of members to ensure all voices get heard
Meeting agenda-distributed before the meeting day-responsibility of the facilitator
Agenda is offered as a tool to facilitate the work-it needs to be flexible and to have input from committee members
Meeting notes will be taken at each meeting-to be done by secretary, or other designated person at the meeting.
Meeting date/time will be set and sent to all committee members by facilitator. Posted on web-site or other vehicle to ensure public announcement in keeping with open meeting laws
Communication between sub-committee members will be via email-copy to all sub-com.members and Wayne Gersen, Superintendent
Recap at end of every meeting-esp. important to recap the “to do” list and a brief look ahead to next meeting. Job of facilitator

Note a suggestion was made that facilitation be more formal at the QED meeting level. Marjorie and Wayne will take this back to the tri-chair/steering committee meeting.

II. Brief review of Sub-Committee Expectations and Process discussion summary

Discussed Communication: QED web site-how to make best use of the web site is under discussion at the steering committee level. For now decision to make use of email for sub-committee’s work. Meeting notes to be posted on QED web site and notification of meeting times, date, and place.
Proposal to rotate secretary duties so that one person is not kept from fully participating at every meeting.
AssessmentàAnalysisàActionàAssessment (the circle of three A’s that has been discussed by larger QED committee) Role of sub-committee discussed
Question offered as to whether the sub-committee charge includes making recommendations on actions to be take or can take actions to gather data-the answer included the following: We need to check in with other sub-committees, some areas may fall under Process/Governance Committee. Discussion did not result in a resolution on of all points, consensus was that this work is an evolving process and the plan for communications between sub-committees via the tri-chairs/facilitator meetings will be important to prevent duplication of investigated areas, prevent duplication of requests for information, promote efficient use of resources etc.
Time line-original charge for QED included under Mission statement - Action Plan: “By the end of February, 2007, identify “Standards of Excellence” that can serve as the basis for multi-year performance indicators in district schools. The identified timeline is for the sub-committees to meet over the next six weeks before reconvening with the full membership of the QED committee.
Process for the subcommittee by consensus will not be linear, meaning the charge will not be followed as it is listed on the sheet from top to bottom rather tasks will be divided and tackled simultaneously.
Suggestion to start with what other schools/organizations are doing-use that as the starting point for defining quality education
Gather what we are doing in the school district-that would identify what we value-that would be our starting point-the yardstick for quality education
OUR JOB: to gather information at this point-keep it broad within the identified charge of qualitative information collected
Make use of existing structures in our work of gathering information

III. Add-Ons to Qualitative Information Collection Sub-committee sheet:

Best practices within our own district
Culture of a school-the overall atmosphere of the school and how it encourages academic excellence
Teacher survey to find out in their opinion are there any changes to the present system that would increase the effectiveness of their teacher? How do they feel about the balance of academic and extracurricular activities?
Find ways to gather information on the core values of the district-example civic values-where’s it happing.
Investigate whether most of our students emerge with an enjoyment of the Arts (the whole child) and are they able to fold it back into their ability to enjoy the world.
Ask the kids and ask them in as many ways as possible about what makes a quality education for them: extracurricular, academic, school culture etc. Get exist surveys, look at Futuristic Survey-post graduation feedback.
Report cards are they doing what we want them to do?-format, teacher comments, methods for kids evaluating their own work, parent/teacher conferences (added on post meeting by Linda Addante)

IV. Review of schools assessment listings-see handout list- to establish listing of qualitative assessment that have been identified and listed to date.

NOTE: It should be noted that the listing is not complete. RMS has more to add to the list of assessments, as do the other schools.
The Hanover high School quality Assessments separates Quantitative from Qualitative.
However RMS, Marion Cross and Ray School do not. The following is a list identified earlier: The consensus of the sub committee was to make the list uniform-for example if CFG is listed on one school as a qualitative assessment it would follow that it is qualitative at the other schools if not otherwise indicated.
NOTE: A FINAL DECISION WAS NOT MADE ON WHAT QUALIFIES AS QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENT FOR EACH SCHOOL. There was a specific discussion about CFG groups whether they are in the qualitative sub-committee jurisdiction or should be listed in the Process Governance sub-committee. No final decision was reached regarding placement of CFG work.

A.HHS (3.1.07)

Parent Survey
Student Survey
YRBS (Youth Risk Behavior Survey)
Teacher supervision/evaluation
NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges
Futuristics Survey
Student portfolios
Performing arts
Anecdotal reports

B. RMS (3.1.07)

Youth Risk Behavior
Futures Protocol
Other internal qualitative assessment-see attachment 1 on RMS meeting summary
Parent Survey 2006 district wide survey
External reviews for awrds-1997/98 Blue Ribbon, 2006-09 NELMS Spotlight Award

C. MC (1.16.07)

Critical Friends
Local Action Planning Parent survey 05/06
Local Action Planning Parent survey 04-05
SAU Parent survey-district wide fall 06

D. Ray School (1.17.07)

Critical Friends Group
Parent Survey

V. To Do List:
1. ACTION STEPS including name of sub-committee member/members who will be working on investigating the item:

Best Practice defined, the qualifiers, look at other school/organization, ERB (Education Records Bureau (http://www.erbtest.org/) Paul Tierney and Bob Bruce
Parent Survey-look at what we do ad what other schools do Marjorie Rose and Linda Addante
Student Course Evaluations- in district and elsewhere Marjorie Rose and Linda Addante
Work to complete RMS Qualitative Current Assessments list-Adina Desaulinier

2. Members who did not chose in the meeting were invited to pick what they are most
     interested in off of the Qualitative Information Collection Sub-committee list
     (including today’s add-ons). Members were directed to send their selection choice to
     Linda in the next few days.
4. Wayne will facilitate access to ERB web site information services
5. Linda will type up notes from meeting and send to committee and Paul for
     additions/edits. Wayne will review meeting notes and post on QED web site
6. Once members identify their action step they should precede and expect to report out
at the next scheduled meeting on their findings.
7. Wayne will share suggestion for more formal facilitation of larger QED committee
    meetings
8. Communication of this sub-committees work will be shared through tri-chair meetings
    with Wayne and the sub-committee facilitators
9. Any conflicts with meeting date should be sent to Linda. The date will be changed if a
significant number of sub com. members cannot make the date and/or the committee
members not present today are not able to make the next meeting on the date listed
below. Linda will follow up - send any schedule conflicts to Linda. A new date
will be identified through email communication. That new date will be posted on the
QED web site by Wayne.
10. Linda will f/u on whether Sarah Curtis is a sub-committee member
11. Invitation to make additions to list of Qualitative Information to be gathered-if any
       member has additions to the list please email them to Linda and she will add them to
       our committee’s list and send it out via email to all members before the next meeting.
       Members not present today should send their add-ons to Linda ASAP

Next meeting: Thursday, March 22 @ 3:30 RMS room 602

Respectfully submitted Friday, March 9 @ 12:10 am

Action Steps Addendum Added March 14, 2007

Teacher Surveys-coming up with relevant questions addressing the schools'Cultures- Jan Asmus
*NEASC and Futuristic Survey (NEASC along with someone else look at it and report back to sub-committee. Futuristic Survey-help along with someone else.)-Jan Asmus

Action Steps Addendum to above notes March 15, 2007:

Investigate whether most of our students emerge with an enjoyment of the Arts

(the whole child) and are they able to fold it back into their ability to enjoy
the world. Ann Waterfall and Mary Sachsse