MDT Meeting Minutes
September 22, 2008

MDT Members in Attendance:

Susan Banta, parent
Karen Beiley, parent and HSA representative
Sarah Bogan, pre-k teacher
Mehgan Coleman, support staff representative
Theresa Govan, assistant principal
Tanya Lumpkins, parent
Lauren Miller, counselor
Vicki Otten, fifth grade teacher and MDT co-chair
Norah Rabiah, third grade teacher
Linda Singer, parent and MDT co-chair
Yvette Whitaker, community representative

The meeting began at 5:30 PM.

Introduction of MDT Members and Community Representative

MDT members introduced themselves and Yvette Whitaker introduced herself as the community representative.

Safe Routes to School Presentation – Robin Schepper

Robin Schepper spoke to MDT about the Safe Routes to School program. Last year Murch received a grant to participate as a pilot school this year and beyond. The program consists of 5 E’s: education, encouragement, enforcement, engineering, and evaluation.

Robin is asking for MDT’s assistance in three areas. Robin requested that Murch hold a Walk/Bike to School Day on October 8th. Robin asked for flyers to be sent home with students announcing the event. Robin also requested that teachers take a quick poll on October 8th to see how many students walked or biked to school.

The Murch Student Handbook states that each student biking to school obtains a bike pass from Murch. Robin suggested striking the policy from the handbook to decrease barriers to biking. MDT approved striking the policy from the student handbook pending approval from DCPS.

Another barrier to biking is the lack of bike racks. The money raised by the sixth grade fundraiser last year was marked for bike racks, but Murch was told DDOT would provide bike racks. Murch is still waiting for DDOT to fulfill the request. Murch still needs to speak with Karin Perkins and Linda Komes to see how bike racks would fit in with the playground renovation master plan.

Next steps include a meeting on September 24th to organize parents and the community. A DDOT Action Plan is due December 1, requesting an increase in crossing guards and sidewalks, and improving visibility of stop signs and crosswalks. The Action Plan will be presented at ANC meetings in November to get more community input and gauge community resistance.

Staffing Update

Dr. Govan reported on a number of personnel developments:

• Murch has hired Mary Blake as the administrative assistant. She will replace Victoria Rivera, the former registrar, as well as take on additional administrative duties.

• Kirsten Hancock was hired as the interim special education teacher for fifth and sixth grade. She began the year as a substitute for that position.

 

• Dr. Mikki Crenshaw was hired as the Literacy Professional Developer to work with teachers on their reading instruction.

• Several staff positions remain unfilled:

 

• A half-time reading resource teacher, who would work with children in small groups and provide extra support for children with skills problems.
• A full-time, School wide Application Model coach, who would work with both students and teachers to implement the general education curriculum and to support the integration of special education students and instruction in the general education program.

 

Linda Singer suggested that Murch look into sharing a reading specialist with another area school. Dr. Govan stated that she had spoken to DCPS Human Resources and there is no one available to share time.

There was some discussion of reprogramming the .5 reading specialist and including those duties and additional salary with the SAM coach. The salary bump might make the SAM Coach position more appealing. Dr. Govan expressed doubts that it would be allowed as it raises a question of equity among all ET-15 teachers.

            It was decided that the committee would meet again before the next MDT meeting to discuss options for a .5 Reading Specialist.

Teacher’s Institute Training Update

            Norah Rabiah informed the committee that the former professional development director from Teacher’s Institute is now working as a private consultant. Murch has arranged to schedule six full day in-house trainings over the course of the year. The consultant will be working closely with the Literacy Professional Developer. The consultant would provide training for Reader’s and Writer’s Workshops.

Norah also stated that the HSA has agreed to vote in favor of supporting Writer's Workshop, which includes material and professional development workshops.

Lauren Miller, counselor, stated that Responsive Classroom agreed to do a weeklong institute at Murch for 25 people. The Institute requires that the teachers attend two days in a row. The other 2.5 days could be conducted within the following four weeks.

Murch Test Scores and Adequate Yearly Progress

            Elizabeth Cohen for the DCPS Office of Data and Accountability was in attendance. Her role for DCPS includes research and evaluation, assessment (DC-CAS and DC-CAS Alt) and accountability at the district level.

            Elizabeth reviewed the fact that Murch missed making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in two subgroups: special education and economically disadvantaged. She asked the committee members to formulate questions about the DC-CAS results. The questions were:

• Was the majority of the group failing?
• What are the grades where the breakdown is occurring?
• Are the students new to the Murch program?
• Were there problems in the group before?
• Are there global weaknesses in certain strands or are scores low all over?
• How does Murch compare to other cluster schools with a comparable racial disparity?
• Are the drops in reading scores only at Murch or are they district-wide?
• How do we fix it?

Elizabeth stated that both subgroup size and achievement levels are set by the state. DCPS has set the goal of 100% proficient for the school year 2013-2014. Overall, the DC-CAS scores at Murch were way ahead of other schools with comparable subgroups.

To help Murch achieve that goal, she would break down the data to look at all subgroups with more than ten students. She would also look at grade level data compare historical trends over the last two years.  She was asked if there was a way to tell if some of the failing children have been in the Murch program from the start.

As far as special education subgroups in the district, Murch’s numbers are a little lower. However, Elizabeth Cohen also stated that Murch was the only school in Cluster 3 with subgroups large enough to affect the determination of AYP. The subgroup application has recently undergone a policy shift. Every state submits an accountability notebook to the federal government. They are required to state the number of students that are required to make-up a sub group, as well as how many students are required to be considered full participation. DCPS has recorded the required subgroup size at 25 students, and the participation group size at 40 students. For the past few years, DCPS has simply been using forty students as the subgroup size. The federal government noticed last year, and told DCPS to use 25 as the subgroup size for the 2007-2008 DC-CAS.

Elizabeth noted that due to the policy shift, we might have had these subgroups all along.

A parent asked how Murch compared in racial disparity to other schools. Elizabeth Cohen stated that there are few schools with diverse populations that are similar to Murch. In Cluster 3, Eaton is the school with the closest demographic. MDT asked if she could compile data to compare Murch with Eaton’s performance.

MDT asked if students could be double-counted in subgroups. Elizabeth Cohen stated that students could be counted in as many applicable subgroups as possible. MDT asked to see data on the number of students that overlap subgroups.

Elizabeth Cohen recommended that first Murch should look at the big picture to see all the programs and interventions that are being used. She suggested compiling a list to see how the programs fit together, and to see what each program was giving the students.

A parent asked about the future target for us to reach AYP. Elizabeth Cohen stated that a program called Safe Harbor existed as a federal government safety net for growing schools. Safe Harbor allows schools to set a lower target percentage for AYP. The Safe Harbor AYP target is 10% higher than the percentage of nonproficient students from the previous year. The federal government sets this target automatically.

MDT asked if it was possible to see if there are specific strands or test items within strands that are consistently missed by Murch students. Elizabeth Cohen stated that it was not possible on the DC-CAS, but it was possible on the DC-BAS. Datawise is a program that allows teachers to log on and look at specific strands within subject. If students need further instruction, teachers can design probes and quizzes to assess that strand in the classroom. Elizabeth also said that the pacing guides are now aligned with the standards tested on the DC-CAS.
 
Future Meeting Dates and Times

MDT members decided to meet again before the next scheduled meeting to continue discussion on strategies to obtain a .5 Reading Specialist. The date for the meeting was not set. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held October 20, 2008, at 5:00 PM, in the Murch Library.

The meeting adjourned at 6:45 PM.

Sarah Bogan
September 24, 2008